Working Group on Multicultural Services (NSW) 10:00 am Thursday 27th August, 2020 ZOOM Meeting
Minutes
Apologies: Ayse Ersoy (Waverley); Joanna Bragg (ACT); Vicki O’Rourke (Wollongong); Joan Ingram (Singelton); Irena Tichackova (Hornsby); Kira Paznikov (Central Coast); Vivien Chung (Willoughby); Jadwiga Krejza (Liverpool); Jann Debenham (Canterbury Bankstown).
Attendees: Joanna Goh (SLNSW); Shauna Miller (SLNSW); Oriana Acevedo (SLNSW); Kim White (Camden); Eugenia Ng (Burwood); Kirsty Plumridge (Cumberland); Nicole Byrn (Cumberland); Sofia Silvestri (Cumberland); Katherine Zhu (Randwick); Mary Gissing (Newcastle); Mary Loveland (Northern Beaches); Helen Williams (Inner West); Judy& Amber (Albury); Sharlene Louey (City of Sydney); Ilene (Wollongong); Sarah Wild (Canada Bay); Vanessa Maino (Ryde); Andrea Bruno (Tamworth); Joelmon Zungar (Blacktown); Maria Savvidis (SLNSW); Stephanie Lee (Bayside); Sujatha Thadakamalla (Fairfield); Thanh Luu (Canterbury Bankstown); Kathy Yang (Ryde); Cecilia (Willoughby); Eileen (Wollongong); Katarzyna Malicka (Burwood), Pauline Chan (Parramatta).
Confirmation of previous minutes The previous minutes were accepted.
Guest Speaker – Kim White (Camden) Kim spoke to us about her experience delivering ‘Tech Savvy for Seniors’ online. The Camden team began by piloting a school holiday program for young adults and it was a great success. As a consequence they decided to roll out ‘Tech Savvy’ and contacted Chris Fullem from Fairfield Library for support. He is a great asset if you have any questions regarding online learning and workshops. Workshops were presented using MS Teams, as this was the preferred platform for their Council. They began by advertising for interested participants to book. Once they had a small pool, they began to contact each individual for a pre-session consultation. This one-on-one session enabled staff to determine what device each participant was using, and to assist them in navigating it, in preparation for the group sessions. It also helped to establish what each participant was wanting from the session and what their motivation for learning was. Group sessions were limited to small groups of up to 3 people and every step was taken very slowly, so that the presenter could check that all participants were keeping up. Participants were provided with handouts so that they could refer to these too. An important step when using online meeting platforms like Zoom or MS Teams, is to establish some housekeeping rules at the start of each session. For example, we will be placing everyone on Mute so that the presenter can be easily heard, but if you need to ask a question, raise your hand or type a message in the chat box. There will be lots of questions. There will lots of back stepping. You need lots of time to deliver this properly and every attendee will have different challenges. Kim advocated for one-on-one training as this is the best way properly support people who are new to technology. Someone in the group suggested that tablets might be a better option as often people have trouble navigating the mouse on a PC. Kim explained that she did not want to advise people on what they should purchase. Another person suggested that it would be good to ask if a carer or support person, could be on hand to navigate them through the first session.
LOTE Storytime Pods – Sunny Arumugam Storytime Pods provide digital screen solutions for children with a wide variety of digital books, maths games and coding games. This year the team have been working on a LOTE digital book platform for children called ‘LOTE ONLINE FOR KIDS’. This would be a great asset for libraries trying to service CALD communities. With a range of over 300 digital books in 15 languages, children can easily navigate to their selected language and listen to a range of stories read out in English or their selected language. Subscription costs range from between $1000 - $3000 depending on the LGA size. For more information please email sunny@storytimepods.com.au, or phone 0411 366 355.
Selection, Council Procurement & Standing Orders – Thanh Luu (Canterbury Bankstown) Thanh is new to her role and asked the group for suggestions on what suppliers everyone uses. Shauna promised to contact her, so they could have a comprehensive discussion.
Tech Savvy for Seniors Online Learning Modules – Shauna Miller (SLNSW) Shauna and Oriana have been working with the ECC (Ethnic Community Council) on how to adapt the face-to-face program into online programs for our CALD communities. They have begun production on a 15 minute video ‘Using smartphones’ in English, and are preparing to have translated into five languages – Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish and Korean. The video can be paused at any point. They have also begun work on a video ‘What is an App’ – which will go though many of the key relevant apps that seniors in each language group would regularly use. These online learning modules will be launched in the next few weeks, so watch this space!
Marketing TSS – Shauna Miller (SLNSW) A video in Cantonese has been created and will be advertised through broader channels.
New Library Flyer – Oriana Acevedo (SLNSW) Oriana is working on a new flyer to promote the CALD Services of the State Library. The website does not have this information in a very promionent position, so this will help to improve access to CALD communities. Oriana will be sending out an example for us all to comment on. Discussion ensued about the need for each of us to look at our websites and see if it is easy to navigate, particularly for our CALD communities. Is it easy to find information? If not perhaps you need to lobby on behalf of your CALD communities. Review of the Multilingual Glossary – Oriana Acevedo (SLNSW) After careful consideration and consultation, the glossary is getting amended to include five extra statements. The Community Language Directory is also getting updated as many amalgamated Council’s will have adjusted their collections. Oriana is collecting the number of languages and items at each Library location.
Co-operative Purchasing – Shauna Miller (SLNSW) Shauna has ordered many items from overseas including Finnish, Swedish, and Bulgarian but Covid has slowed down the delivery of items. Parramatta and Fairfield have approached the SLNSW to assist with co=operative purchasing, so if your Library is interested in taking part, please contact Shauna for more information.
Bulk Loans – Joanna Goh (SLNSW) If you have any queries regarding Bulk Loans, Joanna is your best point of contact. The team is currently down some staff so the turnaround time on requests is longer than usual – please be patient. The Bulk Loans team are in the process of trying to get overdue items back, including items from 2017, 2018 and 2019. If you have these items, please return them and then you can request new items to replace them. If you have concerns about postage costs, please contact Joanna. If you are wanting to extend bulk loans, please contact Joanna with your IR number and she will do her best to extend the items so that you do not get overdue notices. Joanna is also in the process of collecting circulation loans for bulk loans in 2019/2020 financial year. Please forward this information to her by 1st September The team has also begun work on two new projects – one will be improving the request form and the other will the development of instructions for making requests. Joanna will send out screenshots before they go live!
General Business Vanessa (Ryde) – asked the group if there are any online resources for learning English? Oriana was going to email out a flyer that outlines some of the links from the SLNSW site.
Sujatha (Fairfield) – There has been a problem with the supply of LOTE magazines. They have recently subscribed to the full selection of serials on RB Digital and wondered if other Libraries have been using this with success. Vanessa from Ryde said they have been using this since March, and although she was not sure if the reporting was able to break down by language groups she feel like it is being well used.
Katherine (Randwick) has been busy collating the results of the survey she conducted and should have a final report ready to send out to the group in the next few weeks.
Has anyone pushed an online bulk loan request form? The majority of staff said that counter staff are generally the people to fill this in for customers.
Pauline (Parramatta) – promoted her ‘Chinese Information Expo’ that will running in September. It will comprise of short ten minutes presentations in Cantonese and Mandarin from Centrelink, the Police and Health Information – a mix of government and non-government organisations. Pauline also promoted the successful Podcast series that Parramatta have been creating, and the upcoming sessions of TSS they will be conducting via Zoom in Mandarin, Korean, Hindi & Cantonese. They are still working on how to deliver these effectively.
Katherine (Randwick) – asked the group how to market to CALD communities that are not visiting the Library. Many people are staying at home and avoiding the Library during the Covid-19 pandemic. Suggestions include social media, webpages, emails, newsletters and the most effective method is to get ‘community workers’ involved in promoting it to their CALD groups.
Kathy (Ryde) – Ryde are hosting two sessions in Mandarin & Korean on the Jobseeker and Jobkeeper Allowances via Zoom. These workshops are part of a partnership with Settlement Services. They too are about to conduct Tech Savvy in Korean and have established two online English Conversation classes per week, even hosting someone from overseas.
Shauna (SLNSW) – has some books in other languages by Michael Robetham. If you are interested contact her.
Mary (Newcastle) – Newcastle ran a parenting class for Mandarin speakers via Zoom. These session were promoted using WeChat and were very successful with great feedback from participants. Newcastle also rans a four week creative writing course, that encouraged new migrants to tell their story. A local author delivered the program using Zoom.
The group discussed the different social media platforms used by different CALD groups. For example Afghani community favours WhatsApp, many other groups favour WeChat and Yello is favoured by the Vietnamese community. If you think of any other tips, let Oriana know.
Eugenia & Katarzyna (Burwood) – the refurbished library is finally ready to open on Monday 31 August. They will also be presenting a Mental Health Talk in Mandarin, via Zoom in September.
Kirsty (Cumberland) – the new Granville Library will be open on Tuesday 1 September!
Next Meeting State Library of NSW (or Zoom) on Thursday 26 November 2020 at 9.30am