On Tuesday, 23rd Oct, Hawthorn hosted the 2007 Tertiary Librarians Disabilities Interest Group (TLDIG) Forum. Approx 30 people attended including library staff from each Swinburne campus.
The topic of the morning program was Mental Health issues in the Tertiary Education context. The presenter was Frank Hytten, who had previously worked at the Prahran Campus with the Psychiatric Disabilties course.
Frank provided some useful strategies when dealing with students with mental health issues. He felt libraries need to develop a culture which is supportive and inclusive, advising to be friendly not friends. When dealing with a problem, keep it clear and simple and set the boundaries.
In the afternoon we visited Vision Australia. Both the Reader Services Manager and the Information Access Manager addressed the group. A tour of the various Departments at Vision Australia followed the presentations.
The focus of the library service which provides alternative format material is recreational reading.
DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) format is the latest technology that has been introduced for the talking books. These books are read using a digital playback device. The DAISY book can be easily browsed in much the same way as a sighted reader and usually only requires one CD.
More information about Vision Australia is available from their web site
http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=520
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