Reflections

In conversations about libraries in France I often heard the word patrimoin (patrimony), a word with several meanings, one of which is cultural heritage. How frequently the word is used indicates how libraries are viewed in France. More than American libraries, they're seen as protectors, defenders and extenders of the country’s cultural heritage. Their role is to educate, elucidate, elevate.

The emphasis in libraries in the U.S. seems sometimes to be more on entertainment than information. It is important for American libraries to remember that they are essentially cultural institutions and that they have a loftier mission than merely to entertain.

Some conversations turned to discussions about what it means for France to be a republic, what it means to be a citizen of the republic, and what kind of services libraries should provide French citizens.

Citizenship in France, according to the director of the Montreuil library, is viewed as separate and apart from any other status or condition, such as race and religion, and it is from this point of view that the French government has attempted to help immigrants, especially those from France’s overseas departments who are already citizens, to assimilate into French life. In many cases these attempts have not worked, especially among immigrants groups who come from cultures where life is not compartmentalized and where the conditions of a person’s being, including citizenship, race and religion, are not distinct.

In France the need to help immigrants assimilate is becoming more urgent. Until recently most immigrants came from France’s overseas departments and former colonies, but today they come from many more countries around the world. As the debate about immigrants and immigration continues in France and elsewhere in Europe, French librarians are asking themselves what role they and their libraries should play and what programs and services for immigrants they should provide.

French as well as German libraries provide programs about immigration either to contribute to a cultural shift; i.e., help citizens accept immigrants and help immigrants adapt to French or German life, or to meet the immediate, everyday, practical needs of immigrant groups. French and German libraries would like to offer more of these programs, but face obstacles that are very different from those faced by their American counterparts.

After the Second World War, Western European countries set up elaborate social support systems that, in addition to medical care, meet many of the social needs of their citizens. Since their creation, the agencies that provide these services have become institutionalized and entrenched. In their presentations and conversations about programs for immigrants and the unemployed, French and German librarians often mentioned the turf battles they have to fight with these agencies. Despite the help they provide, the Western European social support systems can also be a hindrance.

As there is an upside and a downside to the Western European model, there is an upside and a downside to the United States model. The U.S. has no universal health care, for example; and millions of its citizens are uninsured. But many of the services that are provided by government in Western Europe are provided by private social service agencies in the U.S. When libraries in the U.S. want to provide services to immigrants, the unemployed or other groups, they have a smaller entrenched bureaucracy and fewer turf battles to fight. Even where battles must be waged, often they are fought against opponents who are more accustomed to partnering with organizations like public libraries and private social services agencies and may even be predisposed to working with them.

Despite the difference in obstacles Western European and U.S. libraries face, the dialog between is instructive and beneficial. Each has ideas and offers programs from which the other can benefit.