ALIA West

March 2002

Inglewood Library wins the Bess Thomas Award 2002

City of Stirling's Inglewood Library has been awarded the Bess Thomas Award 2002 from the Australian Library and Information Association, and will receive a $250 grant towards a project initiating or supplementing public library services for young people.

Encourage

and support the development of innovative and significant public library services to young people;

Promote

public and professional awareness of the importance of services to young people in public libraries; and

Honour

the bequest made by Bess Thomas and continue her contribution to Australian children's libraries.

To increase use of the library by teenagers, Inglewood assistant librarian, Francine Nababan worked with Year 7 students at Inglewood Primary School to update the image of the Young Adult area in the Library.

The class was familiar with the Library due to regular class visits, and had a good rapport with Francine.

The teacher-librarian, Jan Douglas was also the art teacher, which made school liaison easy.

Local artist Geraldine Pillinger, was employed to co-ordinate the project.

Mrs Louise Cartledge, a dedicated Inglewood Library volunteer and parent of one of the school children was also of great assistance in motivating the children and promoting the project.

The Young Adult area upgrade was welcomed as an excellent art project that the class could also work on at school.

During class consultation a street theme was chosen and the students worked on a variety of projects including designing images and silk screening cushion covers; producing a wall hanging with an urban street design; decorating floor mats; and making a pottery sign welcoming young adults to the revamped area.

Not wanting to stop there, the students enthusiastically went on to improve the sea theme in the junior area by decorating it with tropical treasure island motifs; recovering the old sofa; adding paper mosaic to an old sea chest and transforming it to a reading table; and repainting the junior area windows with new sea creatures.

The library had also budgeted additional funds to purchase trendy new furniture for the area, and installed canvas sails above the outdoor courtyard adjacent to the children's activities room.

The children are very proud of their work and a re-opening of the young adult area was held in November 2001 to celebrate the work completed. Use of the library by the children has increased with many new memberships, as has demand for art classes at the school. The Year 7 group will be entering high school next year and will continue to feel ownership of their space in the library.

The programme was so popular that it will be run again in 2002, with the incoming Year 7's ready to make their mark on their library and revitalise the under-utilised courtyard.

The award will be presented at the ALIA conference in Sydney, May 2002.

The prize money will be used to employ a local artist to co-ordinate the 2002 project, which will include painting and planting terracotta pots, and producing mosaic tiles for the courtyard.

Viv Barton
Manager Library Services
City of Stirling