Minutes of the Working Group on Multicultural Library Services (NSW) Quarterly meeting held on Thursday the 24th of May 2007 at Auburn Library Present Kemal Serdar, Pamela Davies, Wanda Swierczynska, Jo Lloyd, Pauline Chan, Mirjana Djukic, Stephanie Lee, Jane Greveille, Danju Wong, Vivien Chung, Meegan McRae, Jacinta Craine, Wendy Gindy, Joelmon Zungar, Billy Zhang, Angela Poswistajlo, Noel Willis, Ken Klippel, Oriana Acevedo, Lisa Marschall, Jann Debenham, Kasia Malicka, Shauna Miller, Magnolia Szabo, Anne Hall, Karen Small, Maria Weimers Apologies Angie Wong, Vicky Smith, Wendy Ford, Christa Spruce, Vincenza
Welcome Oriana welcomed the group to Auburn Library
Minutes of Previous Meeting The minutes were accepted by Pauline Chan and seconded by Noel Willis
Guest Speaker – Karen Small and Maria Wiemers (State Library of NSW) The State Library has been reviewing the way it provides service to various client groups and as a result there will be 2 teams who will be providing bulk loans to the public libraries. Currently there are 100,000 loans per year and approximately 50 requests per day for bulk loans for the State Library collections. Karen suggested that libraries check the State Library online catalogue if they want to request specific multicultural titles or if you are having problems with this you can ring Karen on 02 9273-1409 or email her on ksmall@sl. nsw.gov.au
Guest Speaker: Andrea Fernandes, NSW Migration Heritage Centre The NSW Migration Heritage Centre was a NSW government iniative and they work with government departments, organisations and libraries to raise the profile of migration and migrants in NSW. “The Migration Heritage Centre identifies, records, preserves and interprets the heritage of migration and settlement in New South Wales from 1788 to the present day. We aim to give new perspectives on Australian history, ensure a more representative heritage is preserved for future generations and also to validate migrants' experiences and challenge myths and prejudices. “
Andrea spoke about “Belongings” which is an informal oral history project which focuses on post WWII migrants and which interviews them in their homes to record their oral histories. For more information you can go to their website: www.migration heritage.nsw.gov.au or contact Andrea on andreaf@phm.gov.au
Other formats of LOTE material – Wendy Wendy asked if the State Library collection could purchase more talking books and large print for their multicultural collection. Shauna advised that this is always a priority when purchasing but there is very little available in LOTE but we will keep looking. If anyone can advise of a supplier of large print or talking books in LOTE please pass this onto Shauna.
Interlibrary Loan Van – Shauna A question was raise about the ILL van collecting the bulk loans. Teresita Quinones, at Waverely Library liaises with the van drivers and she advised Shauna that there are sometimes problems with the ILL van collecting all the bulk loan boxes from public libraries as there is limited room on the van. The ILL van drivers give priority to small bundles of books, the bulk loans are second in the queue. There is generally a limit of 2 boxes to be collected from each library per day
Book Reviews Mirjana reviewed the following book Success with Asian names by Fiona Swee and Lin Paice This book gives an overview of Asian names and assists with the pronunciation of these names. It also helps with how people perceive names and various customs and ways of addressing people
Stephanie reviewed the following books Australian Chinese Literature Series 1 – edited by Dr Henry Yuhuai He; Showwe Information Co., Ltd. Taiwan; 2006; ISBN 9866909263. It is one of the most comprehensive tool to Australian Chinese literature.
The struggle and initiative of the spiritual refugees – Dr Henry Yuhuai He; Dang dai zuo jia, Hong Kong, 2004, ISBN 9889747421 "The book is a must-read for all those interested in contemporary Chineseidentities "– Professor Kam Louie, Australian National University
MyLanguage – Oriana Oriana advised that libraries should have this site bookmarked for their clients. To use this programme the correct fonts must be uploaded onto pc’s. If you are experiencing problems Oriana suggested you see your IT department.
Update Cultural Connections - Oriana The State Librarian, Regina Sutton will welcome participants, Veronica Lunn and a representative from the dept of Immigration have been booked as speakers. Pauline Chan will also give a presentation.
Qld Multicultural Summit – Oriana On the 19th and 20th of November 2007 the Ethnic Community Council will be hosting the Qld Multicultural Summit which will be held at the State Library of Qld, Brisbane. For more information go to: http://www.eccq.com.au/eccq
IFLA Marketing Award – oriana Unfortunately we were unsuccessful this time but there’s always another chance next year.
The Glossary – Oriana Shortly everyone will be able to “play” with the glossary. Please send any suggestions or concerns to Ori as there may be a few bugs to be ironed out before it is officially launched.
Library Bags – Oriana New library bags featuring Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic and 2 more languages should be available in July.
Readers Lists for bookmarks – Vivien Vivien has compiled a list of popular authors in Chinese and covers such areas as classics, martial arts and fiction. Could you please email Wendy Ford your lists and suggestions by the 30th of June. The following people have volunteered to send lists: Oriana – Spanish Noel - Vietnamese Wendy – Arabic Ken - Greek Valeria – Russian Wanda - Polish Joelmon – Punjabi Kemal - Turkish Pamela – Tamil Mirjana - Serbian
Recommending LOTE suppliers - Shauna It has been brought to the attention of the Cooperative Coordinator that a supplier has apparently been suggesting to libraries that they are the “preferred” supplier of Chinese material to the State Library of NSW. Shauna advised that the Cooperative does not recommend any firm or individual LOTE supplier
Cooperative Cataloguing – Shauna Shauna distributed a draft copy of the report on the Cooperative Cataloguing Scheme for the 2006/7 financial year. This year has been extremely busy as the statistics indicate. Some libraries have complained about the slower turnaround time but this is not due to the cataloguing agent. The average cataloguing turnaround time is 45 working days but in several instances the suppliers are the cause of the delay. Both Kairos and ASEAN have been extremely slow in supplying and in most cases were still supplying orders up to April 2007. It has been explained to both suppliers that if they wish to continue doing business with the Cooperative they must improve their supply times.
History of the multicultural services in NSW - Oriana The history of multicultural services in NSW is not centralized and we risk loosing valuable information. Oriana suggested that we find someone to write the history of these services. There is a grant available for $20,000 to pay for this. If anyone knows a professional researcher to do this then direct them to the State Library of NSW website for further details: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/awards/currey.cfm
IFLA Conference – Anne Hall Caroline Burke Fairfield Library will be presenting a paper at the IFLA Conference in South Africa
Training Packages – Jacinta Jacinta has looked at other packages which could be modified to suit our needs. If you have any suggestions could you send them to Jacinta
Westcol project Wendy reported back on the Wescol Project
CALD & RA – Wendy Ford Ellen Forsyth informed the Readers Advisory Working Group about the Multicultural Services Working Group working on book lists in a range of languages and that the intention was to produce bookmarks of popular authors in everything from Arabic to Vietnamese. The only concern was that the books which were listed would not necessarily be available at every public library. It was clarified that the books listed would be popular titles only.