Archive for September, 2010

The Large and small of it

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Librarians, competitive? - you bet! :-) No sooner had I pressed the ’send’ button and my mail box was flooded with responses from colleagues across the country boasting of the vastness or smallness of their library.

Cheryl Dodson, Marketing and Planning Librarian at Liverpool City Library submitted our first entry in the ‘big’ category (and Cheryl is certainly living up to her job title). Liverpool Central Library is an impressive 5,600 sq metres; you can get some idea of the great spaces looking at these photos. As many of you will be aware Liverpool City Council suffered extensive fire damage to its administration building a few weeks ago but thankfully all is well at the Library.

The sculpture at the entrance to Liverpool Central Library

The sculpture at the entrance to Liverpool Central Library

 

Space as far as the eye can see!

Space as far as the eye can see!

 

From Liverpool (population 176,903) lets move to Balingup (population 4741) an historic village in SW Western Australia, 3 hours drive from Perth. Kim Fee from Bunbury City and Regional Library describes it as ‘very cute’ and Balingup Librarian, Narelle Leatherbarrow has confirmed it is 8mx8m. Narelle hasn’t been able to send us a photo but having done a little bit of surfing the area is definitely on my agenda next time I’m in WA!

Alexander Mills, Customer Services Librarian at Muswellbrook writes ‘ I think Cassilis Branch of Upper Hunter Regional Library may be in the running for the smallest library, it’s the smallest I’ve ever visited’. At 3.83mx3.90m it’s certainly in the running! (are you now loving your space at Balingup Narelle!). Cassilis has a population of about 100 people and is located just off the Golden Highway on the Munmurra River, 43km north-west of Merriwa, 86km north-east of Mudgee and 358kn north-west of Sydney.  The main  streets have been declared an urban conservation area. 

Cassilis Library Floorplan

Cassilis Library Floorplan

 

Shelving with circulation desk in the foreground

Shelving with circulation desk in the foreground

Whatever the size it’s the service that counts!  Thanks Cheryl, Kim, Narelle, Alex and George (my agent in WA). Keep your examples coming on in, I’m sure we can manage state awards as well (I’m in one of those ‘every kiddie gets a prize’ moods).

Off to calculate the size of my smallest branch at Manildra.

Cheers

Jan

Jan Richards, Chair, PLAC

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Mine is bigger/smaller than yours!

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
The ALIA Public Libraries Advisory Committee has been asked to identify Australia’s biggest and smallest library - and so the search begins. Does your Library qualify for one of these titles? I know we should trust you but if you want to be involved you’ll have to get the tape measure out and supply us with sq metreage so we can confirm to confirm a definite winner in each category. Oh, and a photo would be great. All entries should be with  me by COB Friday 15th October jrichards@orange.nsw.gov.au. Will there be a prize? Yes indeed there will be a certificate, some lovely (yet to be arranged) publicity and maybe something else. We’ll be progressively posting your stories here.
 
To get your creative juices started you might want to look at this story about a library in a phone box in North Yorkshire. It takes the term ‘re-purposing’ to a totally new level.
 
Have a great day
 
Jan
Jan Richards, Chair,  ALIA PLAC

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The Stars are Shining Bright

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Back in cold and wet Orange after a few days in glorious Brisbane at the ALIA Access 2010 Conference and more importantly (!) the public library stream A suprise on every page.

Building on the momentum and direction of the 2009 ALIA Public Libraries Summit the focus of the day was on advocay and how we can gain support using the innovative and engaging programs and activities we offer. Participants  were spellbound by some fantastic case studies which focussed on the themes developed as part of the  Summit; ie children and early literacy, digital citizenship, social inclusion and health and ageing. I found myself scribbling madly, lots of ‘note to self’ shameless stealing of concepts and ideas.

Speakers Shirley Shepherd (L), Bernie McSwain (R) and Jan Richards pose for the camera.

Speakers Shirley Shepherd (L), Bernie McSwain (R) and Jan Richards pose for the camera.

At the end of the day our special guest, Grant Millington, a Director of Publicis Mojo, drew together the themes which had been discussed and talked us through how an advertisng agency would build on the strengths.

A definte highlight was the announcement of the 2010 Library Stars Awards which showcased some of the fantastic projects our collegaues across the nation are engaged in.Every 2 years ALIA recognises new, exciting and inspirational programs that are taking place in Australian Public Libraries. The accolade of ‘Library Star’ is given to those libraries that have developed outstanding programs and activities in various categories. We received nearly 60 entries which were scored by an independent panel of judges to produce the 12 finalists and from these the 4 winning entries. 

And the winners are (drum roll please!)

Category: Children and Early Literacy.

City of Greater Dandenong Libraries, Victoria for its early literacy outreach program which was awarded a Victorian Premier’s Multicultural award for Excellence in 2009.

Category:Digital Citizenship

ACT Library and Information Service, the Northern Territory Library and the State Libraries of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia for the MyLanguage national collaboration creating online access to information in mor than 60 languages.

Category:Social Inclusion

Logan City Council Libraries, Queensland for 171 Club Circling the Globe in Logan - the club is named after the number of ethnic groups in Logan. 

Category: Health and Ageing

The Hills Shire Library Service , New South Wales for its festival of Active Living at the Castle Hill Library. 

The 12 finalists will receive certificates and a letter of commendation from ALIA and their entries have been posted on the ALIA web site .  A huge ‘Congratulations’ to them all (I feel a Cliff Richards moment coming on)

The program was convened by ALIA Public Libraries Advisory Committee and it was great to have some of our members in the audience. It was also fun to know that so many other public library collegaues were participating in a virtual way through the web straeming option. We were very chuffed that 2 of our sessions were honoured in this way. As Program Chairperson it was challenging to monitor questions from the floor, from web stream participants and from the tweets which were being generated.

Time now to begin thinking about Library Stars 2012 which will focus on Reading (remember National Year of Reading!) - ever onwards.

Cheers

Jan

Jan Richards

Chair ALIA PLAC

Posted in ALIA, Library Stars, Public Libraries | 1 Comment »