VALA Guest Speaker Event
Library Space Oddity…
A rare opportunity to hear from two of the leading lights in Australian library design when Mal Booth (UTS) and Patti Manolis (Geelong Regional Library) join forces for a special VALA event.
Using Design Thinking in Libraries – presented by Mal Booth
“Design Thinking isn’t a panacea to all of life’s problems, but it does help in the right circumstances and as it can be applied quite flexibly, it is a bit of fun and a productive way to approach some rather onerous challenges” – Mal Booth.
Various design challenges have presented themselves at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Library in recent years. These have principally involved spaces, services and their organisation, and many have been successfully overcome with the use of Design Thinking (DT) Processes. Mal Booth will speak about how UTS started along the path of applying DT and how the UTS library staff have progressed through mentorships, partnerships and projects to successfully implementing DT themselves and even running their own workshops to share some of their in-house processes. He will illustrate his presentation with real examples of planning processes, in-house projects and mentoring.
Planning a Library From The Ground Up – presented by Patti Manolis
“Public libraries are an essential ingredient in the recipe for community wellbeing” – Patti Manolis
The City of Greater Geelong recently announced funding for a new Geelong Library and Heritage Centre to be located in Geelong’s Cultural Precinct. Patti Manolis will talk about the planning of this new exciting multistorey central library for the Geelong Regional Library Corporation Network. The iconic architecturally designed building will provide central library services for the region’s network of libraries and stand as a key cultural and learning institution in the centre of the City.
About our Speakers
Mal Booth is part of the management team at UTS Library and responsible for Library operations, planning the Library of the Future (which will incorporate an automated Library Retrieval System) and providing strategic guidance to their RFID project. He was formerly Head of the Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial and responsible for its library, archive and the Memorial’s web strategy, specifically with regard to the use of Web 2.0 initiatives. Since 2001 he has been an advocate for digital convergence in the delivery of web services and resources via the cultural institution’s websites. From 2006 to 2008 he curated the Lawrence of Arabia & the Light Horse exhibition combining the physical exhibition and many curator-led tours with a dynamic online presence via a blog and digitised war diaries from the Australian Light Horse. In late 2008 he made the first curatorial visit to a war zone by one of the Memorial’s librarian/archivists to identify, record and collect records of war from Australian forces before they withdrew from Iraq.
Patti Manolis is the Chief Executive Officer of the Geelong Regional Library Corporation, a role she has undertaken for 6 years. The Corporation provides library services to 4 Local Government areas from a growing network of 16 libraries and two mobile libraries. The organisation has undergone major transformation including significant cultural change as well as new library building developments and refurbishments. Patti’s activities include membership of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s International Network of Emerging Library Innovators, Cohort One comprising 18 members from around the world. She has been a working group member on a number of State Library of Victoria landmark research projects including Libraries Building Communities; Dollars, sense and public libraries; and currently for a project documenting the cultural benefits of public libraries. In 2003 Patti was awarded the State Library of Victoria’s Margery C Ramsay Scholarship which funded a study tour of Libraries in Timor- Leste which led to the establishment of Libraries for Timor-Leste Inc which supports the development of libraries in the very new nation of Timor-Leste. Patti has worked in public libraries for over 30 years and has loved every minute of it. She believes strongly that they are an essential ingredient in the recipe for community wellbeing.
FREE ENTRY
Follow the links below and register to attend – registration is free.
Not a VALA member?
Visitors are welcome at VALA meetings – but registration is essential!
VENUE
Dulcie Hollyock Room
Ground Floor, Baillieu Library,
University of Melbourne.
(Public transport via train or tram.
On-street parking in surrounding area – have gold coins available.)
DATE & TIME
Wednesday 28 August 2013, 5:30 for 6:00 – 7:30pm
Complimentary drinks and nibbles on arrival; join us afterwards for pay-as-you-go dinner with VALA Committee and our Speakers at University House.
Dinner RSVP: Please RSVP by 5.00 p.m. Monday 26 August to: vala@vala.org.au or (03) 9844 2933, clearly indicating that you will be joining us for dinner.
For any enquiries contact VALA Secretariat via vala@vala.org.au or (03) 9844 2933