Lunar New Year is known as an auspicious time for beginning new endeavours, and it was 19 February 2015, the dawning of the Year of the Ram, that Auckland Libraries chose to launch an exciting new initiative: a Chinese language Facebook page.
Manager Inclusive Service Design Abigael Vogt says with 39 per cent of Aucklanders now born outside of New Zealand, and with a significant Chinese population growing in the city, there is a clear need to connect with Chinese speakers in the social space.
"According to the 2013 census of the 54,000 Aucklanders who don’t speak English, 24,993 of them identify as Chinese. Facebook allows us to work in a language other than English and to be in conversation, reaching Chinese-speaking Aucklanders and beyond," Abigael says.
"Those who engage with us via the Facebook page may not traditionally be able to communicate easily with all staff or share their library experiences with ease. This is one way Chinese-speaking Aucklanders can do this, communicating in their own language and accessing the wide range of Chinese-language services, staff and materials that Auckland Libraries has to offer," she added.
The Facebook page is almost totally written in Mandarin, with three staff, all native Mandarin speakers, managing the page and writing content in simplified Chinese. It has a regionwide approach, sharing events and activities from across Auckland Libraries, as well as highlighting new items in Chinese that have been added to collections, as well as reading recommendations.
