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When people arrive in Australia, whether through choice or for reasons of hardship, as migrants, international students, refugees or humanitarian entrants, they seek to make a place for themselves and their families in their new communities. They have to set up home, find employment, become familiar with cultural norms that are second nature to Australians but alien to new arrivals, and often their first language is not English.
 
For library users, coming from a country where there is a good public library network, the local library is an obvious place to find essential information, sign up for English language conversation classes, use the public computers, engage with other children and families at storytime. Joining the library is part of the settling in process. For others, coming from countries where there may not be a library network, libraries are an unknown quantity and it can be hard to build up the courage to step over the threshold.
 
Australian libraries recognise the needs and the barriers for migrants and refugees and are working to fulfil the first and break down the latter. This report shares just a few examples of the library projects to be found in different states and territories.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.
 
Prison libraries play a pivotal role in serving the educational, recreational and other information needs of prison inmates.  This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which discusses the updating of the Mimimum Standard Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners.  
 
In 2015 the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) established a working group to review and update the Minimum Standard Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners, first published in 1990.  The guidelines are designed to assist with the planning of new prison libraries as well as in the evaluation and development of existing services. They are based in part on the third edition of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners (Lehmann & Locke, 2005).  This paper describes the activities of the Working Group and the challenges they faced. It examines how Corrective Services New South Wales has responded to the publication of the Guidelines. Other activities relating to prison libraries that are underway or proposed are discussed and opportunities for further research are suggested.

This submission from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), the Australian Public Library Alliance (APLA), and the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) presents how libraries across the sector have supported their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The submission also discusses the issues encountered and provides the following recommendations to the Senate Committee:

• Ensure clarity of messaging for all libraries
• Invest in public libraries as a partner in the digital transformation of federal government services
• Improve access to ebooks and other electronic resources
• Explore the role of libraries in supporting the federal government's JobMaker scheme

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference poster presentation accompanied the talk on a partnership between the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) and the Shandong Provincial Library in China.
 

With China being South Australia’s highest export partner, the Government of South Australia has been effectively engaging with China through a long-term partnership with Shandong Province, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016. The Government’s vision is ‘to strengthen the State’s partnership with China and enhance and deepen our long-term engagement in areas encompassing investment, trade and business, education, sport, culture, the arts, sciences, and the exchange of people, skills and ideas’.
 
After hosting two librarians from the Shandong Provincial Library in 2016, the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) further strengthened the relationship and networks with is sister-state province of Shandong, by sending Andrew Piper, Group Manager, Collections and Sharon Morris, Community Learning Educator to Jinan, in April-May 2017. Areas of discussion included the partnering in an exhibition of materials from the Provincial Library’s Ancient Books department scheduled for September 2018 and a return exhibition of SLSA materials; approaches to online engagement with collections and education programs.
 
A large part of the program developed for the SLSA visitors was the introduction to the culture of the people of Shandong along with visits to significant sites discussions, lectures and library tours.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference paper discusses the challenge in ensuring students have access to library based learning resources at their point of need; whilst also having skills and background to be able to correctly use the resources.
 
ANU Library is one Library made up of five specialised branches, including the Hancock Library. Senior Information Staff from the Hancock Library, that are subject contacts for medical sciences, have traditionally offered hands on information literacy sessions on medical resources to ANU medical students. This has been complemented by a standard LibGuide. With multiple teaching locations throughout the ACT, south-east NSW and Northern Territory, there is a significant challenge in ensuring students have access to library based learning resources at their point of need; whilst also having skills and background to be able to correctly use the resources. Hancock Library staff undertook a systematic approach to completely reinvent Medicine LibGuide, to develop a pedagogically sound LibGuide for the needs of medical students.

ALIA National 2014 Conference, 15-19 September 2014 Melbourne : together we are stronger
This conference presentation explores how the role of libraries have long been custodians of ‘more than just books’.  For NSLA libraries, the personal stories collected in our diaries, correspondence, photographs, artworks and realia are some of our most precious items.  The rapid increase in digitally-created material has posed many problems, but also offered many opportunities, for libraries. 
The traditional linear structure of item-donor-library is now a more complex structure, where everyone is a potential creator and curator.  In recent years, libraries have been grappling to find the best and most efficient way of acquiring and preserving these new materials, from these new creators.  Serena Coates will give a summary of the recent efforts by NSLA (National and State Libraries Australasia) to address the issues associated with digital collecting, and Sarah Slade will provide a summary of the efforts of NSLA’s Digital Preservation Project.

ALIA National 2016 Conference 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead
 
This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which explores the place of Research Data Management (RDM) support services as an extension of the academic librarian's role. The presenters anticipate that RDM support will become increasingly important in an ever-more data-driven research environment, and share the experiences of three South Australian university libraries in providing RDM, including the skillsets developed and lessons learned. 

The Reading Hour is one of the most celebrated annual reading initiatives in Australia, and supports individuals, families and communities to discover and rediscover the joy of reading. The Reading Hour emerged from the National Year of Reading 2012, and is an ongoing campaign from Love2Read, funded by the ALIA Australian Public Library Alliance and in partnership with the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
 

Promotional materials (poster) promoting teenage reading.

Promotional materials (poster) promoting teenage reading.

Promotional materials (poster) promoting teenage reading.

Promotional materials (poster) promoting teenage reading.

ALIA Information Online 2017 Conference, 13-17 February 2017 Sydney: Data Information Knowledge
 
[Peer reviewed] This conference paper discusses the development of a case law database for Queensland police prosecutors.
 
Abstract: What can you get when you mix a time-poor police prosecutions unit, a team of committed librarians and a technology initiative dedicated to improving prosecution practice and efficiency? As QPS Library Services has discovered, actually, many great things! In partnership with the Queensland Police Service (QPS) Prosecution Corps, Library Services has redeveloped an existing information portal into a ‘one stop shop’ for all police legal resources, including a custom-made case law database which enables information access and sharing across prosecution units. This paper will share the story of our partnership with the QPS Prosecution Corps, and the evolution of the Case Law Database as a statewide data and information tool.
 
Since 1991, QPS Library Services has enjoyed a close working relationship with the QPS Prosecution Corps, providing information resources, research services and training support. There are around 270 prosecutors across Queensland, handling approximately 95% of all criminal matters in the Queensland Magistrates Courts. The prosecutors work in a busy environment that is unpredictable and time sensitive. They rely on experience, informed practice and research to guide their decision making. This is where Library Services is able to provide the most support. Since the advent of the QPS ProsTech Initiative in 2013, we have been able to leverage off an increased connection to technology in order to provide greater access to information at point of need.
 
The ProsTech Initiative was developed by QPS Legal Services to investigate new capabilities for prosecutors within the court room, including secure access to QPS systems utilising the Queensland Government’s Public Safety Network. The first stage of the initiative saw a rollout of laptops to prosecutors throughout the state to enable mobile access to information and systems wherever they may be. Working in partnership with the ProsTech project team, Library Services developed a ‘one stop shop’ for prosecutors: a single point of access for legal resources, case law, reference materials, manuals and more. The ‘one stop shop’ enables seamless access to legal information resources via QPS laptops from within the court room, a functionality not available to police prosecutors in other states.
 
As part of the ‘one stop shop’, a customised in-house database of frequently used legal cases was also created using the Library’s SirsiDynix Symphony and Enterprise software. Cases were hand-picked for inclusion by Library staff and QPS prosecutors across the state and catalogued by a dedicated librarian over a 1 year period. The Case Law Database currently holds over 1000 cases with metadata specifically of interest to QPS Prosecutors. It has allowed for a huge knowledge gap to be filled as it includes cases not available in other commercial databases. It has also enabled greater information and knowledge sharing across regional units, while preventing duplication of resources and potential breaches of copyright by individual teams saving copies of case law locally.
 
The ProsTech Initiative, including the ‘one stop shop’, was a finalist in the QPS 2015 Awards for Excellence. 

Research grants of up to $5000 are offered by the Australian Library and Information Association. The Research Grant Award is open to library practitioners and early career LIS researchers who are Members of ALIA. 
The purpose of the award is to enable the recipient to undertake a research program on a selected library or information issue of present and future relevance to the development and improvement of library and information services in Australia.
This document provides general information and answers common questions about the grant.