Community through youth: the experience of Auckland City libraries.

• Author: Meikle, Corrina

The resurgence in use of the Glen Innes Community Library City of Auckland, and its very high level of community participation, now sit at the heart of collaborative efforts to build a stronger sense of community. Through the Akozone homework centre and the focus on youth the library has emerged as a place for the extended family. Paper presented at Learning futures conference, Adelaide SA 9-10 March 2007.

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Glen Innes is an energetic, well "established Auckland community of many cultures. A main characteristic of the community is the high number of Pacific communities and youth, and its low socioeconomic status. 51% of the population is nonEuropean with 36% of Pacific origin. This compares to 13% for the rest of Auckland. 27% of the population is under 14 years of age, compared with 19% for the rest of Auckland. Only 29% of households have access to the internet compared to 47% for the rest of Auckland. The Pacific community first settled in Glen Innes over 30 years ago and employment opportunities were largely in local factories. Central government provides a significant proportion of the housing in Glen Innes--home ownership is not high. Schools in New Zealand are given a decile rating between 1 and 10. This determines the level of funding assistance each school receives, as the decile rating is indicative of income levels of the households in the schools catchment. All schools within Glen Innes are decile 1, the lowest rating.

The library is well located next to the main shopping centre and close to the community centre and the local Marae (Maori meeting house ed). Despite this, in the early 1990s use began to decline. Year after year the figures slipped at a consistent rate. The children in the area were not using the library, despite numerous attempts through the schools to engage them. For many families libraries were not part of their culture. Added to this, even local and central government agencies working within Glen Innes failed to acknowledge the library and its place in the community. Ironically, the library was asked to host a display detailing aspects of the town centre upgrade. This identified KFC and McDonalds as landmarks, but the library itself was merely an unidentified black square.

We were starting to ask ourselves very serious questions about the future of the library, and what it would take to make a difference.

Akozone

In 2000 the New Zealand Ministry of Education invited communities with low decile schools to submit proposals to establish homework centres to support education outside the classroom.

Auckland City Libraries successfully submitted an application to set up homework centres at two libraries. We branded the initiative Akozone.

This was a first on many levels. The partnership agreement included funding to support the set up costs with an ongoing contribution towards the operational information technology costs.

The primary objective was

To help students at risk of educational underachievement to develop study habits by providing additional resources to help them learn and achieve. The target audience was children in year 5-8, generally aged...