50 years of the Multicultural Bulk Loan Service
The State Library has provided books in community languages to the people of NSW since 1974.
This year we are celebrating 50 years of the Multicultural Bulk Loan Service. We hope public libraries across NSW will join us in celebrating this milestone. To help with this, we have prepared a kit with ideas for activities and resources to promote the anniversary throughout 2024.
History
Read about the history and impact of the Multicultural Bulk Loan Service in the Autumn issue of Openbook or online here.
Ideas for activities to celebrate
Here are some suggested activities to help you celebrate the 50th anniversary of the service at your library. You can use these or create your own.
- Celebrate with your multicultural communities
- Host an event in your library to celebrate the anniversary, such as morning or afternoon tea. Invite your communities along.
- Explore recipes, art, songs, dances and games from around the world through programs and events.
- Host bilingual storytimes and activities.
- Collaborate with your local community organisations to raise awareness of the availability of books in other languages.
- Showcase the history of your multicultural community
- How has your multicultural community changed over time? Create a display to share this.
- Are there any significant events, buildings or interesting stories? Find out more about these.
- Start collecting multicultural community stories for your local studies collection.
- Promote multicultural collections in your library
- Place multicultural collections in prominent locations in your library and book displays.
- Request a bulk loan of mixed languages from the State Library to create a dedicated library display.
- Use the multilingual signage tool to create signage in language to promote collections
- Promote your multicultural events and collections
- Submit short articles about your multicultural activities and programs for the In the Libraries e-newsletter - we’d love to see more multicultural stories included
- Share your 2024 multicultural events and programs with the library network here.
- Promote your multicultural events on your social media and marketing channels.
Promotional resources
Use these resources to promote the 50th anniversary of the service in your library.
- Digital signage
Use these images on your library's digital screens.
The digital signage has 'Let's celebrate', 'Congratulations' and 'Amazing' in all 43 languages across two pages.
- Posters
If your library doesn't have digital screens, you can print the poster in A4 or A3 to display.
The posters have 'Let's celebrate', 'Congratulations' and 'Amazing' in all 43 languages across two pages.
- Pull-up banner
Special edition pull-up banners are available for public libraries to request on short-term loan to use at events and programs. Request a banner here.
Please request at least a week before your event. A return address label will be supplied with the banner.
- Badges
Download and use the badge template to make your own badges to give away.
Social media kit
Posting on your social media channels is a great way to let your community know that they can borrow books in their language from their local public library.
Useful links
Use these links to help plan your events and activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the service.
Resources to identify your community
UN International Days and Weeks
First language reading and the role of public libraries
Getting involved
Contact Joanna Goh to find out more about how to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the multicultural bulk loan service at your library.