NSW public library wiki

• Ellen Forsyth (NSWSL)
• Wayne Monkley (Campbelltown)
• Suzanne Micallef (Parramatta)
• Yan Zhang (Parramatta)
• Therese Scott (Ashfield)
• Claude Broomhead(Canada Bay)
• Jane Shine (Warringah)
• Barbara Moss (Strathfield)
• Jane Smith (Pittwater)
• Heather Thomson (Pittwater)
• Jennifer Wilson (Fairfield)
• Merilyn Hills (Hornsby)
• Kris Owen (Hornsby)
• Fran Inkster (Manly)
• Snezana Gashi (Manly), Jane
• Broadbere (Mosman)
• Jenn Martin (Aburn)
• Vassiliki Veros-Elliot (CofS)

*plus a couple of late arrivals who missed the attendance sheet.

Apologies: Virginia Ghezzi (Camden)

– state wide reading

The plan is for a state-wide reading group using Twitter or other social media such as blogs and Flickr for everyone not just library staff. To get this underway we need a distinctive title for the year and a theme for each month, which can be described with a catchy hashtag. (Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post.

You create a hashtag by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. Hashtags were developed as a means to create "groupings" on Twitter, without having to change the basic service. Use hashtags in your tweets, preceding key words. It can be helpful to do a little research first, to find out if the subject you're tweeting already has an established hashtag. With hashtags you can track other tweets on the same subject/tag).

Ideas for themes have already been placed on the WIKI, but more ideas and discussion are needed. The Twitter Reading Group should then flow into the Year of Reading in 2012. Hopefully this event will promote reading across all ages and areas as well as increase loans. Brainstorming then took place with Ellen writing furiously on the whiteboard. By the end of the meeting we had come up with:

Overall theme = #Readit2011

• January #scugr (Scare up a good book – horror?)
• February #heartrreads (romance)
• March #imagine (fantasy)
• April #oznzreads (ANZAC)
• May #grllpower (women/mothers)
• June #goreads (travel)
• July #whodoneit (crime)
• August #geekreads (science)
• September #bookbites (food)
• October #egoreads (Biography)
• November #moreads (Men with moustaches)
• December #summerreads (what to read when it’s hot or hot-reading)

The results of this session will be put on the WIKI to provide further opportunity for commentand editing. You can contact the RA Steering Committee directly to comment or suggest changes, before it goes into the public arena.

Vassiliki reported on results, success and observations of the 2010 challenge. It was recommended that the 2011 challenge use themes and tie in with the themes for the Twitter Reading Group. The Challenge also needs to be recorded on the WIKI and encourage the use of twitter for interaction between participants.

Bookbinge worked well this year. There is merchandise available. Please note there is no monetary profit for any Library or Library organisation in this project. The merchandise is a Red Bubble Product and that company retains the profit from the sale of goods.

- who and where

All library staff involved in RA are invited to contribute to the WIKI. You can apply on-line or contact a member of the Steering Committee. Writing privileges are usually approved within 24 hours. This will allow you to add agenda items for meetings and suggest topics for the RA Seminar, as well as share tips, information and RA news.

– mini talks for RA Seminar

The call is out for people to present mini talks for the next RA Seminar on 9th March 2011. The theme for the Seminar is Fantasy. Topics can include almost anything related to RA from things you’ve done to ideas you would like to share with others. The only restriction is you are limited to 2 minutes for your presentation and the use of 5 or less slides is optional. Contact anyone on the Seminar Organising Committee to contribute, or just contact Ellen. Action: Ellen to prepare sign to promote.

-ideas for Adults

It was felt the program of summer reading for children should also be extended to adults and ideas to do this were canvassed.

• Tie into Local Studies with links to local cemeteries.
• Murder/mystery game in the Library.
• Mystery books in wrapping paper, i.e. book blind date.
• Decorate area with cobwebs and spiders and write suggestions on Spiders.
• Take parents name when child registers for reading program and encourage parent and child to read together
• Write title suggestions on bats (rather than spiders).
• Horror Genre Lists/bookmarks & brochures. Don’t forget to include True Life Crime.
• Could also include paranormal romance/vampires etc.
• Make use of databases e.g. Novelist Plus.
• Contribute to and check the WIKI.

• Trend is to using social media. Get on-line and use ‘Book-chat’ sites. Use blogs often.
• Jane from Mosman reported on Mosman Readers – many readers do not comment. Much of the work was left up to staff, who did not realise they could contribute as part of their work. Therefore there is a need to encourage interaction.
• Some discussion of ways to encourage contributions – need incentives. Some sites use of points for contributions and writers accumulate points. This is done by Trove, who also acknowledges their most prolific contributors. Some gaming chat sites also award points for interaction.
• Use of Good Reads http://www.goodreads.com/
• Jenn also suggested drawing up a Content Management Plan for Library Blogs and Facebook etc. to placate IT departments. This contains a statement on how you plan to use the media and gives guidelines for use for staff and well as outlining goals and usage to management.

This produced an interesting range of reading with many notes taken for further reading.

This will be at Nowra (Shoalhaven Libraries) on 18th February 2011.

This meeting will focus on ideas for the National Year of Reading 2012

The RA Seminar will be held at the State Library on 9th March 2011.

Watch the WIKI for the agenda and Seminar program.