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MyLanguage wins national award

MELBOURNE - An internet solution, devised by most of Australia's major libraries, to meet the exploding demand for multilingual information has won a national technology award. MyLanguage, an internet portal designed to deliver information and back-up library services with innovative electronic techniques was named on Tuesday night (25 Nov) as winner of the Technology Category of the National Multicultural Marketing Awards in Sydney.

This national MyLanguage portal is a joint partnership between the State & Territory Libraries of NSW, QLD, SA, VIC, WA, NT and ACT. The State Library of Victoria – through Vicnet – has been instrumental in the development of the portal.

Traditionally Australian library services have been available in only 49 languages whereas there are 212 languages in active use in the community.

The libraries of each state and territory set out to meet that challenge collectively and came up with the MyLanguage portal whose vision is to:

  • Enhance and facilitate the use of the internet by and for culturally and linguistically diverse communities
  • Empower newly arrived migrants, emerging communities and minority language communities to use online technologies, and
  • To enrich Australia's linguistic and cultural cyberspace.

The State Library of New South Wales managed the Marketing of MyLanguage. Apart from the traditional marketing tools of banners and bookmarks, the Libraries made use of YouTube, offering 30 native speakers of languages other than English the chance to be video stars while promoting MyLanguage to the world.

Congratulating the Libraries collective on the award, the Chair of the Community Relations Commission Stepan Kerkyasharian commended not just their idea and solution, but also the ‘clever marketing techniques that actually uses the resources of cultural diversity to promote a service that is meeting diversity needs.’

The project, he said, ‘is right in line with the original aim of the National Multicultural Marketing Awards to alert public servants to their responsibility and obligation to communicate their services to each member of the community and to ensure that those services were also appropriate to those same people.’

Vicnet Manager Brendan Fitzgerald said that the award was great recognition ‘for an innovative solution to multicultural and multilingual online information needs.’

He said he looked forward to growing the relationship with the Library’s project partners, growing the project internationally and devising new content ‘especially in those languages where there is not much existing online content.’

To view a selection of the MyLanguage YouTube videos, go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/StateLibMyLang