Krissy Hindley in Esperance on Saturday. Photo: Geoff Vivian.
She has helped dozens of Esperance seniors navigate their way through the murky waters of the digital world, and now library technician Krissy Hindley has moved to Bremer with her husband Richard.
After five and a half years with the Esperance Public Library and 13 with the Shire, we asked her to reflect on her happiest memories.
“The things that made me happy were running community programs; digital literacy; having people come in and have a chat; and going to different places,” she said.
“It was definitely a highlight getting out in the community and fostering those positive relationships with everyone.”
Mrs Hindley said the digital literacy program had several elements, the first being the one-on-one sessions people could book with her to learn how to use their devices.
“Often it was ‘the grandkids have bought me an iPad and I don’t know how to switch it on’, also filling out things on line like the passport applications with government going into that digital sphere,” she said.
“I guess I understood their frustrations enough to help people through digital literacy issues.”
Mrs Hindley said the questions and the help people needed were quite varied.
“It was a baptism of fire during Covid with MyGov and MyGov ID and the Service WA app,” she said.
“We would sit there for days helping people trouble shoot and develop skills on the fly. “These trouble shooting skills were really developed in those days.”
Then there was the Tech Talk Tuesdays where, among other things, she taught people to use phone cameras.
“I liked to show people the fun things they could do on their devices, not just the scams I would go over regularly,” she said.
“I wasn’t a big public speaker before hand but it was certainly a skill I developed, and people were there because they wanted to learn.
“People would ask me a question I couldn’t answer but it would be: ‘let’s figure out how to find the answer’.
“I am a keen lifelong learner and in the digital sphere it is always evolving so there is always something new to learn.”
Mrs Hindley started with the Shire as a cleaner when she was a young mother.
As her background was in fine art and media, she returned to study part time and is now a qualified library technician working toward a Bachelor degree in Librarianship.
“I was very happy Jayne Arnold let me come in and be part of the team,” Mrs Hindley said.
“Earlier this year I finished a qualification in genealogy so I taught the family history workshops along with my favourite colleague Kathy Hine.”
Mrs Hindley is now open to job offers in Jerramungup shire.
