Working Group on Multicultural Services (NSW)
Minutes
Location: Dixon Room, Ground Floor, Mitchell Building, State Library of New South Wales
Date: Thursday, 21 November 2024 Time: 9:35am
Chair: Ayse Ersoy Minutes: Julie Parkinson
Attending: Judy Hannah (Canada Bay), Stephanie Lee (Bayside), Paul Nicholas (MRRC Silverwater), Helen Williams (Inner West), Shauna Miller (SLNSW), Vanessa Maino (Ryde), Abby Dawson (SLNSW), Ayse Ersoy (Waverley), Julie Parkinson (Sutherland), Jenny Zhang (City of Sydney), Mary Loveland (Northern Beaches), Sung Jung Yoon (Strathfield), Fujing Zhao (Ku-Ring-Gai), Joelmon Zungar (Blacktown), Rachelle Ayoub (SLNSW), Stella Tay (Cumberland), Jadwiga Krejza (Liverpool), Marilyn Shamayil (Canterbury Bankstown), Cathy Zhai (Hornsby), Kathy Yang (Ryde), Joanna Goh (SLNSW), Sharlene Louey (City of Sydney).
Apologies: Eugenia Ng (Burwod), Leticia Olivera (Shellharbour), Margie Parsons (Northern Beaches), Katherine Zhu (Randwick), Vivien Chung (Willoughby), Rachel Cody (Leeton), Svendrini Seneviratne (Fairfield)
Confirmation of previous minutes: Accepted by Helen Williams, seconded by Vanessa Maino.
Business arising from previous minutes:
Community language content DVD collections and online film collections/platforms No details yet available about position taken and/or guidance offered by SLNSW and ALIA (or legal position taken by City of Sydney) regarding reforms to Australia’s National Classification Scheme, i.e. implications for libraries collecting community language DVDs and offering streaming of community language items via Kanopy or Hoopla, onus on libraries and/or suppliers etc.
Chair and Secretary nominations: Helen Williams nominated and accepted position of Chairperson of the Working Group on Multicultural Library Services (NSW) 2025-2026. Julie Parkinson to continue in position of Secretary during 2025.
Thank you to Eugenia Ng, Jenny Zhang, Katherine Zhu and Ayse Ersoy for chairing the meetings throughout the year.
Annual report: The consensus was to remove the need for the Chairperson to provide an annual report from the Terms of Reference for the Working Group on Multicultural Library Services (NSW). An annual report was deemed an unnecessary repetition of minutes available via the wiki, and not standard practice within other working groups.
Guest Speaker: Rachelle Ayoub, Librarian, Pictorial Acquisitions Team, SLNSW Rachelle shared insights into culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) collecting, highlighting three digital photographic series: ‘Muslim women in sport, 2017’ by Lisa Maree Williams, ‘Seasonal workers from Vanuatu during the walnut harvest at Duxton Nuts Farm, Yanco, NSW, 2023’ by Darren Clark, and ‘India Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit to Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, 2023, by Matthew Abbott. Rachelle emphasized the need to collect broadly and without prejudice, together with a commitment to seeing that First Nations people and diverse communities can find their records represented; to set collecting priorities informed by identified collection gaps; and the importance of fostering connection between communities and our collections, and the valuable opportunities those connections create.
Other Business:
SLNSW Bulk Loan Services Report - 21 Nov 2024 - Prepared by: Joanna Goh (Collection Services Coordinator) mc.bulk.loans@sl.nsw.gov.au
MULTICULTURAL BULK LOAN STOCK UPDATE Shortage of Portuguese junior picture and board books, Arabic YA, Spanish non-fiction and Tibetan adult fiction. New stock of books available in Slovak, Italian and Russian.
MULTICULTURAL BULK LOAN SERVICE CLOSURE FOR THE 2024 HOLIDAYS The Multicultural bulk loan service will be suspended from 18th Dec 2024 to 1st Jan 2025 for the holiday season. Tuesday, 10th Dec 2024 is the closing date for last orders that we will fulfil in 2024. Any orders received after 10th Dec 2024 will be fulfilled in 2025. We will send out orders until Tuesday, 17th Dec 2024. Libraries can still return your loans to the State Library during our shut down period.
AUTOMATED OVERDUE REMINDER EMAILS (COMING IN 2025) We will be activating automated overdue reminder emails in 2025. Emails will be sent from this email address: library@sl.nsw.gov.au The first ever email generated will contain all current overdue titles a library may have on that date. Subsequent emails will be triggered with an item is 14 days overdue and another one when it is 28 days overdue.
CHANGING HOW YOU LOG IN TO CHECK YOUR STATE LIBRARY OF NSW LOANS (26 NOV 2024) From 26 November, you will log in using your library’s registered email address to log into the catalogue to check the status of your inter-library and bulk loans. We have emailed libraries with log-in accounts. Once the new system goes live, the new log-in page will ask for your email address and current password. The first time you log in, you will be asked to reset your password. If you need assistance logging in, updating your details, or setting up a log-in, please contact us by email at mc.bulk.loans@sl.nsw.gov.au. Important note: Claimed returned and Lost items are included in the loans list that you see on the catalogue, but they are not obvious. Libraries can always contact us directly for a complete record of your loans.
Multicultural Glossary review project for the working group in 2025 – Shauna Miller, SLNSW The Multicultural Glossary tool contains words and phrases identified by public libraries as being useful for signage and promotional material. It has been a long time since the original grant was obtained in 2005 to remove the onus from individual libraries to complete translations through the creation of a shared, professionally translated resource and an audit in now needed to review the words and phrases, the languages included, known errors needing to be rectified, suitability of formats available for download etc. and refreshed data to be delivered prior to the page being transferred to the new website. An invitation will follow to gauge interest in the review project, for which the terms are to be determined.
Guest Speakers 2025 – Shauna Miller, SLNSW Suggestions invited for guest speakers that you would like to hear from at our meetings throughout 2025, for example ID Support NSW offer presentations to empower you to safeguard your personal information and recognize threats. Or you may like to nominate to share your own experience and expertise in relation to a project that you’ve been working on.
Harmony Week 2025 – Shauna Miller, SLNSW Everyone is invited to share ideas to celebrate Harmony Day 18-24 March, 2025. A Taste of Harmony website (https://www.tasteofharmony.org.au) encourages us to celebrate cultural diversity at work, with lots of ideas that could be broadened from the workplace to our culturally diverse communities.
Multicultural Excellence Awards winners – Abby Dawson, SLNSW Congratulations to the 2024 Award Winners. Organisation (Metropolitan): Northern Beaches – Tibetan Storytime, a Community Co-Design Program, Organisation (Rural/Regional): Wagga Wagga City Council – Wagga Wagga Multicultural Youth Group, and Individual: Susie Rowe, Leeton Shire Library. More information about the Multicultural Excellence Awards and Award Winners can be found at nswpla.org.au/#awards_scholarships&page=multicultural_excellence_awards
Marketing and Promotion – Shauna Miller, SLNSW How does your public library market and promote its service, events etc. with the wider community? Please consider sharing approaches taken, projects underway, recognition received for environment, outreach etc.
Highlights from the network:
Liverpool City Library: Yellamundie Library and Gallery was one of four finalists for the IFLA/Baker & Taylor Public Library of the Year Award 2024 and came second to this year’s winner Beijing Library from China. Collection now includes 19 community languages, including Pacifica.
Blacktown City Libraries: ‘Books and Cooks’ multicultural food cart has been launched, complete with Italian chef and has circulated to branches and community centres and will feature in Multicultural March. Other highlights include bilingual story time and an award winning baby rhyme time project.
City of Ryde Libraries: Hosted informative events for NSW Seniors Card and transport apps for seniors, In Conversation pronunciation workshop, and Chinese tea appreciation workshops presented by a Tea Master.
Canterbury-Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centres: Nepalese Cultural Festival in October included a professional band, kite making was integrated with story time. Harmony Week was celebrated with a Harmony Café, offering tea, coffee and a range of desserts from various countries and belly dancing (respectfully modified for Ramadan).
Waverley Library: Hosted Day of the Dead jewellery workshops, traditional Geisha dress with the Japan Foundation.
Dates and venues of meetings in 2025:
Dates and venues to be confirmed:
February 2025 @ Liverpool City Library
May 2025 @ Korean Cultural Centre Australia
August 2025 @ City of Ryde Libraries
November 2025 @ State Library of NSW
Opportunities for hybrid meetings to be considered.
Meeting close: 12:20pm
Following close of meeting: Tour of Multicultural stack and bulk loans work room.
Next meeting: Liverpool City Library, date and time in February 2025 to be confirmed.