Working Group on Multicultural Services (NSW) 10:00 am Thursday 27th February, 2020 Marrickville Library
Minutes
Apologies: Kira Paznikov (Central Coast), Joanna Bragg (ACT), Sujatha Thadakamalla (Fairfield), Vivien Chung (Willoughby), Kathy Yang (Ryde), Stephanie Lee (Bayside), Oriana Acevedo (SLNSW).
Attendees: Helen Williams (Inner West), Sarah Wild (Canada Bay), Rose Douglas (Parramatta), Ayse Ersoy (Waverley), Vicki O’Rourke (Wollongong), Eugenia Ng (Burwood), Joelmon Zungar (Blacktown), Irena Tichackova (Hornsby), Pauline Chan (Parramatta), Jadwiga Krejza (Liverpool), Kirsty Plumridge (Cumberland), Shauna Miller (SLNSW), Laurence McDonnell (Blacktown), Vanessa Maino (Ryde), Sharlene Louey (City of Sydney), Jenny Zhang (City of Sydney), Mary Gissing (Newcastle), Mary Loveland (Northern Beaches).
Confirmation of previous minutes
The previous minutes were accepted by Pauline Chan (Parramatta) and Vicki O’Rourke (Wollongong)
Guest Speaker – Kriti Kapoor from supplier Konova Pty Lyd
Konova Pty Ltd are an Indian languages supplier of books, magazines and audio CDs and DVDs, in over 35 Indian languages. They supply items for all levels including children, and junior bi-lingual material. They can supply items shelf ready with MARC records, or simply supply items with an index card containing the English translation. Libraries can customise their processing requirements, and MARC records can be specified to the requirements of the requesting Library. Konova have contracts with all of the big publishing houses in India ensuring the goods are not pirated or copied, and are the best quality available. Konova are a Melbourne based company, who can assist with all your Indian language requirements. For more information check their website www.konova.com.au Kriti also shared some tips on how to identify pirate DVDs:-
- Pirate DVDs are often blue in colour
- Authentic DVDs include the title encrypted on the inside rim of the disc
- Pirate DVDs often miss out the technical description and classification box placed on the bottom of the back cover
Tech Savvy Update
Shauna thanked all the participants in this program and reminded everyone of the significance of acknowledging the sponsors of this program – Telstra and the NSW Government. Can everyone please ensure all promotional material and social media posts, acknowledge the funding bodies of this program, including their logo being included on all posters. If you are having trouble fitting all of the content into the template, contact Stephanie Lee (Bayside) for her great examples.
Shauna also spoke of the importance of data gathering and making sure all participants and trainers fill in the survey after each session. This website http://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/desktop/ allows you to track the progress of data collection. Big Brother (aka Shauna & Telstra) are watching!! It is critical to the continuation of this program, so please track your progress regularly!! Shauna demonstrated how to access the surveys from the SLNSW website and outlined all the questions each survey asks.
Multicultural Campaign & Marketing – Strategic Plan Action
Jadwiga spoke in Oriana’s absence. She is looking for three volunteers from this group to form a sub-committee that will look at how we can market Library multicultural services to the community and what we would like to promote. It is hoped this sub-committee could work with the ‘Marketing & Promotions’ working group to develop a grant application. If you are interested in assisting with this project, send your nomination to Oriana.
Unclassified LOTE DVDs
Lawrence and Oriana met with Paul Fletcher, the Federal Minister of Communications. ALIA, the SLNSW and many other vested organisations have submitted responses to review the legislation around unclassified films in languages other than English. The submission supports the idea of training library staff to classify films, and a decision is expected by August/September of 2020. Many organisations have assisted in raising this issue, including the Ethnic Community Council of NSW, the State Library of Victoria, the State Library of Queensland, ALIA and Nimal Paul – Chair of Mother Language Day.
Strategic Plan The sub-committee met and discussed ideas for achieving our objectives. Some ideas included running cultural awareness courses at the SLNSW; staff exchange programs and adding to each agenda an opportunity for all Libraries to discuss the multicultural projects they have been running in their Library.
Library Manager Representative The group thanked Lawrence McDonnell for his long service in the group of over eight years. Lawrence is retiring as the Library Manager representative, and Nicole Byrn from Cumberland Council will take over. The working group report to the Strategic Networks Group but there is a question around the need for a PLA representative too. Lawrence encouraged everyone to submit applications for the Multicultural Excellence Awards as CAVAL sponsors this and last year there were not many entries. This is an important award that promotes the need for multicultural services in public libraries.
Measuring LOTE Loans Oriana and Shauna would like to know how many of the bulk loans requested actually get borrowed. Discussion ensued about the different LMS systems and whether they have the ability to produce reports to capture this data. Shauna will be sending out a questionnaire to gather more information. Shauna also explained that if you have any suggestions to buy, for the bulk loans collection, please make sure the books have been published in the last two years, and include a suggested place to purchase the item. If the item is purchased for the collection, Shauna will NOT notify you.
Review of the Multilingual Glossary The group reviewed the existing list of words/phrases listed on the SLNSW website. An extensive list of new phrases were suggested to Shauna including – Amnesty (instead of Amnesty Week), Books on MP3, Computers for Use, Free Event, Items cannot be renewed, Junior DVDs, Library E-Resources, Online Application, Free, Library Apps, Wifi, Bookings are essential, Book Club, Webprint, Print from your device, All children are to be supervised in the Library, Shelf Check Out, Quiet Study Area, Programs. Shauna will send out an amended list to the group for further feedback.
ILL Delivery Shauna reminded us that TOLL no longer deliver the ILL items. Australia Post now use one driver to manage this service. If you have any information regarding the best place to park at a location or if you have any questions regarding the delivery, you can forward the information to Oriana, or to Samantha Mantakoun 9273 1624, samantha.mantakoun@sl.nsw.gov.au
Information Sharing Mary from Newcastle has started a book club – the books are selected from authors who write in different languages. She then purchases four copies of the English edition, and four copies in the community language. She hoped other Libraries might be able to assist her community language items. She also asked if anyone has any Junior Dari and Arabic items that they no longer require. Please contact her if you can help with either request.
Jadwiga from Liverpool shared information about a cultural support program offered to Central & Eastern Sydney by NSW Health.
Macquarie University have produced an excellent booklet ‘What are languages worth? Community languages for the future of NSW. This can be accessed electronically https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/what-are-languages-worth-community-languages-for-the-future-of-ne
Pauline from Parramatta will be running another round of the ‘Volunteers Training’. This will begin in May. The 2019 courses were very successful and many of the students from last year’s course have gone on to pay for the next stage of the studies.
Vicki from Wollongong discussed the demise of ‘Sing Tao’ and asked if anyone has suggestions for a replacement Chinese Newspaper. She also asked how people gather data on newspaper usage. Many libraries keep the newspapers behind the desk and take a tally, others check each hour, and City of Sydney place a slip on the cover of the newspaper for people to tick.
Joelmon from Blacktown explained that they had once again been involved in a huge community ‘Mother Language Day’ celebration.
The membership list will be updated to include any new members. If anyone notices any other errors, please contact Kirsty so that she can amend the list on the wiki.
Next Meeting Liverpool Library on Thursday 28 May 2020 at 10.00am