Chinese Neighborhoods and Library Programs Kong Cai / Kevin Wu / Nancy Liang
9
43794.00
Glenfield-Jane Englemount-Law York University Black Creek Yorkdale Glen Park
30491.00 27593.00 22371.00 21737.00 14804.00
Neighbourhood
Population
1
Number of Library Program in 2008
Malvern
8
In our pervious reasearch, we attempted to find what determined the number of library programs in relation to neighbourhood diagram, based on the data we collected. We compared the number of programs and population of the neighborhood, we foucsed on four libraries to further our research.
Willowdale East St. Andrew-Wind Newtonbrook East Bayview Woods Steels
50434.00 17812.00 16097.00 13154.00
Next, we further analyzed, higher education level, primary home language, family condition, average family income, to see what determined program numbers. We found that the two neighborhoods that had the least library programs had also the majority of Chinese home speakers. We thought this would be an interesting direction to go. Bachelor's Degree Or Higher (%)
Family Has Children (%)
Average Family Income
Primary Non-official Home Language
Malvern
0.6%
64%
$59,120.00
Tamil
Yorkdale Glen Park
1.2%
68%
$61,700.00
Italian
Willowdale East
3.1%
62%
$69,370.00
Chinese
Bayview Woods Steels
1.8%
64%
$83,985.00
Chinese
↑ program
↑ program
↑ program
↓ program
↓ higher education
↓ having child
↓ family income
Primary non-official Language: Chinese
To examine our thoughts, we decided to look into all the neighborhoods instead of the four. *data from Wellbeing-Education collected in 2008 and Neighborhood Profile
Chinese as Home Language in Toronto neighborhood in 2008 >1.439%
16.282%
None of the four neighborhoods had the least percentage of Chinese speakers at home, which means even though the majority non-official language was not Chinese in Malvern and Yorkdale Glen Park, Chinese was also not the minority.
<57.012% *data from Neighborhood Profile
Malvern Yorkdale Glen Park Willowdale East Bayview Woods Steeles
But it does not really tell whether there is a coalition between the library programs and percentage of Chinese speakers.
Number of Chinese speakers at home and the number of library programs in Toronto neighborhoods in 2008 Chinese Home Speakers (#)
There were neighborhoods that had large amount of Chinese home speakers and small amount of library programs, but overall, there did not seem to be a trend.
14,000
Steels
13,000 12,000 11,000 10,000
Agincourt South-Malvern
9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0
Library Programs 3
4
5
Alderwood
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Lambton Baby Point
13
14
15
16
Chinese Home Speakers (#)
When the y-axis is scaled to better see the trend. When it comes to the amount of Chinese speakers, it shows that more Chinese speakers results in more library programs.
100,000 70,000 50,000
More Chinese home speakers had more library programs
30,000 20,000
Agincourt South-Malvern
Steels
10,000 7000 5000 3000 2000 1000 700 500 300 200 100 70 50
Alderwood
30
Lambton Baby Point
20 10
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Library Programs 12
13
14
15
16
Chinese Home Speaker (%) 55
Steels
50
45
Agincourt South-Malvern
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Library Programs 3
4
Alderwood
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 Lambton 12
Baby Point
13
14
15
16
*data from Wellbeing-Education collected in 2008 and Neighborhood Profile
For a more accurate result, instead of the absolute number of population, we also looked into the percentage of the population speaking Chinese at home.
80
Agincourt South-Malvern
Steeles
60 40 30
Chinese Speaking Population (%)
20
When it comes to the percentage of Chinese speakers in a neighbourhood, the trend is almost the same as the one shown through the absolute population graph.
8 6 4 3 2
0.8 0.6 0.4 0.3
Alderwood
0.2
0.1
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Library Programs (#)
11
Number of Chinese speakers and the number of library programs in the four neighborhoods in 2008 =1000 people
12
Lambton Baby Point
=1 library program
Agincourt South-Malvern West (128)
13
14
15
16
After examining the data, we picked another four neighborhoods that are ouliers in the data. Naturally, they had already stood out from the graphs.
Wellbeing Toronto in 2008 did not distinguish the differences between the Chinese dialects in their data, this meant that many dialects, such as the Catonese and Mandarin-speaking populations in Toronto, were grouped as a single Chinese demographic during this census period.
Alderwood (20)
16 programs
3 programs
7730 Chinese
400 Italian
795 Tamil
250 Portuguese
315 Urdu
115 Russian
310 Tagalog
30 Chinese
The Agincourt library had the most programs in a neighbourhood with a predominantly Chinese-speaking population.
The Alderwood library served a sparsely populated community in Etobicoke. It had the least number of both library programs and Chinese-speaking population in 2008.
Lambton Baby Point (114)
Steeles (116)
11 programs
4 programs
130 Russian
13195 Chinese
115 Spanish
270 Tamil
45 Portuguese
225 Tagalog
10 Chinese
180 Italian
The Lambton Baby Point neighbourhood has the least number of Chinese-speaking population in relation to its many local library programs. This neighbourhood is more sparsely populated than many neighbourhoods in Toronto.
The Steeles library has the least number of programs in relation to its large Chinese-speaking population in the area. The lack of library programs here may have been caused by the libraryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s small size, which is no bigger than a fruit store. *data from Wellbeing-Education and Wellbeing Toronto
Changes in population of Chinese-speakers, their population percentages, and the number of library programs in the four neighbourhoods between 2011 and 2014
2011
Chinese Speaking Population
Next, we dug deeper into the census data of these four neighbourhoods. We decided to look at the changes of the same libraries in the span of three years by comparing the four neighbourhoods. We picked the years between 2011 to 2014, because library data is most complete during this time.
2014
We compared the changes of the same categories of data of the four libraries, including the number of library programs in these neighbourhoods. We noticed that although neighborhood populations changed and libraries have also improved, there does not seem to be a correlation between these shifts.
Steeles 15,735
13,255
2011
Agincourt South-Malvern 9370
2011
42.61 9370
Lambton Baby Point
Alderwood 180 Lambton Baby Point 85
Agincourt South-Malvern
8130
467
115 35
Number of Library Programs
2014 657
2014 657
8130 34.22
582
1.07 85
35 0.44 409
Agincourt South-Malvern 582
Alderwood
Lambton Baby Point 467
204
1.51 180
115 0.95 118
409
Steeles
15,735 62.91 182
Alderwood 204
135 53.83
Steeles 182
13,255
135 Steeles 118 Alderwood
2011
Percentage of Chinese Speaking Population
2014
Steeles 62.91
53.83
Agincourt South-Malvern 42.61
34.22
Alderwood 1.51 Lambton Baby Point 1.07
0.95 0.44
When we overlap the data together, it becomes obvious that except in the case of Steeles, the other three neighborhoods display a declining relationship between the number of library programs and the number/percentage of that neighbourhoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chinese-speaking population. This finding speaks to our first assumption that more Chinese speakers in a neighbourhood would result in that neighbourhood having less library programs. However, when we consider the changes in terms of library programming, the data also showcase the effectiveness of library programs. When the number of library programs increased in a neighbourhood, that neighbourhood of residents also has an increased tendency to speak more English at home. *data from Programs - Programs and Wellbeing Toronto
Changes in total population of Toronto neighborhoods, Chinese-speaking populations, their population percentages, and the number of library programs between 2011 and 2014
100
Total population increased
Total population decreased
1000
10000
Quantity of changes in total population
Changes in the percentage of Chinese Speaking Population between 2011 and 2014(%)
-11
-10
As more of the population in a neighbourhood speaks Chinese, there will tend to be more library programs offered to them as well.
â&#x2020;? Percentage decreased
-9
-8
-7
-6
Only six purple dots are in this graph. This means there were only six neighbourhoods that had a decline in total populations between 2011 and 2014. Toronto is growing rapidly.
The x-axis clearly shows that the majority of Toronto neighbourhoods, between the years of 2011 and 2014, has had a decline in the percentage of Chinese-speaking residents. At the same time, most of the dots and circles are blue. This means that most of the neighbourhoods between 2011 and 2014 experienced growth in their total population. This shift also implies that a growing number of Chinese speakers shifted to speaking English at home. In addition, the graph demonstrates the rapid expansion of Torontoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s libraries and their offering of more programs.
By comparing all the Toronto neighbourhoods and their internal changes, and instead of specifically examining all of their datas, we can see a more clear upward trend and a more precise relationship between neighbourhoods. Again, the graph shows that the more people speak Chinese in a neighbourhood, the more likely will there be more library programs. However, at the same time, it also shows a shift in more Toronto residents assimilating from the Chinese language to English. In conclusion, we discovered the tremendous magnitude of libraries, as not only growing forces of benevolent influence here in Toronto, but as a force that have always functioned positively for its community, neighbourhood, and city, through its programs.
-5
Changes in library programs
600
500
400
200
← Number of Programs Iecreased
300
100
Percentage increased →
-4
-3
-2
-1
1
-200
-300
Number of Programs Decreased →
-100
-400
-500 Sources Library Profiles comes from “Branch Information - General Profiles”, https://opendata.tpl.ca/data/Branch_Information/Branch_General_Pr ofile.csv, accessible through Toronto Public Library Open Data; Library program data in 2008 comes from “Wellbeing Toronto Education” http://opendata.toronto.ca/social.development/wellbeing/WB-Educat ion.xlsx, accessible through Open Data Catalogue; Library program data in 2011 and 2014 comes from “Programs Programs”, https://opendata.tpl.ca/data/Programs/Programs.csv, accessible through Toronto Public Library Open Data; Library neighborhood coverage data from “Branch Information Neighbourhood Improvement Area Branches”,
https://opendata.tpl.ca/data/Branch_Information/Neighbourhood_Im provement_Area_Branches.csv, accessible through Toronto Public Library Open Data; Toronto neighborhood diagrams in 2008, 2011, 2014 come from Wellbeing Toronto, https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/data-research-maps/neighbo urhoods-communities/wellbeing-toronto/; Toronto neighbourhoods geolocations from “Neighbourhoods”, http://opendata.toronto.ca/gcc/neighbourhoods_planning_areas_wgs 84.zip, accessible through Open Data Catalogue.