Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

April 2005 Volume 3 (2)

Social inclusion

Sites of special interest

East Renfrewshire’s community websites include the internationally acclaimed Holocaust Memorial site. Liz McGettigan introduces them.

Connect-ER is the working title of our ICT project designed to promote inclusion and learning within the community of East Renfrewshire. The project aims to promote inclusion and regeneration through the use of ICT, through the development of community websites, their content, relevance and use.

ICT can be a strong focus of cohesion in the many elements of improving the wellbeing of residents in the authority. Our project is designed to do just that and to support the Community Plan, the health awareness and promotion agenda, the Community Learning Partnership strategy and the Corporate Strategy. Through the Connect-ER website, development is linked to access and to skills development, enabling the best use to made of the sites’ content.

Five of East Renfrewshire’s Learning Centres now have SUfI Learn Direct branding and there is a plan to extend this to another two locations in the near future. One of the centres is also an accredited grade ‘A’ European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) test centre enabling people to be assessed for the qualification at a location near to their home. These centres are now also accredited to deliver Individual Learning Accounts for the Scottish Executive.

The project has as its vision public libraries as gateways, access points, and centres of excellence at the heart of the community. This extends beyond library buildings to include a web of virtual gateways: networks of information, resources, people and partners. To deliver these gateways, the skills of libraries’ staff and resources and ICT were linked together with traditional approaches.

Giving community groups voice and confidence

East Renfrewshire community libraries have strong links with local community groups. This helped us in sourcing the content for the community websites. On the other hand, in some cases representatives from the groups approached us, wanting to be involved. We invited members of the community groups into the libraries and offered them skills in building content and site development.

The community portal involves small businesses, community groups, citizens, the voluntary sector and public organisations. The starting point was the Council portal, which gives information about the whole community and is managed by the libraries department (www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk).

As a result, although we monitor the individual sites, they are updated by people in the community, getting help from us when needed. There is a huge amount of community ownership.

The project has largely been developed using existing resources, only the Barrhead site benefiting from £50,000 of Gates funding.

Liz McGettigan is Libraries and Information Services Manager.

East Renfrewshire’s community websites:

The Holocaust website

The Holocaust website has received worldwide recognition from national newspapers, the BBC and international researchers. We recently hosted a visit from Icelandic educationalists and Spanish journalists on this site. The site was the subject of a paper delivered at a conference in Buenos Aires in August 2004. The Holocaust site was joint runner up for CILIP’s prestigious ‘Libraries Change Lives’ Award. More than that we have had compliments and thanks from the Jewish community at home and abroad.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/holocaust

Women Across the World

Connecting women into using and learning about ICT, the site gives a sense of bonding, achievement, confidence and pride.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/womenacrosstheworld

East Renfrewshire access

Connects and empowers the disabled community to manage their own website. The site is fully developed now by the disabled community, and acts as a pressure group for access rights.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/accesser

Community safety

The site offers local community safety information. It was developed through partnership with the NHS, Scottish Water, Strathclyde Fire Brigade, Strathclyde Police and the Levern Valley Partnership. It offers local up-to-date information on crime prevention.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/communitysafety/

‘It’s funny whit ye remember’

Connects with our older community members through oral history and reminiscence.
www.barrhead-scotland.com/Culture/Writing/its_funny/itsfunny.htm

Substance misuse

Connecting target groups with good information. It offers access to East Renfrewshire’s Substance Misuse Team, training and employment support and NHS support and information
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/community_safety_portal_-_home/community_safety_portal_-_crime_prevention/community_safety_portal_-_substance_misuse.htm

Neilston railway

Celebrating local transport with the community, the site brings local history alive and offers an involvement and learning opportunity for local school children.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/index/community/neighbourhood_and_village/access_point.htm

Busby local history

Connecting with Busby Local History Group. It instils a sense of real community spirit and leadership. A collaborative venture produced a book ‘Old Busby’.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/index/community/neighbourhood_and_village/access_point.htm

Barrhead heritage trail

Connecting with Barrhead heritage.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/index/community/neighbourhood_and_village/access_point.htm

Bengali performing arts

A website to promote the activities of the Bengali Performing Arts group was launched in Giffnock library in January 2005 with an evening of multicultural entertainment.
www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/bengaliperformingarts

Information Scotland Vol. 3 (2) April 2005

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.

Last updated: 11 May 2005