What we have and what we do
Hugh Rundle
Young Adult library services: where are we now?
Shannon Verbakel
Young adult collections have become a standard feature across Western Australian public libraries. Yet it was less than a hundred years ago that we begun to serve children at all, and only 60 years ago that libraries begun to formally distinguish between teenagers and younger children.
Over this time libraries have developed many new and exciting programs and services for this age group. However the literature shows, that these have for the most part, been done in isolation; each library trying to recreate the wheel in an attempt to better serve their community. As a result it would seem that there is little if any consensus on how to best serve our teenage patrons.
This presentation takes a local look at this issue, exploring the library services on offer to teenagers in Perth Metropolitan public libraries and reporting the progress of an honour thesis on this topic.
Rock My Lit
Rebecca Keshwar
After surveying a number of public libraries and their services offered to the community, I noticed a gaping void in programs for young adults. Many libraries offer the standard fare of Rhyme time, Story time and holiday programs up until children are 12 years old and then nadda, nothing. Based on anecdotal evidence from faithful librarians, it is rare to have a teenager darken their door and many libraries don’t see the return of young people until they start to have families of their own.
So where are all the teenagers? The answer: Online. Therefore, if the library is going to re-capture the attention of the YA audience, we have to meet them in virtual space and promote access to our vibrant e-collection (and physical collection) to engage them in the act of reading and discussion. Rock My Lit is a pilot website designed for a YA audience and is an extension of public library services to this under served user group. With a heavy emphasis on user created content and discussion board, Rock My Lit gives young adults the opportunity to discuss their latest reads, post comments and upload their own writing all from the comfort and anonymity (if they desire) from online. Yes, we still might not see them come into the library, but meeting young adults where they are is a start to re-introducing them to library services.
Regional Play in the Park year one and beyond
Dora Adeline
Showcasing the growth and achievement of a successful partnership between YMCA and Albany Public Library in presenting Regional Play in the Park, this collaboration has provided a sound platform for these two organisations to embrace the potential and share knowledge and resources to increase opportunities for early childhood development, and to encourage the development of essential skills in the early years.
Communicate, Co-operate and Collaborate. These key factors provide vision for service providers and communities to engage in the Regional Play in the Park program and potentially seek and source further relationships between organisations and programs. A great example of leadership in action from a Regional Library helping embed such an important program across the Great Southern.
The presentation will cover the approach, results, findings, challenges and future plans. This relationship has delivered a program in the region which has been extremely well received with exciting results providing a template that could easily be replicated in other regions
As You Like It: Rebuilding Library Services
Andrew Kelly and Caris Chamberlain
Libraries, like most services, are subject to the temptations of scope creep especially in the area of emerging technologies. While many of us are quick to implement new projects and services under the guise of enriching the community what does this do for our core business and existing services? This workshop will look at the ways libraries embrace scope creep and question what modern libraries see as core business.
The coming Local Government Amalgamations have the potential to give WA public libraries one of its biggest shake-ups and we need to understand what type of service we want to provide in this new environment. Will you drop Storytime to create a makerspace or will you outsource your cataloguing and processing services to focus more on literacy education? While scope creep often comes from the desire to do good, the Bard reminds us ‘can one desire too much of a good thing?’
Communicating copyright: Librarians’ support for a Massive Open Online Course
Megan Fitzgibbons and Chloe Allen
This presentation introduces librarians’ support for a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) at the University of Western Australia in collaboration with UWA’s Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. Our involvement primarily entails negotiating copyright issues in producing the course materials, since the course is offered for free on an online commercial platform. The session will prompt discussion of copyright issues (including international concerns) and librarians’ role in the changing landscape in higher education–particularly in collaboration with other educators.
Convergence: From controversial to commonplace
Dr Leith Robinson
It is rare today to find a stand-alone library – most have their buildings converged with other services. Common partners with libraries are cafes and local history centres, but other partners include hair salons, police stations and a public sauna. During her Ph D Leith observed how the notion of convergence diminished in controversy, with not only buildings but also management and websites becoming converged. However one aspect that remains controversial is the convergence of staff: It has stalled at co-operation and collaboration. Why? Join this session which tours worldwide convergence examples and probes staffing arrangements.
ALIA WA Symposium 2014 