Minutes of the Working Group on Multicultural Services Quarterly Meeting held on Thursday, the 26th November 2009 at the State Library of NSW
Present
Wanda Swierczynshka Botany Library Roman Ciereszko Liverpool Library Kasia Malicka Burwood Library Christa Spruce Newcastle Library Anne Hall Fairfield Library Rosemary Worley Wollongong Library Jann Debenham Bankstown Library Danju Wong City of Sydney Library Wendy Gindi Canterbury Library Sharon Tollard Gunnedah Shire Library Angela Poswistajlo Campbelltown Library Billy Zhang Canterbury Library Brian Jones Sutherland Library Stephanie Lee Rockdale Library Kerry Martin Warringah Library Maggie Forbes-Mitchell Warringah Library Katherine Zhu Randwick Library Kathy Yang Marrickville Library Annie Persijn Kogarah Library Vicki Smith Manly Library Wendy Ford Manly Library Kemal Serdar Auburn Library Joelmon Zungar Blacktown Library Shauna Miller State Library of NSW Noel Willis Fairfield Library Pam Young Western Riverina Library Jane Greville Ryde Library Vivien Chung Willoughby Library Victoria Scarf Hurstville Library Pauline Chan Parramatta Library Roslyn Strange Warringah Library Oriana Acevedo State Library of NSW
Apologies Jo Lloyd Hornsby Library Dimitri Symeonidis Marrickville Library Joan Ingram Singleton Public Library Barbara Lysikowski Waverley Library
Welcome to Country Public Libraries Association representative Pam Young from Western Riverina Community Library represented the Country Public Libraries Association, introduced the services and the clienteles of the libraries in the country.
Multicultural Excellence Awards 2009 Congratulations to Sharon Tollard from Gunnedah Shire Library who got the Multicultural Excellence Award 2009 – Category Individual. She gave a brief introduction about the services and situation in her library. Congratulations also to Willoughby City Library for the Award – Category Organisation.
Open and close of AGM The minutes of the last AGM (held on 20 November 2008) were briefly gone through in the meeting. A correction should be made in the minutes from “Joelmon Zungar-Bankstown” to “Joelmon Zungar-Blacktown”.
Jane Greville and Vivien Chung were re-elected as the Chairman and Secretary respectively.
Open of General Meeting
Minutes of Previous Meeting The minutes were accepted by Shauna Miller and seconded by Wendy Gindi.
Matters Arising from Previous Meeting
Donation to Refugees in Chile San Felipe is a small town in Aconcagua Valley, 1.5 hours away from Santiago, the Capital city of Chile. In 2008, some Palestinian refugees came and settled in the town. They attend Spanish language classes in the local library. Macarena Tapia, the librarian in the town, is a very dedicated person and wants to provide some services for the refugees as well as the Chinese residents there. Anne Hall, Lyn Barrack and Oriana Acevedo had paid for the cost of sending a large box of library resource in Arabic and Chinese to the library there. Blanche, from Rassan Trading, had also generously donated some materials (books and DVDs in Arabic) to the library.
Living Library Promotion Banner Oriana reported that there was a request to design a promotion banner to be used by libraries that are running the Living Library program. The ALIA will be organising a nation wide program and they may be able to include the promotion banner in their program. Oriana will follow up the matter with the ALIA.
Library Promotion Banners Library promotion banners are available for loan. Oriana suggested revision and update of the banners and creation of a new one should be considered in the next financial year.
Notes on the three matters arose received: Moved by Kasia Malicka and seconded by Vicki Smith
Update of Public Library Flyer from State Library of NSW Oriana reported that the funding for the translation of the Public Library Flyer is available. It will be translated into the languages that the collections are available in the State Library of NSW except Armenian language. The new design should be simple so that individual library can change the colour and add the logo and information of its own. The picture of a PC and “Tapes” in the existing one should be deleted. A3 size format will also be available. Any suggestions can be sent to Oriana.
Recommendation: Flyer will be amended as discussed in the meeting by Oriana and she will send out final draft to libraries.
Accepted by Shauna Miller and seconded by Anne Hall.
Document Supply Services SLNSW Karen Small from SLNSW introduced the services of document supply in SLNSW as well as the new development of the website, such as new request form for bulk loans, online renewal, searching functions and RSS feed. Members were encouraged to have a look at the updated website.
Aging Population and early Literacy Mylee Joseph from SLNSW talked about the aging population problem and migration pattern in Australia and highlighted the library services that can be focused on or changed accordingly to the trend. Members were encouraged to send any good suggestions on the issues to Mylee.
Epoch Times Kay Rubacek from Epoch Times gave a presentation on overview of the newspaper. The newspaper has been published since 2001 and covered many languages.
Gambling Project Jenny Crocker from Communities NSW talked about the gambling problem and the community and introduced the “Grambling Help” services which include face to face counselling, 24hrs hotline, web tools, materials and staff speaking different languages. www.gamblinghelp.nsw.gov.au
MyLanguage National Conference 2010 The Conference is supported by all the State Libraries.
Itinerary:
10 Aug (Bus Trip) City→Blacktown→Liverpool (tour) →Cabramatta (lunch) →City (Welcome drinks/registration in the evening)
11 Aug (State Library, Dixon Room) Conference “My Language, Your Language & Our Language” Dinner included
Recommendation: Members noted the Conference and Oriana will send out details about the Conference. Accepted by Noel Willis Seconded by Annie Persijn
Report on the History of the Working Group Project It was found in the “Break Through” from the Mitchell Library that the Working Group was formed on 28 June 1983. Oriana suggested to get some funding for the history project which will focus on “How the Library’s multicultural services benefit to the community?”
Recommendation: a special group should be formed in March 2010. Three volunteers in the group should be called for.
Accepted by Anne Hall Seconded by Kasia Malicka
Multilingual Glossary Entry for the National Multicultural Marketing Awards Oriana reported that the Working Group’s Multilingual Glossary entry for the National Multicultural Marketing Awards was not successful.
Recommendation: Oriana should contact Pino Migliorino, Chair, FECCA, for the preparation of the next entry.
Accepted by Shauna Miller Seconded by Rosemary Worley
Travelling Exhibition/Programme Anne Hall suggested creating a professional travelling exhibition on different culture such as Islamic. The exhibition will go to different libraries across the State to arouse people’s cultural awareness.
Recommendation: Anne Hall will put in a grant application for an Islamic Cultural exhibition.
Accepted by Rosemary Worley Seconded by Wendy Gindi
Review of the Strategic Plan 2006-2011 Jane reported that the Strategic Plan of the Working Group for 2006-2011 needed to be reviewed.
Recommendation: the Strategic Plan for the Working Group for 2006-2011 should be reviewed in the next meeting.
Accepted by Wendy Smith Seconded by Annie Persijn
Book Club Programme 2010 Oriana suggested that libraries which run book clubs in Chinese, Arabic and Vietnamese join to purchase books in package together. Members also suggested that the book club materials can be shared among libraries.
Recommendation: A special group should be formed to investigate and write a report on the programme.
Accepted by Kasia Malicka Seconded by Kathy Yang
Multicultural Co-operative Shauna reported that a small group meeting on the expression of interest was held on a selection day. She mentioned that it was hard to find suppliers for materials for aging groups. If found, please send information to her. The issue of piracy of Vietnamese books should be paid attention. Any matter or problem concerning piracy, please send a report to Shauna.
Recommendation: the State Library of NSW and the public libraries should follow up the matter with suppliers.
Accepted by Angela Poswistajlo Seconded by Roman Ciereszko
Other Business
Bulk Loan Request Kathy reported that Community language DVDs were not normally available through ILL among public libraries. Oriana mentioned that not many community language DVDs were available in SLNSW due to limited budget. She suggested negotiation between libraries. Anne Hall mentioned that the issue had just been discussed in the SWITCH 2009 and the cost of the transportation was involved. Some suggested putting a small amount of money from libraries for the transportation to share resources.
Meeting Next Year
Thu 25 Feb Manly Library Mon 28 Jun Randwick Library Thu 26 Aug Surry Hills Library (Post meeting note: due to the unavailability of the meeting room in Surry Hills Library, the meeting will be held in Customers House) Thu 25 Nov State Library of NSW
Multicultural Working Group communication Jane mentioned that all the emails concerning the Group should be sent to the following email address:
Multicultural@libraries.nsw.gov.au
Meeting closed at 1:45pm and followed by lunch provided by the State Library of NSW.
Next Meeting: Date: Thursday 25 February 2010 Venue: Manly Library