Libraries and sanctuary

News & Press: News

Libraries and sanctuary

10 January 2023

John Vincent has been actively tackling social exclusion in libraries and other cultural and heritage organisations through The Network and the Libraries of Sanctuary project, that evolved from the Cities of Sanctuary. Here he discusses his new Facet book, Libraries and Sanctuary, and why all libraries should be looking at how they can get involved.

InfoPro: For anyone who doesn’t know, can you explain the concept of Cities of Sanctuary and how Libraries of Sanctuary evolved from that?

John: The City of Sanctuary movement started in Sheffield in 2005, and, in September 2007, Sheffield became the UK’s first City of Sanctuary.

“[…] City of Sanctuary started with the vision that the UK should be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution.”¹

The movement is now UK-wide, with City of Sanctuary UK being the umbrella organisation whose “mission is to provide coordination and development support for networks of community groups supporting people seeking sanctuary, local authorities, Sanctuary Ambassadors, mainstream organisations engaged in Streams of Sanctuary and Sanctuary Awards programmes that are working towards our vision.” ²

As noted above, there are “Streams” of Sanctuary, with examples of the different sectors involved being local authorities, schools, universities, arts, health – and libraries. In 2017, Thimblemill Library in Sandwell, West Midlands, became the first public library in the UK to be awarded Library of Sanctuary status. The Award recognised their work in the local community, including provision to support refugees and other new arrivals.³

The number of Libraries of Sanctuary has grown, and now includes Brighton & Hove; Kirklees; Kittiwake Trust Multilingual Library (Newcastle); Newcastle; Manchester; Oldham; Sefton; Southampton … and more in the pipeline.

Can you talk us through the many reasons that libraries are the perfect fit as places of sanctuary and safe spaces for all?

At the moment, almost all the recognised Libraries of Sanctuary are public libraries – but that does not need to be the case! All kinds of library and information service should provide a welcome to people visiting; and, in the book, as well as public libraries, examples are given of a school library service and university and college libraries that are developing a ‘sanctuary’ approach. In many communities and organisations, the library is part of the ‘core’, a real community hub. Barry Clark⁴ described Thimblemill Library in a case study as follows: “Sandwell libraries’ vision includes – ‘Delivering a wider range of services and activities, with a family and community focus – developing libraries as community hubs, as cultural hubs, as access points for council and other services e.g. health, and delivering services with a sense of social justice.’

All libraries in Sandwell have developed as lively community and cultural hubs, having free spaces for groups to use at the heart of the communities they serve.”⁵ This places libraries in a good position to apply for the Library of Sanctuary Award. However, we also need to remember that being welcoming and becoming a core part of the community do not just happen – we need to work at developing these and ensuring that our library spaces really are welcoming. This is where the hard work begins...

How does Libraries and Sanctuary fit in? What are the aims of the book and how do you go about achieving those aims?

The aims of Libraries and Sanctuary are to get beyond simplistic, knee-jerk reactions to new arrivals (which we see so frequently in parts of the media and from some politicians), and to look in more depth at who they are and at some of the range of reasons that people seeking sanctuary are so desperate to leave their homes and flee; to consider the UK’s responses to new arrivals, particularly in the last 70 years or so; to assess the attempts that libraries have made in the past to provide a welcome to new arrivals; and to focus on some of the terrific services that are currently being provided and developed, primarily in the UK but also further afield.

This last part of the book contains a mass of practical examples and tips, drawn from libraries all over the UK, backed up with handy information (such as the main countries of origin for people seeking asylum in the UK; and a list of book suppliers). The intention is that this will serve as a ‘starter’ for libraries just beginning to work in this area and a checklist for those who have established services, but are thinking of where to develop them next.

Who is the book for, and what impact do you hope it will have?

The book is intended to be for library services and for individuals. As noted above, library services can cross-check their current provision against case studies and begin to think through where they might go next. For individuals, I hope that the book will produce a handy introduction to the notion of Sanctuary, how libraries have been and continue to be involved, and will also widen awareness of some key issues, for example the ‘hostile environment’ (what it means, where it came from, what the effects have been).

For libraries and individuals, the book is also intended to give a broad framework to build this work upon, which draws on the City of Sanctuary processes of Learn, Embed and Share:

Learn – learning about what it means to be a ‘new arrival’, seeking sanctuary, facing racism, and so on;
Embed – taking positive action to make welcome and inclusion part of the values of your organisation or community;
Share – Share your vision and achievements: let others know about the positive contribution refugees make to our society and the benefits of a welcoming culture to everyone.⁶

It feels like the book is very much needed at the moment – are there quick wins to help library services create sanctuary spaces, especially considering that budgets are likely to feel increased pressure over the coming months?

This is true, sadly, given the increased number of reasons why people may have to leave their home countries – war/violence, persecution and threat of death, environmental disaster, for example.

I often receive comments about lack of time and/or money to be able to develop this work. It is true that the key value of public libraries (as a cornerstone of the local community) is not recognised as widely as it should be – however, there are still many things we can do, including:

Making sure that everyone working at the library understands what we are trying to offer and the best ways of doing so

Making sure that the library really is welcoming: does it have welcome posters/signs in languages other than English, for example? Are staff welcoming all visitors to the library? Smiling? Greeting?

Are there displays of books and other materials that show the contributions of new arrivals? And of materials in languages other than English?

Are we promoting (‘sharing’) this work across our communities and across the local authority? This will remind external partners of what the library offers.

What would be your top piece of advice for any service thinking about getting involved?

Go for it! Even if we don’t think that our library service has everything in place yet, the more we can find out about and keep in touch with changes in the community; identify key agencies and groups that could form effective partnerships; and spend time listening and talking to people in the local community, the faster we will learn about the needs of new arrivals in our community and begin to formulate ways in which the library service – and partners – can begin to meet these. There is also an increasing amount of information available – tap into that.⁷ Finally, if anyone would like to discuss this further, or has questions to ask, I am very happy for them to contact me at: john@nadder.org.uk.