Working Group on Multicultural Services (NSW)
Minutes
Location: Max Webber Library, Blacktown City Libraries
Date: Friday, 23 February 2024 Time: 10.05am
Chair: Eugenia Ng Minutes: Julie Parkinson
Joy Bourke, Manager Blacktown City Libraries welcomed the NSW Multicultural Working Group and reflected on Blacktown’s multicultural community celebration of International Mother Language Day, the extensive and varied program of free events being offered by the library for ‘Multicultural March 2024’, and a project to develop reader’s advisory support from suppliers.
Attending: Eugenia Ng (Burwood), Julie Parkinson (Sutherland), Matilda Wong (Ryde), Joanna Goh (State Library of NSW), Phillip Jones (Canada Bay), Ellen Forsyth (State Library of NSW), Abby Dawson (SLNSW), Rukhshana Hossain (Hornsby Library), Sung Jung Yoon (Strathfield), Ana Tuionuku (Twinnies Publishing), Sujatha Thadakamalla (Fairfield City Open Libraries), Katherine Zhu (Randwick), Helen Williams (Inner West), Fujing Zhao (Ku-ring-gai), Marilyn Shamafil (Bankstown Library), Jenny Zhang (City of Sydney), Jadwiga Krejza (Liverpool City Libraries), Joelmon Zungar (Blacktown), Tupou Tuipulotu (Twinnies Publishing), Ayse Ersoy (Waverley).
Apologies: Shauna Miller (SLNSW), Vivien Chung (Willoughby), Stephanie Lee (Bayside), Mary Loveland (Northern Beaches), Stella Tay (Cumberland), Kathy Yang (Ryde), Vanessa Maino (Ryde) and Mary (Ryde).
Election of Chairperson: It was agreed to temporarily fill the position of Chair on a rotating basis for 2024. Thank you to Eugenia Ng (Burwood) for volunteering for our present meeting and to Jenny Zhang (City of Sydney) for accepting the position in May, Katherine Zhu (Randwick) for accepting the position in August, and Ayse Ersoy (Waverley) for accepting the position in November.
Matters arising from previous minutes:
Helen (Inner West) advised that the withdrawing of identified collections (and subsequent availability) continues to be a work in progress.
Joanna (SL NSW) advised that the State Library is in the process of creating a new website and the updated community language directory will follow in due course.
Confirmation of previous minutes: Accepted by Helen Williams, seconded Phillip Jones.
Guest Speakers:
Ana Tuionuku – Twinnies Pacific Bilingual Books Ana introduced the group to the Pacific Island publishing company, publishing bilingual books to impart cultural knowledge in a way that can be better understood. Fijian/English, Tongan/English and Samoan/English texts are available, in which established Pacific authors are telling their own stories, encouraging readers to be better informed about where traditions come from. Ana informed us that there are 330,000 Pacific People residing in NSW. Twinnies Pacific Bilingual Books are fostering series, myths, history, creative illustration and story animation accompanied by authentic voices, and their publications are being acquired by libraries in high schools and public library services.
Mulong Xie, Research Fellow CSIRO Mulong launched the Universal Task Assistant (UTA), a smart device assistant created to ‘Bridge People and Technology’ UTA has been created to assist mostly elderly people to learn about and use technology, and it is anticipated that it will be coordinated with the Tech Savvy Seniors program. Once installed, the app can automatically complete user’s tasks on smart devices on any app, teach the user to complete their task step by step on any app, provide app recommendations, and monitor and alert any dark pattern issues in the screen. Libraries are being sought to assisting with product testing during March, with release anticipated to all libraries in May https://apputa.onlinemulong.xie@csiro.au.
Ellen Forsyth – Adult Fiction Stock Quality Health Check and Professional Development Ellen has reviewed results and created spreadsheets to provide a visual representation of the findings of the Adult Fiction Stock Quality Health Check which will be available on the State Library website (when recreated). When purchasing adult fiction, we are being encouraged to think about acquiring works by culturally and linguistically diverse authors, authors from other countries as well as texts in translation, as we want to amplify voices via depth and breadth, not best sellers alone. Ellen highlighted an upcoming professional development opportunity re: social justice aspects of library services - Nicole Cooke, author of Information services to diverse populations, will be presenting to NSW public libraries about The Cultural Humility Model on Thursday, 21 March at 9.30am (online) and bookings are now open https://sl-nsw-gov-au.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4zwJ0kKfSZ6Pvo32OdXy1A#/registration
Other Business
Strategic Plan (Abby/Joanna) The Multicultural Strategic Plan (MSP) expires 2025 and the group has been invited to view the plan, consider how we want to approach the MSP going forward, and to come along prepared to share ideas at our next meeting. Suggestions to consider include relevance, how we measure achievement of objectives, reintroducing cooperative projects and advocacy opportunities, sharing ideas and experiences around acquisition of multicultural material – obstacles, successes etc.
Update on the 50th anniversary celebrations of Multicultural Services SL (Joanna) Celebrations start in March this year and we were given a sneak peek of promotional material. Those who provided assistance with translations (covering 43 different languages) were gratefully acknowledged. A kit will be sent to libraries with bookmarks, posters, digital signatures, possibly badges and ideas for how to celebrate the service.
Social media campaign for bulk loan service (Abby Dawson) A social media campaign is being developed for the community language bulk loan service. Draft signage for use with and to promote bulk loans were shared.
Spotlight on multicultural services in libraries (Abby/Joanna) Food for thought for next meeting – possibility of reviving zoom meetings to share programs, community events, interesting things we’ve been doing, extend opportunity for sharing of ideas beyond metropolitan Sydney. Consideration also to be given to facilitating hybrid meetings, perhaps starting with our upcoming meeting at Liverpool City Library in August.
NSW Dept of Education Resources (Abby) New South Wales Department of Education has bilingual dictionary resources accessible via Multicultural Education link, student resources. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/multicultural-education/english-as-an-additional-language-or-dialect/resources
Housing bulk loans collections – (Fujing Zhao, Ku-ring-gai) Ideas shared on how to manage bulk loans held for customers, including locating books to maximise exposure/increase visibility, sharing bulk loans across branches, use of labels on books/barcodes/catalogue records/website for loan management and accessibility, not limiting borrowing of bulk loan to customer making the request but sharing with the wider community to increase circulation/accessibility. Fairfield City Open Libraries and Inner West Library reminded us that they can also be approached for access to the collections they hold.
Highlights from the network Joelmon shared the impressive line up of free events hosted by Blacktown City Libraries during ‘Multicultural March 2024. Marilyn spoke of the success Bankstown Library is having with weekly Chinese author talks, assisting people through Citizenship workshops, creative Harmony Week events including dance and karaoke, English classes and Let’s Talk French.
Meeting close: 12:20pm
Next meeting: Korean Cultural Centre, 255 Elizabeth Street, Sydney on 15 May @ 1:30pm