In what languages does your public library stock books?

[Ani]

We stopped using the library system a few years ago so can't give the full list of languages carried, but I know there are good sized shelves of Japanese and German books. There is probably a good collection for Russian. In addition to having populations who speak those languages, we have immersion schools who probably make more requests. The French titles were very poor quality but there were maybe 20-50 books in that section that were not "teach yourself".The children's sections of most libraries I have been to in the last 5 years all over America have a full shelf of children's books in other languages with 6-10 languages represented. Mostly translated Dr. Seuss and counting books.

[windslav]

In Russia, libraries carry only Russian books. Not that anyone younger than 60 visits libraries nowadays.

[Iversen]

I didn't know about this thread, but quite by accident I visited our main library in this town today and even looked through the shelves with foreign literature. And it is not bad. On those shelves you find books in Italian, Spanish, French, English, German, Icelandic, Faroese, Greenlandic, Russian, Polish, Croatian/Serbian, Turkish, Urdu, Arabic, Japanese and/or Chinese and as far as I know also Latin, but only in the archives. At the other shelves you find both Danish and English books plus a few books in other languages, including the Nordic ones. But I would have liked some more documentary books in other of my target languages instead of the fictional ones.

We got an expensive new library little more than a year ago, and the new one has much more space and more computer screens, but actually less books on the shelves, and it is not possible to visit the archives personally as it was at the old location. So I actually use the new one less than I did the old one.

[Ani]

In Russia, libraries carry only Russian books. Not that anyone younger than 60 visits libraries nowadays.

Why is that? Our libraries seem to be most heavily used by young children (if you look at a daily head count), of course there are a good selection of people who continue using them of all ages.

[windslav]

In Russia, libraries carry only Russian books. Not that anyone younger than 60 visits libraries nowadays.

Why is that? Our libraries seem to be most heavily used by young children (if you look at a daily head count), of course there are a good selection of people who continue using them of all ages.

Because most local libraries are poor and the librarians are rude and children don't much like reading anyway.
There's, of course, the big scientific library in the center of the city with rare books and journals that gets quite a lot of traffic.
I personally don't know why would anyone anywhere go to libraries after ebooks had become a thing.

[DaveBee]

In Russia, libraries carry only Russian books. Not that anyone younger than 60 visits libraries nowadays.

Why is that? Our libraries seem to be most heavily used by young children (if you look at a daily head count), of course there are a good selection of people who continue using them of all ages.

In my local UK libraries, librarians reading stories to groups of children seems to be a daily event.

[smallwhite]

I love librarys and love hearing about them, but let's stay on topic. I've already had a thread locked for off-topic, which happened when I was in bed and couldn't step in like I already had a couple of times. I can't watch my threads 24/7 so please help me with it.

[Chmury]

In what languages does your public library stock books?

I'm also curious about English-speaking countries and other parts of Australia. Here in Sydney, most books are in English, of course. Each municipality has its own library system, which also stocks books based on the ethnicity of the local population, eg. there're Chinese books in the Chinatown library. There can be multiple shelves of them, or in the case of not-so-minor minority languages like Chinese and Korean, rows of them. On top of that, you can borrow foreign language books from the State (reference) Library through your local library; they offer a very wide choice. These seem to be mostly fiction.

Let's just stick to public government libraries, collections of which reflect language interests of the general public. And I don't mean language-learning books - "Teach Yourself German" would be an English book.

My local library = zero. A part from language learning books, which they only really started getting in after I had requested and suggested it to them a few times many years ago. Something which I do like about my local libraries; if you make a suggestion and they don't have it and they think it's a worthy purchase, they'll get it.
The libraries in Melbourne however are excellent for books in foreign languages, especially those in the Moreland region. When I used to live in Brunswick it was a short walk from my house to literally have hundreds of books in Spanish, Greek, Italian, Croatian, Korean, Thai and so on. The libraries around Sydney though I find to be quite woeful in comparison. Thankfully we have an Instituto de Cervantes here in Sydney which helps for Spanish learners/speakers, but not much for other language learners. However I had no idea that you could borrow books in foreign languages from the State Library! Thanks heaps for that heads-up Smallwhite, much appreciated and will definitely be checking it out. How have you found their range? Decent?

[smallwhite]

However I had no idea that you could borrow books in foreign languages from the State Library! ... will definitely be checking it out. How have you found their range? Decent?

Ask State Library first how to borrow foreign language books from them. It works differently from local libraries and I don't know the details. You can search their online catalogue to see their range. You can't search by language, though ("show all books in Swedish") (they say they're working on it).

I remember seeing: Harry Potter 1 (French and German), Hobbit (nl), Wimpy Kids (de, nl), Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo (sv, de), Meyer's Twilight 1 (??), Duma Key (it), Green Mile (es), Agatha Christie (it), Hunger Games (it), Coelho's Alchemist (nl), .......... , even more non-translated novels, non-fiction like cholesterol-fighting, furniture restoration or paper crafts, lots of very interesting-looking children's and teenager books. I'm happy!

[Stealthy Intruder]

I live in a small city and for many years there were no foreign language books, just Spanish and the local language were available. Only in recent years, as the immigration increased, we have access to novels in English, German and French. Unfortunately almost all of them are cheap, mostly romantic, novels so they're ruled out for me to read. I think they were probably given by foreign residents here. I've never asked, though.