Nottingham City Libraries are celebrating International Mother Language Day at Hyson Green Library on Tuesday 21 February.
A day of activities will bring families together, reading and sharing stories in a variety of languages and inviting families to share rhymes in their mother tongue. The day forms part of the citywide Year of Stories campaign, encouraging everyone in Nottingham to enjoy creating, sharing, and exploring stories throughout 2023.
Working with Literacy Champions and Read On Nottingham, there will also be a variety of activities to enjoy including messy play for the under-fives and crafts at an after-school family event. Event times are – 11am-2pm for under-fives and 3.30pm-5pm for families who are encouraged to go along and share their language and explore other languages too.
Literacy, and enabling children to develop their literacy skills, is at the heart of the library service. Nottingham City Libraries have a range of books, resources and activities to support families for whom English is a second language, such as dual language books where the whole book is written in both English and another language. The day of activity will highlight these resources and provide the opportunity to talk to families about what world language materials they would value from the library. The learning is being incorporated in the One Hyson: Growing Together project which will help see Hyson Green Library become the main home of the service’s extensive world language collection that can be used across the city and county.
Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Planning, Cllr Pavlos Kotsonis, said: “This day will celebrate the cultural and linguistic diversity of Nottingham and offer families the opportunity not only to enjoy sharing stories in their own language but to learn more about what services can be accessed at their local library.
“Information gathered at the event is crucial in ensuring the range of community languages is represented, wherever possible, in library books and resources.”