SLQ wins Premier’s Cultural Diversity Award

3 September 2014 Books+Publishing

The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) has been named winner of the Premier’s Cultural Diversity Award in the Public Sector category.

Presented at a gala dinner on 30 August, the awards recognise the contributions of Queenslanders who support Queensland’s cultural diversity and ‘help build an inclusive, harmonious community’.

‘This award highlights the State Library’s achievement of helping deliver the arts to all Queenslanders, wherever they live, wherever they were born,’ said Queensland arts minister Ian Walker. ‘Its programs are tailored to engage as many of us as possible, including multicultural communities. It delivers these programs in a variety of ways, both digitally and in person, which helps people get involved.’

SLQ was recognised for ‘delivering a broad range of culturally diverse programs’, including the LOTE collection, Together We Grow, Creative Community Computing, Mobile Media Lab, Sharing Stories, Memories of a Forgotten People: Australian South Sea Islanders, and Brave New Welcome; and for implementing programs to improve cultural diversity in the workplace, such as the Work & Welcome and Multicultural Work Experience programs.

‘The State Library of Queensland serves all Queenslanders and we take that responsibility seriously,’ said state librarian Janette Wright. ‘We have an extensive collection in Languages Other Than English comprising over 90,000 items in 50 different languages including books, DVDs, and CDs. Items can be borrowed via your local public library.’

Wright also highlighted the work of the Mobile Media Lab, ‘a production hub and training resource enabling young people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities to develop skills in media production, to create stories that are meaningful to their community, and to distribute them to the wider community’. ‘At the moment we are working with diverse communities, including Muslim young people creating digital stories exploring their experiences in Australia. We are also sharing stories from Queensland’s multicultural festivals by documenting the heritage of the Australian-Italian Festival, the Pacific Unity Festival, and the Africa Day celebrations,’ said Wright.

SLQ has also participated in the Work & Welcome program, which offers short-term paid work experience for recently arrived refugees and migrants. ‘We have hosted two Work & Welcome placements to date with both individuals going on to secure further work with SLQ on completion of their work experience,’ said Wright.

Category: Library news