Evaluating public library community engagement and impact
Project members: Asim Qayyum, Linda Mahony and Waseem Afzal.
The aim of the current pilot project is to measure the engagement and impact of two library services (Giggle and Wiggle and Story Time) offered in Canberra by the Libraries ACT (Australian Capital Territories) to young children and their families. Outcomes and impact of the Giggle and Wiggle and Story Time services will be studied across four domains: educational, social, cultural, and economic.
Contact: Dr Asim Qayyum
Email: aqayyum@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6933 2186
Information seeking behaviours of prisoners
Project members: Dr Jane Garner.
Exploring the information needs and practices of adult Australians living in prisons.
Contact: Dr Jane Garner
Email: jagarner@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6933 4318
The impact of public library closures during COVID
Group members: Philip Hider, Jane Garner, Simon Wakeling, Hamid Jamali
Although public libraries have done their best to support their communities despite needing to close their physical doors at some points during the COVID pandemic, anecdotal evidence suggested that many users still missed visiting the physical spaces. This project, funded by the State Library of New South Wales, surveyed over 1,200 public library users to gauge the extent and reasons why people missed visiting their local libraries.
Contact: Dr Philip Hider
Email: phider@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6933 2522
Human information behaviour in the context of serious leisure
Project members: Yazdan Mansourian, partnering with colleagues in various areas, including the Schools of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health.
This research explores various aspects of HIB in the context of serious leisure and what people can do to enhance the quality and impact of their information seeking and information sharing activities in their everyday life, in general, and in their leisure time, in particular. It also informs public library service development, and libraries’ engagement with the community.
Contact: Dr Yazdan Mansourian
Email: ymansourian@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6933 4092
‘The Virago Archive’
Group members: Joy Wallace, Philip Hider, Donna Bridges, Elizabeth Wulff, Valerie Ingham, and UNSW academic Anne Brewster.
The project relates to the archiving, bibliographic, textual and socio-political dimensions of contemporary literary studies, focusing on the contributions made by Virago Press to feminist thought.
Contact: Dr Joy Wallace
Email: jwallace@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6338 4347
Hazel Smith, poet without language: A digital archive and retrospective
Group members: Joy Wallace, Hazel Smith, and Roger Dean (WSU).
Project leverages on Dr Wallace’s long association with the poet to provide a timely appraisal of her important work as one of Australia’s leading text-sound and multi-media artists.
Contact: Dr Joy Wallace
Email: jwallace@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6338 4347
Evaluating the Library of Congress genre/form terms
Group members: Philip Hider, Hollie White, Phillipa Barlow, Barbara Spiller, Leonie Bourke, Debbie Lee.
The relatively new Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms (LCGFT), adopted by many libraries in the English-speaking world, are evaluated by comparing them with other ‘everyday’ genre classifications, in the areas of film, fiction and music.
The Hider-White article on film genres can be found here, while the Hider-Spiller study on fiction genres can be accessed here.
Contact: Dr Philip Hider
Email: phider@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6933 2522
Embracing the cultural identity of burgeoning ethnic groups in regional public libraries: A pilot project with the Punjabi Indian Community in the Riverina
Group Member: Sabine Wardle, Kasey Garrison, Karen Bell
This pilot project aims to promote and embrace one burgeoning ethnic group’s cultural identity through public library services in the Riverina region, NSW. This equitable and culturally inclusive approach seeks to address the collection and services offered to Punjabi Indians by introducing a collection of resources and community activities to serve various age groups based on the input of the study participants.
Contact: Dr Sabine Wardle
Phone: (02) 69332780
Email: swardle@csu.edu.au
Decolonising libraries
Project members: Holly Randell-Moon, Jane Garner, Philip Hider, possibly partnering with Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies (AIATSIS).
Decolonising libraries and cataloguing systems by making them more accommodating of Indigenous cultural and language.
Contact: Dr Holly Randell-Moon
Email: hrandell-moon@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 6885 7394
Knowledge Bank of Australian and New Zealand School Libraries
Project members: Mary Carroll, Kasey Garrison, Kay Oddone, Judy O’Connell, Simon Wakeling, Sue Reynolds, Jo Kay
Drawing on over a 100 years of resources for and about teacher librarians and school libraries in Australia and New Zealand, Knowledge Bank of Australian and New Zealand School Libraries (KBANZSL) provides a point in time finding aid to critical reports, books, papers and other resources for use by practitioners, researchers, administrators and advocates of school libraries and teacher librarianship.
Contact: Mary Carroll
Email: macarroll@csu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 69334894
