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Toronto is a vibrant and multicultural city, which the United Nations recently declared to be the one of the world's most culturally diverse cities. Both Canada, the province of Ontario, and the city of Toronto (where a significant portion of immigrants decide to establish themselves) are committed to helping newcomers and longer established immigrants find their place in Canadian society and increase their social, cultural and economic participation within their new communities at all levels of local and civic life. When looking more closely at the current immigration and newcomer settlement trends in Toronto and across Canada, however, the picture is somewhat less rosy (Frenette & Morrissette, 2003; Statistics Canada, 2007). High concentration of immigrants in Canada's urban centers has a significant impact on the poverty rates for those municipalities (Ornstein, 2006). Trends in Toronto reflect a concentration of new immigrants (along with “older” immigrants) in suburbs and along the edges of the city. These suburban and outer city areas have also been recording increasing rates of poverty. There are very consistent findings that new immigrant groups earn less and have higher percentages of households who are below the low-income cut-off. The challenges facing immigrants are many, including: access to affordable housing; access to ESL instruction; literacy and education; youth employment and training; unemployment and underemployment; discrimination and community safety; and of course, poverty. It is well known that without mechanisms in place to ensure that newcomers are adequately integrated and socially included in their newly adopted societies, these groups may be at greater risk of being at the margin of the democratic process, or feeling isolated and lacking opportunities and choice (Caidi & Allard, 2005). In this study, we examine the role that one information institution, the public library, plays in a multicultural city like Toronto. The objective is to examine library locations and the range of services libraries provide to immigrants (and newcomers in particular) residing in library catchment areas. Six Public library systems within the Toronto CMA were selected because they represent areas in Canada where new immigrants settle heavily based on the 1996 and 2001 census. We examined two ethno-cultural communities for this study: Chinese and Indians. These communities were selected because they topped the 2001 Census' list of countries of birth of individuals who immigrated to Canada in the 1990s. The aim is to assess the ways in which libraries have accounted (or not) for changing patterns of migration and settlement over time. Does the physical presence of public libraries “match” the settlement patterns of the two immigrant communities studied? Do libraries account for changing patterns of settlement over time? What services do libraries provide to serve newcomers from the two communities studied? Do the services provided “match” settlement patterns? Might we glean best practices for service delivery from an analysis of these services? The Canadian Library Association (CLA) and others have identified multicultural services and collections as a service priority; is this priority reflected in available services and collections? In addition to the mapping exercise, we examined the size and scope of multicultural and multilingual services provided by libraries to immigrant and multilingual populations. Indeed, even when urban libraries fall within areas of newcomer settlement or suburban libraries are based in wealthy neighbourhoods, it does not mean that these libraries provide newcomers with the kind of resources and services they need. We therefore examined the available public documents of the six library systems, including: a) their library websites; b) mission statements and strategic planning documents, and; c) promotional material, for evidence of both library intent to outreach to newcomers, and existing multicultural services aimed at immigrant communities. Using geospatial mapping tools to map libraries and the constituents they serve is a method that has seldom been employed in the field of Information Studies. As this research project illustrates, this methodology holds great promise. Although maps may not tell us directly “why” particular phenomena are occurring (such as why new immigrants are settling in the suburbs or poverty neighbourhoods), they do provide visual illustrations of “what” is happening. Mapping allows us to observe the settlement patterns of recent immigrants in relation to public libraries and poverty neighborhoods; meaningfully interpretation allows us to use them as a tool towards enhancing library services for new immigrants. From the maps we learn that newcomers tend to live in relatively poorer neighborhoods. Within the city of Toronto, library catchment areas correlate very well with the distribution of poverty neighborhoods and the location of immigrant communities in this study. In other words, recent immigrants within the “poverty neighborhoods” of urban Toronto are within easy reach of more than one library. However, the situation in the suburbs is not as promising. Most catchment areas do not fall within poverty tracts in the suburbs, and catchment areas often do not cover the entire census tract. In other words, large portions of suburban neighbourhoods do not fall within a library catchment area. This raises the concern that potential needy clients in recent immigrant communities will not be well-served by such suburban libraries. It does appear however, that efforts have been made to address this gap in the form of new library branches built in suburban areas particularly Mississauga. In general however, our findings confirm that newcomers tend to settle in both inner and outer suburbs and may have less access to library resources and services as a result. In other words, our findings point to a “spatial mismatch” between the changing settlement patterns of newcomers (i.e. those who settle in the suburbs in greater numbers) and their access to public libraries. In our study, the “mismatch” suggests that valuable and necessary library services can become available to newcomers if only the problem of where suburban libraries are located is recognized and adequately addressed by locating libraries in the “right” places and providing the “right services” to the “right” people. Moreover, libraries not only assist with economic integration of newcomers by assisting with everyday information needs, but their presence and “welcomeness” also contributes to social inclusion when immigrants perceive themselves as valued through library programs and collections (Pateman, 2005). Libraries also provide a public space where new immigrants meet and socialize thus contributing to the development of belonging and community. For all of these reasons libraries must work with other organizations to determine where and how they want to “fit” in service provision to newcomers. However, to do so, libraries have to rethink their “location” in a multicultural society. This research is part of the broader Information Practices of Ethno-cultural Communities (IPEC) project which is funded by the Faculty of Information studies at the University of Toronto, the Joint Centre for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS), and the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN). We are grateful for their support.
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