Donation of Turkish-language books expands Charlottetown library's multilingual collection

The Charlottetown Library Learning Centre has added another language section to its multilingual collection.

Dilek Yesil, a member of the Turkish community in P.E.I., donated 20 Turkish-language books of a variety of genres to the library. 

"It wasn't easy to choose, but there are children's books… there are fictions, poetry and there are authors who are internationally recognized Turkish authors," Yesil said. 

"We have been living here for five years now, and this Island gave us so many opportunities." 

Donating books to the library was a way to give back to the community while also honouring the memory of her father, who died of lung cancer 25 years ago. 

"He valued education and especially new language learning," Yesil said. 

"There is a saying in Turkish: to speak a new language is to gain a new soul. This is one of the reasons that we donated these books." 

Before moving to P.E.I., Yesil connected with and started building what was then a rather small Turkish community. 

Now, there are more than 100 people who are part of that community. 

"Islanders are not those who [are] born here and raised here. We are also the Islanders who choose to make here as our homes, and we are proud to contribute [to] the cultural richness here," she said. 

"We know them, so maybe it's a good idea to know us." 

Yesil said three of the donated books stand out to her as being important contributions: a Turkish edition of Anne of Green Gables, a picture dictionary and a book by the founder of the modern-day republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. 

Until Yesil's donation, the Charlottetown library had no Turkish-language books, said Krystal Dionne, a regional librarian with the P.E.I. Public Library Service. 

While they've only been on the shelf for a few weeks, some of them have already been borrowed.