Gail Daley, team leader collection development team attended the LIANZA conference.
“Take a walk on the wild-side”: library service at the margins. The challenges of prison librarianship. Susan Smith and Judith Wenborn.
I wanted to go to this session because ACL has an arrangement with the Auckland prison under which we donate withdrawn books, and I was interested to know how the service works and if there is any more we can do.
The librarians work within an environment of strict security. They can’t take in cellphones or cameras and have to get permission to have a USB drive. Anything that could be turned into a weapon is forbidden, so no jewellery or pencil sharpeners – pencils have to be sharpened with sandpaper.
Except for Christchurch the prison librarians around New Zealand all work alone, and resourcing is minimal. With very small budgets they rely on donations and loans from local and other libraries.
In Christchurch the library service is offered to over 1200 men on two different sites. In the main jail the prisoners are locked up for a minimum of 21 hours a day which makes the material they get from the library really vital to them. With so many hours locked up, visits to the physical library in the prison are very limited and the service is mainly delivered by way of a printed catalogue the men can choose from. But many prisoners often need to identify books visually, so it is better if they can visit the library rather than request through lists
They have books in the physical library and also photocopy legal documents, crosswords and magazine articles.
Legal information about parole boards etc is much sought after. Murder mysteries are popular. There are a number of restrictions on material and access to the internet and the catalogues of the National and public libraries is only allowed through a librarian.
They supply hunting magazines but won’t photocopy ads for guns. They don’t supply erotic material – although the prisoners can watch anything free to air on tv.
The librarians try to gauge a prisoner’s level of language and reading skills and what their interests are. They try to develop individuals as readers and will put together special interest reading lists.
Prisoners don’t like anyone else knowing what they have asked for – for instance, in a group situation librarians must be careful to talk in general terms rather than mention a specific title or author that someone has ordered. In Christchurch they run the library service with a large exchange of material between Christchurch jail and Christchurch City Libraries. This can be recreational reading, or can be study related. Material they are always seeking includes graded readers, youth interest magazines, Pacifica material and graphic novels.
Books are requested and sent to the jail as a loan. In the last two years they have borrowed 800 items and lost only two.
The librarians see their work as one means by which prisoners might be able to make a better life both in prison and when they are released. They will sometimes help a prisoner get membership of a public library on release based on a good borrowing history and behaviour when inside.
Access to the library service is a privilege. General behaviour often improves overall when prisoners have wider access to library material. If prison staff are not supportive it is very difficult to deliver an adequate library service so it is important for the librarians to develop a relationship with staff.
The prison library service is undergoing a review, so they are uncertain what the final outcome will be.
ACL has been sending selected donations to Auckland prisons for several years but there could be an opportunity to lend more material and develop a closer relationship with the prison library service.
Monday, November 23, 2009
LIANZA conference
Heather Stone, service line lead attended the LIANZA conference in Christchuch on 12-14 October 2009. Following are some notes from the sessions she attended.
The librarian as a bookseller: empowering the profession to take their knowledge to the reader
I have a confession: I decided to go to the session because it looked interesting, rather than good for me. I am so glad I did – John McIntyre, children’s bookseller from Kilbirnie was simply inspiring.
He talked about getting out from behind the counter and engaging with the customers in the library.. He talked about the importance of building this relationship as a vehicle to share your passion, know-how and experience to ‘sell’ customers books. He hammered home the point that it doesn’t matter if these books entertain, inspire, inform or educate –the important thing is that the books we recommend meet our customer’s needs.
He said librarians can make a difference in people’s lives and then to convince us read the autobiographical piece by children’s author, Gary Paulsen. It was a great session.
Customer education: what's the point?
Kim Clayton and Rebecca Waechter from Wellington Public Library gave an overview of WP's revamp eighteen months ago of the customer education programme. With little literature available on this subject for public libraries, they undertook a survey of 1000 customers across 12 branches. In a nutshell the results were overwhelmingly in the favour of one on one lessons which were short in duration (15 minutes), topics determined by the public rather than by library staff, and delivery taking place when required by the public. The confidence of staff in the delivery was pivotal in the success of the lesson. Customer education has been revamped to reflect the results e.g one on one mini expos of resources taking place within the library at peak times using a television screen and a computer so members of the public walking by can also see it.
Revitalising the library and the self serve generation
Joanne Smith from Hobsons Bay Libraries, Victoria, Australia was awarded the Margery C, Ramsay Scholarship by the Library Board of Victoria. Joanne's presentation highlighted her research on the changing face of customer service in this self serve age. Libraries have to adapt the design, and layout of the building and opening hours to reflect community needs. By selecting technology that offers the same or better service than staff can, staff can be redeployed to engage more with customers. In addition, librarians need to move from having a gatekeeper and 'book police' mentality to a customer centric position. Joanne's lecture resonated with the ACL customer centric focus.
The librarian as a bookseller: empowering the profession to take their knowledge to the reader
I have a confession: I decided to go to the session because it looked interesting, rather than good for me. I am so glad I did – John McIntyre, children’s bookseller from Kilbirnie was simply inspiring.
He talked about getting out from behind the counter and engaging with the customers in the library.. He talked about the importance of building this relationship as a vehicle to share your passion, know-how and experience to ‘sell’ customers books. He hammered home the point that it doesn’t matter if these books entertain, inspire, inform or educate –the important thing is that the books we recommend meet our customer’s needs.
He said librarians can make a difference in people’s lives and then to convince us read the autobiographical piece by children’s author, Gary Paulsen. It was a great session.
Customer education: what's the point?
Kim Clayton and Rebecca Waechter from Wellington Public Library gave an overview of WP's revamp eighteen months ago of the customer education programme. With little literature available on this subject for public libraries, they undertook a survey of 1000 customers across 12 branches. In a nutshell the results were overwhelmingly in the favour of one on one lessons which were short in duration (15 minutes), topics determined by the public rather than by library staff, and delivery taking place when required by the public. The confidence of staff in the delivery was pivotal in the success of the lesson. Customer education has been revamped to reflect the results e.g one on one mini expos of resources taking place within the library at peak times using a television screen and a computer so members of the public walking by can also see it.
Revitalising the library and the self serve generation
Joanne Smith from Hobsons Bay Libraries, Victoria, Australia was awarded the Margery C, Ramsay Scholarship by the Library Board of Victoria. Joanne's presentation highlighted her research on the changing face of customer service in this self serve age. Libraries have to adapt the design, and layout of the building and opening hours to reflect community needs. By selecting technology that offers the same or better service than staff can, staff can be redeployed to engage more with customers. In addition, librarians need to move from having a gatekeeper and 'book police' mentality to a customer centric position. Joanne's lecture resonated with the ACL customer centric focus.
Friday, October 16, 2009
SLANZA conference [School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa
Annie Coppell, Reference Librarian - Teens and AnyQuestions National Service Coach recently attended the biennial SLANZA conference at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch between 28-30 September 2009.
Overall impression of the conference? It was great. The workshops I attended were all helpful/intriguing/inspirational. The keynotes were inspirational and thought-provoking (well, I’m sure Derek Wenmoth was – but we missed it, unfortunately got held up). The organisation was smooth. The dinner was fun (although no dancing – which saddened some attendees, but not me). For each session there were way more than one workshop I desperately wanted to go to – sometimes 4!!! This isn’t usually the case at conferences, I’ve found. Congratulations to the organising committee, workshop presenters, and keynote speakers.
Day one: challenging...
Keynote – Suzette Boyd, from Melbourne, asked challenging questions – are we revolutionary or evolutionary? Have we told others what we – as librarians – are capable of.
Workshop One: the challenge – teaching information literacy skills to high school students with a 5-7 year old reading level!
Workshop Two: the challenge – presenting! Anthea, the AnyQuestions Manager, and I presented the research by Core Ed on how AnyQuestions does help teach information literacy skills to our students.
Day Two: fun…
Keynote: ‘The learning brain’ – so many people missed this session because of this title – but it was one of the best conference keynotes I have ever heard! Neuroscience translated into English and made understandable, and memorable.
Keynote: Brian Falkner – basically, reading stops your life from sucking. How true is that!
Day Three: confrontational
Workshop: Libraries in a web 2.0 environment – ie making your library services 2.0.
Workshop: searching – oops, the sites AnyQuestions uses most – like google & Wikipedia – were not flavour of the month in this session…
Keynote: Denise L’Estrange Corbett – her life story.
Speech: MP for Christchurch on behalf of the Minister of Education. A lesson in how not to engage with your audience. I feel she might have been sucked in by the promise that a bunch of school librarians wouldn’t be that horrid.
I made a lot of connections at this conference. People I’ll be staying in touch with and, hopefully, working with over the coming months.
Overall impression of the conference? It was great. The workshops I attended were all helpful/intriguing/inspirational. The keynotes were inspirational and thought-provoking (well, I’m sure Derek Wenmoth was – but we missed it, unfortunately got held up). The organisation was smooth. The dinner was fun (although no dancing – which saddened some attendees, but not me). For each session there were way more than one workshop I desperately wanted to go to – sometimes 4!!! This isn’t usually the case at conferences, I’ve found. Congratulations to the organising committee, workshop presenters, and keynote speakers.
Day one: challenging...
Keynote – Suzette Boyd, from Melbourne, asked challenging questions – are we revolutionary or evolutionary? Have we told others what we – as librarians – are capable of.
Workshop One: the challenge – teaching information literacy skills to high school students with a 5-7 year old reading level!
Workshop Two: the challenge – presenting! Anthea, the AnyQuestions Manager, and I presented the research by Core Ed on how AnyQuestions does help teach information literacy skills to our students.
Day Two: fun…
Keynote: ‘The learning brain’ – so many people missed this session because of this title – but it was one of the best conference keynotes I have ever heard! Neuroscience translated into English and made understandable, and memorable.
Keynote: Brian Falkner – basically, reading stops your life from sucking. How true is that!
Day Three: confrontational
Workshop: Libraries in a web 2.0 environment – ie making your library services 2.0.
Workshop: searching – oops, the sites AnyQuestions uses most – like google & Wikipedia – were not flavour of the month in this session…
Keynote: Denise L’Estrange Corbett – her life story.
Speech: MP for Christchurch on behalf of the Minister of Education. A lesson in how not to engage with your audience. I feel she might have been sucked in by the promise that a bunch of school librarians wouldn’t be that horrid.
I made a lot of connections at this conference. People I’ll be staying in touch with and, hopefully, working with over the coming months.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Taranaki Children's book festival professional development day
Sue Jackson, Remuera Community Librarian, attended the Professional Development days at Taranaki Children’s Book Festival on 31 August and 1 September 2009 at TSB Showplace New Plymouth.
These two days were just part of a week long celebration of children’s literature. Approximately 80 librarians from school and public libraries in the North Island attended the two days to listen, share ideas and learn from others.
Day one
Day One provided participants with an opportunity to talk through networking and discussion groups. A speaker provided an introduction to each of the ten topics covered which was followed by animated discussion within each group.
Topics covered were pre-school storytimes, strategies for behaviour management in the library (including adults at storytimes, class visits and teens), Book Clubs and reading groups for primary school children, collection management, electronic resources available free to schools and Any Questions and Many Answers.
We heard Frances McEwan, Children’s Librarian at Upper Hutt City Library, speak about a school membership programme, “A Book in every Backpack”. This is an inspiring project aimed at ensuring each child in Upper Hutt has access to library programmes and resources and encouraging reading. It is being achieved by developing strong relationships between library staff, schools, teachers and families, simplifying the joining process for schoolchildren and removing any barriers to membership. Class visits to the library during school time are a vital part of this programme. Of the schools involved so far, only 11% of children have not taken part. The next step is to roll the programme out to intermediate schools and preschools in Upper Hutt.
Jan Watts, NLNZ School Library Adviser, provided tips on reading aloud. She referred to
“The Power of Reading” by Stephen Krashen, “The Read Aloud handbook” by Jim Trelease, Effective Literacy Practice Years 1-4 and Years 5-8 published for the Ministry of Education and Mem Fox’s website.
Ruth and John McIntyre from The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington gave an excellent session on some great current titles and emphasized the importance of staff reading books before recommending them.
Day two
Day two was our chance to listen and learn from a number of key speakers. A highlight was a session with Margaret Spillman, teacher-librarian at Mackay West State School in Queensland. Margaret spoke about “Productive Partnerships – Learning for Life”, a successful partnership she has developed with Mackay Libraries, helping to ensure a quality learning environment for students to develop their literacy skills. There are five key elements to the programme:
These two days were just part of a week long celebration of children’s literature. Approximately 80 librarians from school and public libraries in the North Island attended the two days to listen, share ideas and learn from others.
Day one
Day One provided participants with an opportunity to talk through networking and discussion groups. A speaker provided an introduction to each of the ten topics covered which was followed by animated discussion within each group.
Topics covered were pre-school storytimes, strategies for behaviour management in the library (including adults at storytimes, class visits and teens), Book Clubs and reading groups for primary school children, collection management, electronic resources available free to schools and Any Questions and Many Answers.
We heard Frances McEwan, Children’s Librarian at Upper Hutt City Library, speak about a school membership programme, “A Book in every Backpack”. This is an inspiring project aimed at ensuring each child in Upper Hutt has access to library programmes and resources and encouraging reading. It is being achieved by developing strong relationships between library staff, schools, teachers and families, simplifying the joining process for schoolchildren and removing any barriers to membership. Class visits to the library during school time are a vital part of this programme. Of the schools involved so far, only 11% of children have not taken part. The next step is to roll the programme out to intermediate schools and preschools in Upper Hutt.
Jan Watts, NLNZ School Library Adviser, provided tips on reading aloud. She referred to
“The Power of Reading” by Stephen Krashen, “The Read Aloud handbook” by Jim Trelease, Effective Literacy Practice Years 1-4 and Years 5-8 published for the Ministry of Education and Mem Fox’s website.
Ruth and John McIntyre from The Children’s Bookshop in Wellington gave an excellent session on some great current titles and emphasized the importance of staff reading books before recommending them.
Day two
Day two was our chance to listen and learn from a number of key speakers. A highlight was a session with Margaret Spillman, teacher-librarian at Mackay West State School in Queensland. Margaret spoke about “Productive Partnerships – Learning for Life”, a successful partnership she has developed with Mackay Libraries, helping to ensure a quality learning environment for students to develop their literacy skills. There are five key elements to the programme:
- Work shadowing (Public and school library staff spend a week at each others libraries)
- Library monitor programme for students
- Grade Ones at the library (GOAL) programme – every child should be member of public library
- School website – link to public library website
- Database workshops for students in the public library (Cool Clicks and Data Dudes)
The outcome of this partnership is that the Public Library is seen as an extension of the school library with students moving seamlessly and comfortably between the two. Take a look at the school website and Productive Partnerships
Jan Watts, School Library Adviser, explored the world of the graphic novel. She reminded us that the visual is now just as important as text for young people and that visual literacy is now part of the New Zealand curriculum. Students now understand visual text very quickly and can often be drawn into reading through graphic novels.
Sue's presentation
Sue Jackson gave a presentation on the Active Movement programme for under twos and its success at 12 Auckland City Libraries. This programme is delivered in partnership with Sport Auckland by library and Sport Auckland staff. Sue spoke about the need for such a programme in order to build early literacy skills in the very young and to educate parents on the importance of movement for their child’s development. She outlined the structure of a session, explaining some of the activities and their contribution to the development of literacy skills. Sue provided information on how other libraries could become involved in the programme through contact with their local Regional Sports Trust.
It was a very busy two days spent listening and networking with staff from public and school libraries. All of these people have a passion for working with young people and want to contribute to developing their literacy skills and encouraging a love of reading.
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