Blog: Library Research in Practice

Philip Hider

The ARC Linkage Project, Designing for Communities with Communities, has come on leaps and bounds since it started in May last year. It’s always going to be a bit challenging to synchronise different library development projects, but our project has been fortunate enough to have some very enthusiastic and committed partners on board, and we’re now in the thick of data collection and the actual co-design. The series of community workshops has already been completed for one of the case studies, and the second series, for another library, is underway.… Continue reading “Co-designing libraries: progress report”

Simon Wakeling, Philip Hider and Jane Garner

Most readers of this blog will likely be at least somewhat familiar with ethnography as a research method. The approach has a long history, originating in the social and cultural anthropological disciplines of the early 1900s, but has since been adopted by many other fields. Ethnography is a holistic method, often incorporating different forms of data collection, including document analysis, interview etc. At ethnography’s heart, though, is observation. An ethnographic study seeks to reveal something of the social phenomenon it investigates through participative fieldwork, with the researcher often spending a considerable amount of time embedded in the community they are seeking to understand.… Continue reading “Ethnography and LIS Research”

Waseem Afzal

Recently I got an opportunity to attend the 86^th ASIS&T Annual Conference in London. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Making a Difference: Translating Information Research into Practice, Policy, and Action.’

I kick-started by attending a half day workshop on ‘Social media research: challenges and opportunities.’ This workshop was a combination of paper presentations and a keynote by Prof. Adam Joinson from the University of Bath. The keynote was highly thought provoking and raised many questions about theory, role of theory in social media research, and current online landscape as dominated by Big Data and AI.… Continue reading “Reflections on the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) Conference 2023”

YAzdan mansourian

My research into the information experiences of serious leisure enthusiasts shows that they often engage in an ongoing learning journey related to their hobbies or amateur activities. Whether learning to play a musical instrument, grow bonsai, or engage in any other hobby. They actively seek, share, produce information and look for various learning opportunities. The motivation behind this relentless quest for knowledge and skill lies in the joy and fulfilment derived from their passions. In this process, they often form close bonds with libraries, which often become their favourite places because they offer resources and space, helping them with their leisure activities.… Continue reading “Avenues for Collaboration Between Libraries and Serious Leisure Enthusiasts”

Kay oddone, kasey garrison, krystal gagen-spriggs, monique shephard, lee fitzgerald & di ruffles

The Teacher Librarianship team along with several of our fantastic adjunct staff were thrilled to be able to engage in professional learning and networking at the recent International Association of School Libraries (IASL) conference in Rome, Italy.

Between us we presented six papers;

• Understanding the World: How Australian teacher librarians define information literacy (Kay Oddone and Kasey Garrison);
• “It was a real eye-opener”: Young adult literature and adolescent mental health (Monique Shepherd and Kasey Garrison);
• Failure to flourish: Students and teacher librarians in Australia (Lee Fitzgerald, Alinda Sheerman and Kasey Garrison);
• Transformative Learning (Di Ruffles);
• Teacher librarians as influencers of reading cultures in schools (Krystal Gagen-Spriggs) and
• From books to bots: Scaffolding ethical and critical use of Generative AI (Kay Oddone, Krystal Gagen-Spriggs and Kasey Garrison).

… Continue reading “Reflections on the International Association of School Libraries (IASL) conference”

Monique Shephard & Jane Garner

SWiL on the road with Prof Beth Wahler

Following a very successful online seminar on 1 December 2022 (you can watch the presentations here: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/librarysocialwork/social-work-in-libraries-2/social-work-in-libraries-symposium/ ) the Social Work in Libraries team were thrilled to continue their program of research with a visit in early July 2023 from respected US scholar, Professor Beth Wahler, University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Flying into Australia, Beth made the most of her few days in Melbourne with visits to a number of different libraries: City of Melbourne Libraries, University of Melbourne Libraries, State Library of Victoria and Merri-bek Library.… Continue reading “Social Work in Libraries”

Kasey Garrison, Kay oddone and mary carroll

KBANZSL, the Knowledge Bank of Australian and New Zealand School Libraries, started off as the brainchild of project leader Mary Carroll.  Almost a decade after the 2011 Australian Senate Inquiry into School Libraries and resulting report School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment, 2011), she reflected that it would be great to have a “one stop shop” for all things school library and teacher librarianship in Australia, and why not include our closest neighbours across the Tasman too? … Continue reading “Launch of KBANZSL.org”

ANITA DEWI

The 21st century posits specific challenges for university graduates. These challenges include non-linearity between study and work; gap between current real-life work and what is being taught in higher education curriculum; expectations of multiple career changes; and everchanging labour market (Johnston, 2017). While relevant skills have been embedded into university curriculum to ensure graduates are ready to tackle the above challenges, many graduates do not yet know how to transfer skills from classroom to workplaces. Not all graduates are transferring skills and knowledge “automatically or tacitly” (Johnston, 2017, p.… Continue reading “Work placements through multiple stakeholders’ perspectives”

PHILIP HIDER

The Australian Research Council (ARC) has awarded over $200,000 to a team of LRG researchers in collaboration with the State Library of New South Wales and the public library authorities of Albury, Yass and Fairfield in Sydney. The project will run for two years, and investigate how the collective wisdom of community members can be best leveraged in the process of designing new public library spaces, be they whole new buildings or existing spaces in need of refurbishment.… Continue reading “ARC grant for co-designing public libraries project”

MARY CARROLL

For those unfamiliar with Gough Whitlam and his short-lived  reformist Labor Party government, 2023 is a milestone. Labor, under Whitlam’s leadership, came to power close to 50 years ago in early December 1972 after 23 years in opposition, and controversially dismissed in November of 1975. In its short tenure this government was to change the face of Australia forever by implementing a raft of seismic reforms.… Continue reading “E.G. Whitlam’s vision for Australia’s public libraries”

A recent study exploring how college students conceptualize the online information landscape has found that information literacy approaches relying upon a ‘static’ presentation of information, which is sought by the student, does not reflect the current environment where algorithms and information platforms push information directly to users (Head et al., 2020). As the nature of information access has changed, so too must our understandings of information literacy and how we teach it. This year, the NSW Department of Education launched the Information Fluency Framework (New South Wales Department of Education, 2022).… Continue reading “Understanding the changing nature of information literacy in education”

The Library Fair (図書館総合展) is Japan’s biggest exhibition on the theme of libraries, having started in 1999. Before Covid it was held annually in a convention center in Yokohama each November. Due to Covid it has changed to a hybrid style event, with online and small meetings in local venues.

In November 2022, four special online sessions will be conducted, both in English and Japanese, as part of an international project titled “Connect the World via libraries”. This project has been designed by HKSKH Ming Hua Theological College (聖公會明華神學院) with Japanese parties (Library Fair Committee, Rapidswide company) and the Charles Sturt University Libraries Research Group.… Continue reading “Library Fair (Japan) & “Connect the World via libraries” project”

Hamid JAMali & Philip Hider

Public libraries in many countries were quick to expand and promote access to their digital collections during the COVID pandemic, particularly during periods of lockdown. We analysed the usage data of two library networks in Greater Sydney and, as one might expect, the use of digital collections peaked during the New South Wales lockdowns. The graph below shows the normalised use of digital and physical collections from 2019 to 2021, with the two lockdown periods shaded.… Continue reading “COVID and the use of library collections”

In a national survey of Australian public library workers that is part of a broader project about libraries and people experiencing homelessness, 397 people answered the question “Does your library issue library cards to people with no fixed address?” This is how the responses look:

26.2% (104 respondents) say they work in a public library that still requires people to have a stable home address before they are allowed to take full advantage of what those libraries can offer.… Continue reading “Library cards for people with no fixed address?”

PHILIP HIDER

Reading is dead’ has been a refrain we’ve heard almost as much as ‘The book is dead’, but there’s little evidence to date that, like the book, reading, including leisure reading, is expiring any time soon. Of course, how we read is surely changing. We read text on screens not just for work and study, but increasingly for pleasure and interest. This is likely to have some effect on the way in which we read, and on what we read: whereas in the past ‘leisure reading’ may have conjured up thoughts of curling up with a paperback, nowadays it’s just as likely to be sampling a blog or a newsfeed on a ‘phone’ (though this could still involve curling up, perhaps).… Continue reading “‘I Can’t Afford to Buy All the Books I Read’”

Jane Garner, Kasey Garrison, Sabine Wardle, Karen Bell, Sarah Redshaw

Our recent LRG Blog post, Planting the Seed: The Greening Libraries Report, gave an overview of the recently published Greening Libraries Report*, which explores how libraries in Australia and beyond support sustainability in their communities. Using a literature review and six library case studies with exemplary green practices, we have created a list of recommendations for other libraries. These recommendations fall into three categories: Community Engagement, Partnerships, and Library Management.… Continue reading “Harvesting the Seed: The Greening Libraries Report”

By Holly Randell-Moon, Mary Carroll and Louise Curham

At 5 AM Thursday the 16^th of June Australian Eastern Standard Time (3 PM EDT Wednesday 15^th June) Mary Carroll, Louise Curham (School of Information and Communication Studies) and Holly Randell-Moon (School of Indigenous Australian Studies) presented an online paper to an international audience as part of the American Library History Round Table (LHRT) research seminar. The paper, Whiteness and goodness: an initial exploration of the history of Australian libraries and collections as forces of social control, was a great example of the strength a collaborative interdisciplinary approach can bring to library and information studies and historical research.… Continue reading “An initial exploration of the history of Australian libraries and collections as forces of social control and whiteness: A presentation for the 2022 American Library History Round Table research seminar”

Jane Garner, Kasey Garrison, Sabine Wardle, Karen Bell, Sarah Redshaw

Libraries are the original recyclers, and the reuse of books is a fundamental part of what libraries do. But libraries are doing much more to help support environmental sustainability. A recent research project funded by the Australian Library and Information Association and conducted by CSU academics Jane Garner, Kasey Garrison, Sabine Wardle, Karen Bell & Sarah Redshaw has led to the publication of the Greening Libraries Report*. The report explores how libraries in Australia and beyond support sustainability in their communities, and identifies six library case studies with exemplary green practices.… Continue reading “Planting the Seed: The Greening Libraries Report”

Headlines that speak of the horrors of war, of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and our struggles to reduce climate change make it clear that students must be educated to be globally aware, creative critical thinkers, able to meet complex challenges and adapt to new situations (Celume & Maoulida, 2022; Cimatti, 2016; Trilling & Fadel, 2009). The recently published UNESCO report from the International Commission on the Futures of Education highlights the need for “a new social contract…grounded in human rights and based on principles of non-discrimination, social justice, respect for life, human dignity and cultural diversity” (International Commission on the Futures of Education, 2021, p.… Continue reading “5 Reasons we need Teacher Librarians and School Libraries in 2022”

As per our previous blog post from April last year, our research into the engagement of public libraries with people in the community continues. We focused on a couple of programs offered by ACT Libraries and interviewed parents/guardians of participating kids and the host librarians. The resulting qualitative and quantitative data was analysed in detail using thematic and statistical analysis techniques.

Our findings indicate some key differences in how the two programs were perceived by the library staff as opposed to the program participants.… Continue reading “What do librarians need to do to engage with the community through their program offerings?”

This year I am starting a three-year project funded by the Australian Research Council that will allow me to explore how public libraries can best support people experiencing homelessness or insecure housing. The project has the following aims:

1. To understand the service, resource and environmental needs of the Australian homeless community that could be met by public libraries in our urban, regional, and remote contexts.
2. To understand the attitudes and concerns of public library staff, and non-homeless library users in Australian urban, regional, and remote contexts relating to the homeless community being present in their libraries.

… Continue reading “Public libraries supporting people experiencing homelessness”

A/Prof Mary Carroll, School of Information and Communication Studies, Charles Sturt University.

This blog post is really a continuation of a previous post from December 2021 which discussed research into the establishment of early colonial library collections in Australia. This research looks at three elements of public libraries—their collection—their systems and– their space and decoration. This post will look explain why we should consider the public library as imagined and realised through its space and decoration.

Why is space and decoration important?… Continue reading “Australian public libraries by design”

Thirteenth—The intended Library.  May every Inhabitant of Colony unite in promoting
the general diffusion of useful Knowledge!
(Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (1813). ‘A toast’, 30 January. p.2).

The notion of the Public library is one we often assume is understood in the same way internationally. In contemporary literature the notion of the public library is characterised as being a third or community space providing a positive place for communities to come together and to freely access information and resources and address disadvantage. … Continue reading “A reflection on the origins of Australian public libraries”

What the project has already done

The project started in January 2021. Up to now, various topics of online tours and online talks have been conducted by professionals like librarians, faculty, archivists and with students using IT tools and various learning models.

Outcomes of the project:

1. Change challenges of new age to new worldwide powers: With these online tours and talks and international connections, we have developed a worldwide “outreach digital library” together by combining library resources, e-services, user education and use of various IT tools e.g.

… Continue reading “Visible importance of libraries and librarians: Worldwide “live” online tours”

By Dilini Bodhinayaka and Hamid Jamali

Academic libraries are increasingly required to demonstrate the impact of their services. Therefore, measuring library impact has become more critical than ever. As Iroaganachi and Nkiko (2016) stated, impact measurement “serves the purpose of assuring the parent institutions that the library needs the same relative share of the institutional budget, even in the budget itself is shrinking” (p. 9). Evidence of impact can also inform the decision making of library managers. 

One important area of library impact is the impact on students.… Continue reading “Academic library’s impact on students”

Today, 11 November, is Remembrance Day – Armistice Day – which commemorates the official end of World War I with the signing of a Peace Treaty between Germany and the Allied Powers. Yet, it is well understood that the effects of war linger long after the cessation of armed combat. In the many years since the end of each of the World Wars, rich testimony of those who lived through them, both on battlefields and the homefront, has come to light.… Continue reading “Hidden archives of war”

In September 2020, four members of the LRG – Mary Carroll, Jane Garner, Kasey Garrison and Simon Wakeling – produced the first episode of SICS Radio. We had been inspired by a talk given by Lisa McLean, Station Manager of 2mce, CSU’s community radio station which broadcasts across Wiradjuri Country to Bathurst, Orange and the Central West of NSW. Lisa had described the opportunity the station presented for staff and students to create programmes sharing their work and ideas.

We thought this was too good a chance to pass up, and after much discussion (and a few false starts) came up with the idea of a series of programmes focussing on contemporary issues in Australian libraries and archives.… Continue reading “SICS Radio: Bringing libraries and archives to the airwaves”

COVID has drawn attention to many things, including the way that nowadays libraries exist, and operate, not only in their physical spaces, but also very much online. However, not all their physical services and resources have digital counterparts, nor can they always be substituted with online counterparts that are completely equivalents. During the recent lockdowns and closures, libraries, especially public libraries, have provided their communities with as much continuity of service as they can, often coming up with creative workarounds.… Continue reading “Valuable real estate”

UPDATE: The final report for this project can be accessed via the State Library of New South Wales website at: https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/public-library-services/first-language-reading

The State Library of New South Wales has funded a current research project where I am investigating the experience of reading in first-language for Australians whose first language is not English. I am exploring how it feels to read in your first language, why that experience is important, how well public libraries are able to support that experience, and I am gathering ideas from my participants about how their public libraries can do even better than they are now.… Continue reading “First-language reading and the role of the public library”

In my recent paper about the research on library and information science education (access a free version of the paper) that was published in the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, I examined 1,986 articles on LIS education published from 1999 to 2018 to find out what has been the concern of LIS researchers when it comes to its education. The analysis revealed that LIS researchers have been more concerned with what to teach (i.e. curriculum; 793 articles) than with how to teach (i.e.… Continue reading “Academic libraries in LIS education research”

By Emilia Bell and Dr. Mary Anne Kennan

A recent publication by Emilia Bell and Dr. Mary Anne Kennan in the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association reviewed literature on roles for academic librarians in the digital humanities. It drew on literature from the digital humanities, academic librarianship, and critical librarianship.  The literature revealed shared values between librarianship and the humanities which are also related to the critical and theoretical foundations of the digital humanities. Critical librarianship provides a framework for roles that can contribute to knowledge production, not just to service provision.… Continue reading “Partnering in knowledge production: Roles for librarians in the digital humanities”

A recent publication in the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association describes the findings of the first of two phases of a major research project undertaken by members of the Charles Sturt University Libraries Research Group. The project team is lead by Dr Jane Garner and Dr Simon Wakeling, with the publishing group comprising researchers from the School of Information Studies: Professor Philip Hider, Associate Professor Hamid Jamali, Dr Jessie Lymn and Dr Yazdan Mansourian, and Dr Holly Randell-Moon from the School of Indigenous Australian Studies.… Continue reading “‘Steady Ships’ in the COVID-19 Crisis: Australian Public Library Responses to the Pandemic”

In recent years there has been a growing interest in assessing the impact and engagement of public libraries. Our research is taking a step in that direction by assessing the impact of two library services—provided by Libraries ACT—for young children and their families: (1) Giggle and Wiggle and (2) Story Time. We are studying the impact and engagement of these programs across four domains including educational, social, cultural, and economic. Our assessment will look at the gains in knowledge and skills of children as linked to the six variables identified by National Early Literacy Panel being strong predictors of later literacy development.… Continue reading “Assessing the impact and engagement of public libraries’ services for young children and their families”

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Every library user has a story to tell about their experience of visiting a library. Even people who don’t visit libraries have their stories about libraries and why they don’t use them. These stories are a rich source of data for Library and Information Science (LIS) researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of people’s lived experiences and perceptions of libraries. Nonetheless, there are few opportunities for people to narrate and share their stories of libraries, and as a result, most of them remain untold and unheard.… Continue reading “Qualitative approaches in library research: The art of listening to the untold stories”

Guest post by Dr Danny Kingsley, Visiting Fellow, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science

By now, most people in the academic space have heard of the term ‘open access’, even if understanding of what the term means and levels of engagement or enthusiasm vary. We are a group that is undertaking what we thought would be a straightforward study – an analysis of open access policies in universities in Australia.

As far as we can tell, this has not been done to date, so this work would be a ‘line in the sand’, not unlike a 2009 study looking at the ‘state of the nation’ of Australian institutional repositories, undertaken by two of the current research team.… Continue reading “It’s the ‘vibe’ of it: The complexity of open access policies in Australia”

Professor Philip Hider

The cynic might be of the view that what public libraries set as their official ‘vision’ or ‘mission’ is intended as much for the benefit of their political overseers as it is for their publics. Nevertheless, many public library authorities do publish some sort of statement about how they see themselves contributing to their communities, about their role. Many of these statements can be found somewhere on their website, albeit sometimes in a rather remote corner of it.… Continue reading “Missions and visions: Do public libraries have a consistent picture of their role?”

I recently published a paper in the Journal of Documentation (Mansourian, 2021) to report the findings from a research project that I have done from 2018 to 2020 in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. In this project, I explored various information activities of serious leisure participants to discover and depict their information seeking and sharing patterns. My research approach was qualitative in an interpretive paradigm, and I used semi-structured interviews to collect the data. Then I used thematic analysis method to analyse the collected data and identify the concepts and categories.… Continue reading ““It’s something I always wanted to do”: Serious leisure, self-actualisation and social engagement”

Yazdan Mansourian, PhD, AALIA

My research program is about serious leisure. If you have not heard this term before, you might find it puzzling. This even may look like an oxymoron. How come something is serious and leisurely at the same time? However, it is not as absurd as it looks. Serious leisure includes all forms of hobbies, amateur or voluntary activities which require long term commitment and some specific knowledge or skills.… Continue reading “I watch the birdwatcher: An introduction to serious leisure”

Associate Professor Hamid Jamali

Value and impact are terms that are sometimes loosely defined and used. Assessing and providing evidence of the value and impact of libraries is something that many researchers and practitioners, at least over the last two decades, have tried to address. The reason for great attention to value and impact has been partly the pressure on libraries to demonstrate their value and impact in order to justify their budget or investment by stakeholders. Terms such as value, impact and outcome have been used sometimes interchangeably without clear differentiation.… Continue reading “Defining the value and impact of libraries”

Dr Jessie Lymn

There’s an oft-cited question that gets asked when delving into the bowels of academic library special collections – “just what is so special about special collections?“. For university libraries especially, the special collections (or rare books, or manuscripts, or many other titles) are where some of the most socially, culturally and economically valuable parts of the library’s collection are held, and also some of the most diverse and controversial.

These challenges of collecting, preserving and managing the diversity of values in special collections is both demanding and productive, and can be considered reflective of the same challenges faced during the ‘first life’ of these publications and objects.… Continue reading “Unearthing controversies in Special Collections”