Author Archives: Pirkko

Public Libraries Play an Essential role in Literacy and Reading outcomes

IFLA has recently published the IFLA Toolkit for Library Engagement in Literacy and Reading Strategies to help library associations, institutions and individual library and information workers to advocate for libraries’ role in literacy and reading in relevant government strategy documents.  In Victoria, Australia a collaboration between State Library of Victoria and Public Libraries Victoria also developed a strategic framework Reading and Literacy for all 2015-2018 that drove a substantial body of work across all Victorian Public Libraries to improve capability and deliver of early years literacy and adult literacy services. This first framework was a major collaborative effort that was a culmination of wide and deep conversation across the library sector and involved other stakeholders who deliver literacy services and included the Department of Education and Training.  This ensured that there was a strong sense of ownership and commitment from all libraries across Victoria to the body of work that came from that original framework.

Initiatives and outcomes from this original framework included:

  • Development of quality indicators for early years literacy programs
  • Multiple assessments of each library service against the early years literacy programs indicators
  • Training and a toolkit for staff delivering early years literacy programs to help lift the standard and make it consistent across the state Let’s Read!
  • Professional development to encourage and support public libraries to be more active in delivering adult literacy initiatives
  • A best practice guide for adult literacy services which can be used as an advocacy document setting out the roles and achievements of public libraries in this area.
  • The Adult Literacy Innovation Program, providing grants to individual library services over three years to deliver innovative partnership programs in the adult literacy space. Examples include Moreland’s Word Play family literacy initiative and Yarra Plenty Regional Library’s pilot of the Volunteer-led literacy program for new migrants and refugees.

The strategic outcome from this body of work across the State of Victoria was the building of real evidence establishing libraries as essential for delivering literacy and language outcomes for adults, families and children.  The report on this major body of work can be found here.

However, Victorian libraries’ work in literacy is not at an end.  High levels of literacy are required for many of the complex jobs that are developing in this new digital economy as significant change in people’s work continues at a fast pace.

State Library of Victoria and Public Libraries Victoria have continued their collaboration and developed a new revised Reading and Literacy for all: A strategic framework for Victorian Public Libraries 2019- 2023 to inform the next four years of collaborative endeavour for Public Libraries across the state of Victoria.

These strategic documents are important advocacy tools to ensure that literacy, reading and libraries remain on the government agenda and Victorian Libraries in Australia are a great example of how to use this strategic work to amplify this message.

The IFLA Public Libraries Section is also highlighting reading in the satellite conference to be held in Oxford, United Kingdom on 12th and 13th August 2020.  Partnering with the IFLA Literacy and Reading Section, IFLA Metropolitan Libraries Section and IFLA Libraries for Children and Young People we will be presenting Reading Journeys, exploring personal reading choices for adults and children, the learning to read journey, the research into influences that make a difference to our reading journeys and the creative journey from the perspective of authors.  So reading and literacy remains a major focus for IFLA in the coming year.  Keep watching this space for more information in the coming months and start planning to attend!

Jane Cowell, Chief Executive Officer, Yarra Plenty Regional Library, Australia

 

 

 

Australian Libraries and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030

Australian Libraries are ready to talk about the next steps to be seen as an active force in the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 in Australia and the Asian-Pacific region.  Led by Vicki McDonald, Chair, ALIA International Relations Advisory Committee who is also who is also IFLA Professional Committee Chair and member of the IFLA Governing Board some 20 library leaders and other representatives from the Federal Government came together at Australian Library Information Association (ALIA) House in Canberra on 23rd September, 2019.  This roundtable came together to debate stretch targets for the library sector to define and measure our actions.

The draft targets fit with the 17 SDG goals and 169 SDG targets and are divided into three sections:

  1. Priorities for Australian library services
  2. Contribution to society
  3. Global citizenship

As with the global goals, the draft library targets that are currently out for consultation are ambitious, yet achievable. The targets developed are designed to be measurable, using qualitative and quantitative methods, and by assessing impact. Importantly they are not new and all build on the existing library agenda.

The draft library targets also define the library sector’s role for each of the SDG goals and targets identified for our sector’s action.  The roles are fourfold.

  1. Advocacy: Libraries of all types have a voice and this action plan defines how Australian Libraries, our Associations and industry partners can raise our voice and be heard. Key pieces of legislation, open access initiatives, and raising the profile of the debate in areas such as copyright and open access are key measures.
  2. Service Delivery: there are key aspects of the SDG targets where libraries can directly make a substantial impact with their actions, which can be amplified with further guaranteed funding. Areas such as digital inclusion, access to information, increased digital presence, and digital access to collections are just a few.  The measures identified for this type of role include case studies, existing quantitive measures and identifies where the sector needs to gather new data.
  3. Research and Advocacy: Our sector needs to make the case for the impact of libraries to deliver benefits in all aspects of society. A key area identified for this research is school libraries and teacher librarians.  Making a case for their important and essential inclusion in the educational experience of young Australians is a priority.
  4. Management: For those SDG targets and actions identified where libraries are in control and deliver, the core role is defined as management. Here libraries can lead the way.  Whether it be in environmental sustainable practices, green design for new library buildings, increased collaboration, or cultural diversity and gender equity these are areas where the sector can lead.  Measures include existing data, case studies and showcasing best practice.

Using the indicators and measures described within each target, the intent is to create a statement of the starting point in 2020-2021, an interim position in 2024-2025 and a final position in 2029-2030.

SDG 17 is ‘partnerships for the goals.’ Cross-sector collaboration and partnerships are threaded through this discussion paper and new alliances will be identified as part of the next steps. Our sector will want to work with all three levels of the Australian government, including Arts, Education, Health, Foreign Affairs and Trade; with LIS associations in the region and globally; with GLAM (gallery, library, archives and museum) colleagues; with library suppliers; with LIS researchers and with agencies such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australia Council for the Arts.

A discussion paper has been circulated to the library sector for comment until 3 January 2020.  All feedback will be analysed and an executive group of the ALIA International Relations Advisory Committee will produce confirmed stretch targets for the LIS sector with a report scheduled for publication by the end of March 2020.

Following this there will be an investigation into the current position in the LIS sector against the stretch targets, which is planned to be published in the third quarter of 2020 and will set the baseline for further measurement.   An action plan will also be developed and annual updates from 2021 onwards will be put in place.  It is expected that major reports will be published in 2025 and 2030 identifying where goals have been completed, where stretch targets are on track and where there is a need for increased focus. For more information and links to the reports and discussion paper see the ALIA website https://www.alia.org.au/advocacy-and-campaigns/think-global-act-local

So watch this space for more updates on how Australian Libraries are delivering on the SDGs.

 

Jane Cowell, Chief Executive Officer, Yarra Plenty Regional Library, Australia

 

Orienting young adults – The Cinema Classroom Project

Co-operation with Barcelona Province Public Libraries and the ESCAC Foundation (Film and Audiovisual School of Catalonia)

When young adults are on the second year of High School, in Spain, they find themselves in front of one of their life’s toughest decisions, such as choosing University studies. Some of them have a clear vocation that they have already developed throughout their lives. But some doesn’t. From the libraries of the province of Barcelona, Xarxa de Biblioteques Municipals  we offer them the chance to try some very special university studies: the possibility of dedicating their career to the cinema.

Students of Secondary School and 1st and 2nd of High School experience a live class of introduction to sound, assembly, or the crafts of cinema in general, based on the film Jaws. They can immerse themselves in film adaptations of literary classics that must be read during the course, such as Hamlet, Frankenstein and The Metamorphosis; they can learn how the film world has portrayed the painters, or how they have adapted successful books to turn them into scripts. And, finally, they can hear how former students of the school who have premiered their first feature films explain the way they have travelled to fill a movie theatre. All the lectures are free, open to the public, and free for users. The ESCAC takes charge of the fees of the professors and the rights of exhibition of the films that are projected.

Libraries can enhance their role in the educational community

For all the participating libraries in the project this is an opportunity to complement the activities they carry out around the cinema, reinforcing their role as link with the educational community, and opens a window to a young audience that often unknowns the possibilities that our facilities offer. For the ESCAC it is a powerful speaker to publicize their studies, at the same time an opportunity to attract talent that, otherwise, could not be considered the possibility of studying them. Who knows, perhaps one of the thousand five hundred pupils who went through the lectures of the Aula de Cinema of last year will be the next Juan Antonio Bayona.

The Aula de cinema  (Cinema Classroom Project) is a collaboration between the XBM libraries network of Diputació de Barcelona and the ESCAC Foundation (Film and Audiovisual School of Catalonia). Some libraries selected based on their work towards cinema are in contact with institutes in order to organize master class sessions by ESCAC Professors.

For the participating libraries it is an opportunity to reinforce their role as speakers behind the educational community and to inform young people about what facilities they can offer. More than one thousand five hundred students went attended the lectures of the classroom of Cinema last year.

Text and photos: Jaume Felipe Villa, Director Biblioteca Maria Àngels Torrents

Winning the Public Library of the Year Award is great promotion for your library

What impact does winning the Public Library of the Year Award have?

In 2018 our Public Library, School 7 in Den Helder, the Netherlands, was awarded Public Library of the Year 2018 during the IFLA congress in Kuala Lumpur. As a proud director, I received the Award. We were overwhelmed; we did not think we would win it. We had to compete against large libraries from Singapore, Brazil and the US. What would be the deciding factor for the jury? We had no idea. But we decided to turn it into an adventure and, regardless of the outcome, enjoy the moment when we could present ourselves to an international audience. Great to show School 7 to colleagues from all over the world. When the chairman of the jury delivered the outcome, we could hardly comprehend that School 7 had really won the Public Library Award 2018!

School 7 stayed in the spotlight, to this day visitors from home and abroad come to Den Helder because they have heard about the prize. The library agenda is still full of tours. We have since welcomed colleagues from South Korea, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Saba, Estonia and France. The guestbook is full of beautiful compliments and enthusiastic responses. From “ordinary” visitors, but also from the minister and from Prince Carnival, who came to celebrate School 7 with his entourage.

Photo: Janita Krimps

These visits also provided something for the city. People go for lunch or coffee. They might also spend the night in Den Helder. With this Award we have put the city on the map. The library as city marketing, how beautiful is that?

The Public Library of the Year Award is a prize that opens doors. For example, I was invited by King Willem Alexander and Queen Máxima to have lunch at Noordeinde Palace, along with a few other Dutch people who have delivered an exceptional performance. And I was also invited by the king and queen to the traditional New Year’s meeting in the palace in Amsterdam.

Suddenly magazines and other media include School 7 in their content. For example, we were part of a documentary series on national television, I was interviewed several times by foreign magazines and School 7 serves as a location for photo shoots and film recordings for other parties.

Winning such an important prize also ensures reinforcement in society. We notice that the inhabitants of the city and the politicians are proud of us. When the councilor suggested a few months ago to involve the library in the municipal spending cuts, this was rejected by the nearly full city council. “It is simply unthinkable for you to receive international guests and we will cut your budget!” Said the party leader of the largest political party.

At the construction site opposite School 7 the contractor has attached a long canvas to the scaffolding around the new building. It says: “Our library is the best in the world!” This reflects the pride of the population at the library. And that pride has been cashed in by the Award.

Text and photos Jacinta Krimp, director School 7 (translation by Sander van Kempen, member of SCPL)