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In 2002, the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee commissioned the National Library of Australia to analyse the uniqueness and overlap of Australian university library collections, comparing library collections in each state, using the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) available through the Kinetica Service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The State Library of New South Wales holds the world’s most extensive collection on the European exploration and colonisation of Australia and its region and the subsequent development of Australia. Much is held about the Indigenous peoples, some created by Indigenous artists and chroniclers, but the majority by others including explorers, government officers, missionaries and settlers as well as the more recent ethnographers, historians and writers. Many of the records are fragmentary and hidden within documents dealing with other matters. The State Library is working to make these records available in consultation with Indigenous communities. It also seeks to include more and stronger Indigenous voices to reflect on Indigenous experience and provide commentary on the material in the Library’s collections. The Library’s partnership with the New South Wales public library network offers a means for engagement with communities as well as an opportunity to provide better services to Indigenous people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

One of the contemporary challenges for clinical libraries is to understand and engage with a continuously changing variety of content packaging. The environment is rapidly changing from one where the availability of the content dictated the mode of access, to one in which clients can choose their preferred mode of access and expect that the content they need will be available to fit it. In an effort to adapt to this change the Toowoomba Clinical Library Service observed the ubiquity of iPods and MP3 players was accompanied by a steady increase in the production and availability of audio presentations suitable for practising clinicians. At the same time, suitable indexing and aggregation of podcasts was rare, meaning much of this potentially highly useful content was difficult to discover and was little used. This issue was addressed by establishing a project whereby podcasts were collected and access provided. This project identified (through extensive searching) suitable podcasts and pre-loaded them, as topical collections, onto iPods which were made available for loan. In addition, a database was developed to generate descriptive lists of available podcasts and to facilitate the tracking of podcast allocation to individual iPods. Over time, feedback helped the authors realise the collection, indexing and multimodal distribution of the podcasts was more important than simply the provision of iPods. Subsequent enhancements have been made to encompass these larger goals. This project has been well worthwhile. Use among local clinicians has steadily grown, while hospital libraries in Brisbane and Adelaide are now collaborating with the project. Formal and informal evaluation indicates it is clearly meeting a need by extending the provision of high quality and relevant information in a format which is flexible and appropriate for clinicians thinly stretched for time and intellectual energy. Enhancing the project will involve working on better ways to evaluate the outcomes achieved from this service and the impacts on practitioner behaviour and patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers suggestions for libraries seeking to develop a foreign language fiction collection with limited funds. Particular focus is given to the efforts of the Tasmanian Polytechnic Launceston Campus Library developed such a collection through grants and donations. Reasons for developing foreign language fiction collections, the population of Tasmanian Polytechnic for whom English is not their first language, and the process of requesting donations are examined. Benefits of the project are also discussed.

Since 2005 the State Library of New South Wales has provided staff with an opportunity to research aspects of the Library's services and collections through the State Librarian's Staff Fellowship Program, In January 2008, Maggie Patton commenced a project to rediscover and document the development of the rare printed collections at the State Library. This article provides an introduction to these collections, their provenance, and the challenges the acquisition and management of such collections present to their custodians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), Higher Education Information Infrastructure Advisory Committee commissioned the National Library of Australia to analyse the uniqueness and overlap of Australian university library collections, comparing library collections in each state, using the National Bibliographic Database (NBD) available through the Kinetica Service. The study revealed that at a state level, university library collections have a high level of uniqueness. Further investigation of the trends identified by the study would be beneficial and would assist decision-making on future co-ordination of access to more diverse information resources for the Australian university community. (Contains 11 tables and 30 endnotes.)

An obituary is presented for Juliana Archbold, the former Librarian of the State Library's Children's Literature Research Collection in South Australia.