Christchurch City Libraries
Tuesday 26 March 2002

Christchurch City Libraries will launch its small but growing collection of Russian language books this Thursday.

The books form part of its ‘First Language Collection’ that has been established in line with the size of migrant groups and information obtained from migrant services in Christchurch. At present Christchurch City Libraries has collections of popular fiction that reflect a range of languages spoken by migrant groups, printed newspapers in some Asian languages and electronic resources including newspapers in foreign languages on their web site.

“Some people may be aware of Ukrainian musicians in the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra or visiting Russian seaman but they may not realise we have more than 3,000 Russian speakers in Christchurch,” says Christchurch City Libraries Manager, Sue Sutherland. “They’ve come from all countries of the former Soviet Union and its ‘satellite’ states and have come here to escape uncertainty and economic instability following the Soviet break up. Our Russian collection is limited at present but we hope people who speak and read Russian take the opportunity to use it. We’re planning on adding to is as we build on our First Language Collection,” says Sue Sutherland.

Representatives from the Russian community including the Russian Cultural Centre Trust and the Russian and Sovereign States Association have been invited to the launch. Among them is Anna Filippochkina who is a member of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and helped in the early stages of preparing the collection. –

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