Library Board and corporate governance - State Library of Victoria

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Diversity and Access
The State Library of Victoria has a long tradition
of engaging the community, providing skills for
life and fostering social cohesion through the
provision of equitable access to information and
resources. The Library’s adoption of emerging
technologies has ensured that the principle
of equity has been transferred to the online
environment. In particular, targeted services and
lifelong learning programs for Victoria’s culturally
diverse groups, women, youth and Indigenous
communities provide a vital contribution to the
development of a cohesive and socially inclusive
society. The services and activities provided by
the Library support the government’s objectives
as outlined in Growing Victoria Together, A Fairer
Victoria 2008: Strong People, Strong Communities
policy statements and the mandatory reporting
requirements of the Multicultural Victoria Act 2004.
Services for Culturally and
Linguistically Diverse Groups
The Library provides both general and specifi c
services for culturally and linguistically diverse
(CALD) communities; these range from collecting
and providing access to non-English language
books, newspapers and other resources through
to building and hosting community websites,
printed information guides (in Chinese) and
exhibitions to celebrate Victoria’s multicultural
heritage. Additional services offered by the
Library during the past year include:
the fourth Open Road Conference – a unique
biennial conference and an important
forum to discuss and showcase innovative
information and communication technology
developments for CALD communities
the CALD Senior Surfers program, an
internet training program delivered by
Vicnet, which established internet hubs
in ten community locations and developed
multilingual training materials to assist
senior members from CALD communities
to participate in the online environment
ongoing improvements to the national
collaborative multilingual website,
MyLanguage
the Open Road project has produced
keyboard layouts and fonts for African
and South East Asian languages to
facilitate access to online information
for these communities
professional training materials for online
translations and development of a
technology unit for a Masters course in
interpreting and translation, in partnership
with Monash University, which has been
developed with funding from the Victorian
Multicultural Commission
the Genealogy Centre’s expansion of the
number of Australian and international
genealogy resources to refl ect Victoria’s
ethnic diversity and assist CALD
communities to undertake genealogical
research. The centre has recently compiled
a new information guide, Researching Your
Overseas Ancestors, and has begun to
actively look at journals of interest to
overseas ancestry research, such
as the Comunes of Italy
the Grollo Ruzzene Foundation Prize for
Writing about Italians in Australia, which
has successfully established a new
avenue to explore the experiences of
the Australian-Italian community. (In 2007
this Prize was awarded to Karen Sparnon
for her novel Madonna of the Eucalypts.)
Services for Women
The Library attracts a high number of female
users: market research indicates that the split
between male and female Library users
is relatively equal. Particular services such as
genealogy training, special events and exhibitions
also attract a high number of female users; while
around 30 per cent of the community websites
hosted by Vicnet target the specifi c needs
of women.
The Library is celebrating the contributions
of Victorian women to the community by supporting
the National Foundation for Australian Women,
Australian Women’s Archive Project Victorian
Committee, to develop an online biographical
register of women candidates in Victorian
Parliamentary elections, 1924–2008.
Services for Youth
The Library is widely used by Victoria’s youth:
market research indicates that around one-third
of all visitors to the building are full-time students,
and that just over 40 per cent of Library users
are under 25 years of age. School groups are
frequent visitors to the Library’s exhibitions,
while students from all levels are heavy users
of the Library’s online services, particularly the
email reference and AskNow interactive
reference services. In addition, the Library also
offers a family-friendly space, known as the
Play Pod, where families with young children can
read books, view children’s digital art or use
activity packs.
Specifi c services for youth programs are
described elsewhere in this report.
Services for the Indigenous Community
The Library collects extensively in all aspects
relating to the culture, history and biography of
Victoria’s Indigenous community. Materials are
collected in all formats – ranging from print, audio
and online through to pictorial works. There have
been several highlights for 2007–08:
As in previous years, a Creative Fellowship
was awarded for an Indigenous project –
this year Dr Jessie Mitchell received a sixmonth
fellowship for a project entitled In
Good Faith? Governing Indigenous Australia
through God, Charity and Empire 1825–55.
The Genealogy Centre has continued
to update the Indigenous Australian
Genealogical Research Bibliography and
has made this available as an online
and printed resource. On National Sorry
Day, 26 May 2008, the Genealogy Centre
provided 300 copies of the bibliography to
Stolen Generations Victoria for distribution
to their members.
The Library is a member of the National
and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA)
Indigenous Library Services and Collections
Working Group and has supported
the implementation of the National Policy
framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Library Services and Collections.
The Framework provides guidelines for
libraries to develop and deliver services
and collections for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islanders.
The Library has strengthened and
formalised its relationships with Victorian
Koorie communities through the appointment
of a dedicated Koorie Liaison Offi cer to
promote understanding of Indigenous
perspectives and appropriate cultural
protocols and improve access to collections
of relevance to Indigenous communities.
An investigation by the state and territory
libraries involved in the MyLanguage
website concluded that the work being
done on a similar site, Ourlanguages
(ourlanguages.net.au), which focuses on
Aboriginal languages, is work that will be
supported where appropriate.
Vicnet undertook the redevelopment of a
Pan-Australian keyboard layout to cater
for Indigenous languages that use
extended Latin characters.
The 2008 Open Road Conference featured
presentations and projects that drew
attention to issues affecting, supporting
and revitalising Aboriginal languages.
Services for People with Disabilities
The State Library of Victoria is committed to
making the items in its collection as well
as its services available to all who need them.
This includes people who have a temporary or
permanent disablility, their service providers and
carers. All staff can assist users with special
needs to access the collection; the Library also
provides information resources on disabilities
and referral to other agencies with information
resources and maintains a range of technologies
and equipment to assist those with a disability
to use the Library and its resources more easily.
Additional services provided over the last
year include:
an investigation to identify the needs of
people with disabilities, especially their
online information needs. The investigation,
called the More than Just Equipment report,
was funded by the Winthrop Estate
through the State Trustees
the Library’s convening of the ICT Disability
Working Group, comprising a network
of representatives from disability service
providers, community organisations, local
and state governments. The aim of the
working group is to increase access to the
internet for people with a disability
the Library’s collaboration with Victorian
public libraries to develop initiatives
to increase public libraries’ capacity to
provide accessible services for people
with a disability.