ETL 507 - Placement Report

PART A

I undertook my placement at Penrith City Library, which is run by Penrith Council.  Most of my time was spent in the main branch of the library, the centre at Penrith, so that is where I will focus the bulk of my report. 

The Role of the Library

It is a public library and serves a population of approximately186 937, spread over 404 square kilometres.  The Council states the following on their website regarding the library’s mission and vision:

Council's vision is for a sustainable and prosperous Regional City with a harmony of urban and rural qualities.

Our organisation's mission is to implement Council’s strategy and program, through skilled and responsive management, by valuing staff, partnerships and community involvement, by providing quality customer service and upholding ethical standards and behaviour (Penrith City Council Library intranet, no date).

Therefore, the library is aiming to provide quality library services to their community, responsive to the needs of that community.  Library membership is free to anyone who lives, works or goes to school in the Penrith district.  Out of area patrons can join the library for an annual fee.  Library members live as far away as Queensland.  I joined the library on my second day, I am out of area, but the services offered are too good to miss out on.

I don’t think the mission statement is specific enough for the library itself.  My interpretation of it, and trying to apply it to the library was a stretch.  It is difficult to evaluate if they are fulfilling their mission when it is stated in such general terms.

The Library Collections

The collection at Penrith consists of approximately 280 000 physical items.  There are a range of fiction and non fiction books and biographies for adults, teens and children.  These include the latest best sellers from Australia and overseas.   There is an extensive large-print collection available.  The collection also includes CD’s, DVD’s and audio books.  There is a large children’s collection, with picture books and board books, graded readers, chapter books, PRC titles and general fiction titles.   There is also a toy library, which has a focus on (but is not limited to) toys for children with disabilities.  There are also bilingual books, and books in other languages available.  Languages represented have been chosen using information provided in the latest Census data.

In addition to the physical collection, there is a growing number of online and electronic resources available.  These range from e-books and audio book titles, to newspaper articles, art works and music performances.  Library members can access these at any time from home and office.  There is a Home Tutor service which is available for members from years 4 to 12, also accessible from home, and students can seek assistance from Australian tutors via online messaging. 

Computers are available to access material from Births Deaths and Marriages and other genealogical research sites.

Penrith is a repository of local history materials, with a Local Studies Collection housed onsite. This collection is available for public use in the research room. There is a technical library housed at the same location, with support materials for Council staff.  There is also a photographic database of historical photos. 

All items are available through the library catalogue.

Access to the Library Collections

It is possible to search the library catalogue from any computer, for both members and non members.  Membership gives a user access to the Home Tutor Service, Britannica Smart maths, specialist websites for students of art and science, a number of databases, Overdrive for electronic books and Zinnio for electronic magazines.

In the library itself, specialist equipment is provided to assist all members to access material.  There are:

·      headphones

·      hearing mats

·      a smartview magnifier, to magnify letters, photos, forms and newspapers

·      magnifying sheet, for use with computer screens

·      the poet reader, which scans letters, newspapers, books or magazines and reads them aloud

·      PC screen reading programs

·      JAWS (Job Access With Speech) –a Microsoft screen reader software program for visually impaired patrons.  The user is provided with access to information displayed on the screen via text to speech

·      Magic Screen Magnification – this allows the visually impaired person to magnify their screen as required

·      Open Book – pages can be scanned and transferred to the computer to be read.  It will not scan images.  After scanning, OpenBook will read the document which appears on screen.  Each word is highlighted as it is read. 

Services

The library at Penrith provides a variety of services to members.  These include:

·      The toy library

·      Storytime and Babytime, for children not yet in formal school

·      Children’s programmes after school – these change from term to term, but have included a chess club, which is very popular, and a science club

·      School holiday activities – science workshops, embroidery workshops, creative writing courses

·      HSC lectures

·      World Environment day activities

·      Pyjama Storytime – this is a special evening event for children

·      Printing (black and white and colour), and scanning facilities.  There is a small cost associated with these, though scanning to a USB is free

·      Free wifi

·      Items can be reserved for a small fee

·      Interlibrary loans are available for a small fee, there are conditions on when an item will be requested from another library

·      Justice of the Peace services

·      Powermate meters are available for loan

·      Theatrette for hire (comes with toilets, kitchenette, whiteboard, projection screen, conference table)

·      Home library services –volunteers load electronic books onto ipads and deliver to members who are no longer able to get to the library.  Some of these people have since bought ipads of their own and are now able to access books through overdrive themselves. There are a number of home library patrons who still prefer physical books to electronic ones, and these are provided also.  There is currently space for about 100 more people than are currently utilising this service.

All age groups are catered for in some way.

PART B

The library in Penrith is primarily a resource for the people of the area, offering library services to their local community through the main library at Penrith, and the 3 branch libraries located in St Marys, St Clair and Emu Plains.  The library offers a wide array of services and an extensive collection of items.  Of great value, are the knowledgeable staff, who are available to assist with enquiries.

At the circulation desk, library members have enough enquiries to keep desk staff very busy.  During my time on the desk, I observed and assisted a number of these:

·      Located junior fiction for younger members.  The junior fiction has a number of different sections, and navigating those can be difficult

·      Located a  DVD series for a senior patron

·      Assistance was given in connecting devices to the wifi, sometimes this was as simple as handing over the passcode, other times, more help was needed (and given)

·      Items were reserved

·      Scanning the pages of a resume and job application letter and saving to USB

·      Assistance was given with the Births Deaths and Marriages database, helping one delighted woman to locate her elusive ancestor from the limited information she had

The library serves the whole community, even those who are no longer able to physically get to the library, through the home library service.

The toy library has a focus on toys that are particularly valuable for children with disabilities.  This is unique in the area.

Although the primary customers are the people of the Penrith council area, out of area patrons can (and do) join.  Out of state members often join for the extensive e-book collection on Overdrive.  New titles are purchased regularly.  Penrith was one of the first libraries in Sydney to use Overdrive to provide e-books and the service is very popular.

Part C
Shelf Tidy – carried out for 30 minutes each day as a group, a section of the library is targeted, and made orderly.  Some areas are more challenging than others.  For example, the children’s sections required many items to be moved from one place to another to ensure they were orderly, while in large print only one or two titles per bay needed to be reshelved.  Keeping the shelves tidy is important for improved access to the collection.  It is not enough to have an excellent catalogue system, the physical library must maintain order also.
Circulation desk – dealing with customer enquiries.  The majority of these queries were for assistance with the computers and printers.
Cataloguing at St Marys – we catalogued new stock (adult fiction), checking MARC records and amending as necessary.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this task, as I found ETL 505 quite challenging, however, holding an item in my hand, and thinking about ways to make sure it was accessible to the library’s users was quite different to deciphering my assignments. 
Searching for reserve titles on the shelves – there is a list printed of titles on reserve, and the shelves are searched regularly for those items.  During one of my searches, I noticed a book I had read on one of the shelves, I even picked it up (my personal copy had a different title, the library holds the American release).  Half way down the list, I discovered the title I had seen earlier. I couldn’t locate it again, wherever that book is, it is not shelved alphabetically.  This emphasised to me, how important good organisation is – if I had noticed that the book was in the wrong spot, I could have saved myself a lot of time, and had the book in the patrons hand much faster.
Choosing books from the overdrive catalogue – I read through the mystery section of overdrive titles, and selected some that appealed to me for purchase.  I also deleted books from a list of recommended titles, based on the Circulation librarians criteria (books that were not immediately available were deleted and books that had naked male torsos on the cover were also unacceptable).
Training of Library staff – staff at the branch libraries attended training at St Marys in cataloguing.
Attended a presentation on a library tour report that a staff member went to last year. 
Attended the presentation by SersiDynix staff who are putting in a tender for the library management system. 
Creating homepage for library website – recommended reads using custom software.  My theme for the first week was Books to Movies, and for the second week, it was Celebrate authors born in July.  I wrote a short blurb about the theme for each week, and included pictures of 6 book jackets and a summary of those books.  (See Appendix 1 and 2).
Cataloguing and Indexing items in the Local history collection – I spent a morning with the Local history team, watching their work.  While the work was interesting, I don’t think I am cut out for this particular type of library work – though possibly that was more about simply watching rather than doing – I discovered that watching someone doing something is hard work.
Storytime – a group of between 40 and 60 children meet in the library each week for singing, stories and craft.  I helped with this, and read one of the stories to the children.
Creation of advertising material – I spent an afternoon with the staff member involved in library promotion, this includes support of other organisations in the area such as the Lewers gallery.  We made a poster for the fiction section in the library.  I was surprised that images were sourced from the internet without regard to copyright.  I asked if Creative Commons images were sought, but was told that the nature of the internet is that everyone understands that if an image is on the web, it is available for use by anyone. 
Home Library Service – I spent a morning travelling with 2 volunteers, delivering books, and an hour with the Home Librarian who described her role to me.  The service provides books, physical, electronic and audio to elderly, or infirm patrons, in the Penrith Council area.  The vision impaired can borrow a device called a navigator, which can store up to 8 audio books.  Patrons are given training in using any new technology.

Part D
My experience in the public library has been quite different to how I have experienced most of the work I have done in the school library.  I have enjoyed the focus on providing library services, and using my skills as an information expert.  I think what placement has highlighted for me, is that the librarian aspect of the teacher librarian role is what I enjoy most.
I do not currently have a school library of my own, though I have done a considerable amount of work in one public school library.  In that library, the focus is not on library services, or even on teaching information literacy.  The librarian I fill in for is expected to teach stage three maths, kindergarten science, and stage two HSIE (library borrowing is squeezed in around these).  These lessons do not take place in the library, as the library is used by more than one class at a time, and teaching science or maths with 60 other students in the library who are borrowing is not optimal.  This is not the kind of school library situation I want to teach in.  Library is clearly not valued as something that can enhance teaching and learning.  Conversations with the stage two teachers has revealed that there is no collaboration between them and the librarian, a lost opportunity.
That said, I have worked in schools where the focus on the librarians role as a library and information professional is paramount, and that is the situation I would be seeking if I remain in schools.  The temptation of looking outside schools to other libraries is great at this stage.
When I do have my own school library, I would follow a similar system to that I observed in Penrith Library where the children’s section in the library is extensive.  Books are divided into different types, and clearly labelled, which helps when putting items in the right spot during shelf tidy.  Large clear labels in the same spot on each book helps the process, as it is very obvious when something doesn’t belong. For example, the beginning chapter books are together on a display shelf, and all have a large green F on the spine, about 3cm from the bottom.  When I was doing shelf tidy in that area, it was a simple matter to remove the books that didn’t belong.
I find at the end of my placement that my understanding of the wider community of information specialists is much greater, and I have seen many different aspects of the role of the public librarian that I was simply unaware of.  During the study tour, I was struck by the importance of meticulous, consistent cataloguing, partly because, as a casual, I haven’t had the opportunity to think about assigning subject headings and describing resources for optimal retrieval.  I enjoyed participating in the process of cataloguing over my time at Penrith library. 
I was surprised to note that Chess club is so wildly popular.  It isn’t a free event, but there is a waiting list of children who want to join.  Chess club is something you could easily run in the school library at lunchtimes.  The library staff work hard to get their community of users in to the library, by hosting various events for both adults and children.  They provide information services that people want, and give the support to use their resources.  The library is a quietly busy place, and utilised by people of all ages.