Ellen Forsyth, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Outcome-Oriented Ellen Forsyth's customers are 2,344 library workers in 99 libraries and 374 locations spread across more than 300,000 square miles in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, as well as the library users they serve. That's why she focuses on delivering online tools tailored to local needs.
With the help of collaborators, Forsyth adapted the Ohio Library Council's online reference excellence training program for librarians—and then expanded it under a Creative Commons license to encourage others to use the material. The NSW version, Reference Excellence—"ref-ex" for short—debuted as a wiki in 2009. The project also had a side benefit: it spurred the working group members to develop new skill sets, like wiki editing and web analytics.
In January 2011, she launched another collaborative effort, the Twitter Reading Group 2011, which serves as a reading challenge clearinghouse. Each month promotes another genre via a hashtag: January, #suagb (Scare up a good book—horror); February, #heartreads (romance); March, #specfic (fantasy). Open to all readers, it has attracted participants from all parts of Australia.
A phrase pinned to her corkboard captures Forsyth's philosophy: "You can get anything done if you don't mind who gets the credit."
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