Moksha Anand did her Masters of Social Work (QUT) placement in the Regional Partnerships (RP) team at State Library of Queensland. This presentation outlines her community engagement with the Indian community, outreach plans and evaluation of activities in Logan Council’s libraries.

1. Logan City Council Libraries
Community Engagement with the
Indian Community
Presented by Moksha Anand
(Master of Social Work)

2. Introduction
The purpose of the research was to develop
a community engagement report for
promoting Logan Libraries and Cultural
Services’ venues, collections, programs and
services amongst the Indian community.
Moreover, to obtain demographical
information of users, non-users and under
user of Logan library among the Indian
community.
The study was done in two parts:
• Analysis of the Indian community residing
in the City of Logan.
• Survey conducted

3. Demographic Census (2011)
• Underwood has the highest percentage
of community members with Indian
ancestry in the city of Logan (4.4%).
• Meadowbrook has the second highest
percentage (2.5%) of community
members with Indian ancestry.
• Followed by Woodridge (2.4%).
• Languages spoken at
home
• Hindi is the most common language
spoken at home (1.6% in Meadowbrook
and 1.4% in Underwood).
4.4%
2.5% 2.4%
0.0%
0.5%
1.0%
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
3.0%
3.5%
4.0%
4.5%
5.0%
Underwood Meadowbrook Woodridge
Percentageasperancestry
Logan City Suburbs

4. Languages other than English (LOTE Collection)
LOTE Collections are held in the
following Indian languages:
• Hindi
• Punjabi
• Tamil
• Gujarati
• Urdu
• Note the good signage in the
picture

5. Issues finding LOTE collections in libraries
• Different libraries in Logan were
visited when conducting this
research.
• In some libraries, LOTE
collections were difficult to find
for specific languages because
not all libraries were using the
eye-catching Languages
Collections signage as per the
previous slide.

6. Methodology
• A survey was conducted
• I called different Indian organisations
• Had face to face conversations by
visiting different locations such as a
Sikh temple, a Hindu temple and Indian
grocery stores
• Purpose - to understand and analyse
how the Libraries and Cultural Services
venues are being utilised by the Indian
community.
• I asked:
• What are the major services being
used?
• How can the services can be promoted
to encourage more Indian users?

7. Survey Participants
A survey was performed with:
• 115 participants from different
Logan City Council areas
• mixed age group from 16-55.
• People from different religions
for example Gujarati, Tamil,
Sikh, Bengali and Hindu.

8. Survey Findings
Data analysis reveals that:
• 55% of the participants were not using any of
these libraries and Cultural Services venues
• 45% are using the services
• The most commonly used services, programs
and collections are
• 40% Justice of peace
• 35% Wi Fi
• 30% scanning
• 30% books
• 20% Yoga and meditation
• The least used are
• Tech Savvy Seniors 5%
• Horticulture 3%
• Meeting Room 1%

9. Data analysis reveals that
• 40% stated that there is a lack of
awareness
• 20% reported that there is a lack
of availability of public
transportation
• 10% raised concerned about lack
of time
Survey Findings

10. Community suggested that to
promote the programs, services and
collections among the Indian
community Logan should:
• Advertise - 35%
• 15% suggested increasing the
availability of public transport
• 10% recommended organising
cultural programs around special
Indian festivals
Survey Findings

11. Apart from identifying the barriers
17% suggested that Logan Libraries and Cultural
Services venues are doing a good job in providing
services - for example books for loan, children’s
workshops, technology workshops, etc.

12. Case Study
It was found that one lady has
been using the libraries for many
years for a variety of purposes
for the whole family but she was
still not aware of the LOTE
collections.

13. Case Study
• A woman in her twenties said
she used a meeting room for
dance practices with her
friends and family members to
prepare for a function.
• However only 1% of those
surveyed knew of or used
meeting rooms.
• She only used Marsden
Library as she was not aware
that other Logan Libraries are
open till late.

14. Case Study Observation
From these examples we can observe
that there is still a lack of awareness of
library services among the Indian
community.

15. Outcomes and Learnings
•After doing the survey it was found
that it is beneficial to have face to
face contact with the Indian
community.
• Advocacy proved to be one of the
strongest means of reaching the
community.

16. Opportunity
• What is community champions?
• Meet community Champions
while doing the survey?
• Important of community
champions?

17. SLQ Welcome toolkit was used
• The target was the Indian
community
• The resources needed, was the
library membership booklets and
What’s on booklet.
• Engagement with Indian community
was made at different places.
• Engagement was made with the
participants, by having face to face
conversations.

18. Evaluation and Reflection
• Low awareness of Libraries
services, programs and collections.
• The challenge was that Indian
people were not aware of the library
services.
• The only barrier for me was Hindu
temples were not open throughout
the day. Forward planning was
needed.

19. Recommendations 1
• There is a need for targeted marketing
regarding libraries services, programs
and collections for the Indian
community:
• Using Indian radio channels (for
example Radio 4EB).
• Flyers, posters displayed at temples
and Indian grocery stores.
• Council Facebook used to promote
specific library or art gallery events to
the Indian community.

20. Recommendations 2
• Opportunities to:
• Make the Indian community aware of the
Virtual 24/7 library for easy access
• Organise Indian cultural programs at library
venues can be a way to attract users and
make them aware of the services available.
• Seek library or art gallery volunteers from a
Indian background
• Provide visible labelling and signage of library
material (books and DVDs) at all times.

21. Thank You !!!