Blacktown’s first free street library

BY MELISSA DOMINGO RAWAT

Astreet library has been launched at 146 Fairwater Boulevard, Blacktown – breathing new life into a love for books and community.

Called the ‘146 Fairwater Boulevard Free Fun Library’, it is the brainchild of local resident Guneeta Khanna and is Blacktown’s first library of its kind.

“While we are lucky to have local libraries in most suburbs in Australia, young people are finding less and less time to visit them,” Guneeta observed, talking about people’s changing relationship with books since her arrival in Australia back in 2000.

“Reading is still such an integral part of today’s world,” she told Indian Link. “However, with a regular Joe’s life being so busy, online reading has become the norm. There is a certain joy in resting a book on one’s knee, flicking through the pages and placing a bookmark within them. As a teacher myself, this is something I regularly encourage in the classroom.”

Guneeta, author of All You Need To Know About Tarot (2001), has always herself held a keen love for reading - ignited by her father and grandfather. It is a love that slipped onto the back burner in recent years, she admitted, amidst being a working mum and life’s everincreasing commitments. However, a recent holiday cruise with her husband Kapil Khanna re-ignited the cherished pastime - ultimately leading to the launch of this thoughtful new community-focussed venture.

The 146 Fairwater Boulevard Free Fun Library operates as an ‘open sourced’ platform: leave a book and take another one. Anyone is welcome to donate books and expand the resource base of the library.

The community library was officially inaugurated in early March by Blacktown

City Councillor Moninder Singh. Addressing the gathering at the event, he said, “We appreciate and thank Guneeta Khanna for her initiative to share books with her neighbours and the wider community. We at Blacktown Council hope that Guneeta will share the know-how of setting up and running a street library.”

He laid emphasis on the need for more people to pioneer similar projects. “This endeavour to provide free access to books is unique and will encourage the masses to engage - both with books and with each other.”

Blacktown City Council has pledged to donate books to the library.

Local community members showed their support by being present at the event, donating books and borrowing a few that caught their fancy. Seven-year-old Vivaan Aggarwal read aloud from one of the library’s books.

Local businesses pitched in as well. Jai from Print Concierge and his wife Kerry sponsored two large banners. Everyone at the event was treated to a delectable bite of ballushahi, kindly sponsored by Pure Desi sweets.

An enthusiastic resident Om Dhungel commented, “I have always believed in books. They have shaped and changed my life for the better. Having ready access to books will encourage people to take up reading. It will also help create friendships amongst the members of the community.”

The author Jorge Luis Borges famously fantasized that Paradise would be one large library. While many surely look forward to seeing this for themselves, in the meantime, there are tiny pockets of Paradise here on earth. ‘146 Fairwater Boulevard Free Fun Library’ is one such pocket and one cannot help but cheer Guneeta Khanna along as she sows seeds to foster a love of books and stronger bonds within the community.

For further information on the library or for guidance on starting a street library, email 146fbbfunlibrary@mail.com

The Job Search Saga

When Indian students arrive in Australia, they’re often enthusiastic about the opportunity to work alongside their studies. But as time goes by and job applications are left unread, it can be demotivating. Eventually, they’re convinced that it’s impossible to get a job here!

In our newest segment, we want to help students whose efforts need a little fine-tuning. Getting a job can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. With a few tips and tricks, let’s help you get hired!

How To Create An Effective Resume

First thing’s first: know that ‘resume’ and ‘CV’ are used interchangeably in Australia. For part-time job applications, it should ideally be 1-2 pages about yourself – a summary of your experience, skills, qualifications and interests.

Where do I begin?

• A reasonable structure to follow is: your education (including your current university degree), your work experience and/ or internships, your extra-curriculars and achievements (that shouldn’t date back more than 4 years), your skills (like knowing how to use Photoshop), and finally, your interests.

• Start listing down items in a document. Start in reverse chronological order, meaning you begin listing what you’re currently doing before talking about an internship from 2015.

• A good rule of thumb is listing not more than three major achievements/ roles that you accomplished in your work experience. Think critically about what you’d like to say for each job, leadership role or internship.

• If you have previous experience, reach out to your employers for references. It’s best to have them ready (or at least warn them that someone might call!) should your application be successful.

What should I say?

• Tailor your resume to the job that you’re applying for. If you’re applying to be a barista, you don’t need to necessarily explain your college dissertation… unless you perhaps wrote about coffee. Recruiters can take less than a minute to reject an application, so you want the first things they read to be relevant and important.

• Try to use keywords from the job posting! If the barista job asks for ‘stock management’, ‘latte art’ or ‘customer service’, address the ways you meet these requirements.

• If you previously worked for an Indian organisation that may not be known in Australia, include one or two sentences about them too. Consult the organisation’s ‘About Us’ page for ideas. What do they do? How long have they been doing it?

• If you don’t have a lot of experience in making coffee but you did two internships in marketing, it is noteworthy. But discuss them after you address the current job application.

How should I say it?

• When talking about previous experiences, be concise and clear. Use active verbs like ‘organised’, ‘assisted’, ‘created’ rather than ‘I helped’ or ‘I wrote’.

• Avoid pronouns like ‘I’ altogether! They’re unnecessary because it’s already assumed you wrote your own resume.

• Don’t forget to proofread! One of the worst things you can do is call yourself ‘detail-oriented’ with dozens of spelling mistakes across your resume. Remember that you need to show your skills from the get-go.

• Often, we read our own work so much that we overlook errors. Ask a friend or classmate to proofread it too.

• When in Australia, use Australian spellings! Some common examples include ‘analyse’ instead of the American ‘analyze’ and ‘colour’ rather than ‘color’.

• You can even change your language settings on Microsoft Word to English (Australia) to help you out.

What should the resume look like?

• It’s a marketing device to show yourself off to an employer. Make sure your resume looks professional and neat.

• Use bullet points and short sentences rather than paragraphs. White space is your friend!

• Consider fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri. It’s best to use one font throughout the document.

• Use font sizes 10 or 12 for the body of your resume and 14 (in bold or underlined) for your headings.

• Unless you are applying for a creative job, don’t use too many colours. Stick to black or dark blue.

Other tips

• Consider your online presence. Recruiters can look you up to understand you better as a candidate. What does your LinkedIn profile say? What message does your Facebook display picture give?

• When providing your contact details like an Australian phone number, make sure your voicemail message sounds professional! A reasonable message is: ‘Hi, this is (insert name). I’m not available at the moment, please leave your number and I’ll call you right back’.

And there you have it! Consider this a beginner’s guide to building a resume for the Australian job market.