Minutes of Meeting of Multicultural Services and Programs Special Interest Group
Item
1. Attendance &
Apologies
2. Previous Meeting’s
Minutes.
3. Ideas for
Speakers/Vendors for
future meetings
held on Monday 10th December 2012
Minutes
Attendance: Anne McLennan (Melton), Narelle Stute (Casey-Cardinia), Natasha Kamenev (Bayside), Sue Gray
(Boroondara), Katie Norton (Whitehorse-Manningham), Linda Serafini (Yarra Plenty) Liliana Chiriano
(Maribyrnong), Sue Bradley (Darebin), Anne McLennan (Melton), Olga Kuftova (Port Phillip) Pru Menzies ( CCLC)
Apologies:
Business arising from previous meeting: Sue discussed updating of LOTE directory with Elizabeth Jackson.
(1) Someone to talk about Hindi material and/or Hindi settlement trends. As Monash has a high Indian speaking
population, it would be useful to contact Monash library for suggestions as to contacts for local Migrant
Resource Centres or suppliers.
(2) Brendan Fitzgerald “My language” website. Group agreed it would be valuable to re-schedule a time for
Brendan to present to group.
(3) Richard from Global Aussie books to present information on LOTE eBooks
Action
Team to review LOTE
holdings information
currently listed on PLVN site
and refer changes to PLVN
Executive Officer once new
appointment is made.
Sue to contact John Ruddle
from Monash libraries to ask
for suggestions of local
migrant resource centres
and/or suppliers who may
be able to talk to SIG about
Hindi trends.
Sue to contact Brendan
Fitzgerald to reschedule
“My language” website
presentation.
All group members to
forward additional
presentation suggestions to
Sue.
4. Event Review –
Census Seminar
Group agreed that event was very successful and congratulated organising team. Group agreed that the
speakers talking about their personal experience of settling into Melbourne were particularly insightful.
By
Minutes of Meeting of Multicultural Services and Programs Special Interest Group
5. Meeting
dates/locations for
2013
held on Monday 10th December 2012
Meeting dates for 2013 will be:
 Monday 11th Feb Doncaster Library
 Monday 15th April  Monday 17th June - Camberwell Library
 Monday 12th August - Melton Library & learning hub
 Monday 14th October
 Monday 9th December
Suggestions for meeting locations included: Doncaster, Melton (June or August), Southbank, Camberwell
Pakenham and Williamstown.
6. Around the table
Melton
Focused on planning activities for 2013 including cultural diversity evening, harmony day event, Spanish movie
morning and Bollywood film night.
Darebin
Cultural diversity events to be discussed during upcoming planning day. Shanaka Fernando (founder of Lentil as
Anything) will be one presenter.
Bayside
Finalising presenters for LOTE storytimes. Noted that popular and successful Literature festival events during
the previous year tended to be the local community presenters rather than big name/high profile speakers.
Outreach to local senior citizens groups has been successful with Greek community, more challenging with
Italian community.
Whitehorse Manningham
Incorporated two Chinese author talks into Literature Festival, noted similar trend as Bayside with the local
unknown author more popular than “famous” author. Planning for Multicultural day 2013 includes community
Chinese material selection day.
Maribyrnong
Planning “Glendi” Greek festival including music, dancing, food and launch of new library material.
Planning for Luna New Year 10th Feb (Year of the Snake). Library staff will attend training on accessing
interpreters.
Group members to review
availability of meeting
rooms and forward
suggestions to Sue
Minutes of Meeting of Multicultural Services and Programs Special Interest Group
held on Monday 10th December 2012
Casey Cardinia
Pru: Currently focusing on a review of new Census stats and drafting new LOTE strategy. Have noted emergence
of new language group Dari (from Afghanistan) which is proving to be difficult to source material for.
Looking into celebrating International Mother Language day on 21st Feb 2013.
Considering most appropriate location of bi-lingual picture books. Libraries differed on approach with some
integrating into LOTE collection and some with English language picture books.
Narelle: Endeavour Hills library - bilingual story time and the celebration of Chinese New year . 2013 - Snake
Year in Chinese calendar
2. Chinese books selection event in the library
3. Hosted representatives from Biblioteka Ermera - East Timor. They are facing very unique challenges - mostly
illiterate population, very poor roads, no cars in the library, instead they are using bicycles
Yarra Plenty
Hosted a Vietnamese book selection day. Hosted a successful event with Italian comedian. Noted that Italian
large print material is now available via Insegna. Providing a number of bi-lingual storytimes including collation
of “kit” with books and props. Will be celebrating Chinese NY and continuing to host Italian social group.
Port Phillip
. Provide German books for German Book Club. Purchased new German books according Club's request
. French speaking person (Mary Malito???) offered her service as a storytime volunteer
. Russian story time is very successful as usual
St Kilda Library will be closed for renovation in Jan-Feb 2013
Planning to delete Hebrew Collection
Boroondara:
Also looking at commencing a LOTE strategy using latest Census data
New Camberwell Library very successfully opened in mid September French collection right at the front!
7. Other business
Liliana reported on “My language” conference, noting a common trend of libraries focusing heavily on
community consultation and partnerships. The multilingual picture book and DVD “Wilbur” was launched. One
library presented on the creation of a website dedicated to capturing the multicultural histories of the local area
with digital images.
Minutes of Meeting of Multicultural Services and Programs Special Interest Group
held on Monday 10th December 2012
Future Meeting Date: Monday 11th February 2013
Venue: Doncaster Library
Doncaster Library MC2 687 Doncaster Road Doncaster:
http://www.wml.vic.gov.au/Page/page.asp?Page_Id=151&h=0
Four hour parking is available in the basement of the MC2 complex. Turn at the traffic lights next to the Council Offices building drive under MC2 building to access.
Once parked, take lift to ground floor and I will meet everyone in the foyer just before 10am (as library opens at 10am).
Public transport is buses only I am afraid. A good summary of bus numbers is on Doncaster Westfield webpage http://www.westfield.com.au/doncaster/getting-here/bypublic-transport