June 2019

The Bayside Council area is located in the southern and south-eastern suburbs – between 7 and 12 kilometres - from Sydney’s CBD. As at the 2018 census it had a population of 174,378. 10.5% of the population is aged 70 and over (slightly higher than the Greater Sydney percentage). Our main CALD groups are Chinese, Greek, Lebanese, Italian, Macedonian and Nepalese (with some Spanish and Russian speakers).

Since merging the services of the Botany and Rockdale Councils in mid-2017, the new Bayside Libraries’ Home Library is now providing a service to over 90 individuals and also 11 bulk loan deliveries to residents living in nursing homes. In all we deliver to 16 nursing homes and seniors villages in the LGA (from a total of 20).

Staffing: One Library Network Officer (approximately 15-17 hours per week), 2 library assistant (on an as needs basis), 2 Council drivers whose main responsibility is to deliver between library branches on a daily basis. The LGA has been divided up into 4 broad geographic areas (Mascot, Botany, Rockdale and Bexley) and a monthly delivery is offered to borrowers. Deliveries occur on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

The HLS is offered to residents over the age of 70 years if they believe they would benefit from the service. Other residents and carers may join if a medical certificate is provided and nursing home lifestyle coordinators are also able to borrow library resources. We visit each new member and include an evaluation of their needs and fill out a borrowing profile at the same time as assessing potential WHS issues for future deliveries. Our borrowers are predominantly older women (78%) although more men in nursing homes have commenced with the service in the last 12 months.

We offer a variety of library items: fiction and non-fiction, large print, DVDs, CDs, CALD language AV material and books, magazines and talking books. We have a number of portable MP3 players which we lend to members on a long term basis and also Victor Readers which are loaded with the Library’s eBooks (RB Digital and BorrowBox). We have recently received a State Government grant and have bought additional MP3 players and Navigator audio-readers.

The majority of our borrowers are not particularly fluent with modern technologies and prefer to contact us by telephone and to use talking books and MP3s. However, as our demographic changes there will increasingly be the opportunity to introduce more eResources to our services. There is always a potential for HLS numbers to increase but awareness of the service in the wider community is problematic. Relationships with seniors’ groups and nursing homes are being developed to create a greater profile.