Working with schools, parents and other community groups.

How can libraries maximise their budgets and community impact? The answer is partnerships with schools, parents and other community groups. Programs that give inspiration as well as focus on the vexed question of funding are described. Paper presented at Learning futures conference, Adelaide SA 9-10 March 2007.

Over the last decade there has been considerable discussion about the relevance of the public library to the community. It has been argued that with the growing use of the internet, libraries would become obsolete as people accessed the information they required online from home. Google has moved from being a proper noun to a verb, as more people google information. Yet through all of this public libraries have not just survived but, in many cases, they have thrived. One of the reasons is that many public libraries have taken a good look at their local communities through surveys, focus groups and partnerships. They have looked past the way they have always operated and have targeted needs more specifically. This has opened the way for the development of services and programs which were previously not considered core public library business.

Fairfield City Library Service is based in the vibrant, multicultural south west of Sydney, Australia. The City of Fairfield is a highly diverse area where a large proportion of the population experience social, educational and economic disadvantage. Only 28.9% of the population speak English at home as their first language. Major community languages are Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic. The unemployment rate is 9.9%, almost double the national rate of 5.1%. 66% of the population do not use computers and 71.7% do not use the internet. (1)

The library service has been undertaking studies of its community for some years. These studies include Aged services survey for Fairfield City Library Service, (2) It's all about men: blokes @ your library, (3) Learning outcomes of English conversation classes." a case study (4) and various other user and nonuser surveys. Another priority for the service is having staff involved with interagency groups to better understand the needs and aspirations of the local community. One such group is the Fairfield Communities 4 Children Initiative (5) which has produced extremely useful research reinforcing the need for literacy based programs in the area.

Moving beyond core services 

As a response to the needs of the community a major focus for the library service is supporting literacy and language development through a broad range of programs. These include Babytime (story, song and bounce sessions for 0-2s and their carers), Cool Babies (training for parents/carers about reading to babies), preschool storytime, homework centres, online tutoring, family literacy classes, higher school certificate lectures (for students in their final year of high school) and informal training for parents through schools, playgroups and other community groups, often using interpreters. Many of these programs and services sit outside the framework once considered core business for libraries.

Public libraries are well placed to support children and families to develop literacy and language skills. This is particularly true in communities where a large proportion of the population does not speak English at home. Parents are naturally concerned that their children are starting school at a disadvantage if they are unable to speak any English. These same families often do not access preschools or playgroups due to financial considerations and language barriers. Public libraries champion the rights of all members of the community to equitable access to information and therefore usually offer resources, including electronic, in community languages. The public library may well be the one place where otherwise isolated people can find information in their own language.

However, whenever we consider broadening the reach of the library service, we must also consider funding. In most cases public libraries are expected to do more with less--the demands on resources keep increasing but budgets usually do not. Fairfield Library Service has attempted to meet the challenge of providing quality services freely to the community in several ways. Working with the community can happen in many different ways. Sometimes, the library service is specifically funded by another government or nongovernment body to provide a service. At other times a more formal partnership is developed.

Funded programs

Homework centres

The Fairfield Library Service has been running homework centres for the past four years. These centres currently operate two evenings a week in three branch libraries. The library employs qualified teachers who help children in years 3-8 with homework, revision and assignment preparation. Children are signed in and out of the homework centre by their parents, but do not need to book a place. Some children come regularly and often parents spend time learning along with their children. The original funding for this program was given by the NSW government through the NSW Library Council and included the teacher's salary, two internet enabled pcs and other furniture and resources. The original homework centre proved so popular and useful that Fairfield Council continued the funding and has more recently opened a further two centres in other branches. The homework centres have now become part of the library's operating budget. The staffing for this program relies on a business agreement with a local tutoring company. Instead of the library needing to recruit more staff each time we expand the service, we rely on Edtec Tutoring to recruit suitable staff. The library then needs to train those staff in occupational health and safety issues, child protection and catalogue and online tutoring systems. This service, and other literacy programs the library runs, have been promoted to local schools through visits to staff inservice days as well as directly to students through assemblies, school newsletters etc.

Family literacy programs

Over the past five years the library has also run family literacy classes. These are for children from year 2 to year 6 who are struggling with reading and writing. Parents book their children in for a term at a time. Specialist teachers work with the children once a week to help build their confidence and develop their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. This program was originally funded by local registered clubs through the NSW community development support and expenditure (CDSE) scheme which makes income from gaming available for community programs. Again, the program proved to be extremely successful and council now funds it as an ongoing library program.

Online tutoring

Student need for extra specialised subject help after school hours was one of the areas of concern for the community. In a community where many parents do not speak English, it can be very hard for children to get the extra help they need. In early 2003 Fairfield Library Service launched the first online tutoring service in the southern hemisphere www.yourtutor.com.au which has now been taken up by over 50 library services in several hundred locations and by remote access across Australia. This service allows students from year 4 to year 12 to access a specialist tutor for maths, English, science or research homework through an online classroom. The online classroom allows students to text chat with the tutor, share files and to draw, produce diagrams and equations on the online whiteboard. All text and whiteboard pages can be printed for future reference. Currently, between 200 and 300 students are using this service per month in Fairfield alone. Once again, funding for this project originally came from a local registered club through the CDSE scheme and has now become part of the library's operating budget. This service is now also available remotely through the Fairfield Library Service website www.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au\library. Students simply access the service using their library membership barcode.

Community partnerships

Cool Babies

The other way that the library has been able to successfully deliver programs to the community is to partner with other community groups. One such program is Cool Babies. Many parents do not realise the importance of the early years on their child's emergent literacy skills. Cool Babies is a free six week program designed to educate parents about the importance of talking, listening, reading and playing with their babies from birth. It covers a range of learning styles by incorporating practical activities and theoretical knowledge. Parents are taught about the benefits of a book rich environment and are encouraged to create their own child focused books. These books present an opportunity to showcase the family's cultural and language background. Cool Babies is based on the philosophy that early literacy practices can be implemented into any kind of family situation regardless of parents' language and literacy abilities, socioeconomic or educational status. This program is taught in several libraries by librarians but is administered by Macarthur Community College with funding from the Families First initiative of the NSW government. This partnership enables new mothers to develop important skills in parenting, emergent literacy practices and the value of their family language. The students also build a support network with other young mothers which is particularly valuable for those suffering social isolation. Students attending these classes are encouraged to participate in the library's lapsit program Babytime, where they can continue the social networks as well as building skills.

Storytime partnerships

Another innovation of Fairfield Library Service is to develop storytime partnerships. The service has large groups of parents and children who attend the preschool storytime sessions each week. We have been able to value add to these sessions by developing partnerships with other council departments such as waste services, road safety and animal control. These departments have important messages they want to get across to the community but do not usually have access to preschoolers and their parents. In partnership with some very creative staff from these different departments we have developed storytime sessions including stories, songs and crafts covering such diverse topics as worm farms, microchipping of pets, recycling, clean waterways, seatbelts, crossing the street and approaching dogs. These programs are flexible and responsive to current issues. For example, the approaching dogs session was developed after media coverage of dog attacks on small children. The animal control staff brought a dog to the storytime session to demonstrate to children and their parents the correct way to approach a strange dog. This involved the children asking their parents' permission, who then sought the dog owner's permission to pat the animal. The stories, songs and craft all reinforced this modelled behaviour. These partnerships have allowed these importance messages to be given to a key section of the community in fun, accessible ways.

HSC lectures/workshops

In NSW students completing their final year of high school sit an external examination called the higher school certificate (HSC). Students need to get good results in these exams to secure a place in the university course of their choice and therefore the pressure around these exams can be intense. This is particularly so for students who do not have English as their first language. The library service works closely with local schools to determine the subjects which require special attention, usually mathematics, English, business studies and essay writing. Other subjects are added as the need arises, especially when there has been curriculum change. The library identifies and books key lecturers and then promotes these lecture and workshops by visiting each of the schools and speaking directly to the students during assemblies and year meetings. This provides the opportunity to let students know about other support services and resources the library has available to help them. It also gives staff the opportunity to meet local teachers and build relationships with them.

The RED tent

The RED tent is one of the most recent projects. An early literacy interest group was formed as a subcommittee of the children and family network in Fairfield. This group is facilitated by the library, has members from local government, education and nongovernment organisations, and successfully sought funding from a local club through the CDSE scheme. The genesis of this project was a desire to get reading out in the community to people who would not normally access the library or other agencies. The tent will be a quick to assemble marquee which will have picture books and other resources in community languages. It will have a bright red roof with the words Read Every Day printed on the sides in community languages. The tent will be available for use at festivals, in parks and at any community group events throughout the area from the beginning of 2007. Any community group may borrow it and the associated resources simply by booking it through the Fairfield Council.

PLAT multilingual storytime

The Playing, Listening and Talking (PLAT) storytime is a multilingual project of the Fairfield Communities 4 Children Initiative. It is funded by the Australian government through The Smith Family and Learning Links to give opportunities for children 0-5 in Fairfield. In this case the library provides the venue and resources while other partners provide the staffing and interpreters.

The aim is to run storytime sessions which utilise parents and other community members to read stories and sing songs in community languages. Recently 22 Swahili speaking women and their children attended this session and were able to share stories and songs in their own language. For newly arrived groups, this is an important part of feeling at home in their new community. As library staff, we want the library to be a place where all members of the community feel welcome and that their needs are valued.

The transition to school working party

Library staff also participate in another local initiative called the transition to school working party. This group comprises people working in the early childhood and primary school sectors with the aim of building relationships between these two sectors to facilitate children and families in the move to 'big school'. There is a push at both a federal and local level for all children to attend formal preschool before attending school. However, in the current situation the reality is that many families either cannot afford or cannot see the value of formal preschool. The library and Playgroups NSW provide alternate informal learning experiences for these families through playgroups and storytimes. The benefit of being a part of this group is to help promote the concept of parents as first teachers and to showcase the support we offer in this area.

Informal parent training

Just under 60% of Fairfield residents are library members. The remaining 40% include some of the most socially isolated groups in the community. Many of these people have come from situations of war and trauma and need to be encouraged to participate in community life. In order to access this group the library has started a program of informal training with parents. Parents are accessed through supported playgroups run by various agencies as well as those affiliated with the Playgroups NSW, through schools and through other community and government agencies. These partnerships allow the library to expand its services to those who would not otherwise even know they exist. Usually a storytime session is run with the children and then library staff use an interpreter to talk to parents about the importance of reading, talking, singing and playing with their children. Often these sessions also briefly cover research about children's brain development and the father's role with the children. A special emphasis is given to using the family language with the children and demonstrating bilingual stories. Parents are given information about the range of library services and resources freely available for them.

The dark side

For all of the positives associated with working with families and other community groups, there are also negatives. One of the big issues when working in partnerships is personnel changes. Your organisation may have a very good working relationship with a key staff member but not with their replacement. Principals change in schools and policies almost always do too. A state government agency has a great liaison person who inevitably gets a promotion or moves to the corporate sector. People with passion, enthusiasm and effective organisational skills are in high demand.

Another issue can be competition between agencies for the same funding. Sometimes larger partnerships involving these agencies can work but take a skilled facilitator to prevent them being bogged down in interagency rivalries. Building up a relationship of trust takes time ... and then the personnel change again!

The final issue is that often library professionals do not promote themselves well enough. Many of the groups we could be working with simply do not think of public libraries as potential partners. We need to attend and speak up at interagency meetings. We need to offer our assistance to other groups--our meeting rooms, our computer networks for training sessions, our exhibition and display spaces for community events and launches. In this way, we become a team player in the community.

A library or a community centre?

Recently staff were involved in briefing architects about the refurbishment of Fairfield's main library. After listening to the list of requirements, the architect asked 'What is this? A library or a community centre?' The answer is, of course, both. The library is a central hub for community life, not just a place to borrow books. Libraries have remained relevant, and indeed indispensable, by moving beyond their role as repositories of information to become facilitators of resources for their communities. These resources include all the traditional items--books, magazines, dvds, videos, as well as e resources and access to computers and internet. They also include programs and services which help build social capital and community connection and participation. They have partnered with other agencies to produce excellent programs and services with very little extra funding. They have also used nonrecurrent funding to demonstrate the value of programs which have not traditionally been core library business. Community enthusiasm has built a momentum which encourages funding bodies to make these programs core business and set them within normal operating budgets.

Libraries will continue not only to be relevant, but become key community hubs, as they flexibly respond to the needs of their local communities and work in partnership with other agencies.

The children and families in communities need all the resources and services public libraries have to offer, to nurture them towards their challenging and successful futures.

References

(1) Dunn, L Fairfield City Council library services marketing plan. Fairfield, Fairfield City Council 2006 p4

(2) Hoegh-Guldberg, H Aged services survey for Fairfield City Library Service Oberon, Economic Strategies 2005

(3) NSW Public Libraries Marketing Group It's all about men: Blokes @ your library 2005 http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/pls/professional/pdf/its allaboutmen.pdf accessed 20/11/06

(4) Bourke, C Learning outcomes of English conversation classes: a case study unpublished paper 2006

(5) Fairfield Community for Children Initiative Community demographic profile Sydney, The Smith Family 2005

Carolyn Bourke Community Outreach Librarian--Children and Youth Fairfield City Library Service NSW

Carolyn Bourke BA(LIS) MEd AALIA is the community and outreach librarian--children and youth at the Fairfield Library Service in Sydney NSW. She is passionate about seeing children and young people reach their potential and believes that a love of reading is an important key to success. Carolyn is interested in expanding the current thinking on preliteracy and numeracy, to encourage parents with poor literacy and language skills to help prepare their children for lifelong learning. In 2005 she won the Jean Arnot Memorial Fellowship for her paper Building social capital through networking: how public libraries can be more than repositories of information. In 2006 Carolyn was the recipient of the Marjorie Cotton Award, a national award for developing innovative resources and services for young people in public libraries. Email [e-mail]