Blog: Library Research in Practice

Associate Professor Jane Garner

Libraries are often thought of as safe places. They are spaces where people come to learn, access information, connect with others, or simply spend time without needing to buy anything. Yet over the past several years, concerns have been growing within the library profession about the safety of library workers themselves.

Conversations at conferences, discussions on professional forums, and reports from library managers have pointed to an increase in challenging behaviours directed towards staff. While these stories were becoming increasingly common, there was very little Australian evidence available to help us understand the scale of the problem or how libraries might respond effectively.… Continue reading “A National Study of Workplace Violence and Aggression”

Philip Hider

The ARC Linkage project, ‘Designing for Communities with Communities’, has launched its Toolkit to assist public libraries include a genuine ‘codesign’ element in their future space development projects. The Co-designing Public Library Spaces Toolkit is freely available on the State Library of New South Wales website and provides detailed guidance on how to involve community members in the design, or redesign, of their library spaces. The content of the Toolkit is based on the findings from the Linkage project’s two case studies and covers both the planning and carrying out of workshops specifically for the purposes of codesigning public library spaces.… Continue reading “Codesigning public libraries project launches its Toolkit”

Jane Garner

From 1–3 July 2025, the Charles Sturt University Libraries Research Group proudly hosted the Australasian Public Library Conference. Held online to mark 50 years of Library & Information Studies at CSU, the event brought together researchers, practitioners, and community leaders to explore the changing role of public libraries.

Over three days and six themed sessions, participants shared insights into how libraries are evolving to meet community needs. If you missed a session—or want to revisit the conversations—recordings are now available here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCK1lMuHn4SGiy87A-cyKcQ… Continue reading “Australasian Public Library Conference 2025: Recordings Now Available”

The Libraries Research Group invited the manager, Christine Bolton, and staff of Wagga Wagga City Library over to the group’s meeting on 1 May, which was held on the Wagga campus as well as online for those members not present in Wagga. Christine and her colleagues provided an overview of the latest developments in the Library’s services and discussed with the group various possibilities for further research collaboration. Highlights of the meeting included a guided tour of one of the librarians’ agile library vans, and a chance to pat one of the Library’s robotic cats!… Continue reading “LRG meets with Wagga City Librarians”

University presses play an important role in scholarly communication, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Yet in Australia, little has been written about them in the last decade. I recently conducted a mapping study of university presses in Australia, and looked at who’s active, what they publish, and how they are structured. The full paper is now available on Figshare.

In total, I identified nine active university presses out of the 42 Australian universities. While this is a small number, it’s not insignificant given our population and higher education size.… Continue reading “An overview of university presses in Australia and their relationship with libraries”

Group member: Jane Garner

Project website: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/librariesandhomelessness/

This three-year project funded by an Australian Research Council DECRA Grant allows 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.

Kay Oddone

I’m excited to share that our new research project, funded by the 2024 ALIA Research Grant Award, valued at $10,000, is officially underway. This grant was awarded to our cross-institutional research team, which includes myself, Dr. Lizzie Tait (University of South Australia), and Tabitha Merrell (Charles Sturt University).

Our project is entitled Voices of Change: Harnessing LIS Student Insights to Transform Information Literacy Education with Gen AI and Universal Design for Learning. It aims to explore innovative approaches to reimagining information literacy education by integrating generative AI technologies and Universal Design for Learning principles.… Continue reading “Voices of Change: Harnessing LIS Student Insights to Transform Information Literacy Education with Gen AI and Universal Design for Learning.”

Philip Hider

Cataloguing and classification, or nowadays more commonly referred to as ‘collection access’ or ‘metadata librarianship’, or similar, has been a core activity of library operations for as long as librarianship as a profession has existed, i.e., well over 100 years, yet for a long while now has been perceived as being somewhat on the back foot, especially with collections going increasingly online, and with libraries increasingly prioritising ‘front desk’ services when allocating their limited staff resources. I last surveyed the state of play for the ‘cat & class’ branch of librarianship in Australia a decade ago, and this year thought it was time to update those findings, to identify any continuing or new trends.… Continue reading “Library cataloguing at a crossroads”

A/Prof Mary Carroll

Over the last few months, I have been investigating the  experience of women in librarianship in Australia using the extant literature to see how this experience has been documented. This small project came about in response to a request to contribute to a festschrift in memory of highly regarded US scholar Mary Niles Maack. Maack ‘s areas of expertise were in comparative librarianship, the history of the book, and women’s history.  Her works are both insightful and far reaching laying out templates for future research in these areas.… Continue reading “Australian women librarians: their published history”

The rise of generative AI has sparked debates across professions, including within the library and information sciences, about its potential to transform specific tasks. Among the many specialised tasks that information professionals perform, cataloguing and creating metadata records are particularly complex.

Many wonder whether AI tools like ChatGPT can perform cataloguing or create metadata with reasonable accuracy and reliability. Some have conducted experiments to test AI’s capability in this area. Such experiments include using ChatGPT for LCSH Subject assignment, identifying errors in catalogue records, creating MARC records using RDA or DC, and creating MARC21 using RDA.… Continue reading “Custom AI tools for cataloguing!”

Although there is no conclusive evidence, there have been at least speculations in the past about the impact that the gender of editors, reviewers and authors might have on the fairness of decisions made for the publication of manuscripts submitted to scholarly journals. As a result, tens of studies in the past have looked at gender parity (the notion of 50:50 representation) and equity (the notion of proportional representation compared to the broader population) of journal editorial positions. To mention a few more recent ones, studies in urology (1), general surgery (2), psychology (3), endocrinology (4), neurology (5), library science (6), and mathematics (7) all point to under-representation of women in various journal editorial positions.… Continue reading “Gender parity in Australian journals’ editors”

Annie Godfrey

Over the last decade a number of new public libraries have been built in NSW, include the eight in the photographs below. Current research by Annie Godfrey and other LRG members is exploring these libraries’ building architecture, which, as the photos show, can vary quite considerably. The project will investigate what this library architecture has in common, how it responds to and supports contemporary library functions, and how it reflects contemporary and historic expectations as to what a library should, or can, be.… Continue reading “Library Architecture Project”

Kay Oddone

It is hard to believe that it has been several months since I attended the ALIA National Conference in Adelaide, held from May 6-9, 2024. Although time has flown, it is still useful to draw a breath and reflect upon my experiences and to share my takeaways, especially as this was the first time I had attended this particular conference. 

With the theme being “Truth and Dare,”, it was clear from the start that this was going to be a thought-provoking learning experience.… Continue reading “Truth and Dare: Highlights from the ALIA Conference 2024”

Anita Dewi

I had opportunity to spend all February this year at the National Library of Australia (NLA) as an Asia Study Grant recipient. I felt so privileged! During the four-week period, I explored the NLA’s Indonesian collections, researching libraries, librarianship, and librarians in Indonesia – the past and present. Most resources I consulted were in Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language), so I found my Indonesian language competence very helpful. The NLA collections on this topic (and I’m sure also beyond) are amazingly comprehensive.… Continue reading “2024 National Library of Australia Asia Study Grant recipient – a reflection”

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).

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”