Sydney Study Visits April 13 2016

Wednesday 13th AM: NSW Parliamentary Library
Reflection

The NSW Parliamentary Library is the oldest parliamentary library in Australia. Their four pillars of ACCURATE – TIMELY – IMPARTIAL – CONFIDENTIAL reflect their niche clientele and challenge of their role. “For every question, an answer you can trust” reflects the very particular purpose of a library within a parliamentary system.
It was interesting to hear about their use of open source library management systems, the establishment of an in-house knowledge management database, the manipulation of the legal repository and the challenges faced regarding copyright with a clientele that has some specific self-promotion requirements.
This library’s focus on provision of the answer to questions rather than directing clients to how to achieve the answer, is the first time I started thinking about the very real difference between those two services. As a teacher librarian in a school I realise my role is a combination of both but with a very distinct leaning towards sharing how to achieve the answer – not just provide it with a sense of transferred authority. To work in the parliamentary library must come with a certain amount of stress when information becomes a commodity upon which significant decision making processes can be based.
This visit also highlighted another theme that was appearing in this group of libraries… the responsibility of being the repository for rare books of significant value to our nation. Digitisation and online access in some ways desensitises the modern learner to the power of holding physical books that have long been a part of our nation’s history.

Wednesday 13th PM: Law Courts of NSW
Reflection

I must admit that the Library at the Law Courts of NSW was not somewhere that I expected to see high levels of effervescent energy and enthusiasm towards the role of law librarian – a significant underestimation on my part! I came away from here with a very strong sense of “team” and thoroughly impressed by the calibre of the individuals involved in working in this library. High intelligence is obviously the first prerequisite!
This staff of 24 are a mix of professional law librarians, library technicians and assistants, and clerical staff. They are a full service library and manage a “source of truth” in our legal system. They are also an historical library – a repository for judgements and case law for the state supreme and federal courts. The location of the library in the building makes them a bridge between the two jurisdictions.
The discussion about the crucial nature of print based resources to the core work of this library, and their acknowledgment that print will continue to be essential to their work, brought up some interesting points of discussion. There is also a strong need for information technology skills to accompany those print based access requirements as the staff here maintain a large intranet with a high turnover of information and new materials.
They also have a specific teaching role for some levels of court staff. In particular for the Tipstaves who are employed as part of the personal chambers staff of particular judges.
While the library utilises many features of the Dewey Decimal system, they also have site specific organisational solutions to meet their particular storage challenges and access requirements.
This library again hinted at the history behind libraries in our state and the importance of private collectors and bequests which provide ongoing access to information which continues to be used by our legal systems. This library is another bridge between the past of our state and its present but with a very real utilisation of that information in an ongoing way which affects NSW citizens.

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