1. Public Libraries and Adult Dyslexic Customers A Model and Its Evaluation Ms Ritva Järvelin Chief district librarian Ms Marjaana Meriläinen Information specialist Tampere City Library, Finland SI Reading with Public Libraries and School Libraries and Resource Centres (1) 21th August, rd IFLA General Conference
Honoured Chairman, dear ladies and gentlemen!
How can a public library produce an up-to-date service for dyslexic customers? How is this service achievable with other actors dealing with dyslexia? How to establish a working cooperation and keep it going?
Our presentation introduces one model, which tries to answer these questions.

2. Here you can see where we come from
Here you can see where we come from. Europe, Northern Europe, Finland and our city is Tampere.
Tampere is an inland city with about two hundred thousand ( ) inhabitants.

3. Dyslexia Dyslexia New literacies the most common reason for
problems in reading and writing
New literacies
ICT skills / Information & Communication Technology
digital and media literacy
Dyslexia is the most common reason for difficulties in reading, writing and spelling.
Dyslexia occurs worldwide and affects about 8 % of the population regardless of culture and language.
The need for new literacies has revealed how common dyslexia is. In a media-centered Finnish society you need information and communication technology -skills (ICT- skills) as well as digital and media literacy.
To be able to cope with the complex working life and to be an active citizen you have to be able to use , search and evaluate information, absorb and comment on information promptly and so on. If you have problems in reading and writing, you will very likely face similar difficulties in adopting these new literacies. All this means more challenges for people with dyslexia.

4. Tampere 12, 000 people with dyslexia Partners
PEO, Regional Dyslexia Association
Adult Education Centre
We come from the city called Tampere, which is a Finnish inland city with approximately two hundred thousand ( ) inhabitants.
In Tampere we have about twelve thousand (12 000) dyslexics and forty thousand (40 000) individuals with learning difficulties.
We have there an active regional dyslexia association called PEO. In the year two thousand (2000), PEO proposed that Tampere City Library should establish a service point for dyslexics. Even before this, PEO had cooperated for years with The Adult Education Centre of the City of Tampere. When the Finnish Ministry of Education gave us a grant to start a project to develop services for dyslexic customers. Then we three actors teamed up to work together.

5. Sampola Library is a branch of the Tampere city Library
Sampola Library is a branch of the Tampere city Library. We have one thousand two hundred (1 200) visitors a day. It is in this library where we have the dyslexia service point.

6. Cooperation Dyslexia Association (PEO) Adult Education Centre
meetings for professionals
courses
Dyslexia Association (PEO)
on-duty hours in library
Peer support
information
Dyslexia
Service
Point
In this slide you can see our model for cooperation.
The dyslexia association, PEO, organizes on-duty-hours in Sampola library. It also provides personal peer support and
keeps its members informed.
It sees to that the information material in Dyslexia Service Point is up-to-date as well.
The Adult Education Centre provides courses for dyslexic learners. It also organizes meetings for professionals
Sampola Library offers the space, facilities and computer-aided dyslexia software. Information leaflets are also available. Our staf instructs both the peer tutors and the clients.
Sampola Library
space
facilities
guidance

7. Dyslexia Service Point
Idea
to provide information
to encourage reading
a neutral space and a slow threshold to enter
Target groups
young people and adults
The idea of the dyslexia service point is to
provide information and support,
encourage people to read and write and
offer a non-judgemental (neutral) environment, where dyslexics can use computer and the Internet at their own pace.
Our target groups are young people and Adults.
Dyslexia Service Point is situated in so-called “Netsquare” of the Sampola Library. (You can see the NetSquare in this slide.)
The Netsquare is a room with 20 computers, equipped in the same way as a computer class at school.

8. Dyslexia Service Point
Facilities
Basic Services
guidance
information
computer-aided programs
book talks
Here you can see the small, separate dyslexia service point within the Netsquare. It is a popular place with other clients as well   - so no one needs to stay away in fear of being labelled.
Facilities
The service point provides the space and one computer with standard software and dyslexia programs.
There is always staf to help a customer in using the facilities.
Information is available for dyslexics, for their families and also for professionals, and the service point runs a website of its own
customers can practise reading and writing with computer-aided programs
the library also gives so-called book talks with the purpose of encouraging people to read further.

9. Peer support the most important service on-duty-hours once a week
counselling
personal contact
The most important individual service how ever is the peer support. On-duty-hours take place once a week and the peer tutors are active members of the Regional Dyslexia Association. People can come and discuss their problems with a person who has firsthand experience of dyslexia. This kind of counselling and personal contact is the most wanted and the most important service.

10. Reasons for contact how to get a dyslexia test
dyslexia diagnosed -how to proceed
rehabilitation
problems in studying
The peer tutors answer any questions concerning dyslexia, learning difficulties or customer’s condition. The service point has been contacted in a variety of situations. Among the most usual are:
·        How to get a dyslexia test?
I have been disgnosed with dyslexia - how to proceed, what to do next?
How to get rehabilitation?
Problems in studying.
There are other services, too. You can read more closely about them in our article.
Next we will show you a video clip, in which you can see some services of dyslexia service point.
VIDEO
Dyslexia Service Point with peer tutors
This is Cross brain training
Here is a course for dyslexics
Personal guidance
This is book talk with easy to read materials, mostly in plain language.
video

11. Evaluation Statistics on: customers asked questions CD-ROMs prepared
peer tutoring hours
To evaluate the operation of the service point, we compile statistics on
the number of customers
questions asked,
CD-ROMs prepared and the hours of peer tutors on duty

12. Challenges the number of customers exceeds resources
keeping the information up-to-date
the voluntary peer support is vulnerable
continuity
The statistics show that there is a need for a special service like this. At the moment the peer tutors are not able to serve more customers. Service is very personal and it takes plenty of time. The time needed for one customer varies from thirty (30) minutes to two (2) hours.
This model with several actors is naturally not without problems and challenges.
The peer tutors are busy during their on-duty hours, so they hardly have any time to keep the information up-to-date. How to do this is a challenge.
Peer support is based on volunteer work by a small active group. This means that the service is vulnerable.
The biggest challenge is to keep this operation continuous. Decision-makers should be kept aware of the importance of this service

13. Conclusions Library – an ideal venue cooperation is essential
tailored services for special target groups
Why should the library provide this kind of service?
The right to access culture, literature and information belongs to everyone, including people with different degrees of reading difficulties.
The core tasks of public library are
to promote literacy – both conventional and digital - and
to provide access to information
Public libraries are for everyone and there should should be a low threshold to enter.
The use of public libraries is extremely active in Finland, and they are easy to access. Libraries do not label their customers and are, therefore, an ideal venue for this kind of special service.
In addition, libraries have a long tradition to cooperate.
To ensure the future of this kind of activity, we need to work together with officials in culture, education, employment services and also social administration.
To provide services for diverse user-groups the library needs to know them and cooperate with these groups more closely than it has done traditionally.
We think that our experience has been encouraging and rewarding.

14. Thank you. Ms Ritva Järvelin ritva. jarvelin@tampere
Thank you! Ms Ritva Järvelin Ms Marjaana Meriläinen
Ladies and gentlemen,
if you have any comments or questions, please, we are happy to discuss them with you now or later by .
Thank you very much for your attention.