By The Asian Librarians & Advisors Group Executive Committee: Gulshan Iqbal; Aruna Shah and Monna Rizvi

On a sunny autumn afternoon, the Executive Committee of ALAG and a few members met at a lunch to bid farewell to the Group which was founded by Asian librarians in the Spring of 1983. To know why and how this group was formed, is to know its history.

The Asian communities from the Indian Subcontinent namely, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan settled in the UK from many years, spoke different languages and had rich literary and cultural heritage. These communities in the main spoke Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu languages and were spread throughout the nation. The mainstream public library services which were in existence for over several decades before was English centric and had not previously recognised the needs of other diverse communities.

It was only in mid-seventies, that the Home Office gave grants to local authorities under Section 11 to employ Specialist staff in Public Libraries to address the needs of these communities. Westminster Public Libraries led the way and was the first authority to make such an appointment followed by other London Boroughs, who availed this funding opportunity to employ Specialist Librarians to promote library services to Asian communities.

Since these services were not developed before, the Specialist Librarians had to start from scratch from getting to know and understand the structure and working of mainstream public library services and model Asian services in line with them. There were many challenges and struggles to set up and acquire library materials in diverse languages, whose scripts differed and to know the authors or acquire knowledge of the literature of respective regions and to establish contacts with local community groups to assess their library needs was a tall order by any imagination!

Library Authorities availed the opportunity of these new posts with no knowledge or awareness of what help, support and guidance would be required in developing these services and challenges for one person to fulfil this role.

The Home Office grant was for the employment of a Specialist Librarian, but funding for books, music, other materials came from Public library budget. Again, the level of funding fell short of the demand. With all the constraints of staff and adequate resources, small collections of books and music were placed in library branches to reach out to local communities, who welcomed and avidly used the collections.

The Specialist Librarians worked to develop skills and provide expertise in all aspects of library services singlehandedly. They liaised with Asian booksellers and music suppliers to develop collections of interest to the communities to draw them into the libraries.

Apart from offering traditional services, a programme of outreach activities and contacts were developed to widen the scope and awareness of library resources amongst the community groups, who found library buildings daunting. Contacts were made to promote library resources within schools, prisons, patients and home libraries in the borough. A collection of library materials was placed in community centres where the staff liaised and facilitated joint ventures of literary, cultural and advisory activities for the benefit of the community.

With very little help from mainstream libraries and staff support, Asian Librarians worked in isolation and soon realised the need to build up a network of help and support external to their workplace. It was acknowledged that such a network would provide a knowledge base of essential contacts to exchange information, share ideas, skills and expertise as well as advice and experience from colleagues working in the field.

Hence, in Spring of 1983, after a Race Equality Conference at the Commonwealth Institute, London, a few likeminded Asian Librarians, mainly from the London Boroughs got together and formed ALAG (Asian Librarians and Advisors Group). At its inception, it co-opted with the Community Services Group of the then Library Association. Although initially with a small membership, ALAG grew and diminished in line with library service provision trends but it remained an active, confident voice of Asian librarianship for over 40 years.

The group soon facilitated a programme of seminars, workshops, on various subjects relevant to Asian languages, literatures, music and culture and organised author talks, poetry session (popularly known as Mushaira), exhibitions and bookfairs. These events were held for greater understanding and awareness of literary and cultural heritage and to illustrate rich and diverse cultural norms and nuances of the subcontinent, not only to ethnic Librarians, but also to mainstream Librarians who had little exposure of the rich cultural traditions of South Asian people.

We are proud to have engaged celebrity speakers and personalities like Dr Ranjana Ash, (South Asian Literature Specialist) Naushad (Bollywood Music Director), Benjamin Zephaniah, (a renowned Black Poet) Saeed Jaffery (an Asian actor), Paul Boateng (an MP), as well as British Asian authors, performers, artists and other experts with diverse talents, who participated and graced our events.

ALAG created projects on Bibliographies, Cataloguing and Transliteration rules to have uniformity of spelling and author names as these varied greatly in each language group. These services were well developed by participating in a co-operative called CILLA for acquisition and inter library loans for Asian language books. Both the Asian book suppliers and Librarians found this a very useful service.

All the projects were well thought through to create greater understanding and appreciation of the Asian communities' rich cultural heritage.

The seminars on Asian literature, music and cultural heritage programmes were well attended from all parts of the country. The delegates appreciated the strong Asian flavour and fervour from food to dress, which added to the success of our organisation and the name of ALAG very quickly became associated with high quality and diverse specialist information.

Unfortunately, by the mid-nineties, as Section 11 Grants came to an end, Public Libraries authorities became gradually less interested and committed to these well-established services and soon reduced the staff and budget. In authorities where these services and staff survived, the Specialist Librarians worked with scant budget, but greater commitment within outreach services, to local community groups with the sole aim to make libraries accessible and relevant to their lives. But this was not sustainable.

When told of a closure of such a service run for elderly Asian women in a community hall, an elderly woman distraught with the news said, ‘she looked forward to coming there as it was food for her soul.' Such services provided them with a meeting place with their own people, speaking in their own languages, overcoming their loneliness and ensured a sense of comradery, socialising beyond library buildings, where librarians facilitated information on a variety of issues like health, welfare rights by engaging experts. It was also a platform to meet, greet and tell their stories and exchange experiences of living in Britain. These services were uniquely successful and valued.

Notwithstanding the progress made for a golden period of 20 years or so, when the cuts came, Asian and other ethnic services became the first casualty. The hard work, the contribution in development of these unique services, the first and foremost public library service to ethnic communities in Western Europe was relegated to history leaving no imprint in the sands of time. We lament the fact that with all our efforts to seek unity in diversity and make our services an integral part of the mainstream library services, Ethnic services remained separate and unequal.

Despite dwindling membership, (some due to retirement, others due loss of jobs and lack of interest in the Group's activities, due to the changing nature of their roles), the Chair, Gulshan Iqbal, the Secretary, Monna Rizvi and the Treasurer, Aruna Shah with the help of some members, carried on with successful projects such as Cityread, ImaginAsian, Reading Groups and cultural activities.

ALAG's activities also captured interest from overseas with librarians contacting the Group from Canada, Europe and India (Asian Library Association), to discuss ideas for future online collaborations. With sheer hard work and grace, the Executive Committee kept the ALAG flame burning for many more years.

The Pandemic brought challenging times for the team to meet and plan future activities, further limited in scope by no specialist staff or services in Public libraries, the Group became untenable. It was tough for the team to hold it together and was left with no choice but to dissolve the group. With a heavy heart, the Executive Committee decided to close the business of the group, thanking all the past and present members and paid tributes for their support and contributions over the years.

With no future, and feeling of great sadness, the Group was disbanded after 41 years plus of its existence at a farewell lunch in the presence of a few members and booksellers who had mutually supported us over the years.

As library professionals, we are very proud of our achievements, the meaningful friendships we forged and the successful services we provided with limited resources. We thank all those who supported and joined us on this journey.

Farewell ALAG!

Find out more about ALAG’s activities here.