Multicultural services

Ethnic minorities make up a significant percentage of Ealing’s resident population. Therefore Ealing library service aims to develop, help provide and engage in outreach work to community groups and promote Ealing library services for ethnic minorities throughout the borough.

Ealing libraries stock a large range of non-English books, DVDs, CDs, newspapers, magazines and dual language books

We provide:

Arabic, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Pashtu, Polish, Somali and Urdu books
European languages books in French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish
a separate collection of books by black writers
aspirasian collection novel books in English with an Asian interest

All of which are all located at various libraries in the borough. You can also view our popular Asian authors of fiction books.

We also have:

dual language books for children in various languages
books to help in learning English
information books on religion, health, cookery, history culture, poetry etc
talking books in Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu are available at Acton, Central and Southall libraries

Audio visual
We have videos, DVDs and CDs to cater for different tastes and ages including:

Hindi (Bollywood) videos, DVDs and CDs at Acton, Central, Greenford, Jubilee Gardens, Southall, West Ealing and Wood End Libraries.
Tamil videos and DVDs
music CDs, Bhangra, Ghazals, Soca, Calypso, Gospel and Reggae
religious and film music

Periodicals
We keep a range of newspapers and magazines and journals in a variety of different community languages in many of our libraries.

Community outreach work
We work in partnership with community organisations to promote our services and organise events.

We are also available to the Ethnic and Refugee community at Southall Library on Tuesday and Wednesday at 5pm-7.30pm and Acton Library on Wednesday and Thursday 5pm-7.30pm.

Urdu Reading Group
Open to both men and women to encourage reading and discussion of their favourite books. Urdu reading group meet Wednesdays, monthly, 6pm-7.30pm at Southall Library.
Next meeting: 9 October

For further information telephone Shahid Hussain on (020) 8810 7664 or email: shussain@ealing.gov.uk

Punjabi Reading Group
Open to both men and women to encourage reading and discussion of their favourite books. Punjabi reading group meet Tuesdays monthly, 6pm-7.30pm at Southall Library.
Next meetings for 2008:

30 Sep
28 Oct

For further information telephone Shahid Hussain on (020) 8810 7664 or email: shussain@ealing.gov.uk

Exhibitions and events
We organise various multicultural events and displays such as Black History Month, Polish exhibitions, Diwali, Eid, Guru Nanak’s birthday, Vaisakhi and Refugee week aimed at different ethnic minority communities.

Contact: Shahid Hussain, Community Services Librarian
Tel: (020) 8810 7664
Email: shussain@ealing.gov.uk