Public Libraries NSW Imagine Conference Part 2

Richard Glover shared his love of reading along with some funny stories.  Noteworthy quotes include: every book has a friend it wants to introduce you to; reading is a trapdoor to escape through; literacy is the engine to social change.
Rev Tim Costello spoke about reading for justice.  He spoke about how literacy is important for both the rich and the poor and how literacy benefits not just the individual but the whole community.  He highlighted the importance of the Millenium Development Goals - which to tell you the truth, I had never heard of - and that libraries have a role to play by having them on display in their walls and highlighting how these goals are being achieved.  And what stood out: it's the little things that are the measure of you.

Judith Parke then shared the achievements of the UK's National Year of Reading in 2008.  We need to engage in reading across a range of formats.  I was saddened to learn that some children were reprimanded for inappropriate reading, i.e. for fun.  The UK was clever enough to do a literacy review prior to NYR2008 so that they could measure the impact.  It is a shame that Australia didn't have the funding to do the same.  She spoke about an excellent program called the Haven Holiday Park partnership.   Where families go to a holiday park for holidays and each family was provided with a get a pre-holiday reading pack with a free audio book, a reading welcome pack in their chalet, plus reading activities on site run by Haven staff.  Overall, the UK offered lots of great programs it is a shame that Australia did not get the same funding support for it's NYR program.

I'll take a break and talk about the excellent catering provided at the conference and the novelty of a "take-away" lunch.  Due to the conference venue being located across the road from the beautiful Shoal Bay, it was an excellent idea to offer delegates the opportunity to take their lunch (from a buffet choice) in take away containers so they could sit across the road.

The photo above shoes some delegates eating lunch on the stairs down to the bay.  Lovely!!

Also, Port Stephens and Gosford Councils had their mobile libraries parked outside so that delegates could view them during the lunch break.  Another excellent idea!!

After lunch, Sophie Cunningham spoke about the future of reading, writing and publishing in the digital world.  She told us that the publishers knew that ebooks were coming and did nothing to prepare themselves.  Like libraries, publishers should of been proactive.  She warned us that publishers and libraries rely on readers but sometimes keep them at arms length and that all of us can learn from Amazon and how they successfully interact with their customers.  We should not engage with social media for the pure purpose of advertising - it needs to be an interaction with our customers.  She then shared the article that I wrote about in a previous blog post - Your ebook is reading you.  ebook or print - libraries should just concentrate on making good books available as that is what we are about.

Time has run out for me yet again so I will continue this post tomorrow.