00:05 (PROGRAM THEME)
Let's. Take a look. To take a look inside the book. Take a look...
00:24 S1
Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Frances Keyland, and you're listening to the Vision Australia Library show, where we talk about books in the Vision Australia collection. Today our special guest is community engagement coordinator Maureen O'Reilly. And I think today's show is a great example of the power of your libraries anywhere. If you're a member of any library, just even signing up to a library helps that library survive. And you can use a library any way you want. You can just pop in every month or every day. You can read the newspapers that are always on hand. You can be as involved as you like in library events? Or do you just might want to borrow some books?
Libraries are there for the public, and a lot of people may not be members of their library, their local library, or indeed our library. But if you join a library, you add your voice to the community just by being a member. And that shows any funding bodies like the government that libraries are important. And in this day and age where there are cuts happening, and in Britain particularly and in in the USA, a lot of libraries are being curtailed in the services they offer, whether you're for or against censorship, censorship. That's a big topic now with our books. So I thought today's show is just a great example of what libraries can offer when they have a membership that has numbers large enough to be able to create a community and show the powers that be just how important they are.
So without further ado, here is Maureen. Here we are back in the studio with Maureen O'Reilly, the community engagement coordinator here. Hey, Maureen. How are you?
02:16 S2
I'm excellent, Frances. A little bit snotty, so I sound a bit weird, but I'm feeling very good.
02:20 S1
Oh, you look chipper. And you sound chipper, so that's the main thing for us. Excellent. How have you been? And what are you... yeah, how has the last month been?
02:29 S2
Well, we're just in a very strange mode, actually. We're sort of winding up nearly all of our programs. So after an absolutely frantic year, it is quite surreal to suddenly just see that everything's finishing and that there's nothing much left on the end of horizon for this year. So we've had a massive year. I was looking back over it when we were doing our planning for next year, and we've had 16 reading programs and events, and we had eight writing programs and events, which means that overall we had 24 programs and events and 61 individual sessions throughout this year, so I think that's why I'm starting to feel a bit tired.
03:08 S1
Oh, you'll deserve that break at the end of the year for sure!
03:11 S2
But it's been a really, really good year. So so many positives. And I just think that it's great to finish on a high. We've got two left to get through, and I'm hoping to have a really good level of participation from our members at those.
03:26 S1
Yeah. So what are those?
03:27 S2
Well, we have our final In Conversation for the year with Monica McInerney. So that's going to be very exciting. That is the 27th of November and that's at 6 p.m.. So it's a bit later than usual because Monica is joining us from Dublin. And she didn't fancy getting up at three in the morning.
03:44 S1
No.
03:45 S2
So that will be wonderful. Monica is on sabbatical at the moment, so she hasn't had a new release come out for a little while, but I'm sure she's got a lot of creative thoughts bubbling away in the background that she wants to share with us.
03:58 S1
And a fantastic back catalogue.
04:00 S2
Ah, a back catalogue... it's like an entire library of our own. Many of which are in the Australian Library in various formats. So we're very, very fortunate to have a good, good coverage of Monica's works.
04:13 S1
Yeah. Lovely way to ease into the holiday season. Yeah.
04:16 S2
So we'd love our members to join us. You can... post some questions for Monica into the chat. You can listen to Kylie, who is our new children's librarian, who's going to be interviewing Monica. So I thought everyone must be sick of the sound of my voice because I did... Candice the other day and I will be doing Emily Maguire next year, early in the year, so we thought we'd put a different interview in the mix.
04:38 S1
Fantastic. It's always nice to meet the new staff members.
04:41 S2
It is.
04:41 S1
Indeed. What else is happening?
04:43 S2
Well, we also have our final Treat Yourself, which is on the 11th of December at 11 a.m. and this is a Treat Yourself Christmas party. So it will be online, but it will also be in person. So we're really hoping that any of our Victorian, particularly metropolitan Victorian members can come in and join us even if they don't normally come to a treat yourself. If you've been to any of our writing programs or other reading programs, or you like to listen to our own conversations, come along. Meet the librarians, we'll have heaps of us there. Have a cup of tea or coffee or... a little muffin. And we're all going to have a chat about our summer reading list. So what it is that we're looking at reading over the summer break.
05:28 S1
And has that been finalised yet and going to be unveiled at that event, or is it still being worked on?
05:34 S2
Oh, no individual ones. So what my reading list is, I'll chat about you can chat about your choices. All our wonderful members can chat about theirs, so it'll be a melting pot of ideas. Oh, wow. So normally what we do is we talk about a specific genre. So our last one was Halloween. So we did horror stories and so forth. Prior to that it was historical fiction, but this one will just be, What are you planning to read? What are you looking forward to? Having a bit of time to sit down and read?
06:02 S1
That sounds like a great idea.
06:04 S2
Yeah, and I think all of our librarians are really looking forward to a break. We've just had the library transformation with the new catalog, so I think they're all a bit weary and looking forward to curling up with a nice book over summer.
06:18 S1
Yeah, I must say I am absolutely thrilled with the new catalog and all the new online catalog and being able to search for all of our narrators now, which you couldn't do for, you know, for a little while, a few years.
06:32 S2
Oh, the that is in many ways for our members, the most obvious and most beneficial aspect of it. The number of categories and subcategories that you can search by has just absolutely exploded. It's exponentially grown everywhere, so you can get really precise results on your searches for what you're looking for. But as you said, you can search authors. You can search narrators. It's just wonderful.
07:00 S1
And keywords as well, because sometimes, you know, in the world there's something on, you know, well, an obvious one is Palestine. So now not only will you be able to search and come up with the titles that have Palestine in them, but a key word in the synopsis, anything that mentions Palestine, which is just so... important for researching things.
07:18 S2
Well, I think it is, because often also titles, they're very creative and people will have a very creative book title that's not necessarily directly reflective of what the book is about. Yes. So therefore, having the ability to search via the synopsis, which is usually a very good indication of what the book's about, sometimes will give you a better result.
07:41 S1
Absolutely. That puts me in mind of I'm going to play a sample in this show of Chloe Hooper's book about, um, I think it's something about arsonists, anyway. But I remember we used to send out a Child's Book of True Crime, which she wrote years and years ago. And when we used to get notes coming back, it would be people like just the title was so misleading, people would put notes in, like, I didn't even try to read this. Why would I want a children's book? And then other people writing notes like True crime for children, you know.
08:12 S2
So are you trying to do to a new generation?
08:14 S1
Yes. So, yeah, book titles can be very deceptive.
08:17 S2
So now the new.... I suppose we'll call it software, or the platform that we're working on. It is absolutely amazing. Like all new implementations, you know, there's always a bedding down period. So there's been a few hiccups along the way. But seriously, product is just so superior. And and members will love it. And yes, in many ways when you look at the catalog it is no different. So the apps are the same, the kiosk is the same, everything's the same. But when you start searching, you'll find that the criteria you can put in is... so much more detailed. So therefore you get reflectively much better results.
08:57 S1
Yep. And it's been such a long time in the plans and the devising of it, and it's a massive project. And so yes, congratulations to everybody involved.
09:09 S2
(LAUGHING) Oh, I'll take credit for it.
09:12 S1
Thank you Maureen. Yeah. So what else is... to be talked about?
09:16 S2
Well, what we have now been completely absorbing myself into is the plans for 2025. So we have a whole lot of really exciting new programmes and events for next year. Essentially the same number of events and programs, but a lot of them have been changed. We have new ones that are coming in. We've rested some, we've brought back some that were really popular from a couple of years back. So I'm really, really looking forward to it. So we have a new quarterly program called Book Chat with the Vision Australia Library, and we will have a session in February called Sunkist Summer Book Chat. And then we'll have our autumnal April book chat. And then we'll have a cozy winter book chat in July and a sunny spring book chat in November.
And we will have our wonderful librarians on board who will give a review or precis of two new release books. So basically an overview of them and I suppose a critique of them. We'll then have a discussion of what the participants have been reading recently, so everyone will get to give a little book review of what they've been reading, what they thought of it, why they liked it, was it what they expected? Was it a bit disappointing? Then we will have a discussion on a specific genre. So we're going to look at crime fiction, given that's one of our most popular genres classical fiction, detective and mystery, and then historical fiction and non-fiction. So a different one for each quarter. Quota, and then we'll have the ubiquitous quiz at the end, because everyone loves a good quiz.
So that'll be a great opportunity to have some recommendations from both our librarians, but also from other members of the group. So something to really flesh out people's reading list.
11:08 S1
Yes, yes. And also, you know, you discover so many interesting authors and books that you may not have heard from when you [?hive mind] books.
11:18 S2
Yeah, well, that's what happens when I listen to your show and I go, Oh, that's what I need to read.
11:22 S1
Oh, good. I know I love hearing about books and reading them and yeah, it's wonderful.
11:27 S2
Well, I think you'll love that. So you'll have to join us one week.
11:29 S1
I know I keep on saying I want to keep... yeah, I must be, I want to. That's my New Year's resolution. Become more involved in what the library is doing next year.
11:37 S2
Yeah, well, you'll have to come to one of those. We have them quarterly, and they're book chat with the Vision Australia Library. And you are part of the Vision Australia Library.
11:45 S1
Yep. Thank you.
11:47 S2
So then we also are keeping because it's one of our most popular reading programs, is our In Conversations. So we will have six authors that we will interview throughout the year. We have Emily McGuire, who's joining us in February. She's got a new book that's just been released called rapture, which is actually available in the Vision Australia library. If it's not in the catalogue now, it's going to be within the next couple of days... we'll then have the Melbourne Writers Festival, where we will have a couple of authors from there, and we have a vision impaired author who's joining us and then a number of other authors. So they will be interviewed by myself, by Sarah Bladon, who's the manager of the library, by Leanne Surjadi, who will be coming back, and also by Dave Tredinnick, and then the Melbourne Writers Festival interviewers as well.
12:37 S1
Sounds like a busy year, already really packed and full of full of lovely things.
12:42 S2
Oh, they are lovely things. And then we have a new thing which has come from a lot of feedback from our clients, because we always ask our members to tell us what they'd like to see more of, or anything different. And we're going to have them meet your Vision Australia Library narrators. Oh, so this is something that we have been asked for repeatedly, and we are going to run one of these sessions in June and one in October. So we'll do two throughout the year, dip our toes into the water and see whether or not they're popular with our members. And it will have, I suppose, three parts to it.
We'll introduce the narrator and have a brief overview of their history with Vision Australia. We'll then have them reading from the favourite book that they've narrated over the years, and that will be 20 or 30 minutes of the narrator and their beautiful reading voice just reading to our members. And it's sort of like nearly a bibliotherapy that you can sit there and hear their dulcet tones of one of their favourite books. And then afterwards we'll have a brief interview with the narrator, including questions that our listeners have posed in the chat or they may have posed when they registered for the event.
So I think that's going to be really interesting because everyone loves our narrators and they really have this great rapport with them. They feel like they're friends that they've known for years because they've listened to their voices so much.
14:07 S1
Yes, yes. Oh that's wonderful. Big fandom for narrators.
14:11 S2
Well, I'm really looking forward to that. And then in a similar vein, we're going to have this, it's like a little melting pot of In Conversations and... author readings. So we're going to have three author readings throughout the year. So we will have an introduction to an author with a brief overview of their bio. Who they are will then have a discussion of the book they're reading to the audience, which will probably be their most recent one, but it also may maybe a best seller they've had previously or just their personal favourite, and then they'll be reading from that novel for 20 or 30 minutes, and then at the end, we'll have a closing interview with any questions that people have posed.
So this is... really come from feedback that we often get in our In Conversations, that people would have loved to have heard the author read a segment of their book, but really, In Conversation only goes for an hour and there just isn't time. These three events are going to be very much about author readings. Then, with a little bit of a chat to them about the book as well.
15:20 S1
That sounds fantastic.
15:21 S2
Yeah, I'm really, really excited by it. So that's a newbie for us. And then we will also bring on next year, which we did do this year, the discover the latest reading tools and technology. So we will have Jim and Damo from the Accessibility team join us, and they'll give an overview of the new reading tools and technology that have emerged throughout the year. So that's scheduled for November, which will be 12 months since we ran the last one. And I think that's really, really valuable. And the response to when we ran this year's was really high. So we're all assuming that there'll be new technology that's out there, and that it will be great opportunity for people to see how they could potentially upgrade what they're currently using to actually maximise the vision that they have at the moment.
16:12 S1
What an amazingly interactive, responsive, engaging year it's going to be next year.
16:18 S2
I know well there are reading programs, and if you have time, I can tell you about our writing programs too. Oh yeah. So we will have our writing group, which is a advanced writing program. And this is a nonfiction writing group. So often it's people who want to write a memoir or an autobiography, and it is a very small group that meet monthly, and they will meet ten times throughout the year and work on their larger pieces that they're working on. And we ran one of those writing groups this year and it was exceptionally popular. So we're really looking forward to having a new group of writers join us. And that will run from February to November.
We then also will have Andrea Rowe join us again. Andrea Rowe is a gorgeous, gorgeous children's writer, but she's not going to do children's writing with us this year. She did that or next year. She did that with us this year. Next year she's going to do a program called The Writer's Toolbox. Let's get creative with fiction writing. So this will all be about fiction writing. And she does a program that's about writing from the senses. So we really feel that this will resonate with a lot of our members. It will be four weekly sessions that were run in March, and it's very much to get people tapping into all the senses and making really quite visceral writing.
And then in May, we're bringing back a program that we haven't run since last year, which was very popular, with Maria Takolander, which is Journey Through Poetry. So a lot of our members love writing poetry, and this was a very popular program. So we will have three weekly sessions, and she will run through all different formats of poetry that you can write in. And I love poetry because I think it's very accessible. I think the concept of writing an entire novel can be very, very intimidating, whereas poetry can be as short or as long as you like. And there's a famous book I can't, I want to say Aurora Lee, that's actually a poem. And it's, you know, an inch and a half thick. I studied it at uni, or you can just have tiny little haiku... so, journey through poetry, will be lovely.
Then we are tapping into, again, a very popular genre and something we haven't done since last year, either. We're bringing Jonathan Butler back, who's going to do a course on writing family history. So this is very much about researching and writing family history as distinct from memoir or autobiography. So how to go about researching through your ancestry, you know, starting with the births and deaths and the boat journals of who came over and where to find all those missing facts in your family tree.
19:14 S1
Very useful.
19:15 S2
So that is a great program. We did... well, it will have been two years by the time we run it. And Jonathan was very popular, so very happy to have him back on board. And that would lead perfectly into the National Family History Month in August. So we'll run that in July. And then once we've got everybody all enthusiastic, they can tap into all those events that will be running throughout August. And then we will also repeat... the accessible writing tools. So that was also one that we ran this year and that was also exceptionally popular. So we'll run that 12 months on with a view that there will be advances in technology.
But even if there aren't dramatic advances, we will also have new clients who will be on board or clients that didn't actually attend the last one. So really committed to writing those. We had an amazing response to those, this year. So ideally there'll be an annual event for us, assuming that the technology advances are there to justify that. We're then going to have Emily Maguire join us in September. And she's doing a course which is very much based for beginner writers. So people that aren't sure where to start would like to write something, but really don't know what to do with that little fire inside them. And it's called Finding Your Story, Finding Your Voice. So it's all about getting words on the page fast, discovering your writing voice, overcoming the fear and the self-consciousness when it comes to writing.
So that will be three weekly sessions in September. And I think that's going to be great for people that have had this sort of desire to do it, but think, oh, I don't know that I'm good enough or whatever. This is just going to be a lot of greenie starting out. So I think that'll be very popular with our, our new writers. And then reflecting the fact that people love to read crime fiction in our membership, we thought that we'd do a crime fiction writing program.
S1
Wow.
S2
Because I take the assumption, if you like to read it, you might like to write it as well. So that will be our last writing program for the year. That will be four sessions in November. I'm hoping that will be popular. I don't believe we've done a crime fiction writing one before. That will be interesting to see whether or not that gets a lot of enthusiasm as well.
21:32 S1
I reckon it will. I mean, that's my feeling, you know.
21:36 S2
Yeah, I think so. I think if you like to read them, then you'll probably like to write them. And then we have one more. I suppose it's more of a promotion that we're going to do in October, which is in partnership with our transcription services. So we have a wonderful service that's open to Vision Australia library members, where they can have 360 pages of writing really transcribed into whatever accessible format they would like. So audio, Braille, large print, and people utilise this for... letters, for bills, utility bills for manuals. So TV manuals, microwave manuals, really anything that... old recipes, that's another favourite. Oh yes. People have their favorite recipe books.
But gee, I reckon that print is just shrinking over time because it's getting harder for me. So we are going to do a promotion then. That's about utilising the transcription services for writing Christmas cards to family and friends.
22:40 S1
Oh lovely idea. Yeah. And also just because I often at Christmas time, you know, you kind of get out your old, your grandmother's handwritten recipe, and they're lovely to have. But if you... want to have it put into audio or something like that, all those family recipes that have been handed down.
22:56 S2
Yeah. So it's really just... well, it's a twofold thing. One, we'd love people to be writing. And what's a more beautiful thing to write than a Christmas card? And then we really want to help facilitate people engaging and reaching out to their family and friends at that time of year as well, particularly if they're friends or... interstate or overseas, and it's difficult to see them. But also what we think is really important is that it's promoting the transcription services because it is an amazing resource for people.
23:30 S1
Yep. It is. And I think I mentioned in a show recently about how wonderful it is to get things transcribed. And sometimes they end up in the library so everyone can share them.
23:39 S2
Exactly. So it is really, really a jam-packed year. But there's a... lot of favourites in there, but there's also a lot of new things to do. So I'm hoping it will inspire some people who haven't been involved in our programs and events before to go, Yeah, Maureen doesn't sound like a nut. I reckon it'll be all right. We could spend some time with her. Yeah.
24:03 S1
Yeah, she sounds nice. Yeah.
24:05 S2
And we have the lure that we will be bringing Leanne back from maternity leave. So.
24:09 S1
Yeah. Nice to see Leanne again.
24:11 S2
Oh, yes.
24:12 S1
I was just going to ask something else. What was it?
24:15 S2
Well, I did have one more thing. Oh, yeah. And it may have been what you were going to ask, which was leading into Christmas about Braille.
24:20 S1
Oh, yeah.
24:22 S2
Yes. That was definitely what you're going to ask. That was it?
24:24 S1
Yeah, you read my mind.
24:25 S2
Okay. So I just wanted to remind all our Braille members that from November 18th until December 13th of this year, they can request up to five extra books to cover the end of year shutdown. So we do shut down for a period of time over Christmas. So we just want to make sure that our Braille members have enough books to see them through the silly season, so they can request up to five extra books in addition to their normal requests that they would put in. But you need to get those in between November 18th and December 13th.
25:02 S1
Great. Great advice.
25:04 S2
I'm full of great advice.
25:06 S1
Well, thank you for coming in with all of that lovely, oh, planning for next year and those exciting events. If somebody really wants to keep on top of what's happening with the library, what are the best ways?
25:17 S2
The best way is to visit the Vision Australia Library website. So you just go to visionaustralia.org/library ... Library. And if you scan down a tiny bit, you'll see what's on. And that's where we list all of our events. So we won't have them all up at the start of the year because it would take up the entire website. But we will progressively put on what's going on in January and February and then what's on in March and April and throughout the year. We will just add more to it. So keep an eye on that.
And the other wonderful place is a Vision Australia Library newsletter. So that comes out bi monthly and that always has all of our upcoming programs and events. It has reading lists in there. It has loads of information about anything exciting happening in the library. So all of our members should be receiving the Vision Australia Library newsletter. And if they're not, it may be that they have elected to opt out of email communications. So if you're not getting it and want to make sure that you ring up and you change those preferences in your membership, and it's very simple. We can tick a box for you, and then you'll have that newsletter popping up every two months in your inbox.
26:31 S1
That's so exciting. I love getting it. Yeah.
26:32 S2
Oh, I see you love getting it because I write it. There you go.
26:35 S1
Yeah, yeah. Mutual appreciation happening here.
26:40 S2
I love writing it. And you love reading it. It's just wonderful.
26:44 S1
Thank you so much, Maureen, for coming in today.
26:47 S2
And I love coming in.
26:48 S1
So thank you. And we'll hear from you again next month.
26:51 S2
You will, next month will come full of Christmas joy. Yep. Maybe we'll bring pretend champagne and we'll toast Christmas. Yeah.
26:59 S1
Maybe some... you know, like crackers. Pull them a bit of an explosion over the radio.
27:03 S2
Oh, good. I hope you weren't talking eating crackers, because that wasn't going to come through well over the radio.
27:09 S1
Thank you. Maureen, it's always a pleasure.
27:11 S2
Thanks you, Frances.
27:17 S1
Thank you so much for joining us on Hear This today. And thank you to Maureen O'Reilly, Community Engagement Coordinator here at the Vision Australia Library. And just to reiterate the whole importance of library and how funding works, that the more members a library has, the more funding that library can get to offer all the services that they do offer. So keep that in mind. If you are at home and thinking, Oh, maybe I should join the Vision Australia Library. If you have a print disability of any kind... so that can be due to vision impairment or blindness., it can be a dyslexic condition, it can be a motor neuron condition... the library is always welcoming new members because we need to keep this library alive and as engaging and vibrant as we can.
So you can always call the library on 1300 654 656. That's 1300 654 656. Or you can email the library@visionaustralia.org - that's library at Vision Australia dot org. Have a lovely week and we'll be back next week with more Hear This.
