News Releases

Here's an alarming statistic: a 2021 study by researchers at Australian National University warned that, of the approximately 7,000 that are currently spoken around the world, some 1,500 of the world's languages are in danger of no longer being spoken by the end of this century.

The study, titled "Global predictors of language endangerment and the future of linguistic diversity", was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

In a press release, one of the study's authors, Professor Lindell Bromham, noted that the researchers' findings were a reminder that more action was urgently needed to preserve at-risk languages — particularly the languages of Indigenous peoples, which are especially at risk:

When a language is lost, or is "sleeping" as we say for languages that are no longer spoken, we lose so much of our human cultural diversity. Every language is brilliant in its own way. Many of the languages predicted to be lost this century still have fluent speakers, so there is still the chance to invest in supporting communities to revitalize Indigenous languages and keep them strong for future generations.

Native tongues enable cultural expression

In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the period 2022–2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, "to draw attention to the critical loss of Indigenous languages and the urgent need to preserve, revitalize and promote Indigenous languages and to take urgent steps at the national and international levels".

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) serves as the lead agency for the International Decade. In its Global Action Plan, the organization noted that, for peoples around the world, the ability and freedom to use their chosen language is essential for a number of considerations, including human dignity, peaceful co-existence and sustainable development.

It also states:

Language, as a systematic form of communication which takes place in all human domains, facilitates people’s meaningful interactions with one another, enables cultural expressions in a variety of forms, as well as the transmission of centuries-long knowledge, history, world views, beliefs, and traditions, bequeathed from generation to generation, and contributes to the creation of economic value and benefits which lead to new employment opportunities, research and development, technology transfer and innovation.

The right of free unimpeded choice of language use, expression, and opinion as well as self-determination and active engagement in public life without fear of discrimination is a prerequisite for inclusiveness and equality as key conditions for the creation of open and participatory societies.

The role of Libraries in Indigenous language revitalization

UNESCO's Global Action Plan calls for all stakeholders to work towards ensuring greater awareness of the importance of linguistic diversity and multilingualism, as well as legal recognition of the languages of Indigenous peoples at all levels.

Libraries of all kinds, including public, academic and research libraries and government libraries, have a role to play in not just preserving specific languages, but also in helping to mainstream them by being a part of, as UNESCO puts it, "widening the functional scope of Indigenous languages in all socio-cultural, economic, environmental, [and] public domains".

An article in the journal College & Research Libraries highlights the role that academic libraries in particular can play:

University libraries are in a distinct position to promote diversity and inclusion by collaborating with departments that might initiate programs, by fostering the creation of Indigenous collections, and by promoting these collections both in class and on campus to secure impact and make sure students know about these materials.

For libraries of all kinds, a commitment to Indigenous language is part of an overall mission to reflect and represent the diverse nature of the communities they serve. Libraries that offer PressReader, for example, give their patrons access to thousands of publications from all over the world in 64 languages, ranging from English and French to Kven, Northern Sami and Xhosa.

With that in mind, here's what some libraries and related organizations around the world are doing to preserve and promote these potentially endangered languages.

State Library of New South Wales

According to the official website of the State Library of New South Wales's Rediscover Indigenous Languages project, at the time of Australian settlement in 1788, there were some 250 known languages spoken by Indigenous peoples across the country. Now, however, only about 20 are spoken comprehensively. Some items in the Library’s collections are in fact the only known surviving records of these particular languages. 

Rediscovering Indigenous Languages — which is no longer an active project but remains online as a resource — made these items available digitally, "enabling widespread access to highly significant parts of Australia’s cultural heritage and providing the opportunity for all Australians, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to gain a better understanding of our nation's rich cultural landscape".

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