Fairfield Libraries HSC program 2012

Unleash Your Potential! Fairfield City Library Service HSC Lecture Program

HSC High Fliers Lecture Program (1)Why do we run the lectures?Fairfield City Library Service has offered the HSC LectureProgram since 1995.Our Library Manager and Council are fully supportive of the HSClecture program and recognise the value in what we are doing.• The HSC age group is a major user group in the library.• The lectures are seen as a significant event, adding value tothe community, complementing/supporting the work schoolsdo as well as meeting council’s vision of life long learning.The lecture program has helped create positive relationshipsbetween the Library and the 13 high schools in the LGA bysupporting the information needs of Year 12 students.

HSC High Fliers Lecture Program (2)Over the years we have built good relationships with the schoolsand they trust us to provide a quality program and therebyencourage their students to attend. Our lectures are offered foronly $7, similar lectures presented by the same lecturers atSydney University costing much more.Where does the money come from?• There isn’t a separate budget for HSC so it is paid for out of theChildrens/Youth budget. We aim to cost recover and most yearshave recovered our expenses. The money gets paid back into thesame budget before the end of financial year.• The attendance fee the students pay covers the cost of lecturersand insurance

HSC High Fliers Lecture Program (3)The lecture program has changed/expanded over the years interms of:• number of students attending• venues• marketing strategies• range of subjects and workshops offered• content/format of lecturesContinuous Improvement is achieved by adjusting the processof planning, implementing and evaluating the HSC programeach year.

Planning & ImplementationTerm 1: Feb-Mar Term 2: Apr-Jun Term 3: Aug- Contact schools - HSC Marketing Team - Evaluation/debrief- Formulate program formed- Book speakers, - Distribution ofvenues, equipment fliers/promotion - Lectures & workshops held

2008 Attendance Figures 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 No. booked: No. paid: No. attended: Evaluations completed No. booked: 356 No. paid: 288 No. attended: 255 Evaluations completed 227

2009 Attendance Figures 250 200 150 100 50 0 No. booked: No. attended: Evaluations completed No. booked: 223 No. attended: 177 Evaluations completed 151

2008-2009 HSC Lecture Evaluation• The evaluations were encouraging.• Making contact with schools started off well but follow ups werenot particularly successful. Library staff being on leave and off sickalso had an impact.•In 2009 3 schools did not accommodate visits, flyer drops onlywere made to these schools.• Consider having members of the 2010 HSC team visit schools intheir area* so they may develop a better rapport with students –when they visit the library and see a familiar face!• The Deputy Principal from one high school suggested thatmaybe we attend staff meetings in 2010 and address the staffinstead of or in addition to assembly visits for students.

2010 Attendance Figures 250 200 150 100 50 0 No. booked: No. attended: Evaluations completed No. booked: 193 No. attended: 178 Evaluations completed 153

2010 HSC Lecture Evaluation• Again evaluations were positive.BUT• Making contact with the schools continued to be difficultwith 5 schools not organising a visit – staff could only drop offflyers.• We needed to decide if the HSC Lectures program was stillworthwhile. Given the time and effort required to plan andorganise and the attendance numbers that were achieved thisyear.

Possible ExplanationsAttendance had been dropping over the last few years, due toa variety of factors:• Schools offering/organising lectures with the Universities• More libraries offering HSC lectures• Increased social media usage and various websites such asBoard of Studies & Bored of Studies• Private tuition – both 1 on 1 and coaching colleges• These competitive factors have greatly affected ourattendances, students are spoilt for choice, in fact there isinformation overload with perhaps too much choice.Despite these factors we still feel there is value in running thelectures and do not want to see the program end!

Time for a reality check...• Numbers were still dropping – this was disappointing• The barriers we faced getting into schools for visits: - Admin staff not passing on messages - messages going to the wrong staff member - time constraints – school procedures? - reluctant school staff – who’s responsible?• We needed to give serious consideration to: • should we continue? • should we change the format? • did the attendance figures justify the time, effort and cost involved?

Time for some drastic changes (1)1. The number of staff involved in the HSC Team was reduced to3.5 from the original 7 people – this meant consolidating tasksand less meetings!2. Instead of battling to get in to schools to visit Informationpackages were created for the Yr 12 co-ordinators.• Packs included a cover letter, posters and enough flyers for eachYr 12 student as well as a smaller pack for the school librarian.• Packs were left with administration staff at the front desk - thisprocess was not without issues – when we rang the schools tocheck that the packs had been received some teachers had notseen them. Why?

Time for some drastic changes (2)3. The number of lectures was reduced to 3 - English, Businessstudies and Maths (2 unit) – this was down from the usual 5.No. of students booked: 167No. of students attended: 158The attendance figures for 2011 were extremely encouraginggiven the drastic changes we made, suggesting that ourstudents still value this program!

HSC Forum 2011 – Let’s lock them in!After hearing the success stories of HSC lock-ins at last yearsHSC Forum, we returned to work wanting to conduct ourown.Time constraints and logistics – security, money forpresenters – plus already having our regular HSC lecturesplanned, meant we had to shelve the idea.We would still like to trial a lock in during 2012 – duringstuvac September 2012 – and are putting together a proposalas we speak.

What’s new for 2012 (1)Once again we are trialling some new ideas:Picture book resources that may be usedas additional/related texts for theHSC English – Area of Study - Belonginghave been relocated to a special HSCresources display at our main library.These items are available on 1 week loan,can be reserved and transferred tobranches upon request.DVDs and other material types will beadded as we develop the collection.

What’s new for 2012 (2)The Library’s Facebook and Twitter accounts have now beenlaunched to the public & the HSC team is planning to use socialmedia to connect with our HSC students.Covert monitoring of last year’s HSC students (we searched for and read their tweets about us)tells us Twitter might just work!The HSC High Fliers blog will be ‘retired’ as it has been evaluatedas ineffective for the amount of staff time required to maintain.Additionally, a revamp of our HSC High Fliers resources and linkson the website will be released at the same time as the HSCLecture Program for 2012. ‘Fairfield City Library Service’ @FLD_Library

Want to find out more?Manjit UppalOutreach Librarian - Children & YouthPh: 02 9725 0330Email: muppal@fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.auwww.fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au/library Our Libraries...making lives brighter!

Fairfield Libraries HSC program 2012

by PublicLibraryServices on Mar 28, 2012

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Fairfield Libraries HSC program 2012 Presentation Transcript