Library Stars: Meeting Places and Entrepreneurs

Meeting spaces

VerbYL is a very successful youth centre and youth library in Yeppoon, Queensland. Debra Burn, the library manager, described the roles of the library staff and youth workers in making the centre a popular hangout for local teenagers which attracts both ‘elite’ and ‘at risk’ young people.

The meeting places poster sessions were:

• Creating meeting places for readers ~ Yarra Plenty Regional Library, VIC
• The third place ~ Sunshine Coast Libraries, QLD

Entrenpreneurs

Riding a tide of local history: Launceston Library’s publishing program 1999 – 2008 was presented by Peter Richardson from Launceston Library and Online Access, Centre, State Library of Tasmania. Launceston is the site of the third European settlement in Australia and sits on the junction of three rivers. They have had a library in the community since 1842. The Launceston Library is custodian of the city’s documentary heritage and has a publishing program that engages local community members and aims to increase understanding of their collections and their use.

One example of a successful project published on the web http://www.launcestonfamilyalbum.org.au/

• The entrepreneurs poster sessions were:
  The Jane Austen Book Club ~ Central West Libraries NSW : this project included resources for book clubs based on each of Jane Austen’s novels and a very successful local premiere of the movie.
• WikiNorthia ~ Darebin, Moreland and Yarra Plenty Libraries, VIC : http://www.wikinorthia.net.au/ is a partnership between these library services to provide their communities with the opportunity to contribute their memories and information to document life in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.