SWITCH 2016 part 2
In November Chris Newett, Stephanie Bailey and myself were
lucky enough to attend the annual Switch Conference. It was a great opportunity
to focus on what’s happening in libraries and to be reminded of the importance
of public libraries in the community. I left the conference feeling inspired
and motivated and would highly recommend it to others. It was a hugely
enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Here are some highlights.
Men reading to
children, does it matter? Elizabeth
Duursma
Elizabeth Duursma has spent 15 years researching the
importance of reading to children and in particular the importance of men
reading to children.
In general wide and intense reading to children is the best
way for them to learn infrequently used words; it supports a creative and
effective environment and is a way to transmit cultural knowledge. When adults
read to children they use more complex language when discussing stories read,
creating an even bigger benefit to the child.
Readers are not born, but created and reading to children
from an early age is particularly beneficial to the under 5’s. The style of
reading impacts language and literacy development and this is where men and
women differ in their approach.
Paternal book reading has a stronger impact than maternal
book reading. When reading to children Elizabeth’s studies showed that men
talked with the children a great deal more, this was both in terms of immediate
talk (directly related to book and story) and non-immediate talk (talk not
related directly to book or story) Fathers engaged their children more than
their mothers, used a wider variety of words, focused more on book handling and
used more diverse strategies to engage their children. Where mothers are more likely to read the
book and focus solely on immediate talk, reducing the impact of the reading
session. Elizabeth felt this was because mothers had a clear social construct
for reading to their children, while men don’t have that construct so make
reading a broader experience.
Both men and women reading to children is important, it does
not have to be the father to have the benefits of male reading, but needs to be
an important man in the child’s life. Men reading to children creates a unique
and important contribution to a child’s development and it is hugely important
that children see men engaged in literacy activities. This is a significant
impact on literacy and cognitive development that should not be
overlooked.
Jennifer Byrne
Not surprisingly Jennifer Byrne was a passionate advocate
for public libraries. She introduced herself and said what a huge pleasure and
great honour for her to be there amongst the “servants of the book”. She
proudly held up not one, but two public library cards and told us how much she
loved and cherished her weekly visits to the public library, as well as her
great love for the returns trolley. She has been visiting the public library
since she was a small child and has a photo of her as a baby in the pram at her
public library. The library lifts her heart and although she visits the “grand
libraries” for her research, it is the public library she loves the best. She
likened the public library to being reunited with old friends and said it was
them that gave her the idea for her tv show “ The Book Club’’.
Jennifer’s focus on the “Book club” is the audience and this
came from her experience in commercial television. She wanted to make a connection with the
audience rather than focusing on authority and expertise. No-one expected it to
be a huge success but her aim at the beginning was longevity and she is proud
and has a great sense of satisfaction that the show has become part of the
landscape of television. It is approved to go to air next year which will be
its 11th year.
She has four rules for the Book Club
1.
Consistency of the panel.
2.
One surprise guest, no publishers allowed.
3.
Honour the principle of Book Clubs and focus on
fiction.
4.
Use all genres
Jennifer always picks the titles for Book Club, she finds
this may be a flaw in the program and that she sometimes has too much to say.
Jennifer felt that book stores are encroaching on libraries
space, setting up book clubs, holding author talks and story-times and reaching
out to the community. Although she loves book stores she love libraries better
and advised us to hold our ground.
She noted the dramatic changes that are happening with
e-books, Amazon and book shops and urged us to never doubt our value. Physical
books are the least important thing we hold, more importantly we hold the
communities hopes, dreams, expectations and education.
7 does go into 1. Mirla Edmundson- General Manager Auckland
Public Libraries
Mirla Edmunson is the General Manager of Auckland Libraries.
Auckland is super diverse, growing at 45000 people per year and has 21
different tribal groups that need to be considered when developing services.
Auckland Libraries merged from 7 different councils five
years ago, creating a library service with 55 branches that loan 44 000 books
per day and have 20 000 visits to their website per day.
Mirla found the first years of amalgamation soul destroying
and had to change her management style completely. She previously managed by
“wandering around”, was a big picture person and not interested in
processes. In the merged Library service
she manages 1100 staff and had to focus completely on processes for the merge
to be successful.
From day one of the merge they had a borrow anywhere, return
anywhere, reserve anything policy which although was hugely problematic, was a
huge win for them and seen very favourably with council. This was made easier
because most of the seven library systems were using the same LMS.
All seven library systems felt they had unique cultures and
it was hard work and took “intentional leadership” to engage and include all
staff to work towards one united service.
Their key focus points are
*Library, anywhere, anytime
*Every child a reader, every child a library member
*Engaging spaces at the heart of the community
*Programs and services that inspire
Aucklands unique stories celebrated
Mirla has found that as a library service they need to move
from being collection focused to community focused, creating sustainable,
customer driven collections. They have also worked very hard to strike the
right balance between digital v’s physical collections.
Now that the amalgamation has settled down Mirla noted that
amalgamation can make you inward looking and you can take your eye off key
indicators. She is now faced with reducing staff and delivering savings without
cutting or reducing services. With 67% of her budget going to staffing it is
the only place she can find savings.
With only a 2.5% rate increase it is extremely hard to
create new community libraries that are modern, relevant, accessible and
appealing. With this is mind they are looking at developing a new service model
that focuses on “radically local” where not all programs are offered throughout
library service but are targeted to areas that can benefit most.
The library service made a promise to Auckland to
*Nuture Maori
*Have more digital
*Enable new knowledge
*More expert and easier help
*Meet council face to face
*Have more Auckland stories everywhere
*Lift literacy where it matters
After the amalgamation process there was a realisation that
libraries can’t be all things to all people, there was a definite culture of
“if they are doing it we want to too” and they realised this is not practical
or beneficial across such a large library service. To be fit for the future
there needed to be a focus on right people, right place and right time. They
needed to focus on the customers in the local board areas.
Their change management process was undermined by the media
causing huge anxiety to staff. Mirla has learnt that with change leadership you
have to show empathy, which creates empathy in others, change your mindset and
choose how you respond to change and to have humility and humour.
You need to lose your ego and align with the customer in the
change process. “Co-design”is the new thing, we need to focus on what’s best
for the community and realize different areas need a different focus.
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