Working Group on Multicultural Library Services (NSW) Quarterly meeting held on Wednesday the 11th of May 2006 at Blacktown Library
Present
Valeria Gryadunova Randwick Library, Vicki Smith Manly Library, Wendy Ford Manly Library, Jane Greville Ryde Library, Jann Debenham Bankstown Library, Jacinta Craine Sutherland Library, Kemal Serdar Auburn Library, Anne Hall Fairfield Library, Joelmon Zungar Blacktown Library, Danju Wong City of Sydney Library, Roman Cierezsko Liverpool Library, Noel Willis Fairfield City Library, Oriana Acevedo State Library, Shauna Miller State Library, Vivien Chung Willoughby Library, Pauline Chan Parramatta Library, Stephanie Lee Rockdale Library, Mirjana Djukic Ku-ring-gai Library
Apologies
Dimitri Symeonidis Marrickville, Rosemary Worley Wollongong, Vincenza Cigolini Baulkham Hills, Wanda Swierczynska Botany, Christa Herridge Newcastle
1.Minutes of Previous Meeting
There were three changes to the previous minutes. • Under Multicultural Excellence Awards please note all entries should be sent to Mirjana Djukic (Ku-ring-gai) rather than Valeria Gryadunova (Randwick) • Secondly under General Business, Burwood it should have read “a new Hindi collection will start shortly” • Thirdly under General Business, Fairfield – it should have read “ The Wescol project is continuing to go well and Canterbury Library will join depending on the success of the grant application”
They were accepted by Jacinta Craine and seconded by Kasia Malicka
2. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising
3. Welcome
Li The Blacktown City Library Manager, Andrea Ward, welcomed the Working Group to the library and she arranged an excellent library tour of the library for us.
4.MyLanguage
This is a resource tool to assist library staff and enhance library services to the CALD community. MyLanguage provides access to search engines, web directories and news in over sixty languages. Oriana advised that there are still some problems with some of the languages for example Khmer. Each language supported by the MyLanguage portal has different operating system and font requirements. The information on the MyLanguage support pages indicate which languages work with which versions of Windows. The support pages also provide information on locating and installing fonts, enabling Microsoft Windows language support, and installing keyboard layouts. Each new version of Microsoft Windows adds new languages to the list of languages already supported. For computers being used for Multilingual Public Internet access, we recommend that the computers use the latest version of Windows (Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed). The latest versions of Mozilla Firefox or Opera would be good choices to use as a web browser. Oriana also said that if you select information but you can’t read it you need to go into support and follow the information there. Pauline Chan also advised that there is another website that may be of interest to the group as it provides information on many areas such as health, migration, education, housing etc in NSW and it is available in Arabic, Chinese and Vietnamese. The web address is: www.welcometosydney.com
Oriana requested that library staff navigate around the mylanguage site and send her any feedback
Anne Hall suggested that if you find an interesting website could you please share the details with the rest of the group
5. Strategic Plan
Valeria accepted the plan on behalf of the Working Group it will be feed into both the MPLA and CPLA reports. There are several areas that must be monitored so it will become a permanent agenda item.
This is now a permanent agenda item
6. Winning Grants Funding in Australia
The State Library has arranged to purchase 100 copies of this book and it will be distributed to all libraries free.
7. Terms of Reference
Changes to the draft will be made and circulated prior to the next meeting and it should be finalised by then. Make changes to the draft and circulate to the group Send any feedback to Shauna 8. Membership
This should be a permanent agenda item for the last meeting each year and an invitation to participate in the Working group should be sent to targeted libraries.
9. Bulk Loans
A question was raised as to which libraries are willing to provide bulk loans, of their LOTE collections, apart from the State Library of NSW, to other NSW public libraries. The following libraries agreed subject to restrictions. It is advisable that you contact each library prior to placing any requests for bulk loans. Blacktown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Marrickville, Parramatta, Sutherland, Waverley and Randwick
10. Sudanese Content
Approximately 50 books, in Arabic, with Sudanese content were purchased by the State Library. The quality of the books is quite poor but this is all that was available to purchase.
11. Multicultural Excellence Awards - 2005
There has been a change to the “eligibility” section of the award. There are now no restrictions in the individual category. The winners will be announced at the MPLA Conference in November 2006.Nominations for the Award are now open http://www.mplansw.asn.au/projects/multicul/docs/Multi_awards_2006.pdf
12. Multilingual Database
It is nearly finished. They are working on the documentation for the technical and the administrative support.
13. Billboards buses and bags
It’s 3 years since the last campaign so it’s time to look at another campaign. Oriana would like a subcommittee to be established to look into this further Oriana suggested that a sub group look into this further. She will e-mail a discussion paper to the working group for feedback
14. Report from Prepacked Display Group
A designer has been working on the banners and Pauline and Jann showed the group the mock-ups. Several comments were made and will be taken into account. Comments raised by the group are to be sent to the designer to see if changes can be made.
15 General Business:
Auburn: There will be a new Persian collection in the library soon.
Blacktown: The official opening of the library has been held and was attended by members of the CALD community. On the 28th of May they will celebrate “Welcome Back to the Library” to encourage more people to come to the library.
Fairfield: Fairfield City Council is holding the Fairfield City Writers Festival 22-28th May. Noel also advised that if libraries wish to donate discarded LOTE material to NSW prisons they should contact:
Toni Kennedy Manager, Library Services Dept. of Corrective Services Corrective Services Academy Cnr Terry & Marsden Rds Eastwood NSW 2122 Australia Phone: +612 9804 5462 Fax: +612 9804 5460 Email: toni.kennedy@dcs.nsw.gov.au
As Toni cannot pick up donations from all over Sydney, having no access to a van, Ryde Library has kindly agreed to temporarily hold onto donations until they can be collected - as the Corrective Services Academy is close by in Eastwood. If you are sending donations, please contact Jane Greville at Ryde Library first: Tel: 9952 8340.
Ku-ring gai: Celebrated Harmony Day and the display they had was well received.
Liverpool: 2 book selection meetings have been held. And $15,000.00 has been spent on the LOTE dvd collections as they are proving to be very popular.
Parramatta: Health Awareness talks are still being held and are very popular. Pauline is working with Centrelink to provide programs in 5 languages which will cover talks on careers and employment. Parramatta is sourcing a new Persian collection.
Randwick: There are been a 40% increase in Chinese loans since the launch. Are recruiting more volunteer tutors for English Conversation Classes as they have been overwhelmed with the response from the community
Willoughby: Great feedback was received on the HSC seminars in Mandarin and Cantonese
Bankstown: Jann has been training staff in how to use the ESL and literacy collections. A display of Turkish tiles was held and was very well received.
Rockdale: A library collection survey was held in February and the findings were very interesting. There will be a Multicultural festival held in May
Waverley: From March – May Waverly Council hosted some multicultural exhibitions and celebrations such as Harmony Day, International Women’s Day and the Global Table Festival (which is a celebration of food and music from around the world). The Library held a talk on Italy by a local author. Statistics indicate a growth by 10% of loans from the Chinese collection and there will be a new DVD collection of LOTE titles started shortly.
Burwood: An on-line tutoring service has just been launched and is growing in popularity.
Next Meeting: Date: 10th August, 2006 Venue: Bankstown Library Start Time: 9:30am arrive for 10amstart