Do you know or work with adult refugees and/or asylum seekers who have lived in the UK for 5 years or fewer? If so, please could you let them know about this opportunity to contribute to an on-going research project within the Centre for Social Informatics by completing a short online questionnaire at tinyurl.com/culturepubliclibraries.

The theme of the questionnaire is public library services and their use by refugee and asylum seeker populations. It is available in 9 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Swahili, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.  There is an option at the end of the questionnaire for participants to volunteer to take part in an online interview to explore further the topic of public library use by newcomers to the UK.

Rachel Salzano

This data collection exercise forms part of PhD student Rachel Salzano’s doctoral study. Rachel‘s research is concerned with the influence of culture on the use of public library resources by refugees and asylum seekers. In collecting and analysing data provided by members of these communities, Rachel hopes to point to ways that public library support for refugees and asylum seekers may be enhanced. Prior research in this area has tended to focus on the analysis of data collected from those who provide such services, e.g. public librarians. Rachel’s study is valuable because she is examining the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers themselves.

Thanks to everyone who can help alert these hard-to-reach communities of Rachel’s questionnaire at tinyurl.com/culturepubliclibraries.