A meet and greet day with the Outreach team at Main Library. Many of the staff in the team gave up their precious time to sit with us for 30 minutes and talk about their various programs.
Programs offered at PLCMC by the Outreach department include:
- Book by mail
- spanish computer or storytime sessions and
- classes for teachers and the community on the importance of literacy
- Programs to the local prison
- Programs at the local homeless shelter
Meryl, Manager of Outreach took both Lynette and I out to Sugar Creek branch to observe 12 families enjoying a spanish storytime.
We met up with Jason and Angela at ImaginOn and chatted to us about "Story tubs to go."
They are themed tubs with a selection of books, games and activities and are available for loan by any librarymember.
They are popular items for both groups such as play groups and individuals to borrow.
All tubs are catalogues and are housed and checked apon return by Outreadch staff at ImaginOn. This takes the added presure off circulation staff to check boxes if returned to a branch other than ImaginOn.
We also visited the Homeless Shelter and we recieved a tour of the centre which includes a herb garden and the art gallery. Here they have some great artworks produced by homeless who then sell them. They loved showing the Aussie girls around their art work and tried to get us to buy some to take home...they were quite impressive works, but definitely would not fit in our cases.
We also observed their first resume writing computer class for the homeless.
A bank of laptops which are owned by the library for the purpose of taking to venues to run classes were set up and staff assisted interested people to write resumes.
Tuesday 22 April Department Meetings and Presentation to the Core
Lynette spent the morning with Linda the Manager of Collections the Collection's team.
PLCMC also has floating collections in all branches except Checkit out, which is a very small outlet in a one of the Bank building in the CBD.
- Cataloguing is outsourced but selection is still done inhouse at the library. Baker and Taylor is the database used to assist selection
- Serial ordering is all performed via Ebsco
- Similar to Yarra Plenty, PLCMC also has Playaways, ebooks from NetLibrary and mp3 files (via Netlibrary)
- Electronic resources are also subscribed to via a consortuim arrangemend with education institutions in the Charlotte area.
Jane spent the morning discussing in more detail with the Outreach team.
We both were taken out to lunch at the Cosmos with the Collections team.
The afternoon was filled up with a presentation to the CORE Group (Managers of: Community Engagement, Organisational Resources, Research, Innovation and Strategy and Experiences@ the public library) about YPRL and the similarities / differences between us and PLCMC.
The session ran for 2 hours with lots of sharing and questions for us and the group.
We have alot in common and they are all going through the challenge of a restructure, so we can understand having gone through this 2.5 years ago.
Wednesday 23 April Independence with April, Community Engagement Lunch
The Circulation Manager of Independance Branch , April spoiled us today by swinging by the hotel to pick us up and take us to her branch.....so no walk up to the sky walks and over to Main Library in the morning.
We spent the morning at Independence branch, Lynette in a public computer class (Introduction to the Internet) and Jane in a storytime session.
We both chatted to various members of the team and toured the branch. They have a great childrens area here, the parachute room, a sign above the desk saying "Just as me!" and the community artwork here is just as impressive and adds to the character of the branch as in the other branches we have visited.
The team made us feel extra welcome with two boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts (hmmm we shared!) and coffee.
The Engagement Team had booked us for lunch in Dillworth, a suburb with galleries and art culture, Chauna and Dick picked us up and we had a great chat and also caught up more regarding the libraries publishing arm, Novello.
In the evening we were treated by a guided tour from Amy to Concord Mills ( a factory outlet shopping centre)for a brief shopping fix and then a movie "Leather Heads" which has George Clooney staring in it, some of the scenes were shot here in Charlotte so we felt it appropriate that we saw it here. Movie tickets here are only $6!
Thursday 24 April ImaginOn Teens area and Branch Tours with Lori
ImaginOn was our first stop today. We worked with Teen Services and staff member Michelle (would love to have her come and present in Australia to the YPRL team).
We were able to see the educational play designed for primary school children "SchoolHouse Rock" shown in the theatre with about 500 children, parents and teachers.
The theatre is run independantly from the library The library also had a show running in the library called "Alphabet Soup" where more children were being entertained
We visited the Teen loft and "Studio I" where computers and software are specifically set up for the making of videos and music tracks .
Lori from training kindly took us out on the road again to visit Mint Hill, Matthews and University branches. Matthews is a funky branch developed around a train theme. Univesity is where Kim (one of the exchange people who are visiting in September) is based and we caught up with her.
Friday 25 April Freedom, Beatties Ford Road and Main Library visits
Today we where picked up and chauffered out to Freedom by the branch Manager Vanessa. Freedom is a public library and school library partnership which is going strong. After meeting with staff we were given a grand tour of the school by one of the student representatives.
We snuck in a lunch stop at a beautiful Thai resturant.
We also visited Beatties Ford Road a branch currently in the planning for renovations.
Saturday 26 April Shopping and a Party
April learnt we like shopping and took us to North Lakes Mall. For luch we tried some southern food called Hush Puppies - no they are not shoes although they do have this brand over here, it is fried corn bread, interesting but not something I will introduce to the menu at home! We also tried sweet potato chips which were quite yummy.
In the eveing April picked us up for a party Susan had kindly organised at her house with a great spread of food and this was a great opportunity to catch up with Kim and Mark (the selected staff members for the exchange) and other staff outside of the work environment. We had a wonderful night chatting to all attending and sharing ideas on libraries and our cultures.
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