Library Services and Minorities in Europe: The Roma Case in Spain

Abstract

Many public libraries have developed standards to provide public reading services to minorities. Such a role has advanced the public library towards an informal, educational, and social work role, approaching traditionally excluded groups such as the Roma minority in Spain. However, developed initiatives in Spain are scarce; in addition, specific services do not abound and research and reflection on this reality from the library point of view is rare. The general objective of this text is the proposal of some librarian areas of work to serve the Roma minority from a multidisciplinary approach. The specific objectives are focused on revising library regulations and their adaptation to this minority and analyzing public library services existing in the European Union addressed to them. To achieve all these objectives, this research work has used two main techniques: one is observation and analysis, and the other is the design of practical proposals. In the first part, the Roma community has been analyzed both nationally and internationally. Similarly, Roma European legislation has been considered together with the library regulations that affect it. The current functions of the library have been analyzed and, finally, different library services intended for this minority have been studied both at a European and at a national level. In the second part, different improvement proposals have been made both in normative aspects and in practical aspects. Observations and recommendations are made to evaluate and organize information about library actions with minorities.