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LEARNER STORY
Sepe Illig
- LIBRARY
- Stawell Library / Wimmera Regional Library Corporation, Victoria, Australia Australia →
- COURSE
- Practical Outreach
Sepe took the Practical Outreach course as part of a large rollout to more than 100 staff across the State of Victoria in 2019. She works in a small country library that is very popular with its readers - and used the course to design and launch a project that has since spread beyond her library to a neighbouring district.
Sepe's starting point was a shift in how she thought about reader engagement. Rather than measure success by getting more bodies through the library's own doors, she used the course as an opportunity to identify places and groups in her community that might benefit from a reader-centred project - and to bring books to people who were unlikely to walk into a library on their own.
As I worked through the course I came to realise that this was an opportunity to make a more meaningful readership connection. I could look beyond a library-based view of getting numbers through our doors and identify places/groups that may benefit from a reader-centred project.
01 Books for children in stressful waiting places
Sepe came back to an area of her job that gives her the greatest pleasure: working with children. As a mother and grandmother, she had a particular concern about children and young people who find themselves - usually due to circumstances beyond their control - at police stations, courtrooms and hospital admittance waiting rooms, often for extended periods. These environments rarely offer much respite, and the experience can be both boring and stressful.
Sepe wanted to create reader interest and engagement simply through the presence of well-chosen books, in places where there had been none before.
02 Choosing the initial collection
Sepe selected an initial collection of 40 books from the library's current stock. Her first thought had been to use discarded books, but she quickly decided that wouldn't give the exciting, tempting experience her readers deserve - and wouldn't reflect the quality and range the library could offer. The books are refreshed every month, so the shelves stay fresh for any child who returns.
03 Partnerships and replication
The project - which started in late 2019 - has proved popular with the target readers, and equally with the volunteer care workers and police partners working alongside it. Sepe's contacts from the local police and neighbourhood house praised the library for coming forward with the initiative, and were keen to get it underway and see it through.
Sepe shared the idea with the manager of a neighbouring library in another district, and they have taken the project up too - working with the same police welfare officer, with their pilot bookshelf based at Ararat police station. The two libraries are now monitoring the progress of the project together.
There is a definite need for this kind of project in my community. My contacts from the local police and neighbourhood house praised the library for coming forward with this incentive and were keen to get it underway and to see it through. I've shared this idea with the manager of a neighbouring library in another district and they have taken up the project. They are working with the same police welfare officer we work with, and their pilot R&R bookshelf is based at the Ararat police station. We will work together on monitoring the progress of this project.
