Community through youth: the experience of Auckland City libraries.

The resurgence in use of the Glen Innes Community Library City of Auckland, and its very high level of community participation, now sit at the heart of collaborative efforts to build a stronger sense of community. Through the Akozone homework centre and the focus on youth the library has emerged as a place for the extended family. Paper presented at Learning futures conference, Adelaide SA 9-10 March 2007.

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Glen Innes is an energetic, well "established Auckland community of many cultures. A main characteristic of the community is the high number of Pacific communities and youth, and its low socioeconomic status. 51% of the population is nonEuropean with 36% of Pacific origin. This compares to 13% for the rest of Auckland. 27% of the population is under 14 years of age, compared with 19% for the rest of Auckland. Only 29% of households have access to the internet compared to 47% for the rest of Auckland. The Pacific community first settled in Glen Innes over 30 years ago and employment opportunities were largely in local factories. Central government provides a significant proportion of the housing in Glen Innes--home ownership is not high. Schools in New Zealand are given a decile rating between 1 and 10. This determines the level of funding assistance each school receives, as the decile rating is indicative of income levels of the households in the schools catchment. All schools within Glen Innes are decile 1, the lowest rating.

The library is well located next to the main shopping centre and close to the community centre and the local Marae (Maori meeting house ed). Despite this, in the early 1990s use began to decline. Year after year the figures slipped at a consistent rate. The children in the area were not using the library, despite numerous attempts through the schools to engage them. For many families libraries were not part of their culture. Added to this, even local and central government agencies working within Glen Innes failed to acknowledge the library and its place in the community. Ironically, the library was asked to host a display detailing aspects of the town centre upgrade. This identified KFC and McDonalds as landmarks, but the library itself was merely an unidentified black square.

We were starting to ask ourselves very serious questions about the future of the library, and what it would take to make a difference.

Akozone

In 2000 the New Zealand Ministry of Education invited communities with low decile schools to submit proposals to establish homework centres to support education outside the classroom.

Auckland City Libraries successfully submitted an application to set up homework centres at two libraries. We branded the initiative Akozone.

This was a first on many levels. The partnership agreement included funding to support the set up costs with an ongoing contribution towards the operational information technology costs.

The primary objective was

   To help students at risk of educational
   underachievement to develop study habits by
   providing additional resources to help them learn
   and achieve.

The target audience was children in year 5-8, generally aged between 8-12 years.

Akozone challenged many of our business norms, and the library team and management embarked on a host of changes. A new role of Akozone facilitator was established within the Glen Innes team, an essential element being teaching experience. The library layout was changed to incorporate six additional pcs and a scanner, adjacent to a nest of study tables. For the first time users had access to the internet, scanner, colour copier, media platforms and the full complement of Microsoft applications. Successful interaction with the children was key to the success of the program, all staff attended child behaviour training workshops, and the provision of afternoon tea became a commonplace event. The library also provided a much requested public toilet.

The foundation of Akozone was the partnership between the library and the local schools. The teaching staff supported the program and very quickly established regular communication with the Akozone facilitator. They encouraged the children to visit the library and join Akozone. By the end of the first term the once quiet 3.00-5.30pm time slot became a hive of activity, with 50-80 children regularly attending Akozone. The library was a destination for fun, refreshments and learning.

Akozone's success brought with it a number of issues--noise, behaviour management and additional workload, including refreshments for up to 80 children a day. Change was inevitable and the team showed a real commitment to the program and found solutions to these issues as they arose.

Encouraged by the success of Akozone the library team broadened its ideas and began to develop new youth based events. The first of these was Winter Pasifika, a cultural event celebrating the Pacific cultures, with music, songs, dance, poetry reading, storytelling and food. Through Akozone, the staff made connections with the families and invited them to participate in the celebration. In the first year many of the events were held after the library closed. This increased the number of attendees, allowing families to attend after work, and it meant staff were not engaged in usual library activities during the sessions. In the first year the head boy of the local college expressed thanks to the library on behalf of the performers and their families for hosting the event, and allowing them to perform at 'our' library. In response, library manager Allison Dobbie rightly told the group that the library was not 'ours' at all. It was, in fact, their library!

The annual Winter Pasifika program grew year by year and other community libraries adopted the initiative working in collaboration with their local community. The significance of Winter Pasifika was making the connection with the parents, and actually bringing them into the library. Until now the greatest visibility we had was seeing a parent hovering at the library entrance or sitting in the car park waiting for their child.

In the following 2-3 years Akozone evolved further with continued support from the schools, and children were returning at the commencement of each team and new school year. The crunch came when our first Akozone children moved outside the target age group of 8-12 years, and arrived at the library after school independent of the program. Numbers of children and teens in the library after school continued to grow. At this point youth could be described as the primary users of the Glen Innes Library, and we began to explore the concept of rebranding Glen Innes as a youth library. There was a successful model further south at Manukau Libraries called Tupu. This was a new purpose built library with services and programs targeted primarily at youth.

The difference at Glen Innes was we had a base adult user group to consider in the mix. Although the library team had deliberately focused on youth programs and events it was continuing to support other mainstream programs, including book group and computer classes.

Through the youth initiatives we had achieved wider community awareness of the library and its services and, more importantly, the library became a hub within the community and attracted interest from a host of new groups and agencies. The community librarian and the dedicated team took every opportunity to connect with a wide range of community groups, resulting in numerous requests for the library to be used as a venue. Examples of these include

Books for babes 

Books for babes started as a trial project involving the Rotary Club of Auckland, Plunket (child care facility ed) and the Auckland District Health Board in 1998. Auckland City Libraries became involved in 2001, initially in Glen Innes. It is both a health and literacy initiative to support disadvantaged families, aiming to give children who may not have the opportunity, access to books and stimulate parent/child relationships by promoting the value of reading to children.

The target is children in the 0-2 year age group in deprived families in the Auckland City area. Books are purchased by the trust, which Plunket nurses, Auckland District Health Board visiting therapists and public health nurses deliver to at risk families and show parents how to read to their children. The program begins soon after birth, with books given to the family over a 12 month period. At this stage, their contact person introduces the family to their local library. This is usually at a casual morning or afternoon tea. Library membership is completed and this forms the start of the relationship between the library and family.

Growing families

Growing families was designed as an eight week parenting course aimed to resource and support parents within their community and to encourage holistic growth of parents and their children. It was a community collaboration involving the Auckland City Council, The Salvation Army, Glen Innes Library, Plunket, Ngati Whatua Community Health Service and Sport Auckland. The pilot course was held in 2005 at the library and, following evaluation, has continued to run quarterly throughout the year. The Salvation Army is the lead agency responsible for the organisation and delivery of the program. Parents are referred through Plunket, and Ngati Whatua, which represents the interests of local Maori. Delivery of each weekly program is shared by The Salvation Army which facilitates one hour of teaching/learning and Sport Auckland which provides 30 minutes of active movement for children and parents. At the conclusion of each course the participants are invited to attend monthly development sessions, which are also held at the library.

The library proved an excellent venue for the session, a parent in the pilot course observing that 'the staff are very accommodating, it is warm, friendly and inviting, and easily accessible'.

Initially the wider community engagement came from groups centred on the needs of children. However it was not long before interest was shown by other agencies.

Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ)

Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) is responsible for the administration of pensions and superannuation in New Zealand. A few years ago WINZ rationalised its offices and distribution of case managers who provide advice on these services. The result of this was that the senior citizens of Glen Innes who required advice on these services no longer had anyone they could talk to face to face. Discussions followed between the library and the local WINZ office to find a resolution to this problem. A suggestion was to have a weekly clinic or drop in session at the library due to its physical location and accessibility to the elderly and disabled.

This service is now an important part of many of our older users' monthly schedules. They come to the library not only as a place to borrow books but where they can receive information on their benefits and entitlements. Auckland City Council has further been able to help older people by making rates rebates forms and confirmation available through the library.

Employment initiative

In March of 2006 the Glen Innes Library was approached by Frank Gerry, of Skillnet. Frank runs a local labour broking business, finding skilled and unskilled labour for the local factories and businesses. He was looking for somewhere accessible and welcoming to have interviews with potential employees. Frank was aware of the other community initiatives the library was now involved in and believed that the library was the perfect place. The library was providing free access to computers for cv preparation, online job searching, and computer skill programs. It embraced the idea and since then the service has continued to grow and become part of providing employment opportunities for people in Glen Innes. The library has continued to support the initiative by expanding its collection of material in this area and is organising cv information and 'how to' courses in 2007.

The team: awards and recognition

Since 2001 the core Glen Innes library team of six people has inducted three Akozone facilitators and been led by three different community librarians. A common factor for most staff is that they have tended to live locally. Three of them have lived and worked in Glen Innes for over 30 years. They have experienced the change in the community and supported the library response to that change. Perhaps this lies beneath the passion and commitment of individuals and the team.

It is always pleasing to receive recognition for a job well done. Over the years the Glen Innes team has been nominated for awards and received acknowledgment for its initiatives. These include

* Telecom community hero award

* Community spirit award

* Auckland City Council service characteristic awards

* recognition in numerous local publications

* guest speakers at local community groups

* award presentations at local schools.

Six years on, Akozone is a library core service. Numbers attending have settled and staff are confident in their roles with the students. Akozone has put the library at the heart of the community, making a difference in a way previous outreach initiatives had not. What started with primarily a youth focus, has embraced the entire community. The libraries' annual key performance indicators have improved with visitor and enquiry numbers increasing each year, although the issue statistics have not followed this trend. The realisation at Glen Innes is that the library balances the roles of community anchor, learning centre, information gateway and book library--and that it will continue to have a significant role in building a stronger community.

Corrina Meikle Community Libraries Manager Auckland City Libraries New Zealand

Corrina Meikle has worked for Auckland City Libraries for 25 years in a range of roles including children's librarian, as community librarian at three branch libraries, and secondment to a project management role prior to her current position. Corrina is one of two community library managers at Auckland City Libraries with leadership and management responsibility for eight community libraries. Each library is unique and services and teams reflect the diversity of the libraries and their communities. Email [e-mail]

Population (2001 census)

Auckland                367,737
Glen Innes              16,128

Ethnicity-Non European (2001 census)

New Zealand             19.9%
Glen Innes              51%

Ethnicity-Pacific Island (2001 census)

Auckland                13.7%
Glen Innes              36.3%

Ethnicity-Pacific Island (2001 census)

Auckland                13.7%
Glen Innes              36.3%

Age 0-14 years (2001 census)

Auckland                19.7%
Glen Innes              27.5%

Internet access (2001 census)

Auckland                47.2%
Glen Innes              29.5%