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DEPARTMENT FOR VICTORIAN COMMUNITIES

REPORT TO VICLINK

17 FEBRUARY 2004

1.Public library grants

The third quarter public library grants were paid as scheduled in early January 2004. The final payment will be made in early April 2004.

2.Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Libraries

The next meeting of the Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Libraries will be held on 27 February 2004.

The Minister for Local Government, Candy Broad MLC, has appointed Cr Dianne McAuliffe from Moorabool Shire Council as the councillor representative on the Advisory Council, Cr McAuliffe is also deputy chair of the Central Highlands Regional Library Corporation.

3.Briefing on Local Government Act 1989

Regional Library Corporations will have received a notice advising them of a briefing on the recent amendments to the Local Government Act 1989.

This will be held on Friday 12 March 2004 at the Carlton Branch Library of the Yarra Melbourne Regional Library Corporation.

Due to the heavy workload of the Governance and Legislation Unit staff, it is unlikely that the briefing will be able to be repeated outside Melbourne.

4.Country Library Services Manual

A number of metropolitan library services have expressed interest in attending workshops on the manual Taking Services Into The Futureby John Liddle.

These are scheduled for April: 5, 6 and 19 (all at Level 15, 1 Spring Street) and April 27 (Frankston). All libraries will be sent full details shortly.

The workshops are targeted at managers and other senior staff who have an active interest in managing and developing library services. Up to three participants from each library service can attend, including board members and council staff.

Please note that the content of each workshop will be based on the issues raised by the participants who should familiarise themselves with the content of the manual and make note of topics of particular interest.

Participants should email their areas of greatest interest to Jennifer Gawne () who will pass these on to John Liddle. John will tailor each workshop to emphasise these subjects.

To get maximum benefit from the day, it is important to do your “homework” beforehand and to be prepared to take active part in the workshop.

5.Joint Council/Library Service Centres

The workshop on Joint Council/Library Service Centres will be held on Tuesday 23 March at the Naval & Military Club in Little Collins Street.

David Admans of DABAS eStrategy Pty Ltdwhich is based inBendigo will facilitate the day.

Discussions were held this morning with the Country Public Libraries Group on the program which will be available shortly.

6.Annual Survey of Public Libraries 2002/03

Nada Bagaric is editing the Annual Survey for publication. The data will be posted in the near future on the DVC Extranet for libraries to access and commenton prior to publication.

Members are still needed for the Working Group on revising the Annual Survey questions for the 2003/04 Survey.

7.Directory of Public Libraries in Victoria 2004

The following library services have yet to return their updated data for the 2004 Directory of Public Libraries – Boroondara; Eastern Regional; Mitchell; Moreland and the State Library of Victoria.

Please contact Nada Bagaric () if you need another copy of your data for editing.

8.Nestlé Write Around Australia Project 2004

The 2004 Nestlé Write Around Australia Project has begun in Victoria. Local Government Victoria would like to thank the ten libraries which have volunteered to be zone co-ordinators this year: Wyndham; Glen Eira; Whitehorse Manningham; Frankston; Casey Cardinia; Gannawarra; Geelong; Mitchell; Goldfields; La Trobe.

A successful meeting of zone co-ordinators was held on 6 February 2004. Local Government Victoria will continue to support the zone libraries as in previous years, including providing balloons, stickers and notepads.

Graham Dudley

Local Government Victoria

Department for Victorian Communities

17 February 2004