Field notes
Visit to tea Tree Gully library
11/09/2005
Met with manager Carol Rooke and 2 other members of the resource management
team, Helen and Chris (?).
Told them about the project – they are very interested in future involvement.
TTG is a single site library serving a whole council district (100,000 people) CR thinks
it is the only one in the State.Mixed demographic from low to hi SES. Holden Hill
represents the low SES groups, hard to reach and maintain contact with. Distance
from library is an issue especially for poor households – cost of transport. At one
point they had a bus serving that area that brought people to the library.
TTG was approached by CAFHS 3 years ago to support a New Mothers group.
Librarians ran sessions for new mothers and the library provided a room for them to
meet. Many mums went on to be regular preschool storytime participants.
The emphasis on getting mums to interact with their children especially around
books but also with songs and games.
CR says it was amazing how many of them had never been in a library before. Very
few of them ever use computer resources too.
Preschool story time has trebled in popularity over the last 5 years. Now run 4 times
a week with 30 families at each. The usual format is 2/3 stories with sometimes
singing, action songs and occasionally an activity. There is a designated young
childrens space flanked by picture book shelves and 3 computers at child level
loaded with age appropriate educational software. [a dad and two young children
were using it – helping his daughter while his son worked solo]. A set of shelves held
a selection of picture books and early learning resources. CR explained that with
over 600 picture books on the shelves the choice was too daunting for some. Helen
said there had been 3 piles of flash cards …….before story time – now none. Around
the corner were the educational A4 resources – video, audio, CD roms. Chris said
they were thinking of moving the parenting books and A4 to this area. At the
moment they were located at some distance away (this is a very big space) with other
non-fiction along the orange wall. Parenting books can also be found on the nonfiction carousels where the headings are ‘People and Places’, ‘Health and family’,
‘Personal Growth’, etc.
Chris said the library was involved in the ‘New Dewey’ project with ….. involving
re-labelling subjects.
Apart from new mums and story time parents use of the library (as parents) was
generally in relation to
1) looking for early learning resources eg flash cards, readers
2) asking for books their children can read, especially boys
3) asking for information resources for children’s school project and assignments.
The drop off in high school and then surge again when children do SACE. Often the
parent will not bring the child, will be in a hurry and say something like ‘give me
everything you’ve got on …..’
Grandparents (many have helped to raise kids of two families and continue to have
after school responsibility) also do this and there has been a trend in their doing
internet training, to find resources for their grand kids (and held with computer
related school tasks). Computer training is always booked out and sometimes people
have to try 3 to 4 times to get a spot.
CR said that the problem in this area is are ‘very big on doing everything they can to
help their children succeed’. Many are time poor and the library is thinking about
how to meet their needs. Eg. The children’s non-fiction section on countries has been
colour coded by content and now there are far few desk enquiries on ‘What have you
got on Japan?’ Parents want resources just in time. A session on ‘helping your Year
12 child’ didn’t get many takers. I’m here in after-school time and it’s lively with a
mixed crowd – seniors, school kids, parents with prams, single young adults.
A dad is listening to his son read behind me. He has also got a newspaper on his lap.
He and his two children are occupying a set of armchairs around a coffee table. It’s
one of the quiet spot in the library. It sounds like a book on animals. A baby is crying
somewhere. There’s quite a few single older men. Two are flicking through music
cd’s, one’s on ebay, one’s lookinh at videos. I can see an open shelf with jigsaw
puzzles near to the music cd tables.a wall hatch next to the café allows patrons to buy
a coffee and snack which they are allowed to consume in a lounge room flanked by
carousels of ‘New and Interesting’ books. CR said they are even allowed to bring
their snack to the nearby computer area. It’s the internet café approach.
It’s a light space with large glass windows overlooking green space, the busy North
East road and Tea Tree Plaza. It feels like a hub for the whole city of Tea Tree gully.
Now I’m in the quiet reading area. Magazines are kept here, more than 200 titles
arranged by topic.
A mum is to her daughter read at a table nearby. Maybe not – she seems to be doing
some kind of recording – like a …..analysis. Maybe a tutor? A man in a shirt and tie
is reading a newspaper at the stand. A young man with a hooded windcheater on
and up appears to be rolling a smoke for later. He’s walked away in a spot hard to
see from anywhere else. He’s got a coke.
There are also wireless facilities and lots of kidney-shaped shaped desks to work on,
stationed in a quiet place.
In adult non-fiction, parenting books can be found under: Society (Mummy I’m
Scared and How TV and Movies frighten) and lots of books on mothers but they’re
in the shelf with the end label ‘Politics’ even though they’re in the number section
‘society’. Also here are books on sex and sexuality, divorce and death. There are 2
full shelves of parenting books.
‘Education’ has titles directed to problems like ‘Educating your child at home’/
‘Bullyproof your child’, Parents who love reading, kids who don’t’.
The ‘Nutrition and health’ – print title scattered, eg. ‘Healthy food, healthy kids’,
‘Healing your child’ alongside books devoted to women eg. ‘Women’s bodies,
women’s wisdom’.
Women’s health’ is a separate section which includes pregnancy and childbirth
books. A pregnant woman is browsing, just now. There are some parenting titles like
‘Creative parenting after seperation’, ‘Keys to raising a drug-free child’. On the
facing shelf, a young guy (late 20’s) in shirt and business pants is looking at the
aviation section. His phone just beeped.
‘Food and drink’ is less gendered. It has books on brewing of wine and lots of books
of food titles written by men. This is a very well stocked section.
Okay, now I have come to the official ‘parenting’ area, …the shelf title is ‘Child
rearing’. There are two shelves. Reoccurring words in titles are: toddler, baby, play,
breast feeding.
Only one book names features: ‘raising sons without fathers’. A number name mums
or motives eg ‘The parent talk guide to being a mum’, ‘How to mother a successful
daughter’, Mother and baby: getting it right’.
I’m looking at the computer training room now. Of 10 users, 7 are young adults –
senior high or university age. An adult female is sitting next to a boy (about 10) and
looking on. An older woman (about 50) is the other user. The boy is plugging in a
usb. Looks like he’s doing homework.
Nearby a mum and her daughter (about 11) are checking out lots of novels. A
grandma is walking a little girl towards the children’s section. She looks tired. I’ve
followed them. The little girl is in the cubby house, chatting away.
There is also a significant local history section. CR says schools are finding that
getting kids to do a history project is a great way to teach research skills.
Now the boy is in google. He’s looking at the cover of a video on puppetry. Mum
still looking on intently.
CR was saying that parents are increasingly asking for multi-media sets of resources
eg. The book, the dvd, the cd rom.
In the spacious foyer with a wall of large contemporary paintings, is the community
noticeboard. There are 23 holders for pamphlets – not all are full. There are 3
noticeboards with a mixture of posters and ads eg. Royal Show and ‘Families come
in all shapes and sizes’, yoga, museums, … cushions. A giral (about 8) is asking her
dad ‘what’s the learning centre?’. He seems to know all about it eg. Classes are held
there, it’s free, the council owns it. I ask him if he works in the library. He says he
works in a different library. He says he sees classes in there when he comes by.
There’s a steady stream of people coming in and out.
CR told me they want people to stay a while, not just drop in and out. Lots of people
are doing just that.
The grandma is coming out now. She definitely looks tired.
Helen also told me about a programme run by Pt Adelaide and enfield library to
provide ‘know where to go’ packs to childcare centres for staff and parents. They got
federal funding of $50,000.[which fund?]
The guy who was looking at aviation books is now looking at the noticeboard. He
looks at a number of noticeboards before leaving. A woman is now walking slowly
past surveying the notices on her way in. A boy (12) points out something to his
mum who has walked ahead and says ‘oh yeah’ without coming back to look. It’s a
poster with a picture of a steam train on it, advertising the rail museum.
Here comes the dad who was listening to his son’s read. Seems he’s got 4 kids, all
under 12 by the looks. The boy’s asking ‘What are we taking?’ Dad says ‘Library
books’. He actually looks pretty relaxed. Another mum and son just walked in.
Looking back in to the library, the first thing you notice is the café counter with cakes
and a menu board behind – there’s a newspaper stand but no books visible, the
entrance is to the side.