Rural & Isolated Librarians Special Interest Group [RILSIG]
Aphelion
Vol 7 Nº 2 August 1999 ISSN 1036-9031
| President Felicity Williams Ph 08 8999 8931 Fax 08 8999 8998 |
Secretary Thelma Rungkat Ph 03 5333 3258 Fax 03 5333 3258 |
| Treasurer Yvonne Forrest Ph 08 8920 5143 Fax 08 8945 2633 |
Editor Roger Hawcroft Ph 07 4940 3385 Fax 07 4940 3218 |
Inside this issue
From the president's desk...
Hi everyone,
So the motion has been passed at the ALIA Annual General Meeting in Sydney and we now move forward to divest ourselves of our Royal Charter. What does this mean for sectional interests? How will the new structure support the diversity of interests which is under the umbrella of ALIA?
Have you had your say as to what you expect the future to hold for remote, rural and isolated library workers and services? Now is the time to be lobbying for a structure which supports rather than ignores!
The committee has been busy: contacting members; revising our web pages on ALIAnet; drumming up support and seeking financial sponsorship where possible; and answering calls for submissions to Inquiries, notably the National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education which is under the auspices of the Human Rights Commission.
Your chance to be part of lobbying for improved library and information infrastructure for the rural and isolated communities is at hand. Nominate for the RILSIG Committee. Details about nominating are in this issue.
All positions are open and for next year, RILSIG will need at least a new secretary and president as both Thelma and I will be stepping down and not re-nominating for those positions. Some of the other committee members are also weighing up their workloads and commitments and perhaps will be branching out into other areas of ALIA so there's plenty of opportunity for new blood to infuse our committee. Her from you soon, we hope!
Felicity
The Camel
There is an old saying that a camel is a horse built by a committee; this implies some insult to the camel which is, in fact, an amazingly well designed beast for his environment. We are sure that our new committee designed Mobile Library will be equally successful.
The Shires of Narrandera and Carrathool are situated in the Western Riverina in southwest NSW and we jointly operate a small mobile library service. Following the receipt of a $35 000 grant from the Library Council we began investigations into exactly what type of vehicle would best suit our needs. Our libraries, in Hillston and Narrandera are around 200 kilometres apart and we operate our services on a turn about basis. When Narrandera's run is complete we return the mobile to Griffith, which is situated at the half way point, where it is collected by Carrathool staff. At the end of Carrathool's run the process is repeated. While it may seem odd to share a facility such as a Mobile Library between Councils of such geographic distance for us it is an excellent option. By sharing we are able to offer our members in outlying areas a standard of service which would simply not be feasible if each service had to bear the entire cost.
Our original plan had been to reconfigure the service from using a very small truck to use of a Coaster like bus. Sadly this proved impracticable for a number of reasons, prime among which were the geographic conditions in our shires and the fact that the vehicle originally proposed ceased to be available in Australia. It was time for plan B. Being good little librarians we began to research our options. Faxes were sent to libraries operating a mobile service asking them to tell us what they had and who built it, and to give us an honest opinion of how well it worked. This information eventually led to our choice of Brimarco, a Ballarat firm, for the construction of the actual library module.
Our choice of a cab-chassis was an interesting one. We were looking for something bigger, more powerful, and more stable, yet able to be driven by all staff without the requirement of re-licensing. Because of our isolation from each other we each did research as to the possibilities and then collated our information by phone and fax. When it came time to view and test-drive potential trucks this was also accomplished separately, at locations 200 kilometres apart. Arrangements and all preliminary design specifications were made with Brimarco via a three way phone fax link up and were finalised during a flying visit to Ballarat by Helen Underwood from Carrathool Shire and myself. Even the artwork for the outside of the van was organised long distance. Preliminary ideas were faxed by us to the graphic artist and her design was then e-mailed to us for approval.
The completed vehicle hit the road in March and has proved to be a great asset. Both Shires are very pleased with the results and most importantly our users are very happy with the improvement in their facilities and access.
by Susan Killman
