The first ALIA Top End Symposium: Powering our Territory
Learning and Growing at Palmerston City Library
Lyn McIntosh
City librarian
Public Libraries and Learning Communities?
- Joint ownership or common position
- Libraries owned by the community
- Libraries at the heart of learning - one stop shop
- Community based
- Meeting place - inclusive, familiar and free!
- Informing and empowering the Community
- Provide free resources and other services
Libraries - the 'people's university'
The public library, the local gateway to knowledge, provides a basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision making and cultural development of the individual and social groups. - UNESCO Public Library Manifesto
Launch of University of the 3rd Age Palmerston
Lifelong Learning @ Palmerston City Library
- Lifelong Learning is an all inclusive philosophy which influences all service delivery.
- Guard against developing a romanticised earth mother image of the all providing public library. (Barbara Hull, UK)
- Challenge is to facilitate learning, to provide opportunities to link individuals with learning resources to offer a personal learning path.
- Lifelong Learning Consultancy - impetus for creating a local learning community
- Poustie/Kearns consultancy (2002) linked community imperatives with key territory economic objectives.
- three year implementation plan Learning and Growing @ Palmerston City Library resulted in lifelong learning through the lifespan program development including:
- Family learning strategy
- Creativity and innovation
- Understanding others, cultural diversity and heritage
Information Literacy Challenge
There is an opportunity in many communities for librarians in all sectors of the profession to coalesce in initiating local learning communities and information strategies enabled by their resource and information literacy imperatives. [Dr Alan Bundy]
How do we develop information literate communities?
- Libraries recognising their role in supporting lifelong learning
- Libraries working as a coalition for building information literate communities
- Applying information literacy principles to program development
How the challenge is being met at Palmerston City Library?
- Forming partnerships with other providers
- Schools, University, Business, Community and Service providers
- Program development aligned with social and economic objectives
- Developing a community hub which facilitates, stimulates and empowers the community
Growing the learning community
- Work with the popular and immediate needs
- Evaluate and plan for continued growth
- Interpret requirements for the new library
|
