Best Practices

We Read the Newspaper – TOGETHER in Odense

[Odense Centralbibliotek, Denmark]
The project was conducted as a series of meetings, where we read the newspaper and discussed the subjects, which were relevant to the participants. The frame of the project was the Open Learning Centre idea. The women decided which articles to read and discuss. Most of the items were about women’s life in general, about health, children, family life, education, jobs in Denmark, racism and language skills. The items were also about globalisation, religion and politics!

The women were at the same time involved in another project called Al Drub, where they were prepared for getting a job. The women were immigrants and refugees from different countries, but with the same social background in Denmark. Their different life stories became the start of many discussions. The women got information competencies and learned how to discuss issues and get into a dialogue with each other. The project was run by two librarians and one assistant from the library staff. The project took place in the main library of Odense and ran for 3 months, where we met 3 times a week for 3 hours. Another part of the activities were study tours to relevant places and persons e.g. the social and health school, the hospital and a café for language training.

Source: Libraries as Gateways to the Integration of Immigrants in the EU (MKC Prague, 2006)

CONTACT
Odense Centralbibliotek
Ostre Stationsvej 15. DK-5000 Odense C
Denmark