City of Sunnyvale

Library Multicultural Outreach Activities

The Sunnyvale Public Library has highlighted specific ethnic and cultural groups for programs for the last several years.  Attention given to ethnic groups in the Sunnyvale community encourages members of those groups to come to the Library and to be included as a celebrated part of the community.  For others in the City, these programs are educational, giving information about diverse cultures and promoting acceptance of people with different backgrounds.

In the last two years, the Library has offered several cultural programs on “stateless nations” including:  dance, music, food and information about the Kurds and Palestinians.  There have also been programs of information, dance and/or music from Taiwan, Tibet and Islam.  Each year, Children’s Services offers a variety of celebrations of diverse holidays and customs, including in different years: Mexican Posada and Cinco de Mayo, Vietnamese or Chinese New Year’s, Hanukkah, Divali and an annual International Storytelling Festival.  Authors coming from many backgrounds talk about their books to mixed ethnic audiences of children, teens and/or adults. Many programs are promoted by flyers in Spanish and English. There are also programs presented in Chinese or Spanish which are publicized in newspaper articles in those languages.

The Library buys and lends books, audio and videotapes, magazines, newspapers, DVDs and CDs in many languages.  Currently, language materials are collected and loaned in Chinese, Vietnamese, Farsi, Hindi and Russian among others.  In this multi-ethnic city, it is important to draw in new immigrants as well as long-time residents to the Library to borrow materials, attend programs and gain a sense of shared knowledge, resources and community.