Interview Highlight: Maureen O'Reilley - VA Library

Published Dec 11, 2024, 1:06 AM

With key dates for ordering braille books before Christmas coming up, Maureen O Reilly, from the Vision Australia Library, fills in Peter Greco with the details. Also new information regarding accessing books online and news about a series of workshops for budding writers.

More info: Vision Australia Library

Always fun catching up with our friends from the Vision Australia library. Well, we know Riley is certainly one of those. Hello, Maureen.

Hello, Taylor. How are you?

I'm going especially well, and I'm sure many of our listeners, many of your readers are looking forward to some leisure time, extra leisure time to do some reading over the holiday period.

So I think traditionally, holidays is a time when, particularly after the manic lead up to Christmas, that everyone just looks forward to, whether they're on a beach or they're at a holiday house, or they're just enjoying their couch, having some time catching up on some reading, and just getting a bit of peace and quiet in their lives.

Indeed. Now you've made a little a few little changes to your library or the way people access your library a few weeks ago.

We did indeed. We have got our new catalogue system, which is in place, and the feedback on the catalogue system has been amazing because from a member perspective, the main difference Friends is the many different categories and subcategories that you can search under, so you can search by genre. You can search by different categories. You can search by author. So if you've got a favorite type of book or a favorite author, you can just have automatic population of your bookshelf, which is wonderful. So every time you go to your VA app or your envoy, then all the books that you're actually wanting are there and you can be quite specific over what you want. So the number of categories and subcategories is so much wider than it used to be, which not only means that you get to make sure that the books that are populating your bookshelf are things you want to read. You also can make sure that they're not the things that you don't want to be reading. So that's always a bit a bit better than getting a chapter into a book and going, oh, this isn't really what I thought it was going to be.

Not so true now.

So I would like to thank everyone also for their patience, because whenever you put a new computer system in, there's always a little bit of pain along the way. So our members were really very, very patient with us. And I must say the resulting product has been just overwhelmingly well received, which is really good to hear.

No gain without pain. Dare I say pain? Perhaps in a different sort of way. Maureen, what about as far as your time, your closing down over Christmas New Year? Of course, if people access your books online, that doesn't matter. Online, doesn't know holidays.

Doesn't know online just keeps going 24 over seven. That's a wonderful thing about the Vision Australia library, but the actual Vision Australia offices will be closed. So they are closing on Friday the 23rd of December. So that's pretty close up the day before Christmas Eve. And they'll be closed until January 6th, which is the Monday. So that means that you won't actually be able to talk to anyone, either in the library or the Vision Australia office on a broader scope. However, we will all be back in the new year and we look forward to engaging with everyone. But in the interim, they can go online and get as many different books as thereafter.

Now, you touched on people who might want to read Braille before. What's the situation with that, Maureen?

Well, at the end of the year approaching, we really encourage everyone to plan their holiday reading from a Braille perspective. So our hard copy Braille borrowers can borrow an additional five books over the holiday season, and they will mail those out between November 18th, which has just gone, and December 13th. So normally our limit is smaller than that. But because we want to make sure that all our Braille readers are actually have a sufficient number of books to get them through that Christmas period. Then we're welcoming all of them to have an additional five books above and beyond their normal quota that they'd be using.

So when would they need to let you know what Braille book they want by when?

So the last mile out would go on December 13th. So as long as they get back to us before then and they can talk to us any time from now until that date, and we will make sure that they are in the mail and that we can keep them nicely entertained over the Christmas period.

Now, this is a bit of a question that I hope I get the right answer. Maureen. Is Brown still as popular as ever?

He is, but there's different versions. So you have your electronic braille and then you have your hard copy Braille. So I think like many things, that there's definitely a gravitation towards the electronic braille. But like all of us, I think people do still like to hold their books. They like to turn their pages and hard copy Braille is definitely still has a market marker and is very popular. Well, I'm.

Very pleased to hear that. Being just a little bit biased now. Um, what about some plans for next year? Because I know when we speak to you and others from the library, they'll say, well, you know, coming up in 2 or 3 weeks time, we've got an in conversation or whatever. We think, oh, they probably put it together yesterday. Kind of doesn't work that way, does it?

No, I actually have finished the entire calendar for 2025 already. So we have a plethora of events and programs planned for next year, but we will progressively roll them out slowly through the year. Otherwise you overwhelm people. But we do have our ones that are coming up from the very start of the year that we are promoting so that people can pop them all in their calendar. So we have our final one for 2024. We have our Treat Yourself Christmas party, and that is a lovely gathering both online and in person at our caring office in Victoria. And we would love all of our library members to join us and to join the librarians and to join Frances Keelan from here. This and we will have a lovely chat about all the books that you've been reading this year. Favorite books? Um, what is on your reading list for the summer holidays? And generally have a catch up with all the people that you're engaged with in programs throughout this year. So that's Wednesday next week on December the 11th, and that's at 11 a.m. so anyone that can come in, we will have lovely cake, tea and coffee for you. And if you're attending online, then you need to make your own cuppa.

Well, that's fair enough. I probably wouldn't want to spill it on my computer. G Francis Keelan and here, this, there or here? This, I should say. Uh, they're kind of like two, uh, sort of words almost go together, Francis Keelan and hear this. And I know it's one of the most downloaded podcasts Podcast from the Voice Australia website because it's so, so popular and obviously also, you know, with really great information. So I'm sure people might Francis would love to catch up with the face to face if they're in a position to do so.

Well, I hope that will entice a few people into care, and if they can't get in caring that they'll at least join us online and they can sit there and pick up Francis's brain and also put a face to a voice.

Now, what you talked about maybe a few or 1 or 2 things early in the new year you can alert us to, because we'll have a little bit of time off to cool our heels. So what can you tell us about early in 2025? That sounds difficult to say.

I know, but I've been saying it a lot over the last month actually. It's very exciting. We are running the Vision Australia library writing group for next year, so that was a new program that we ran this year, so we're thrilled to be rerunning it next year. And what it is is a non-fiction writing group. It's all online and it runs from February to November in 2025. So Doctor Sian Prior ran that for us this year, and she's going to run again next year. And it's basically a small group of ten participants who meet monthly and they workshop their writing projects. They develop their craft of writing a non-fiction work. Most of them generally are already working on a piece, but, you know, they may not be looking at publishing it. It may just be for family or for friends or for their own fulfillment. But I suppose it's a really for our more, um, dedicated writers who are keen to get some sort of higher level training and coaching and also have that sort of peer support of other writers with them meeting on a monthly basis to, um, inspire them and motivate them to keep writing.

And can people over 8 or 9 months or so, you get to know each other a little bit. That's a good numbers. It's not too big and not too small. And also, as I say, that regular catch up, you know, that peer support would really come into play as, as time goes on.

It's wonderful. So it's over ten months. And on each session, Sian opens with a bit of a coaching focus for 15 or so minutes. And then we workshop three pieces of work which has been submitted by three of the participants. So that means that roughly every three months everybody gets one of their pieces of work, um, workshopped. So it's really, really good. But unfortunately, because it's only ten people, then we have people put applications in. So you need to put an application in and talk about why you want to be in the programme, what you feel you could offer that the fact that you can make that ten month commitment and the commitment to reading other people's work and providing them with really constructive feedback and all of that, Well, it will be in our upcoming newsletter, but people can also find it on the Vision Australia news page. So if they go there, there'll be all the details on how they can put in an application to join next year's writing group. So you put.

An application, of course, if you are selected, it's free isn't it? The ten months or so, it's all free. It's all free. Yeah.

Yeah. So that'll be great. So we ran that for the first time this year. And look, they're really an amazing group. And they all just had nothing but praise. And I think it was some of the best feedback we've had in many years for a program that we've run. So that was, you know, very gratifying.

I guess you can be enjoying or wanting to be writing, but, you know, if you can get some sort of professional coaching and advice that can make all the difference, you know, after ten months, perhaps. I've learnt so much and you're going to probably enjoy it and write even better.

I think it also gives you the confidence because it's one of those things. Unless you're actually sharing your work, then you don't really know. Is it as good as I think, or am I being a really harsh critic on myself? So yeah, it is lovely.

All right. Well, people can go to the website. We'll give those details. Actually, we'll get those details now, Maureen. So just give us the dates again about when your staff will have their break and then when they're back. And then we can perhaps also talk about how people can log on to the to the Visual Australia website or as you say, through their app or through their envoy. There's more than one way to read a book these days.

Oh, definitely. So we will be closed from December 23rd until January 6th. In terms of the holiday loans. We will be mailing those out from now through to December 13th. And then in terms of applying, for example, for the writing group, you just go to Vision Library, and if you scan down, you'll see a lovely tab that says Library News. And when you go in there, it'll have all the details on the writing group. And the other thing it will have in there, which we've just put together. We've been very busy little cherubs. We have put together a holiday travel reading list for our library members. So I figure that the Christmas break is traditionally synonymous with holidays, and everyone likes to pack their bags to bursting point and commence on their journey via road or train or air, if they're fortunate enough. So we've compiled a summer reading list, which enables our members to vicariously travel the world over the upcoming Christmas break. But if they're lucky enough to actually be leaving home on a holiday, they've also got their summer reading list all sorted for them. So it includes a whole lot of books from different continents and also in different times, and it's a really lovely list. So if you're feeling like you're on a bit of inspiration or you're feeling a little bit lazy and you think somebody else can do my research for me, we've got a beautiful list of books that are there, and it's got holiday travel reads in the library, and that is on the Vision Australia news page, right next door to the writing Group article. All right.

People can also give you a call if they prefer that mode of communication.

Of course they can. We are on 1300 654 656.

Maureen, you've been a wonderful support throughout the year. Thank you. And I know that many people are very, very happy with the great work that you're doing. All the best for Christmas in the New Year. And we'll catch up in, as I say, 2025.

I wish you a wonderful Christmas. And I also wish all your listeners a wonderful Christmas. I hope that we have a beautiful, peaceful 2025.

Perfect. Great, Maureen.

Thanks.

Rita moreno Riley there from the Vision Australia Library.

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