NSW public library wiki

Monday 4 February 2019 Wollongong City Library

• Annette Chaplin (Camden)
• Bernedette Stephenson (Campbelltown)
• Robert Swan (Campbelltown)
• Mylee Joseph (State Library)
• Valentine Crome (Kiama)
• Helen Hasan (Living Connected, Illawarra)
• Caryl Collins (Penrith)
• Julie-Anne Jones (Penrith)
• Guida Dos Santos (Ryde)
• Michele Golding (Sutherland)
• Stephen Peacock (Sutherland)
• Chris McAdams (Sutherland)
• Mary Ryder (Hornsby)
• Susan Bradley-Hoy (Burwood)
• Eileen Smith (Wollongong), Mary Johnston (Wollongong)
• Laurie Popple (Wollongong), Mary Anderson (Northern Beaches)
• Angelina Myatt (Inner West).

Bec Edwards (City of Sydney), Peter Green (City of Sydney), Jacky Talbot (Lane Cove), Jane Moffatt (Randwick)

Mark Norman, Central Library Manager and Eileen Smith Outreach Services Team Leader Librarian

Confirmed Bernedette Stephenson (Campbelltown)

• 2 full time library officers in the HLS team; serving clients across the whole LGA which has 7 library branches stretching from Dapto to Helensburgh.
• HLS materials are loaned for 3 months to cover the 1 month loan period plus selection and delivery / handling time.
• 300 individual clients, more growth is anticipated even though the Library doesn’t advertise.
• Clients are visited monthly.
• 18 institutions receive bulk loans
• The library has 50 volunteers, 40 of them assist with home library service in a variety of roles, including looking after customer profiles, selecting and deliveries
• They are working towards volunteers delivering to home library customers, but currently use a mix of staff and volunteers to deliver to our customers. They have shortened the number of customers per delivery run and increased the total number of delivery runs in order to provide for growth, and to be more manageable for the staff and volunteers delivering the items.
• The majority of delivery runs are currently delivered by 2 people, one staff member and a volunteer, or 2 volunteers and some have already moved to the one-person delivery model. They also have some volunteers who deliver in their own vehicles.
• Most runs are approximately two hours and can be undertaken by one person.
• Staff also visit HLS clients to collect feedback, undertake readers advisory and technology training activities
• 3 levels of service are offered
  • Home delivery (selection and delivery provided)
  • Self-select / home delivery
  • Family and friends (authorised to select and collect items for the client)
• Also offer Tech Savvy Seniors training in the home for some HLS clients.

Living Connected https://livingconnected.network/ is a not-for profit community enterprise providing services for the social well-being of elders helping them to remain independent, connected and engaged through digital inclusion.

• A video about the service https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MBMBNzYx4Y
• A report they published on The Economic and Social Value of Living Connected https://livingconnectedweb.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/living-connected-report-may-11.pdf

They provide a range of personalised, integrated and continuing services to assist seniors with their IT so that the can reap the benefits of the digital world. It currently operates in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions of NSW.

The Founder of Living Connected is Helen Hasan, Professor of Information Systems and Human Computer Interaction at the University of Wollongong. She has conducted research for over 30 years on how life has changes with advances in digital technology.

The project is part of the UOW: University of Wollongong, IAccelerate Club for startups. The focus of their work is identifying what older people want to be able to do and then show them how, including helping them to set up Borrowbox from the Wollongong City Libraries; bus timetables; checking traffic and local areas via Google maps. A lot of the tutors are University of Wollongong students.

Volunteering Illawarra https://volunteeringillawarra.org.au/ is a community service auspiced by Wollongong City Council, within the Library & Community Services Division. Volunteering Illawarra employs a team of three staff and seven volunteers. Paul Kaiserfeld is the Coordinator of Volunteering Illawarra. They are funded by grants from both the state and federal government. Volunteering Illawarra’s vision is to be a regional centre of excellence that promotes volunteering and the value of volunteers in the community.

Their primary activity is the operation of a regional volunteer resource centre across the Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama Local Government Areas. They also provide training services in the Shoalhaven for managers, staff, volunteers and Management Committee Members. Training covers Recruiting and Managing Volunteers; Work Health and Safety; Grief and Loss Issues for Volunteers; Positive Working Relationships; Conflict Management; Kitchen Health and Hygiene; Grant Writing; Roles and Responsibilities for Management Committees. They also have partnerships in place with University of Wollongong (IT and law).

Some resources Paul recommends:

• Volunteering Australia – www.volunteeringaustralia.org
• The Centre for Volunteering – www.volunteering.com.au
• NSW Volunteer Resource Centre www.volunteering.nsw.gov.au
• Volunteer Recruitment Online – www.govolunteer.com.au
• Australasian Volunteer Program Management – www.ozvpm.com
• Centrelink has a requirement for people over 55 who are receiving benefits to complete 15 hours volunteer work per week. There is information on their website about how you can request to be an approved voluntary work organisation and what your responsibilities will be: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/organisations/community/applying-be-approved-voluntary-work-organisation.
• There are volunteer resource centres in various areas see the listing of volunteer resource centres in NSW https://www.volunteering.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/List-of-Volunteer-Resource-Centres.pdf ).

It’s important to note that volunteers cannot replace a paid position and they need orientation and training the same as a paid employee does. Most issues with volunteers come about because of lack of training. Volunteer retention can be a challenge and it is important to ensure the roles are interesting (not mind-numbing), match the volunteers' own skills and interests and that there is a clear role description including expectations, knowledge, skills, duties, hours, days per week.

Some sort of annual recognition event is also recommended. Some organisations have a lot of success with a regular “drop in” event for library volunteers so they can meet and keep their knowledge and skills current. Dates for recognising volunteers include National Volunteering week in May or International Volunteers Day which is 5 December.

There are National Standards for Volunteer Involvement which contain benchmarks specifically designed to help organisations attract, manage, recognise and retain volunteers, and to manage risk and safety with respect to volunteers. https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/policy/national-standards-and-supporting-material/ Please note that your organisation’s insurance for volunteers may only cover the Medicare covered amount, not the additional out of pocket expenses that a volunteer may experience if they are injured.

• The Seniors in Focus seminar was a success, thank you to Julie-Anne Jones for her work in putting the program together and to Mary Ryder and Rachel Vassallo who were joint MCs. See the blog post for an overview of the day and links to the presentations https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/public-library-services/blogs/seniors-focus-2018
• The State Library is introducing a new wiki platform for working groups. It is easier to use than Wiki Foundry and has the advantage that all groups will be listed so it’s a “one stop shop”. See it in beta at http://wiki-beta.libraries.nsw.gov.au/doku.php?id=start
• It’s time to revisit and possibly revise the HLS guidelines https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/public-library-services/home-library-services
• Readers’ Advisory training will be run by Vickey (Ryde) at the August meeting.
• Workshopping statistics and how to demonstrate the impact of Home Library Service is still apriority (eg. Measuring social return on investment, attrition rates vs new clients, net promoter scores, etc.). Is there another competitor for HLS deliveries?

The steering committee members are responsible for:

• Putting together the meeting agenda and sending it out to the [olderpersons] email list and adding it to the wiki
• Updating the Strategic Plan and using the plan to guide content and topics for meetings
• Sending reminders to the elist
• Chairing the meetings and ensuring someone takes the minutes and they are added to the wiki

Host libraries for meetings are responsible for:

• Guest speakers / workshops
• Collecting RSVPs

Programming

• Offering one on one digital technology tutoring is very time consuming. Some libraries have a tech help desk that is staffed one day a week (eg Digital help desk at Penrith Library)
• Seniors festival programs include ”Shabby to chic”; macramé for seniors; water colour painting; art of ageing digital exhibition (also a physical exhibition touring some libraries); booklet of seniors activities; Good Life Chorus: A dementia-friendly community choir https://goodlifechorus.org/

Thank you to Mary Ryder (Hornsby) for all her work on the previous steering committee over several years, also the other committee members.

Did anyone have success with time banking for volunteers? https://www.timebanking.com.au/ Have people have any success making Borrowbox accessible for very low vision clients? Does it work with Siri / voice commands?

Does anyone have instructions for downloading content onto Navigator readers? Please send to the elist.

Vision Australia are curtailing services due to funding cuts. They are looking for participants in a digital trial in the Western Suburbs. Suggestion to invite them to send a guest speaker to a future meeting.

Macular Degeneration Foundation Navigator project appears to be winding up, some clients have their own Navigators and others used the ones supplied by MDF to libraries. Clients may receive a letter from MDF.

Julie-Anne Jones has discovered a Bluetooth speaker that can have a plug in USB, which is simple enough for low vision users. She will bring it along to the next meeting for a demonstration.

• Monday 6 May 2019 Campbelltown Library
• Monday 5 August 2019 City of Sydney Green Square Library
• Monday 4 November 2019 Lithgow Library

• Mary Anderson (Northern Beaches)
• Vickey Foggin (Ryde)
• Rachel Vassallo (Woollahra)