Burnside's other languages site

On Friday I posted Charles Sturt's use of their Enterprise site to provide a tailored service to their NESB communities.  It appears that Burnside has also been busy creating a similar site - see here. In fact I'm reliably informed that Burnside was the genesis of this idea - further developed by Charles Sturt. Apologies to Burnside for not being aware of this great work earlier.

The site highlights the library's 5 major languages - Korean, Chinese, Japanese, French and German, with the pre-defined searches divided into DVDs, books and music for each language.  And for all 37 languages collected across the State there is a predefined search that covers all media.  The searches look across all of the holdings across the State, so people using this site at Burnside can find all items in their language through this site.  The page also has links to a range of other useful resources such as IELTS, language kits, newspapers etc.

Matthew Spearman - acting library manager at Burnside described the development of the page thus, "This simple and practical design considers the language limitations of new arrivals to Australia and was created by a very clever Penny McInnis here at the Burnside Library.   Other Councils have since taken our design on board (with permission / assistance) and many more have been asking us about doing the same.  It is a real success story in creativity and partnerships across the sector all sourcing from a single individual who had a neat idea."

I'm delighted to see such a great development.  And the fact that staff at Burnside are happy to provide support for others who want to develop something similar is a real testament to the professionalism & sharing ethos which exists across our network.