culture in context
team: sophie chow, Ines Araujo, Priscila Ferreira
We partnered with Copenhagen Public Libraries to evolve the future of their service offering and to provide opportunities for knowledge creation, and to expand their service beyond books and physical materials. For our 3 week exploration, we focused on outreach to immigrants, a particularly underrepresented part of the Library user base.
We created Culture in Context: A service that connects immigrant small business owners to the larger Copenhagen community, using public library resources as a means to drive inclusion.
research methods
We spent the majority of our time in the field, talking to both non-users and users of the library to find out the pain points and perception many people have of the Copenhagen Libraries using many research methods to prompt dialogue. Conducting in-depth interviews with immigrants allowed us to understand the barriers faced when coming to Denmark and what part the Library can play in alleviating these struggles. We found that tight knit immigrant communities have formed in the north western part of Copenhagen, where ties of kinship, ethnicity or religion create trust and collaboration. Restaurants, corner stores and barber shops become underground hubs for civil services, language exchange and integration. Despite the growth of these communities, the library has struggled to reach them.
We formed a close relationship with Isayas, the owner of Ma’ed, a local Ethiopian Restaurant in Norrebro. He’s deeply involved in the local community, and revealed he knows “all 3000 Ethiopians living in Copenhagen.” He became a pinnacle part of our research and service. We set up our pilot service test within his establishment, and by spending time with him, we gained many valuable insights. We learned that these immigrant enclaves often rely on word of mouth, where shop owners become unofficial leaders, distributing legal, financial or cultural information throughout the local community. .
Guerrilla research
We spent a lot of time in the field gaining insights from non-immigrants as well as non-users of the library. We shared an audio clip of some stories from the immigrant community and asked people to tell us what they heard and how it made them feel. It provided us with some valuable insights of how Danes also feel about inclusion within the Danish community.
co-creation sessions
Working closely with the Library meant we could work together to really understand their needs and also work with people who are on the ground providing us with more information we could use to co-create the final solution. Having a co-creation session mixed with Librarians and Leaders provider a general overview of the problems and more realistic solutions.
Stakeholder Map: The library sends an employee called the Cultural Ambassador into the community to meet with small business owners. They bring a welcome kit explaining the service, and establish a partnership to curate and receive library materials, improving customer experience. They meet four times a year to update materials and tools to meet the business owner’s evolving needs. Meanwhile, the library preserves the community’s stories through the online audio archive.
Service Blueprint
For our service to be successful, we needed a human touch to foster the relationship between these unofficial leaders and the public library. We defined a new job role together with library employees, called the Cultural Ambassador that serves as an interface between the library and these tight knit communities. Together with the Cultural Ambassador, the shop owner selects materials for his establishment specific to his needs and the community. This could range from rare traditional music, travel information or even legal resources.The business owner showcases his culture by displaying the selected materials for his customers. Being exposed to more in depth materials begins to spark cultural dialogue between customers, and enriches the experience within the shop.
The library sends an employee called the Cultural Ambassador into the community to meet with small business owners. They bring a welcome kit explaining the service, and establish a partnership to curate and receive library materials, improving customer experience.
They meet four times a year to update materials and tools to meet the business owner’s evolving needs. Meanwhile, the library preserves the community’s stories through the online audio archive.
Culture in Context, impact for the shop owner is a better experience for their customers, deeper inclusion in Copenhagen, and empowerment within their local Community. This exchange of expertise between these community members and the library results in long term partnerships, plugging the public library into previously unreachable communities, and thereby better informing future library offerings.