Children's book celebrating camp dogs scoops up top Territory library prize

Two initiatives aimed at helping children engage with and care for their community have taken out the top prizes at ALIA’s Northern Territory (NT) Awards which took place Monday 7 November at the Northern Territory Library, Parliament House, in Darwin.

All winners and highly commended


The ALIA NT Recognition Awards are an annual merit prize celebrating and recognizing the work of a team or individual working in any sector of the library and information profession in the Northern Territory. There are two awards categories: the Urban Libraries Merit Award and the Regional and Remote Libraries Merit Award.

The Barunga Community Library of Roper Gulf Regional Council won the Regional and Remote prize for their campaign ‘Our Barunga Dogs.’ A collaboration between four different areas of council in the remote Indigenous community of Barunga (Animal Management, Sport & Recreation, Broadcasting and the Library) the campaign teaches children about the importance of caring for their pets and the local ‘camp dogs’ by celebrating the things they love about them.

Patrick Gregory, LANT senior Director with winning entry from Taminmin library

 

Awards ceremony

The activity ran over the Easter school holidays and started with a reading of Johanna Bell's Bigismob Jigiwan Dog (Too Many Cheeky Dogs) . Children were then invited to speak, draw and write about the dogs in their community before taking photos of each of the dogs and speaking with adults in Barunga about what they had learned. All of these elements were then collated and used to develop the children's book Our Barunga Dogs  which includes a QR code which when scanned enables the reader to listen to the audio clips of the children speaking about their dogs.

The children learnt that well cared for dogs are less likely to be ‘cheeky’ – improving community safety. They also became published authors – with the book available to everyone through the Territory library.

Taminmin Community Library and Taminmin College Library won the Urban prize for their campaign Students versus Seniors. The program was devised to provide an opportunity for students to develop confidence by improving communication and connection with senior citizens in the community. This resulted in monthly ‘Students versus Seniors’ sessions at Taminmin Community Library which included morning tea and a variety of other games and activities to enhance opportunities for interaction. The students became familiar with the different personalities of the senior members of their community and were able to share their interests and learn about the varied lives some of the seniors have lived and enjoyed.

The uniqueness and innovation of Students versus Seniors caught the attention of the ABC earlier this year who filmed and broadcasted a segment in the Ageless Friendships series all about the program

Awards ceremony

ALIA wishes to thank Libraries and Archives NT who hosted the awards. The ceremony was address by ALIA President Vicki Edmunds and the awards were presented by Patrick Gregory, Senior Manger LANT, and Trish Hepworth, Director of Policy and Education at ALIA.

 

Winning team form Taminmin with ALIA Director of Policy and Education Trish Hepworth

   Congratulations also go to the following highly commended entries:

   Regional and Remote

   -    Jabiru Public Library - Street Library

   Urban

   -    City of Palmerston Library - Gulwa Community Recording Studio

   -    Joanne Wood -City of Darwin Library and Family Services

   -    Alice Springs Public Library, Library Programs Team - Innovation Play Day

   -    Joanne Scott - Tanminmin Council Library