Showing posts with label seminars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seminars. Show all posts
Stepping ashore: Researching passenger arrivals
Sutherland Shire Libraries
This is the subject matter of a Society of Genealogy (SAG) seminar I attended on Saturday. It was delivered by Christine Yeats who is a wealth of information, which she imparted so rapidly I'm sure I barely got half of it! Thank goodness she gave a great handout as well, which I have also added to Compass under About Us>Unit Portals>Library>Staff Training>Family History Help.
What she has given here are tips about where to go and what to do when you've hits walls.
What she has given here are tips about where to go and what to do when you've hits walls.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
genealogy
,
immigration
,
seminars
Engaging with Young People Workshop
Sutherland Shire Libraries
Hello Everyone,
I recently attended a workshop at the State Library about engaging with young people, for those of you interested in hearing about the workshop please read on for some of the highlights.
This was the first time that the workshop has been held, with those of us who attended being the ‘guinea pigs’. The workshop was described as ‘a one day training program to improve the services offered to young people by NSW public libraries’ and was presented by an experienced youth worker. I found the workshop really interesting and thought provoking. The following covers some of the topics that were looked at and discussed during the workshop.
Conflict Situations and Challenging Behaviour
The importance of having an understanding of the factors that may influence the behaviour of young people was emphasised, as understanding some of the possible reasons or motivations may assist you in approaching or dealing with a conflict situation. For example, it was mentioned that ‘peer pressure’ is a common influence on youth behaviour and that if you were faced with a situation that appeared to be fuelled by ‘peer pressure’ then certain approaches would not aid the situation but could potentially make it worse.
Some Strategies that were mentioned in concern with managing challenging behaviours and conflict include –
▪Set limits and define boundaries eg. signs
▪Only state consequences you are able or prepared to follow through
▪Consistency in behaviour management between staff
▪Work with strengths and interests to promote and reinforce desired behaviour
It was interesting to hear some of the conflict situations faced by other libraries in concern with young adults – I came away thinking that the youth that visit our libraries are really well behaved in comparison.
Communication Skills
It was suggested that building a rapport and communicating with young adults can be beneficial for various reasons including the possibilities it opens in being able to prevent problems.
Active listening was suggested, with it being mentioned that it can be used to gain information and to give affirmation.
It was mentioned that young adults don’t like being told things and so it was suggested that we use active leads and phrases. For example –
▪Could it be that…
▪I am not sure if I am with you, but…
▪Correct me if I am wrong…
Other Points
Adolescence is a time of great change and high emotions and so understanding and compassion is often required.
Libraries are seen by many young adults as a ‘safe’ place – a place they can be safe and comfortable. It is also a place where young adults are able to exert a bit of independence, as it is a place that parents allow them to go by themselves or with friends.
Some young adults are happy to come to the library to hang out with friends, to study and to use resources offered, they like the fact that they can have some ‘unstructured’ time to themselves. As such not all young adults are interested in anything more than this. For those that are interested in more, especially in regards to programs etc. it was suggested that we ask the young adults themselves in order to get ideas about what they want. The presenter suggested talking to local SRC groups or youth councils in order to get ideas and feedback.
It was also suggested that it could be a good idea to utilise various skills held by young adults, for eg. getting young adults to assist the elderly with new technology.
During the workshop they discussed and promoted the self paced learning kit on the Young Action and Policy Association NSW (YAPA) website, so for anyone who is interested the website is as follows http://www.yapa.org.au/youth/facts/librarykit.pdf
Finally a slightly random point that I thought may be of interest – I was chatting with some people at my table who were from Ku-ring-gai library and they said that they have been overrun by tutors and so have started charging them $5 for using the library to tutor.
Hope this gives you a bit of an insight into what the workshop was all about.
Thanks for reading,
Melissa.
I recently attended a workshop at the State Library about engaging with young people, for those of you interested in hearing about the workshop please read on for some of the highlights.
This was the first time that the workshop has been held, with those of us who attended being the ‘guinea pigs’. The workshop was described as ‘a one day training program to improve the services offered to young people by NSW public libraries’ and was presented by an experienced youth worker. I found the workshop really interesting and thought provoking. The following covers some of the topics that were looked at and discussed during the workshop.
Conflict Situations and Challenging Behaviour
The importance of having an understanding of the factors that may influence the behaviour of young people was emphasised, as understanding some of the possible reasons or motivations may assist you in approaching or dealing with a conflict situation. For example, it was mentioned that ‘peer pressure’ is a common influence on youth behaviour and that if you were faced with a situation that appeared to be fuelled by ‘peer pressure’ then certain approaches would not aid the situation but could potentially make it worse.
Some Strategies that were mentioned in concern with managing challenging behaviours and conflict include –
▪Set limits and define boundaries eg. signs
▪Only state consequences you are able or prepared to follow through
▪Consistency in behaviour management between staff
▪Work with strengths and interests to promote and reinforce desired behaviour
It was interesting to hear some of the conflict situations faced by other libraries in concern with young adults – I came away thinking that the youth that visit our libraries are really well behaved in comparison.
Communication Skills
It was suggested that building a rapport and communicating with young adults can be beneficial for various reasons including the possibilities it opens in being able to prevent problems.
Active listening was suggested, with it being mentioned that it can be used to gain information and to give affirmation.
It was mentioned that young adults don’t like being told things and so it was suggested that we use active leads and phrases. For example –
▪Could it be that…
▪I am not sure if I am with you, but…
▪Correct me if I am wrong…
Other Points
Adolescence is a time of great change and high emotions and so understanding and compassion is often required.
Libraries are seen by many young adults as a ‘safe’ place – a place they can be safe and comfortable. It is also a place where young adults are able to exert a bit of independence, as it is a place that parents allow them to go by themselves or with friends.
Some young adults are happy to come to the library to hang out with friends, to study and to use resources offered, they like the fact that they can have some ‘unstructured’ time to themselves. As such not all young adults are interested in anything more than this. For those that are interested in more, especially in regards to programs etc. it was suggested that we ask the young adults themselves in order to get ideas about what they want. The presenter suggested talking to local SRC groups or youth councils in order to get ideas and feedback.
It was also suggested that it could be a good idea to utilise various skills held by young adults, for eg. getting young adults to assist the elderly with new technology.
During the workshop they discussed and promoted the self paced learning kit on the Young Action and Policy Association NSW (YAPA) website, so for anyone who is interested the website is as follows http://www.yapa.org.au/youth/facts/librarykit.pdf
Finally a slightly random point that I thought may be of interest – I was chatting with some people at my table who were from Ku-ring-gai library and they said that they have been overrun by tutors and so have started charging them $5 for using the library to tutor.
Hope this gives you a bit of an insight into what the workshop was all about.
Thanks for reading,
Melissa.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
seminars
,
training
,
young adults
Reference @ the Metcalfe
Jacinta
I know I talked about this before, but I'm sure I gave a totally confused view of some of the presentations.... here is the link to the RISG wiki.
It has very conveniently put all the presentations up and so you can get it from the horses mouth this time!
Refresh yourself with anything that 1/2 piqued your interest, and I'm sure you will get a lot more out of it.
It has very conveniently put all the presentations up and so you can get it from the horses mouth this time!
Refresh yourself with anything that 1/2 piqued your interest, and I'm sure you will get a lot more out of it.
Ref Rap: Drug info @ your library forum - Kris
Sutherland Shire Libraries
On a bright sunny day towards the end of February, I ventured forth to the big smoke and attended the annual drug info @ your library forum which was held at the State Library’s McDonald’s Room. My pace automatically quickened as I headed along Macquarie Street with the anticipation of receiving free samples of my personal drug of choice – French Fries. Alas, I was disappointed to find that the McDonald’s Room had not been named after the much loved (yet creepy) clown, but instead some other fellow of note who had yet to discover the natural affinity which exists between freshly peeled potatoes and hot oil. Once recovered, I immersed myself into what was to be an interesting, informative and well-structured day.
The drug info @ your library forum attracts library workers from diverse locations around the state and is as much a day of providing us with information as a fact-finding mission for those responsible for the collection (State Library’s Kate O’Grady). What I personally enjoy most about the forum is that it’s a highly interactive event – each library’s opinion on the various issues regarding the collection is taken into account and if possible integrated keeping the ‘drug info’ collection fresh, practical and of value to the community. We discuss issues such as our target audience and why some resources are more appealing to the public than others, which items should be culled from the collection and whether certain titles are best housed in Reference collections vs lending. There are many opinions to be heard in this major brainstorming session, but it’s great that NSL’s approach very much a hands-on.
Our guest speakers for the day included representatives from the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC), NSW Health, and the very inspiring Carolyn Stafford whose consultancy work involves the marketing and promotion small businesses. Carolyn feels that a specialised collection such as drug info @ your library can almost be treated as a small business in regards to its promotion. We covered the concepts of branding, building alliances in the community, hosting memorable events and maximising in-library promotion by training staff about the collection.
Another highlight of the day was the news that the State Library has entered into a partnership with the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) to write a comprehensive plain language resource on a whole range of illicit drugs and alchohol. One of the great features of the book is that it covers polydrug use (eg the effects of mixing alcohol and cannabis). The book is currently in draft stage but is planned to be ready for Drug Action Week.
If I had to list the main ideas that I took home with me at the end of this interesting day, ones I’m still playing with, would be the following:
The drug info @ your library forum attracts library workers from diverse locations around the state and is as much a day of providing us with information as a fact-finding mission for those responsible for the collection (State Library’s Kate O’Grady). What I personally enjoy most about the forum is that it’s a highly interactive event – each library’s opinion on the various issues regarding the collection is taken into account and if possible integrated keeping the ‘drug info’ collection fresh, practical and of value to the community. We discuss issues such as our target audience and why some resources are more appealing to the public than others, which items should be culled from the collection and whether certain titles are best housed in Reference collections vs lending. There are many opinions to be heard in this major brainstorming session, but it’s great that NSL’s approach very much a hands-on.
Our guest speakers for the day included representatives from the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC), NSW Health, and the very inspiring Carolyn Stafford whose consultancy work involves the marketing and promotion small businesses. Carolyn feels that a specialised collection such as drug info @ your library can almost be treated as a small business in regards to its promotion. We covered the concepts of branding, building alliances in the community, hosting memorable events and maximising in-library promotion by training staff about the collection.
Another highlight of the day was the news that the State Library has entered into a partnership with the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) to write a comprehensive plain language resource on a whole range of illicit drugs and alchohol. One of the great features of the book is that it covers polydrug use (eg the effects of mixing alcohol and cannabis). The book is currently in draft stage but is planned to be ready for Drug Action Week.
If I had to list the main ideas that I took home with me at the end of this interesting day, ones I’m still playing with, would be the following:
- Displaying the drug info @ your library collection more prominently in the library.
Stop press! Sutherland Library now has a column on the ground floor (between the Information Desk and legal info column) dedicated to free drug info handouts. Slat wall panelling has been secured around the column and various freebies are on offer to our customers who can conveniently (and discreetly) grab pamphlets without having to ask staff. - Promoting the collection
a. I’m planning to write a blog post (with accompanying photo) about the merits of the collection including a plug for all the great free material available.
b. Drug Action Week in June will feature some type of display including Ref items from the drug info collection.
c. Contacting local community health centres to check whether they are interested in having free pamphlets available for their clients. Perhaps even checking with the medical centre across from Sutherland Library in Stapleton Ave. - Stocking free pamphlets alongside the relevant community language eg the Family Matters free pamphlet is also printed in Arabic and Chinese (though not Greek). Any branches interested in also stocking some of these freebies in our community languages, please let me know and I’ll order extra.
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