celebrating birdsland

Birdsland then and now, a fascinating local history event.

 

Belgrave’s Birdsland Reserve and surrounds are prized by local walkers and nature lovers. Almost everyone has their own Birdsland story.  

The area serves as wildlife corridor, flood retarding basin, wetland, indigenous plant nursery and environment education centre, as well as providing a large network of walking and cycling trails.

Yet Birdsland’s calmness belies a dramatic and, at times tragic, history of pioneers and politics.

In this local history event hear a panel of speakers with first-hand connections relate the historic milestones of this much loved land, and share your own knowledge with others.

Speakers include:

Marion Preston, of Nixon Rd speaking on the early pioneers tragedies & hardships focusing on Dargon, Nixon and Brandt.
Betty Marsden, on the Shire's purchase of the property
Kelly O'Brien, on the present varied uses and significance of the reserve

Where: Belgrave Library, Reynolds Lane, Belgrave

When:  Thursday 9 Oct at 1:30pm
Cost: Free, but bookings required 9754 7266 or online

 

30 years for mooroolbark library

It was great to be part of celebrations for the Mooroolbark Library, last week the library clicked over 30 years of service to the local community.

As well as being a Yarra Ranges Councillor, I’m the Deputy
Chair of the Eastern Regional Libraries Corp (ERL).
Here I am with ERL CEO, Jospeh Cullen,
celebrating 30 years of Mooroolbark Library.
It’s great to be part of such a well loved service.

The decision to build a library was made by the council of the day back in 1983, the budget was $313,500, fully funded by council and construction took seven months.

The library opened with 15,000 books, 70 magazine titles, newspapers, music and spoken word cassettes. It also included a junior and teen section and toys for children to play with, allowing parents/carers to more easily search the shelves.

The collection was catalogued using microfiche. How things have changed in 30 years.

Today the library receives over 87,000 visits per year and just under 166,000 items are loaned. In an emerging area for libraries, certainly not envisaged back in 1984, last year library users logged on to use 9,632 hours of free internet, whilst there were 3,356 connections to the free wifi service as well.

Services have gone well beyond supplying toys to children, last year the Mooroolbark Library held delivered storytime to 3,648 children (and 2,265 adults).  

As part of Mooroolbark Library’s 30^th, visitors watched local chef Steve Wilson from Bulong Estate create some chef magic with birthday cakes and canapés and all enjoyed the fruits of his labour as part of the celebration.

Libraries are so much more than repositories for books, it’s great to see them maintaining their place as well loved community spaces for people to connect and continue life long learning.

tomorrow's library coming?

Earlier this year I had the role of presenting to the Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Libraries as part of the Tomorrow's Library consultations. The MAC was set up as a response to the sudden news that the government was reducing funding for our libraries (which was later restored - see blog). The MAC undertook consultations across Victoria to learn what people wanted from their libraries, but the one proviso was that this part of the review was not about funding and it wasn't appropriate to mention it.

I started the presentation by setting the Yarra Ranges context. The dispersed nature of our population provides some unique challenges in providing library services across the municipality. I talked about the challenge of maintaining an adequate collection across 7 branch and 2 mobile libraries and the difficulty of funding this as current state government funding formulas do not recognise the additional pressures that are placed on interface councils like Yarra Ranges.

Current per capita funding for book stock in Yarra Ranges is $3.78 even though the baseline is $5.56 - of this 19.8% is from the state government, or .75cents per capita. It's pretty difficult to talk about library services without mentioning funding, it's such a critical part of the equation.

The state government is due to release the stage one report in November, let's hope there's proper recognition of the challenges we face so we can turn the discussion on how the state can adequately fund libraries into the future.

frocking up for fashion meets fiction

It was terrific to be able to launch the Fashion meets Fiction exhibition coming up at Burrinja.

Fashion meets Fiction is the Eastern Regional Library Corporation's way of marking the National Year of Reading 2012.

Charlotte Smith, Linda Dalziel, Jilly Higgs and
Cr Samantha Dunn. It was wonderful to see
some of the pieces of the Darnell Collection, with
the 1930s, 1950s and 1960s being worn by
Charlotte, Linda and Jilly.

Fashion meets Fiction is an exciting and innovative exhibition concept that brings together the love of popular fiction and its many famous colourful characters with the cultural trend towards high end fashion, and particularly period pieces.

Cr Samantha Dunn, Charlotte Smith, Shannon
Anderson from Guide Dogs Victoria, Willow
the Guide Dog and Marion Boyce
(costume designer for Phyrne Fisher).

The exhibition will travel through time and the popular culture and fiction of the periods, drawing together the threads of character, period, fashion and finery.

Visitors will be able to see what Phryne Fisher might have worn on her adventures, how Elizabeth Bennet might have looked as she sparred with Mr Darcy or how Holly Golightly dressed on her visit to Tiffanys.

The Eastern Regional Libraries has proudly partnered with Guide Dogs Victoria as our charity partner and is also sponsored by Computers for All and Digital Education Services.

There's an exciting range of events around the exhibition including a catwalk event, cocktail evening, night time viewings, workshops, education programs, Valentine's Day event, meet the author sessions with Kerry Greenwood and opportunities to meet Charlotte Smith, custodian and curator of the the Darnell Collection and author of Dreaming of Dior and Dreaming of Chanel, which have been exceedlingly popular and now into new editions due to demand.

It will provide a great opportunity for local businesses, including B&B's, who can leverage off the exhibition.  If you're a local business and would like to explore the opportunities you can contact Lorraine Seeger at ERL on lorraine.seeger@erl.vic.gov.au.

To keep up to date with exhibition details visit Burrinja here.

libraries get more flexible

Cr Samantha Dunn checks out the Yarra Ranges
new Flexi Vehicle, built especially to deliver
library services to more people in Yarra Ranges.

I had a wonderful morning launching the new Yarra Ranges Library Flexi Vehicle service up at Wesburn Primary School.

The flexi vehicle will provide greater access to library resources and programs, including early literacy, to areas in the Yarra Ranges that we haven't been able to reach.

The Flexi Vehicle is representative of the work the Yarra Ranges has done over recent years to transform our library services and develop early literacy programs. Our transition to Reading Rooms in community facilities has been a resounding success, with many more community members utilising library services.



The design of the Flexi Vehicle makes it very versatile
and easy to restock with appropriate and
targetted book stock.

Our Early Literacy Project, which utilises trained volunteer storytellers, will be complemented by the Flexi Vehicle which will be able to used in many settings including playgroups and preschools.

The Flexi Vehicle willl also be able to go to more remote places in the Shire, as well as residential care facilities and caravan parks, opening up our library services and providing access and equity for so many more people.

I've been part of the team on the Library Strategy and Action Plan committee, it's great to see this vehicle in place as part of that strategy and library services getting to so many more people.



Being able to reach out to more community members
is great, you might even see the Flexi Vehicle at
community festivals and footy matches too.

samantha in the press - vlga

Local councillors' hard work holds up the third tier
Herald Sun
opinion: Samantha Dunn
11 July, 2012

samantha in the press - libraries

Hub reading booked in Yarra Ranges
Leader Newspapers
by Kimberley Seedy
6 Jan 2012

erl poetry competition winners announced

It was terrific to be part of the awards presentation for this years Eastern Regional Libraries National Poetry competition.

Here I am pictured with local winner Donald and competition judge, Alicia Sometimes.

Each year the Library corporation alternates between a storywriting competition and a poetry competition.

This year was poetry's turn and the competition was fierce.

Competition judge, Alicia Sometimes, was impressed by the depth and scope of entries.

Winners for 2011 include:
Junior section $ 200 - Taman for Defying Gravity
Teenage section $300 - Christel Anliker for Australian Serenity
Local section $500 - Donald for Dick and Jane on TV
First Prize $1,000 - Nelson for On Testicular Failure

Eastern Regional Libraries are proud to support poetry and the National Poetry Competition.

samantha in the press - libraries

Status quo on eastern library funds
Yarra Ranges Weekly
by Michelle McCullough
23 August 2011

Yarra Ranges teens rewrite the book
Leader Newspapers
by Alex Munro
23 August 2011

samantha in the press - libraries

Yarra Ranges fears devil in the detail in library funds
Leader Newspapers
by Alex Munro
22 Aug 2011

samantha in the press - libraries

Yarra Ranges fears devil in the detail in library funds
Leader Newspapers
by Alex Munro
22 August 2011

poetry writing competition underway

Eastern Regional Libraries National Poetry Writing Competion is underway again.

The competition is a great way for writers to put pen to paper and submit their work for an award.

Prizes will be awarded for:
Adult $1,000
Local Award $500 - for residents of Yarra Ranges, Knox and Maroondah
Teenage $300 - 13 to 18 years
Junior $200 - 9 to 12 years

This year's judge is Alicia Sometimes, Australian writer, poet, broadcaster and musician. Her radio show on 3RRR is Aural Text (and don't forget to subscribe to 3RRR as it's their annual radiothon). She's a poetry and science nut and is dedicated to taking poetry to fascinating places.

It's a great opportunity for budding and experienced writers alike. If you'd like to find out conditions of entry or download an entry form click here.

Entries close Friday 30 September, 2011.

samantha in the press - libraries

Library service for Monbulk
Leader Newspapers
by Kimberley Seedy
17 Aug 2011

samantha in the press - libraries

Eastern libraries get a reprieve
Yarra Ranges Weekly
by Melissa Cunningham
9 Aug 2011

Books back in the black
Mail Newspapers
by Casey Neill
9 Aug 2011

Funding for libraries to be restored
Leader Newspapers
9 Aug 2011

library funding returned and review on the cards

Late last week the Minister for Local Government, Jeanette Powell, announced funding of $6.5million for Victorian libraries.

It was in response to the government's decision to withdraw funding from our libraries, which was unannounced in July (see blog). The government initially blamed the ALP for the shortfall, given the budget was handed down by the Liberal/National coalition, this is difficult to understand.

The Minister's latest announcement is a step in the right direction, it's good to see the government has taken action to return funding to libraries. It is also good to see the government has committed to a longer term review of libraries, their services and their funding.

The detailed information and funding agreements are still to come and we all know the devil is always in the detail but it seems so far:

The good news:
~ Funding was reinstated to last year's level to libraries across the state.
~ There will be a comprehensive review of library services and funding arrangements, this will be an opportunity to highlight the continuing unsustainable funding model for our libraries, state government only contributes 19% funding to our libraries and their contribution goes down every year regardless of whether it's a Labor or Liberal/National coalition government, this funding inequity needs urgent redress and hopefully the review will provide a mechanism to make this happen.

The bad news:
~ Yarra Ranges indexed library funding has not been reinstated for this year meaning our budget still has a shortfall, although the extent of the shortfall isn't known as yet. Only when we receive the details will we know what's really on the table and what we'll lose for this year (11/12).

samantha in the press - libraries

Library battle's one for the books
Yarra Ranges Weekly
by Melissa Cunningham
2 Aug 2011

samantha in the press - libraries

Libraries in a bind
Yarra Ranges Weekly
by Melissa Cunningham
26 July 2011

samantha in the press - libraries

Pledge to fight Libs' library cuts
Leader Newspapers
by Alex Munro
20 July 2011

samantha in the press - libraries

Books shelved
Mail Newspapers
by Russell Bennett
19 July 2011

samantha in the press - libraries

Anger at moves to cut library funding
Lilydale Leader
by Alex Munro
18 July 2011