Exercise10, library 2.0, evaluation

  The Green Square Library is a part of  the City of Sydney Library Network, so the members have access to over 500,000 items through the 8 branches.

Unfortunately only a couple of thousands monographs being held at the Green Square branch making it one of the smallest of the libraries in the network. Only popular literature / young and adult fiction and the hobby / particularly the  DIY, gardening and parenting/ non- fiction section had substantial number of books, just a few monographs were dedicated to local studies. 

The online catalouge is where the clients can access services and the above mentioned 500,000 items and resources. There is a  general  e-mail address for requests askthelibrary@cityofsydney.com.au.

I have to point out that the  Online Database and Online reference collection of the City of Sydney Library Network is  very impressive. Through the E-library members have 24/7 Online access to information and full-text databases, electronic publications, videos, images, full-text newspaper archives simply using their library cards, although some of the databases  are for in-library use only. Examples are : Oxford Reference Online, Science Reference Centre, Business Review, Reuters...and age appropriate versions of the Britannica / Britannica Student, Britannica Junior /and the World Book Online for kids.

Kids corner at my local library

Children’s collection: The library's  activities  reflecting that Alexandria is a suburb of young families : Rhymetime held every Wednesday and there are several other programs for mothers and their babies. The selection of children's books seemed to be well chosen and shelves looked tidy. The kid's corner is simple but inviting, bright  and clean with pillows and bean bags scattered on the floor. 

Community profiles, exercise 9

I live in Alexandria, an inner city suburb of Sydney. This used to be a largely industrial suburb with medium to high density residential areas. The suburb was once mostly terraced housing, that was demolished for light industrial use and warehousing, which continues to this day, but more and more apartment buildings are on the rise.

Alexandria-Beaconsfield  has a total of  6,592   residents. 26 %  of the residents are born overseas , 43 % were born in  English speaking countries (New Zealand and United Kingdom).

Majority of the population are adults 18 to 64 years  5,569 and only  242 senior citizens. There are 369

Infants 0 to 4 years  and 394 Children 5 to 17 years( sourced from the ABS, 2001 census).

The median age of the suburb is 33, this data clearly reflects a young and growing suburb. The local library, located on Green Square, it is a part of the City of Sydney Library Network.

Green Square Library

The library's  activities reflecting that Alexandria is a suburb of young families:  Rhymetime every Wednesday and several other programs for mothers and their babies.

Exercise 8, Robots vs. Sacred Human Contact,

In 2010 the Automated Book Delivery System has been introduced at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at NC State University. They had to find a solution to store and handle their immense collection of  2 million books...

 The Automated Book Delivery System in my opinion, is not a threat to the  labour force in the libraries , but  a solution to smart storage and material access. The problem of storage space and access to library materials, especially rare and/or rarely used items is a significant issue  in today's libraries. In fact, this dilemma has been mentioned and discussed numerous times at various Tafe classes. We all know that librarians forced to weed out the collection on a regular basis, just to free some shelf space!

So we should not be intimadeted by this technical ( rather hi-tech ) answer to the storage problem! It does not mean that the libraries will become warehouses without hiring anyone !! The above mentioned library still has 40000 books on a traditional shelf system. ABDS exist partially only, to free up space on the cramped bookshelves of the main libraries, while the traditional browsing experience  and the sacred human contact is still available.