Multicultural Services in China’s Public Libraries for the Protection and Promotion of Ethnic Minorities’ Cultures: A Case Study

Abstract

Abstract Despite the increasing focus on the protection and promotion of the cultures of ethnic minority groups in China, the multicultural services in China’s public libraries have not yet been strengthened. This paper reports on a research study that aimed to develop a framework of library multicultural services to serve as a conceptual basis for the development of these types of services in China’s public libraries and in particular for those libraries located in China’s ethnic minority regions. Yanbian Library, the regional central library of China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, was selected as a case study, with 10 library professionals approached and interviewed using a semi-structured interview script. All interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a thematic analysis approach. The analysis pointed to 21 multicultural services in five main themes: multicultural user services, multilingual collection development, development of multicultural service teams, marketing of multicultural services and management of multicultural services. Although this study is situated in China, the research findings are of potential interest to library and information professionals, educators and researchers worldwide.