Libraries, where now are “seen as modern learning hubs close to citizens and (potential) learners,” (Lison & Reip, 2016, p. 9) have been changing and adding new roles and identities to their existing traditional ones. They have been moving beyond the traditional conceptualization of book and culture. Moreover expanding their role in local communities in helping people acquire new skills or improve their skills through different lifelong strategies / opportunities is crucial for social inclusion as well. Lison and Reip (2016) underline that libraries now should offer “a neutral and trusted space for people to create, learn and connect” (p. 9). IFLA also considers public libraries as crucial actors in effective and efficient integration of migrants and refugees. This is exactly the vision we had before we developed the idea of the project. Being a low-threshold public service that everyone can reach, their involvement in projects like LIB(e)RO becomes more important for creating the inclusive societies in which migrants and refugees can take part in every aspect of life.
Implementation of the concept social inclusion in adult education and, in general, in lifelong learning is still relatively new, and especially its wider use for the development of professional training for adult educators, trainers and pedagogical personnel is not common at all. Approaches and requirements for a socially inclusive adult education were combined with spatial concepts in order to be able to illuminate empirically the needs and the needs of the "excluded" individuals (see Mania, 2014). Among these attempts, the LiB(e)Ro project is now the first time that with an adult education perspective, a space for a marginalized group is created in an informal learning location which is accessible to all people of all ages and backgrounds, in order to achieve learning outcomes with regard to language learning and intercultural education
UNESCO (2003) defines inclusive education as “providing appropriate responses to the broad spectrum of learning needs in formal and non-formal educational settings” (p. 7). This is what was aimed in the study, by reaching out the minor and young refugees who are marginalized and have a disadvantaged situation even though it is temporary and supporting them in their learning a new language, a new culture and in starting a new life. As most of these minors and young adult refugees are out of the compulsory school age (See Keser Aschenberger & Kil, 2017), it is important to respond to their learning needs in a flexible and accessible way through e-learning. A non-institutional learning setting, as a library, is a more open and less intimidating place as their main task is not teaching. Thus libraries occupy a crucial place in supporting non-formal and in-formal learning and by transforming libraries into safe and multicultural and inclusive learning environments, they gain a new status. In our case, libraries were used as non-institutional learning space and refugees will be addressed by social workers and librarians. As it was stated in the needs analysis report (See WIFO, 2017) especially those who live in remote rural areas without any access to educational opportunities are in need of low threshold and local offers.
Based on the framework described above, this study aims at providing a framework for using libraries as safe and socially inclusive learning spaces for multicultural/intercultural learning. It presents the results of the final evaluation of the learning platform that was conducted within the project.
