ANNUAL REPORT 2023 WORKING GROUP ON MULTICULTURAL LIBRARY SERVICES (NSW)
Introduction: Working Group on Multicultural Services, NSW is to promote the library resources and services to wider multicultural community, bringing together the collections and professional expertise across the state for excellent resources and services that meet the needs of the CALD community.
Multicultural Library Services Group at a glance 2022-23
Many of the attendees at the meetings were multicultural library staff and the Working Group membership list represent 25 local councils.
Chairperson: Sujatha Thadakamalla, Fairfield City Open Libraries Secretary: Jadwiga Krejza, Liverpool Library State Library of NSW Representatives: Oriana Acevedo, Shauna Miller, Joanna Goh/Abby Dawson
PROFILE OF WORKING GROUP The working Group on Multicultural Services of NSW was established in June 1983 by several Librarians working in the field of library services for the CALD community. The Working Group’s role is to promote the provision of library resources and services to clients in a range of community languages.
VISION: Every NSW library will have access to an excellent resource collection and services that meet the needs of their CALD communities.
MISSION: To lobby, advice, promote, and improve the importance of library services for the CALD community.
Achievements, Changes and Activities
Multicultural Excellence Award reviewed in May / June 2023: The Multicultural Excellence Awards are awarded annually by the Working Group on Multicultural Library Services (WGMLS), a working group of the NSW public libraries network. The awards recognise a public library service and an individual practitioner for demonstrated excellence in the delivery of multicultural library services. Multicultural library services encompass a range of services provided to a culturally and linguistically diverse community (CALD) and acknowledge and celebrate Australia's rich cultural diversity. Multicultural library services are an important aspect of public library services. This prestigious award has been established to recognise and promote this importance.
Objectives
• To recognise the importance of multicultural library services • To raise the profile of multicultural library services within the community • To encourage excellence in the field of multicultural library services • To acknowledge and celebrate excellence in the field by both individual practitioners and public library services across NSW.
Award categories: Multicultural Excellence Awards Application Criteria There are two categories of awards.
ORGANISATION: this award honours two NSW public libraries that have demonstrated excellence in the provision of multicultural library services. A sponsor of the annual SWITCH Conference will provide the $750 award for each category. 1. NSW Public library serving a population of more than 100,000 2. NSW Public library serving a population of less than 100,000
For the organisation category, projects must have been devised and implemented in the two years prior to the closing date for entries. A public library service that has won this award is not precluded from entering a new project for a subsequent award. The award-winning libraries must submit a brief report to the NSWPLA Executive Officer. The report needs to outline how the funding was used to enhance a multicultural activity. The multicultural Excellence Award for a library will continue to be managed as it has been with submission made along with the other awards at Switch Conference.
INDIVIDUAL: this award honours an individual practitioner working in a NSW public library, who has demonstrated innovative, dedicated and outstanding service to the multicultural community. The individual/s will be presented with a certificate honouring their contribution.
ELIGIBILITY All public library services in NSW and individuals working in the field of multicultural public library services are eligible for the award. For the individual category, there are no time restrictions. An individual is also eligible for an award more than once. The Multicultural Excellence Awards are awarded annually to recognise both a metropolitan and a rural or regional public library service and an individual practitioner for demonstrated excellence in the delivery of multicultural library services.
2023 – AWARD WINNERS
Winner - Metropolitan - City of Ryde Libraries. Winner – Regional / Rural – Albury City Council. Winner – Individual award – Eugenia Ng – Burwood Council
ALIA Multicultural Working Group: Oriana initiated actively the conversation to form a group that is inclusive of people working in different areas, providing services to culturally and Linguistically Diverse Communities (CALD). ALIA established the Multicultural Working Group and launched ALIA Multicultural in November 2022, with an aim to facilitate networking, support, professional development and resources for the information sector with a focus on culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Visit the webpage ALIA Multicultural for more information on the news, events and resources, including research and community information – resources across the states and ACT.
Oriana Acevedo, Multicultural Services Consultant, SLNSW announced her retirement in June 2023. She has been an inspiration to many librarians, especially multicultural service librarians with incredible enthusiasm and spirit, always looking at projects to improve the services we offer to the diverse community of New South Wales. We will miss her.
The Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) hosted the first inaugural Multicultural Community Engagement Conference: Filling in the puzzle: The bigger picture of engagement on Thursday, 27 October 2022 at PARKROYAL Parramatta, 30 Phillip Street, Parramatta New South Wales.
Two libraries represented the public libraries at this meet, Lara Pugh from Wollongong City Libraries and Sujatha Thadakamalla from Fairfield City Open Libraries.
Lara presented a paper - Developing a community engagement plan through preliminary engagement with service providers for Wollongong City Libraries’ Learning City Project and Sujatha shared various resources and service facilities made available from public libraries and in particular at Fairfield City Open Libraries. One of the sessions discussed ‘Language Inclusion Index: Capacity, Access and Visibility for inclusive engagement’ was a Project by Macquarie University. For survey Fairfield City Council was part of the project, but library was not involved for discussions. Discussions with library would have been helpful to provide the input on the topic, as being engaged with most of the community.
Multicultural Bulk Loans Service: State Library Bulk loan services is a huge support to meet the growing demand for LOTE collection from the community. Abby Dawson updated on the new and fresh marketing material New Bookmarks, Digital signage, posters for social media. State Library made new Multicultural Bulk Loan Service banner for display in the libraries.
Multicultural Bulk Loans 2022-23: Recorded highest loans in 5 years – 75,137 items were loaned. Following were the languages for top collections loaned during 2022-23. • French • Spanish • Italian • Russian • German • Japanese • Chinese • Polish • Arabic and • Greek
Huge growth in loan numbers for the languages Ukrainian, Nepalese, Urdu and Arabic collections. Service was used by 83 libraries, 30 metro, 52 regional and Metropolitan Remand and Reception centre, Silverwater.
Multilingual glossary: Looking at wider review of the glossary to update with new terms. Tibetan Language Collection Launch: In collaboration with the State Library NSW, Northern Beaches Council launched Tibetan language collection at Dee Why library.
indyreads: indyreads platform provides public libraries with free access to eBooks and eAudio and new titles are constantly added. Learn English collections is the recent addition. Marketing material is updated for promotion of collections at indyreads promotional resources | State Library of NSW During the year we also had interesting presentations on the topics of interest to the community:
Seniors Connected Program Seniors Connected Program Young Mentors Program:
Vivien Chung (Willoughby Library) presented on the successful program ‘Be connected’ run by the library for senior community. Library partnered with the local High School and the students from the school volunteered to be part of the program. Prior to the start of the program students were trained by the library staff and the senior participants were asked to prepare the questions, and any problems they would like to work when being trained by the students.
Korean Cultural Centre: WONDER - Korean picture books and artworks. This exhibition featured wordless picture books, original illustrations, preliminary sketches, drawings, artists’ video and ephemera from 7 Korean artists; Nahye, Hyungshik Nam, Inkyung Noh, Barim, Gihun Lee, Sumi Lee and JiHyeon Lee. Picture book artists created a story from pictures, giving the people who read to complete the story, adding to it with their imagination. Suppliers’ presentations: Shauna is working on suppliers’ presentation on Wiki as there is a huge need for such information to be made available at one point.
Shauna provided information on multicultural websites for mental health for help to the CALD community. Transcultural Mental Health Centre (nsw.gov.au) and Multicultural Health Week.
During 2022-23 Working group conducted meetings at various venues to provide visibility to the services provided from local libraries to the multicultural communities.
November 2022 – State Library NSW February 2023 – Hornsby Library May 2023 – Korean Cultural Centre August 2023 – Fairfield City Open Libraries
We had robust discussions on various aspects and shared our experiences to improve library services being provided to the CALD community. • LOTE DVD collection – streaming solutions ALIA is still looking into Community language DVD classification. Not much of a variety of titles are available for purchase.
Fairfield City Open Libraries is providing Kanopy as a streaming solution where European languages are well presented in addition to Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indian titles.
• Canterbury Library had a special event – Ukrainian celebrations.
• Randwick Library – Storytime sessions with LOTE4Kids, 3D Printinbg, Laser cut, Science Week – Astronomy. New events – physical exercise, dance workshops, ping pong tournament.
• Ryde Library – Tax help in Cantonese and Mandarin, Korean calligraphy workshops, information sessions on home and age care in Mandarin., Fairfield City Open Libraries – Tax help for multicultural community.
• Wollongong Libraries – Ballroom dancing workshops, in collaboration with Korean Cultural Centre Puppetry workshops, healthy food stores.
• Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre – Most popular resources are in Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian languages. Every facility has a multicultural centre.
• Fairfield City Open Libraries – Saturday family story time and activities are very popular, giving an opportunity for the families to enjoy the library time by children and parents, accessing all resources. Grandparents day preschool storytime - Shares stories, songs and fun craft. Lab.LX STEAM creative space at Whitlam Library & Bonnyrigg library – youth and adult focused experimental space for STEAM education. PC Game design, robotics, 3d Printers, Lego Learning system, Virtual reality games,Big Bang Science Workshops that spark imagination and build child’s confidence, collaboration and creativity. Studio 2166 – for creating music, creating online content, photographic techniques WORKARY – for support to the development of community – job skills, Disability employment services to share mutual support sharing similar life experiences, way to connect and empower and transform lives of individuals and communities.
• New Liverpool library - Yellamundie, Council’s new Civic Place Library and Gallery will open on 3 December 2023, giving Liverpool an amazing state of the art building to enjoy. Dedicated children’s and youth floors, Create space studio for STEM and creative programs, Comfortable and quiet spaces to study and work, Heritage research facilities, 24hr returns and book pickups and much more for the community.
Docuwiki The Working Group has a presence on the State Library of NSW Website. Moving forward all Agenda and Minutes and relevant additional information for the group will be available only from the State Library of NSW Wiki. https://wiki.libraries.nsw.gov.au/doku.php?id=minutes_multicultural