The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
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DECEMBER/JANUARY The Linguist 7 @Linguist_CIOL FEATURES Thebig idea split infinitives and wave greengrocer's apostrophes at them! Q How many staff members are there? A It's entirely volunteer run. We log the books in a program called BookCAT, as well as using the card system, so anyone can volunteer. We have about 20 volunteers: some are from the refugee groups that meet in Verb, some are students, some are from other voluntary organisations, and some find us by accident. One volunteer sets up the schedules. I run Borderline Books but fill in at the library when needed and generally take care of fundraising. Q What are your biggest challenges? A Finding a balance between being a volunteer organisation that supports its volunteers and being a public space is tricky. We want to employ a library manager who can make sure the basic things are done on founding a multilingual library in a disused shop right – that the money we receive is recorded properly; that the cleaning is done. We plan to have more talks, a closer relationship with the Northumbrian Language Society, and more events for children and schools. There are things we could do better, and more outreach we could do, but until we have somebody who can oversee it all, it's difficult to make it happen. For now, we have monthly Arabic Storytime and Mexican-Spanish Storytime, as well as occasional one-off sessions in various languages. Q How do you publicise the library? A We distribute fliers, and use Facebook and Twitter. Language teachers and refugee organisations send their students in our direction, but a lot of it is word of mouth. We also work with the local student unions to put information in their newsletters. Q How did David Crystal become Patron? A I asked him by email and he answered within half an hour. He has always been super supportive. If I'm unsure about anything I can ask him and he will give his opinion. Q Have you made any changes since you opened in 2015? A As we get more books, we have to find more shelving without making the library horribly overcrowded. We have more than 800 members and about 13,000 books. We continually find more efficient shelving, then we accumulate more and more books. But then that's the idea isn't it? That's the purpose. multilinguallibrary.org.uk Tracey Chevalier send them regularly; Better World Books gave us a lot of children's books. We get donations from local families who are moving house, and universities when they close a department or change their system. Our Patron David Crystal gave us a number of foreign editions of his books and his publishers donated English editions. We occasionally buy books when a language is undernourished. Q How is the library funded? A We get small grants – from The Foyle Foundation, Catherine Cookson Trust, Siobhan Dowd Trust. We have a room called Verb, which people rent for meetings and language classes, covering our electricity costs. We have a membership fee of £5 a year; members can borrow three books for a month and renew by phone, email or Facebook. We don't charge fines: if people are really late we make them sit in a box of WELCOME SPACE Volunteers (inset top) at the library (main image); and (inset bottom) Amina Marix Evans