Alberta Multilingual Books Consortium (AMBC)

The Alberta Multilingual Books Consortium (AMBC) is a consortium of libraries in Alberta who have agreed upon a cooperative arrangement for the purchase and sharing of books in world languages.

The Consortium acknowledges the ongoing financial support of the Alberta Association for Multicultural Education which assists in the purchase of multilingual materials. In addition, AMBC gratefully accepted in-kind and cash donations of $10,000 each to the Vietnamese and Filipino collections from the Asian Heritage Foundation, in cooperation with the Calgary Vietnamese Canadian Association and Zambales Association of Calgary, on May 6, 2009.

The world languages collection is available to consortium members in blocks of 25 books each at either adult or child reading levels. Specific title or author requests are not available as these books are not catalogued.

Participating libraries may request blocks using the online Language Block Request form. Patrons must contact their local library staff to request world language material.

Languages available:

French language books are not available through this service.

Requests can be placed as often as needed and may be kept up to six months. If demand exceeds available stock, your request will be placed on a waiting list and filled at the earliest possible date.

Participating libraries are asked to follow the established circulation procedures. Collection development for world languages follows approved collection guidelines and donations are accepted based on the consortium's purchase and donation guidelines.

The International Children's Digital Library is an online library of multilingual and bilingual children's books. This may be a useful source of additional reading materials in your library or to patrons with internet access at home.

Parkland Regional Library manages the collection on behalf of the consortium.
Contact the AMBC Collection clerk by phone or email if you have further inquiries.