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Preserving and providing access to local archives is one of the roles performed by public libraries in New South Wales. This role is not mandated, nor is it a stated priority for public libraries. Local government records are regulated by legislation, but what of the other records documenting the lives of rural and city communities? In many cases the library’s local studies collection becomes the default home of the archives of local community organisations and of individuals whose personal papers are acquired by libraries. In some cases, the library shares the role of maintaining local archives with historical societies, museums and universities. The result is a functioning example of distributed custody, where public libraries and other local institutions take responsibility for local archives. This paper is a case study that draws on two major surveys of local studies collections undertaken by the State Library of NSW, the first in 1984 and the second in 2013–2014. It concludes that public libraries have been critical for over 50 years in ensuring that local archives have been acquired and managed, despite there being no explicit regulatory or policy frameworks for doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the pop-up concept, a world-wide trend which has been employed in various commercial and community settings, with a particular interest in how it has been applied to literary environments, using both physical and digital resources. The report examines six Australian public libraries, investigating why and how they established a pop-up library, and reflecting on their successes, challenges and what they have learnt from the process. The paper provides a definition of pop-up libraries and outlines how to create a pop-up library for a public library service, exploring the risks, benefits and issues to consider when planning for a successful pop-up library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kay Poustie OAM Travel Scholarship is an initiative of the State Library of Western Australia Foundation. It provides Western Australian librarians with the opportunity to travel, visiting international library services and learning from their experiences. In 2012, the author was the inaugural winner of the scholarship, travelling to Europe to visit 10 renowned and innovative library services: Amsterdam Public Library, the DOK Library Concept Centre in Delft, Copenhagen Main Library, Copenhagen University and Royal Library, Malmö Library, The London Borough of Tower Hamlets' Idea Stores, The British Library, Cardiff Central Library, Manchester Central Library and Liverpool Central Library. The activities, buildings and programmes of these libraries were examined and several common features were identified as contributing to the success of these libraries. This paper discusses the features which these libraries thought were important to the success of their library services, and describes programmes, events and services which these libraries have implemented. This paper identifies goals for public libraries wishing to emulate the success of these international libraries in the areas of the library building, opening hours, events programmes and customer engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent international library historiography has demonstrated the need to move away from isolated narrative accounts of individual philanthropic acts, and instead evaluate how public library development fitted into a normative social culture of philanthropy. This paper employs this paradigm to contextualise the philanthropy of William Walker to the Tasmanian Public Library (now the State Library of Tasmania) in the early twentieth century. It explores Walker's donation of Australiana in the context of Tasmanian social philanthropy and influential examples of library benefaction. Walker's ideological and moral motivations, arising from received notions of `duty' and idealist philosophy, are also considered. The paper describes ways in which the Tasmanian Public Library used Walker's donation to encourage further acts of philanthropy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the publication of Australia’s first crime novel in 1830, Australians have read crime fiction for entertainment, for the reassurance that wrongdoers will be punished, and to test their deductive skills against those of their favourite sleuth. The novels, short stories and plays within the crime fiction genre that have been produced in Australia between colonial times and the present day also offer opportunities to investigate a particular place or a particular time. Indeed, many crime fiction writers have mastered the art of recreating settings in both rural and metropolitan landscapes. The details provided within these works ultimately reveal a culprit (usually a murderer), yet they also outline the availability of certain products, bus and train timetables, the floor plans of local hotels or world-famous buildings and numerous other particulars, thus providing a rich, if surprising, source of material for the merely curious and the professional researcher. Crime fiction stories set within libraries present a history of the information services profession. This paper demonstrates how crime fiction can provide an important supplement to more traditional historical sources, with a focus on how the genre has documented some of the major changes within libraries over the last 75 years, since 1939. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology, new demands from consumers and changing social needs – all the uncontrollable, incredibly fast forces of modern Australia – mean that public libraries need to keep up to avoid going the way of the movie rental store, travel agents, catalogues or even the computer. Can ‘The Library’ be saved or do we need a reinvention that truly reflects their full value in 2015? This paper discusses how Australia's public libraries can continue their tradition of education and community development, retaining their relevance by embracing change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Romance fiction, romance authors and readers have been routinely marginalised, in spite of their significant role in contemporary popular culture. Sales figures for the book trade indicate that romance fiction is the most popular of all genres with ebook technologies being led by romance and erotica publishers. Yet, many public libraries have not collected romance fiction or collect only token examples of this genre. Drawing from data in the Australian Romance Readers Association annual survey on reader usage, this paper will discuss how the romance reader accesses their reading choices, impediments to the romance reader accessing reading materials, and the role of the public library and how library practitioners, through Readers' Advisory practices, can meet the romance reader's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been substantial changes in the labour market over the past few years and survey results indicate 60% of staff will leave public library service over the next decade. While this creates opportunities for library staff, limited training budgets and a focus on compliance and specific library skills training have led to a gap in the formal development of leadership skills, This paper explores the impetus for action and describes the strategies implemented to develop and support leaders for the future at the State Library of Victoria and within Victorian public libraries. It also considers the impact of these initiatives and the learnings. More specifically, it details the establishment of the Shared Leadership Program in 2006 by the State Library. The library recognised that leadership, at all levels of the organisation, was essential to successfully deliver a new extensive program of work and to prepare the workforce to adapt to changing roles and expectations. Learning Forums were also implemented to provide further opportunities to grow individual and collective leadership capabilities. In 2009, the Shared Leadership Program was extended to tile Victorian public library network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]