Jo Carmody - Starting a new chapter

AFTER more than four years working at the Mount Gambier Public Library, Jo Carmody is turning over a new page in her life and taking a new step in her career.

For the long-serving library manager, it has been a wonderful past few years but new opportunities to advance her career have opened up and she is leaving to become the new area librarian for the Richmond-Tweed Regional Library Service.

In her new position, she will be responsible for the management of the Tweed, Murwillumbah and Kingscliff Libraries, which are all part of the regional library service and funded by four different council districts.

"Managing three libraries will be a new challenge for me and the different way New South Wales' local governments fund their libraries will also be interesting," Jo says of the new position.

"I have to admit, I'm also looking forward to the warmer climate and the new adventure in a different state – although South Australia will always be my home and, even from New South Wales, I will still cheer on the Crows."

Jo has been working in the library industry for 24 years, starting at the Cowell Area School at a time when using a card catalogue and writing names onto borrowing cards was still the norm.

In the years since, Jo has worked at many school, public, special and state libraries around South Australia and the Northern Territory and has seen many changes take place – none more so than in the way computers have become an integral part of the industry.

She began working in the South East as a library manager in Bordertown, where she spent nearly four years, and it was there she oversaw the introduction of free public internet access as part of Networking the Nation funding across all South Australian public and community libraries.

This has had a significant impact on libraries and the type of clientele that use them.

"Libraries are a terrific place to work and meet people of all ages and cultures," Jo says.

"I enjoy the different tasks this position offers: one minute I will be reading a story to a group of students, then I will be working on the budget or selection of new materials, and then moving into the local history area to answer a family or history inquiry.

"For that and many other reasons, it is a very stimulating environment to work in and one you certainly wouldn't get bored in."

In the past few years, Jo has helped launch the 2003 @ your library campaign, which was so successful it was taken up in Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, and the Big Book Club concept in Mount Gambier.

Jo says that regional readers have been able to enjoy unprecedented cooperation between publishers, book sellers, libraries and authors, with the Big Book Club program bringing visiting authors to areas which would otherwise miss out.

Mount Gambier will this month benefit from its third author visit, with writer Stefan Laszczuk conducting a free seminar on January 28.

Children's reading programs such as the Write Around Australia, Premier's Reading Challenge and Reading Rulz summer holiday program, have been getting the message out that it is "cool" to read.

Locally, Jo has been particularly proud of the completion of the online community information service at the library's website (www.mountgambier.sa.gov.au/library), the publication of the Mount Gambier: Images of a Community 1865-2004 pictorial history, and the digitisation of the Les Hill Photographic Collection, which is also available at the website.

"This project I would have to say is the one I am most proud of mainly because it brings this fabulous collection of images to the world via the internet," she says.

"But the participation and support of the Mount Gambier Rotary Club, the Mount Gambier Heritage and History Society, volunteers and the commitment of the library staff to complete this project in the year of the 50th anniversary of Mount Gambier being proclaimed a city made its completion most satisfying."

Jo says she has enjoyed the continuing support of the local council and the community – last week the library had its busiest day on record with just over 900 people through the door, with 3031 items borrowed and 3772 returned – which has helped to make her job that much easier.

"The community should be proud of the fact that the Mount Gambier Library is the busiest regional library in South Australia and I hope this continues," Jo says.

"I look forward to visiting Mount Gambier and a new purpose-built Library in the future."