State Library of Victoria
Public Libraries Report
Public Libraries Victoria Network Inc Meeting
15 December 2009
Nice announcements
Victorian attendees: 2010 Aurora Leadership Institute
Two applicants from Victorian public libraries have been accepted for the 2010 Aurora Leadership Institute, to be held at Thredbo, 18-23 February. The Statewide Public Library Development Projects will fully subsidise the Aurora course fees for Justine Elliott, Boroondara Library Service, and Jenelle Colston-Ing, Hobsons Bay Libraries.
Winner: 2009 Barrett Reid Scholarship
Jennie Bolitho from Bayside Library Service was presented with the 2009 Barrett Reid Scholarship by John Cain, President of the Library Board of Victoria, at an event at the State Library on 24 November. Jenny will use her Scholarship funds to study bibliotherapy programs in the United Kingdom, to set-up a bibliotherapy program in her own library service and to share her knowledge and experience with others in the sector.
Jennie did not request the full amount of Scholarship funds available. As the selection panel was also deeply impressed by another application, it recommended making the balance of funds available to that applicant to subsidise their proposed program of study. Sally Jones from Moonee Valley Library Service received funding to visit the Queens Borough Public Library in New York, which has received acclaim for its ground-breaking work and spectacular success in attracting disengaged and disadvantaged young people to its ‘youth branch’. Sally’s visit to Queens will inform her work in developing strategies for libraries in Victoria to engage more successfully with this group.
Funding received from VicHealth: Get into Reading! program
The State Library is in the happy position of having been asked to host and manage a five day Get into Reading! training program for forty participants in the week beginning Monday 22 March. It is anticipated that half of these participants will be drawn from Victorian public libraries. Details about how to get your library service involved will be released shortly.
Get into Reading! is one of the UK’s most talked-about bibliotherapy programs and has had huge take-up in recent years. It is a cornerstone reader development program, particularly targeting people in vulnerable situations. We are very lucky that a large part of Jennie Bolitho’s Barrett Reid Scholarship program centres around the Get into Reading! program as it rolls out in the UK. The knowledge and experience that Jennie acquires will inform how we manage the program here.
Launched: The Summer Read, at the State Library on Friday 11 December
Thank you to the 25 library services that have elected to participate in the 2009/10 Summer Read, which was offered by the State Library on a buy-in basis for the first time:
Central Highlands / Hobsons Bay / Mornington PeninsulaGreater Dandenong / Hume / Port Phillip
Darebin / Latrobe / Stonnington
Eastern Regional / Maribyrnong / Whitehorse Manningham
Frankston / Melbourne / Wimmera
Geelong / Mildura / Yarra
Glenelg / Monash / Yarra Plenty
Goldfields / Moonee Valley
Goulburn Valley / Moreland
Advisory Committee on Public Libraries
24 November 2009 meeting
The Library Board of Victoria’s Advisory Committee on Public Libraries met at the State Library. Joseph Cullen, Karen Ward-Smith and John Murrell represented PLVN. Apologies: Jenny Mustey.
The agenda covered:
- A presentation on the Being the Best We Can project
- A progress report on the 2009/10 Statewide Public Library Development Projects
- A presentation on the Public Libraries Victoria Network draft plan 2009/13
- The annual self-review of the Advisory Committee on Public Libraries
- Revision of the Framework for Collaborative Action (to be continued in January 2010)
- Updates from Library Board of Victoria/State Library, Public Libraries Victoria, and the Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Libraries
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Committee will be on 23 February 2010. The findings from our study of the economic benefits of Victorian public libraries will be presented by consultants SGS Economics and Planning. The meeting will also finalise the review of the Framework for Collaborative Action and agree the planning process for the SLV/PLVN collaboration beyond the current cycle of Statewide Public Library Development Projects.
Statewide Public Library Development Projects 2009/10
Being the Best We Can
Throughout October, November and December introductory sessions followed by all-day workshops have been conducted for six of the seven libraries participating in Stage 2 of the Being the Best We Can project: Bayside, Campaspe, Central Highlands, East Gippsland, Goulburn Valley and Greater Dandenong. Euan Lockie from Australian Continuous Improvement Group has led these sessions. Port Phillip will start work on its self-evaluation early in the New Year.
State Librarian Anne-Marie Schwirtlich gave a presentation on the Victorian public library landscape at the Public Libraries Australia conference in Townsville during October. She mentioned Being the Best We Can and received several requests for follow-up information from people in other States, indicating that our framework is likely to fill an evaluation vacuum felt by public libraries across Australia. More information about Being the Best We Can, including testimonials from staff at Yarra Plenty and Melton library services who piloted the framework, can be found at the following website: projects.libraries.vic.gov.au/pg/pages/view/49/
Building Knowledge for Library Advocacy
Our study on the economic contribution of Victorian public libraries is being undertaken by SGS Economics and Planning in association with Environmentrics. We were delighted to see that SGS this year won the Planning Institute of Australia (Victoria) Consultant Planner of the Year award.
SGS’s methodology involves an evaluation of seven representative case study library services and five case study library programs from which statewide findings will be extrapolated. In addition, a statewide telephone survey is being undertaken to capture the benefits of public libraries to non-users. The table below lists the case study library services and programs. The graph shows the responses so far to one of the questions in the library patron survey, which is being conducted by each case study library service. It is presented as an example of the kind of data that may appear in the final report. A draft of the report will be presented to the project Workgroup and to the Advisory Committee on Public Libraries in February 2010.
Case study library services / Case study library programs- Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation / - Preschool storytime
- Darebin Libraries / - PC/Internet training
- Eastern Regional Libraries / - Homework clubs
- Gannawarra Library Service / - Home library
- Geelong Regional Library Corporation / - Summer reading programs
- Latrobe City Library Service
- Wyndham Library Service
Developing Leadership
The first Shared Leadership Program is now well underway, with participants having completed their first two residential modules on Self-awareness and Leading Change. The next module will be a one-day workshop on Achievement Through Teams, at the State Library on Tuesday 2 February 2010. Work has also started on the action learning projects.
The feedback from participants has been extremely positive. Each module is separately evaluated by participants and each has received a rating of between 6.7 and 6.8 out of 7 for both relevance of the content and overall usefulness of the module. Participant comments include:
- ‘I found the content very useful to my development and also very insightful, opening new perspectives for me’
- ‘It has been a lot to take in but definitely worthwhile’
- ‘It has given me some tools and opportunities for developing myself as a person and a leader. It has helped me to acknowledge the skills I have and options to develop’.
- ‘As I am going through a lot of change currently, this module was very useful and I gained a lot from it.’
- ‘The skills I have learnt and developed in this module all have the potential to be employed in both my professional and personal lives.’
- ‘Managing change is occurring all the time at the moment, so content was very relevant to help me be a part of a successful change process.’
- ‘Very worthwhile, workshop continued to provide insight into personal response, identify areas for development, practice learnings and improve.’
- ‘There is a shift in my thoughts as a result of the workshop and I have gained a greater sense of confidence.’
John Murrell spoke to the group during Module 2 on change and Victorian public libraries, covering the impact of wider industry changes, national and Victorian public library summits, to give the participants an idea of what else is going on in libraryland. It was also an opportunity to explain where PLVN fits into the picture. The feedback on John's presentation was very positive:
- 'It was very useful to have John come and talk. I had very little idea what went on ‘up-there’ and found his outline very [en]lightening.'
- 'It was good to have John here to speak with us, although we all knew of PLVN, many of us did not understand their role or all that they provide.'
- 'This was fantastic because I gained a better understanding of the context in which public libraries operate and the political context.'
The four action learning projects, their sponsors and project team members are listed below:
Strategic evaluation of programs
Sponsor: Rebecca Henshall, Manager, Libraries and Learning, Frankston Library Service
Suzanne Flett, Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation
Matthew Kinleyside, Mildura Rural City Council Library Service
Jane Grace, Yarra Plenty Regional Library
Vivien Newton, Goldfields Library Corporation
Christine McAllister, Brimbank Libraries
Customer service excellence in self-service public libraries
Sponsor: Katrina Knox, Manager, Darebin Libraries
Shaun Brady, Kingston Information and Library Service
Melita Monigatti, Melbourne Library Service
Kim Kearsey, Frankston Library Service
Theary Sindel, City of Boroondara Library Service
Natasha Tsui-Po, Stonnington Library & Information Service
Library services to baby boomers
Sponsor: Carolyn Macvean, CEO, Goldfields Library Corporation
Justin Edwards, Moreland City Libraries
Janet Palmer, East Gippsland Shire Library
Maresce Jones, Melton Library & Information Service
Fiona Baranowski, Geelong Regional Library Corporation
Janet Aumann, West Gippsland Regional Library
A framework for Victorian library partnerships
Sponsor: Michael Byrne, Manager, Community Learning and Libraries, Maribyrnong Library Service
Lea Faulkner, Hobsons Bay Libraries
Sally Both, Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation
Margherita Barbante, Darebin Libraries
Fidelma O'Brien, Yarra Libraries
Loueen Twyford, High Country Library Corporation
In addition, the PLVN Executive invited a Shared Leadership program participant to be on the selection panel for the Pierre Gorman Award as the PLVN representative, providing an excellent opportunity to further develop a participant’s experience on the leadership training course and to contribute to the collaboration between the State Library and PLVN. Sally Both was selected for this task.
The first professional development seminar for the 2009/10 year was held at the State Library on Monday 23 November. The Big Issues: Public libraries, learning, technology and social inclusion attracted 202 delegates from across Victoria and Australia to hear from high profile speakers including Tom Bentley, Patricia Faulkner, Bill Thompson, Mark Pesce and the National Librarians of Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
Travelling Exhibition
Since the September PLVN meeting The Independent Type travelling exhibition has been to the Lakes Entrance and Frankston libraries. At each venue the exhibition has been complemented by a Curator’s talk, a workshop by Express Media, a workshop by the Victorian Writer’s Centre, and the Travelling Treasures program (which also visits schools in the area). The exhibition relocates to Horsham Library from 19 December to 31 January, then tours to its first metropolitan venue, Moonee Ponds Library, from 6 February to 7 March.
Digitising Victorian Newspapers
Hurrah! At last, we are getting started on the actual digitisation of some newspapers. Camperdown Chronicle is the State Library’s pilot newspaper and its digitisation is being funded by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust. It will be displayed through Australian Newspapers Online. The NLA is thrilled with the take-up of this new service, reporting that in a very short space of time ‘6000 users registered and 7 million lines of text were corrected’. The pilot will take about one month to complete. Work can then begin on our target list of 53 newspapers, starting with the quality assurance of each newspaper.
Think Tank work
There are currently no initiatives requiring Think Tank funding in 2009/10, following consideration of a number of options by the Executive of PLVN, the State Library and the Advisory Committee on Public Libraries.
Debra Rosenfeldt
Manager, Public Libraries
State Library of Victoria
14 December 2009
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