MULTICULTURAL WORKING GROUP MEETING
Thursday 5 May 2022, Online via ZOOM
Start time: 10 am
Chair: Sujatha Thadakamalla, Fairfield Libraries
Minutes: Jadwiga Krejza, Liverpool City Libraries
Present: Oriana Acevedo (SLNSW) ,Sujatha Thadakamalla (Fairfield), Helen Williams (Inner West), Sarah Wild (Canada Bay), Rose Douglas (Parramatta), Ayse Ersay (Waverley), Vicki O’Rourke (Wollongong), Eugenia Ng (Burwood), Joelmon Zungar (Blacktown), Irena Tichackova (Hornsby), Pauline Chan (Parramatta), Shauna Miller (SLNSW), Thanoja Fernanado (Wollongong), Vanessa Maino (Ryde), Sharlene Louey (City of Sydney), Jenny Zhang (City of Sydney), Mary Gissing (Newcastle), Mary Loveland (Northern Beaches).
Apologies: Stephanie Lee (Bayside).
Matters arising from previous minutes: template - Spotlight on Multicultural Services presentation.
The minutes from previous meeting were accepted by Pauline Chan (Parramatta Library) and Abby Dawson (SLNSW).
From the Chair:
Sujatha welcomed all the members of the group and asked for support in running the meetings and encouraged participation and networking from all members providing suggestions and directions to strengthen the services we provide to the Multicultural communities, we serv. As Sujatha said, we are all in here together to share our experiences and provide collective strength for services to our customers.
The Chair welcomed all the members to the meeting.
Quality of LOTE content on e-lending platforms
Abby asked for feedback from the working group on the LOTE content they were purchasing on their library's e-platforms such as Libby, Borrowbox, Cloud Library etc. On indyreads, Abby is finding that there is a lot of classic and older titles, but not a lot of popular, bestselling contemporary works in language. Are libraries finding this on the other platforms?
Fairfield Library (Sujatha) - importance of the Multicultural Bulk Loans service as it is difficult to purchase new resources such as books. Fairfield Library provides access to Kanopy and Borrow Box; staff is evaluating the collection to meet customers’ requirements. The library is planning to subscribe to Hoopla; Fairfield Library signed up to CloudLibrary and will partnership with other libraries. There is a pressure on the publishers of printed material to publish responsible material and which is attractive to users, feedback is often publishers don't sign up. - Also using Hoopla which has some LOTE content.
Randwick Library (Katherine) – library utilises Russian language collection on Overdrive; not well used, older users find difficult to use technology; multilingual services limited languages. Chinese content not great either. Online not solution everything.
City of Sydney (Sharlene) – brought attention to Overdrive feature that recommends purchasing only what is popular. The aging community is not interested in online publishing; library staff is not involved in selection of material available online; the customers are able to make suggestions and selections. City of Sydney are trialling pay per use of titles to gauge interest and see what people borrow.
Sujatha mentioned that the CloudLibrary has this same function but not for LOTE material.
Oriana (SL NSW) – the aging population prefers written material and younger can use online resources. There are issues such as: finding access on the website, use of technology, downloading books from different platforms all require different skills on how to do it. Oriana will look into funding for research about Digital resources.
Mary Gissing (Newcastle Library) – raised the issue of culturally relevant collections.
Ayse (Waverly Library) - LOTE magazines available on Libby.
Discussion was had on how libraries could join and lobby publishers.
Spotlight on Multicultural Services program
Oriana (SL NSW) - The calendar for presentation has been partially developed:
April 28 Blacktown
May 26 Liverpool
June 30 Canterbury-Bankstown time: 11am-12pm
July 28 Parramatta: 11am-12pm
Aug 25 Fairfield: 11am-12pm
Sep TBC
Oct TBC
Nov TBC
The program is hosted by the State Library of NSW with half an hour presentation time and half an hour for questions.
The aim of the program is to support and inform people that are interested in working in the provision of Multicultural Library services.
Ideally the invitation is distributed via PLN, Multicultural Working group, we will also invite librarians from other states and possibly students from TAFE.
The program will present an overview of the nominated library services including demographic of the area, number of branches, community engagement, technology, programs etc.
The presenter will select a topic to focus on their presentation.
Sujatha (Fairfield Library) - asked if another staff member could participate in the presentation and promote other services such as Workery.
Individual Multicultural Excellence Award
Oriana encourages members of the working group to nominate people that they feel deserve recognition for their dedication to multicultural library services.
The focus is not on the person who is nominating but on the nominee.
The individual Multicultural Excellence Award is not linked to any funding, the person will be presented with a Certificate of Recognition.
We also expect to receive nominations for the Excellence Multicultural Award.
The award will be presented at the NSW Public Libraries Conference.
ALIA Multicultural Working Group
Trish Hepworth, Director of Policy, and Education ALIA association contacted Oriana to explore the possibility of developing the ALIA Multicultural Working group.
Oriana started the conversation with Trish and Mare Maticevski from RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) in Victoria, who will be looking for representatives from different associations, universities, public libraries to have a preliminary conversation.
Trish Hepworth also sends a document to review in relation to the Classification Act. Oriana read the document and shared it with some suppliers and other departments of the State Library.
The document was not a solution it does not apply to Libraries.
Training opportunities
In June Oriana will send an invitation to staff interested in participating in Cultural training. This training duration is about 1:45 minutes.
Children in the library
Sujatha (Fairfield Library) – raised the issue of libraries’ responsibilities towards children in providing devices, books, online resources. She asked for feedback for the next meeting.
The group mentioned that the information is provided on application form, Fairfield Library has a document/guideline; Katherine said that Randwick have a specific computer to be only used by children.
Oriana asked if libraries provide information in other languages; Mary commented that the information should be provided in welcoming not a negative way.
Other business
Books in Uyghur Language were requested by a community member to be available in the Liverpool City Library. The members of the group were not aware of any supplier of material in that language.
Telugu Collection launched
The State Library has launched a Telugu collection, available now for bulk loans. Blacktown Library and Cumberland Library will enter the partnership with State Library to host the Telugu Language Collection. The Blacktown Library is expending their African Collection.
Pauline Chan – asked about the recommendation for setting up a new collection, number of items, formats, and age of the collection.
Other business
Refugees Week in June - group to share information about events, programs via email.
Mary Gissing – the local multicultural community will run a book launch with Local Hunter Asylum Seeker Group – After the Tampa. Library is building partnership by supporting community and their leaders.
Pauline – Parramatta Library is relocating back to the new library and restructuring. The management is waiting for the new census figures.
Katherine Randwick – events well attended.
Jadwiga – Liverpool programs are back face to face.
Katherine from Ryde – children activities in Japanese, Chinese, Spanish; back face to face classes.
Meeting ended: 12pm
Next meeting: 4 August 2022 (still to be decided either ZOOM or face to face); 10am start.