Working Group on Multicultural Services (NSW) February 2016 meeting minutes

Date:18th February 2016

Venue: Auburn Library

Meeting started at 10:0am

Apologies:Pauline Chan (Parramatta) Vivien Chung(Willoughby), Wendy Ford (Manly) Stephanie Lee (Rockdale), Shauna Miller (SLNSW)

Minutes of Previous Meeting

After Kemal Serdar's request to correct the spelling of Belinda Wang's surname (from Wong to Wang) the minutes were accepted by Vicki O'Rourke and seconded by Irene Tichakova.

Election of Chairperson: Oriana explained the role and duties of the Chairperson and called for nominations. Laurence McDonnell, MPLA Representative, offered to take on the role and was unanimously accepted.

Large Print and Audio Books Floating Collections

Abby informed the group about the three different ways to better utilize the State Library Bulk Loans collection and service.

• Late last year an email to circulated to library managers offering loans of Large Print books for an extended period of time. Its purpose was to supplement and diversify libraries LP collections. Broken Hill, Burwood, Lismore, Strathfield and Warren libraries took part in the pilot. Between 100 and 500 books were lent out to each library. Every six months the collections will be swapped among participating libraries. The cost of postage will be covered by the State Library.
• The same service model has been offered to libraries wanting to use the State Library's audio collection of CD's, MP3s and cassettes.
• Seven public libraries are participating in the “Centre of Excellence” pilot in which libraries are given the whole State Library collection of items in a chosen language. The request for bulk loans in these languages will be managed by the hosting libraries. The cost postage will be reimbursed by the State Library.
• Blacktown Library will received the Gujarati collection while Leichhardt will receive the Italian. Five other libraries will take part at a later date.

Abby and Oriana assured libraries that hosting libraries would not be financially disadvantaged due to items being lost or damaged. State Library staff will keep promoting, purchasing and weeding the collections. All feedback would be appreciated.

Guest Speaker: Vanessa Iles, Manager, Reading Writing Hotline

This service assists adults wanting to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. The Hotline is manned by literacy and numeracy teachers who proved to be more effective than general customer service staff. Vanessa encouraged libraries to register their literacy related services with the hotline. The database is Federally funded and managed bY TAFE NSW.

For more information ring 1300 655 506 or visit the website reading writing hotline.

Unclassified DVDs

The State Library has been informed by the library supplier CAVAL that it is illegal for them to supply unclassified DVDs. The State Library investigated if it was legal for libraries to purchase, own and lend unclassified DVDs. The advice is that free lending was not illegal. Libraries do not break the law as long as they don't charge for loans, sell or screen these DVDs. Oriana will meet with the Crown Solicitor on the 24th of February to seek advise on this matter. She will circulate the outcome of that meeting.

CALD Tech Savvy Seniors

Oriana informed the group that all the available funding ad been allocated and classes have started to be delivered. Funding was divided between libraries and colleges and it appears that is it advantageous to use libraries as there are not extra costs involved. Trainers are organised by the Ethnic Community Commission. Trainers are only available to Sydney metro libraries. All Mandarin classes have been very successful and fully utilised. The classes in Arabic are not as popular. CALD TSS classes finish in late June. It is likely they will be run again after July.

Tech Savvy Seniors in English

This program will be delivered across NSW. Libraries need to organise their own trainers. Costs will be reimbursed funding provided by the Dept of Family and Community Services and Telstra. State Library will manage the program on their behalf. So far they are proving to be very popular.

Reporting to managers on the working group meeting

Oriana reminded members of the group that it is paramount that the Library Managers and coordinators are kept informed about the work of the group. To make this process easier she recommended that the minutes be circulated within two weeks of the meeting.

Syrian Refugee Forum at the State Library 15th of March 2016

The event will be held to provide information about the arrival of Syrian refugees. Public library staff, community organisations, council community liaison officers etc from areas who will receive refugees will be the target audience. Libraries can apply for a travel subsidy An invitation went to the immediate network. The capacity of this event is limited to 120 participants.

Strategic Plan 2017-2020

The current plan was reviewed by the committee comprising of Laurence McDonnell, Oriana Acevedo, Shauna Miller and Wendy Ford. It is still open for input, corrections and additions.

Benchmarking Update

The updated Benchmarks document was circulated to members prior to this meeting. Laurence stress the importance and usefulness of this document when working on a business case to improve services for the community. it provides valid justification when requesting more funding.

Feedback on standing orders purchasing 2015

Kathy Yang commented that the 2015 standing orders were not as successful as they year before. The arrival of the books were not staggered and there s=were more duplicates supplied. Oriana stated that standing order purchasing was tricky as not all libraries commit the same amount. Laurence suggested that participants produce a purchasing profile and provide Shauna with detailed feedback to try and overcome these difficulties.

General Business

Abby Dawson presented the new State Library website. She pointed out although it is aesthetically pleasing the multicultural services are less visible as they have to be accessed via the Services Tab. More changes will be implemented to the website soon.

Jann Debenham was looking for feedback on the quality of the services provided by CAVAL. Overall Canterbury, Liverpool, Sutherland and Willoughby are satisfied with the processing. Timing and content need some fine tuning.

Kemal Serdar was seeking advise on the evaluation of the English Conversation Classes. Anyone who has developed any evaluation forms to collect data please contact Kemal.

Roman Ciereszko informed the group that there will be a new branch of Liverpool Library service opening in Carnes Hill soon.