University of Sydney visit

I mentioned a visit to the University of Sydney in a previous post, but then up and forgot to post anything about it. It was late in February, and the day we arrived on campus was 'welcome back to school' week. Students were just returning to their school year after the summer break and everyone had that first week of school energy that we're all familiar with. I have to say that it was terrific to be there during their version of President's day -- lots of booths advertising clubs, groups and opportunities for you as a student and live music and free stuff. I was particularly excited about the surfing club. What a neat thing, I was thinking...join the surf club and head out with your mates to catch a wave. It seems like a great form of stress relief. Anyway, campus was hopping - here's a shot of the crowds. The uni has about 45,000 students, so it's roughly the same size as UBC.





The university is just finishing up a new law building. It looked really impressive and modern from the outside:



and once inside, I saw just how modern everything seemed. These benches were delightfully green. I have to admit that I was thinking of our assistant university librarian when I saw these. Very stylish.




To the left of the law building was the library, which is less than modern and reminded me of a lot of other library architecture.



The librarians I met with were a bit frazzled -- partly because of beginning of term panic, and partly because they were going through a reorganisation, which had resulted in major changes to business as usual. Needless to say, the librarians were a bit unsure of what exactly they did anymore and that seemed to cloud my conversations with people. Nevertheless, I learned that the Koori Centre on campus was the main place for student services for Indigenous students. Librarians had and still worked with people from the Koori Centre and in fact, one librarian mentioned that all staff in the library had taken sensitivity training from someone in the Koori Centre, in order to work better with students.


The library is making other efforts as well -- one of which is to include the resources from the Koori Centre in the library's online catalogue. The library already has a well-stocked curriculum collection with heaps of curricular materials in different Aboriginal languages. The library has adopted some of the recommendations from the protocols (see the UTS post talking about these), by including a disclaimer on many books in their curricular collection. It was good to see.


There are inconsistencies with respect to protocols for sacred materials. Ideally, sacred materials (if part of the collection in the first place) need to be handled in a sensitive and respectful way -- an example of this would be sacred women's ritual materials should not be seen, handled or viewed by men. Well, it was acknowledged that there are inconsistencies among libraries with respect to these kinds of materials - while some libraries are very good about attending to the restrictions, other libraries will have that same material on the shelf for circulation. I didn't get the sense that this was a surprise to anyone, but it was clear to me that the comments were made with heavy hearts. There's still work to be done.


In a more recent development, the library had good success with a tour for future students who were attending a 2-day mini university programme. Students who came to the library were introduced to all the library materials (books, databases, archival and special collections, artworks, etc.) particular to their people, the Wiradjuri. Lots of staff were involved, everyone worked hard, and those two days were terrific for the students and for the librarians. It seems that outreach to pre-university students may be a good way for us to expose students to what we have for them and to explain how we can all work together to contribute to the students' academic success.


The library was also keen on offering internships within the library for Indigenous students. I heard this from other librarians as well and it seems to be a way of immersing someone in the library which could have benefits for other students -- having a student explain to students what's available is always more effective in my opinion. And, similar to comments from other librarians, if you are going to try for an internship for Indigenous students in the library, do not expect or make the student the Indigenous-'issues'-only person. I like the internship idea, as maybe that will help encourage more students to consider this profession, which in turn could only enhance the way a library creates a welcoming space for its Indigenous students.


So in spite of the upheaval of re-org, I heard quite a lot from the librarians. I thank them for helping me out and for showing me around. By the way, the university is one of the big 8 (?)sandstone campuses..one of the old ones that's been around for years. Here's a final picture to get a flavour for that old architecture:

Quick update

I'm back in Canada after a long flight home. The next step is to organise pictures, add content to this blog, re-read notes and articles, and make plans for the next part of the study leave. I'm thinking a road trip is in order: UBC to visit the librarians at the long house, UNBC to visit with the library there and to renew acquaintances with folks in the FN programmes, and in June, to Montana for the Tribal College Librarians Institute where I'm presenting my findings. In the meantime I'm recovering from the flight, and slowly getting used to the chilly weather. Three months in New Zealand and Australia is a great way to ignore a Canadian winter -- a tough west coast one this year at that.

The Top End

Greetings from Darwin...the top end of Australia in the Northern Territory. It has been a while since my last post. There were a couple of places that I had hoped to visit in the Northern Territory long before the study leave commenced but they seemed remote. Not only did I make it to here, but I managed to fit in both places: Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in Batchelor (about 100 km south of Darwin) and the National Library of the Northern Territory in Darwin (the sign in the picture above points the way). I dropped in on the libraries without appointments and had really good talks with librarians about what they do to welcome students to their places. What we talked about was familiar: staffing, personal service, displays of appropriate artwork, recognising cultural practices, etc.

Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education

The librarians at Batchelor, Ann Williams and Claire Nield were very hospitable and welcoming. They work with students who are older, often away from their communities for the first time, and are unfamiliar with how a library works. Claire told me a story of simply having students into the library and taking them on a bit of a walking tour to show them the resources about their mob (their Aboriginal group), to find materials to read and then just sitting down in some comfortable chairs and reading. It wasn't 'library instruction', per se, but it was a welcome introduction for students who otherwise knew very little about what was there, and it also gave the students a chance to just be in the space.

The library is a lovely space with lots of natural light, a collection of about 40,000 items (many in Aboriginal languages), a good display of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artwork from all over the country, and (among other usual things) a flat panel monitor that they use heavily to advertise events, to show pictures of communities from where students have come (and where other campuses of the instution are located), to advertise opening and closing times and to recognise donors. This last bit was the most intriguing. A student had donated a couple of books in language to the library and the librarians asked if they could take her picture and post it on the monitor. The student agreed and now her smiling face and those books are up on the monitor and her friends who come to the library are really excited to see her there. Something as simple as that has helped to make students feel more welcome and struck me as something that we could try -- not only to honour our Indigenous students and their donations, but really, to honour all donors in a more obvious and public way.

Because my visit was completely unplanned, I had no camera with me (why, oh why?) so I have no pictures of the campus nor of the library.

National Library of the Northern Territory

The Northern Territory National Library in Darwin was my next stop. Fortunately, I remembered the camera and have some pictures to share. Here's a shot of the outside of the building -- the library is in the Parliament Building.

It was a particularly hot day (about 35 degrees), so going inside was a good thing. Everyone passes through security to get into the building -- because the library is located in a parliament building, security is a given.

The library itself is in a space that was originally designed for a second house if Parliament ever got bigger. In a sense, they're temporary patrons of that space, but they've been there for a number of years now, and government is not getting bigger in the Northern Territory, so it seems their space is secure, even if some politicians feel they shouldn't be there, or better still, that the library should be for the politicians only, not the public.

The day we visited, the library was busy -- full of people doing research, using the computers, and hanging about reading. The central staircase seen in the picture above takes you up a couple of levels to special exhibits and downstairs to the main collection and their special collections. The help desk is along the wall to the far right.

In the last year, the library has developed an Indigenous display that fills up a corner of the library. As a State library, it's important to reflect the population the library serves, and the librarians realised that something had to be done. Hence the display area.

Here are some shots of the area -- note the display of baskets, fish nets, and art on the walls. The baskets are made from pandanus and are dyed using natural ochres found in the bush.

The librarians I spoke with said that it was about time they did something to recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, given that they are the State library. I heard this comment a lot - about how important it is to create a space for people so they feel comfortable and welcomed, rather than turned off or intimidated.