>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C.
[ Applause ]
>> Gemma Lyon: Thank you, and
again, such an honor to be here
in all of your company.
So, thank you very
much for having me.
I'd like to talk to you today
about the Better Beginnings
Family Literacy Program.
I'm the coordinator of that
program, and it's an initiative
of the State Library
of Western Australia.
It was developed back
in 2004 in response
to quite critical
literacy issues
that were being faced
by W.A. families.
The program is built
on a strong partnership
with the state government
of Western Australia,
every local government area,
and we have our corporate
partner Rio Tinto.
Our collective mission is to
create generational change
for W.A. families by
supporting parents in reading
with their child, so that they
build the early literacy skills
that they need to become good
readers, and succeed at school,
and throughout their life.
Okay. Sorry.
What the program looks like,
our model draws influence
from successful and universally
proven models such as Bookstart
in the United Kingdom.
And we've adapted it to
suit the unique identity
and diversity of
Western Australia.
So, we have three reading
packs as part of the program.
Three touch points with
families with they have a baby
at eight weeks, and then
again at two years old,
and then again at four.
So, the way we distribute
these is, libraries collaborate
with Child Health
nurses, and schools,
and other relevant local and
trusted service providers
in their community
to reach parents.
It's a flexible delivery
model and it can be one to one
with our service
providers, or in more group
and outreach-based settings.
As well as through these
mainstream channels we also see
them used quite intensively
in settings
such as Migrant English
Programs and also in prisons
where the child is often the
motivation for the parent
to be learning to read.
Okay. So, a little
bit of a perspective
on the state of Western
Australia.
We are a huge state, this
works in our advantage a lot
of the time, but it
also creates some big --
pretty big challenges
that we have to face.
So, we've got a population,
you can see there
on the western coast
of Australia,
we have a population
of 2.6 million.
And we cover 2.6 million
square-kilometers,
so which is over a
million square-miles
in that measurement.
We also have 139 different local
governments within our state,
and we have agreements with all
of them to deliver the program.
So, some of the challenges
that we face is that,
a hundred of our local
governments are actually located
in regional rural areas.
To support, particularly
Aboriginal families living
in remote areas, a fully
customized component
of the program was
established in 2010.
This sees reading
pack supplemented
with additional resources,
including books
that are reflecting
the identity, culture,
and world views of Aboriginal
families living in W.A.
But what we're also trying to do
is compensate for lack of access
to public library services,
which can often be a
seven-hour drive away.
This aspect of the program has
proven the most challenging
for us, and we have an
evaluation in process,
which is going to
involve how we work
with these communities
in the future.
Oh. That's okay.
So, we have resources to support
public libraries throughout
the state.
So, we have a Storytime
Suitcase,
which provides a fully
modeled form story time,
which models best practice,
and a parent-centered approach
to delivering library
programs for the early years.
And this helps us
to support libraries
that perhaps don't have a
-- any professional staff.
And I'm going to race
ahead to our evaluation.
So, the -- we have
two evaluations
as part of Better Beginnings.
So, one is, a longitudinal study
by an independent university
that investigates how the
program is influencing book
sharing practices in families.
We can show through that,
that families are maintain their
book sharing practices at home
after their involvement
with the program.
And they are engaging with their
library service as a result.
Our most recent study
was commissioned in 2016,
and it was a Social Return
on Investment Analysis
for the program.
This analysis has reiterated
the findings that we have seen
in the longitudinal study.
It has also given
us a calculation
that for every one dollar
invested in our program,
a return of $5.64 is
returned in social value.
This external academic
evaluation
for the program has been the key
to sustaining our funding
partnerships, and it --
the program now sits as part
of a 10-year literacy strategy
for the state, that's being
led by the state library.
Our hope and our continued
mission is to contribute
to real generational
change for W.A. families,
and establish life-long patterns
of patterns around reading,
and our mission continues.
But, thank you so much for
your time, and for having us.
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us at loc.gov.