east gippsland shire - vvl: victoria's virtual library
TRANSCRIPT
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East Gippsland Shire
� Size – 21,800 sq kms approx 75% Crown Land
� Geographic profile - Mountainous
� Population – 39,804
� Demographic profile –affluent pockets
on the coast – severe social
disadvantage
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Executive Teams –
simply opportunistic or
impressively
visionary?
The Portfolio!
� Libraries – 4 static, 1 mobile
� Citizen Service – frontline
customer contacts
� Community Services
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The Indian philosopher and
the fish market
A Fish market..
� A meeting place
� A place to do business
� A place to exchange ideas
� A place to find out about things
� A community place
PerceptionPerceptionPerceptionPerception
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Library/Business Centres
� Lakes Entrance
� Orbost
� Paynesville
� Omeo
� Mallacoota
Community services:
� Home and Community Care contracted out
� Maternal and Child Health contracted out
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Some slightly different
building blocks….
The foundations…
� The Indian Philosopher’s perception
� The Library/Business Centres
� Position of advocacy and leadership in
Community Development or
Community Building
� Mindset
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Synergies:� Story time
� Youth program
� ABS,
� Lifelong learning
� Information navigation
� Access for all
abilities
� Volunteers
� Early Years Project
� Youth development
� Community profiles
� Capacity Building
� Community Information
� Access for all
abilities
� Volunteering
Asset based approach within Unit
� Strengths
� Linkages
� Opportunities for leverage
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Gaps:
� Skill level
� Understanding
� Capacity or time to do
� Technological insufficiency
Strategies:
� Re-structure to Re-position
� Un-encumber to create more time
for…
� Up- skilling and…
� Re-focusing
� Explore technological opportunities
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New structure
Community Building and Citizen Service
Community Library Co-ordinator
Community Library Collections Co-ordinator
Community Contact Co-ordinator
Community Information Co-ordinator
Community Engagement Co-ordinator
Branches
Operations
Manages collection and contract
Frontline
community contacts
Traditional library reference
On-line DB’s
Community profiles
Community
knowledge bank
Establishes links across council
Policy
Projects
Un-encumber
� Selection
� Purchasing
� Cataloguing
� Processing
Backlog…
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Up –skill and re-focus
� Electronic information retrieval
training in-house
� Community training for non-users
� Participate in our partners activities
seeking new roles in our
community
Technological opportunity
� Unconnected Remote communities
� Service challenges – geography
� Clarify our thinking on what we need to
do
� Better position ourselves
� To seek funding
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Joint ventures….� Young legends. Aboriginal Best Start
Program. Early Years forum and Early
Years Reference Group, Project “wot
tha”
� Gulliver database training for
community groups
� Board maker software training
Joint ventures…
� Buchan Bus n’ freight
� Positive Aging Strategy
� Our approach to Citizen Service is that we are a user friendly inter-face between the rather formal Local Government and the community
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Partnerships across Council
� Infrastructure
� Health Unit
� Economic Development
� Events
Partnership across agencies
� Kilmany Uniting Care
� The Gippsland East Local Learning and
Employment Network
� TAFE
� Gippsland Lakes Community Health
The Neighbourhood Houses to offer some great opportunities for partnering
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Measured approach
� The management of our Local Studies Collection
� The capacity to apply skilled search
techniques for information retrieval
� The capacity to interpret demographic
and economic data
� Cash handling expertise
Future Bairnsdale Library
� Gateway to information in East Gippsland
� Designed to cater for more needs in more ways
� Operate in a virtual space supporting remote community access
� Be a facility that community members use throughout their lives
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Critical Points
� Whilst preserving library capital we must be in a position to partner with others for improved service delivery
� Be prepared to vigorously exploit any opportunity for leverage
� Be prepared to Un encumber
To return to the Executive Team and the Indian philosopher!
They were prepared to accept a vision and see libraries as a
strategic opportunity. They didn’t
know the Indian Philosopher but they glimpsed the fish market !