This past week, I, along with my colleagues Dr Kay Oddone and Dr Waseem Afzal, accompanied 30 students from the School of Information and Communication Studies at Charles Sturt University on a Study Visit around Brisbane Libraries. It was a lot of fun and I thought it would be fun to share my perspective on the visit.

Before I dive into my observations, I think it’s worth providing some context for those who don’t know what a study visit is. A study visit is essentially a week-long excursion around different locations. They are a compulsory part of our students’ study in the:

• Bachelor of Information Studies (BIS);
• Master of Information Studies (MIS); and,
• Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) (MEd(TeachLib)).

Students from the three different degrees are at different stages of study and library experience when they come together for the study visits. I know that some students were worried about these differing levels of experiences but at our wrap-up conversations today, they really found value in talking to their peers about their experiences. I also loved meeting our BIS and MIS students.

This study visit was primarily planned by Waseem, with input from me and Kay. We ended up putting together the following plan:

Tuesday AM – State Library of Queensland
Tuesday PM – GoMA Research Library

Wednesday AM – either All Hallows Library or Brisbane Girls Grammar School Library (students could choose)
Wednesday PM – Supreme Court Library

Thursday AM – QUT Gardens Point Library
Thursday PM – Fryer Library at UQ

Friday AM – Brisbane Square Library

Our goal was to put together a program that had a variety of libraries that were relatively close together. The feedback from students was genuinely positive about the program and I really enjoyed getting to hear from staff at each library.

While I could go into detail about what each library talked to us about and what I thought of each library space, I thought it would be more valuable to touch on the key themes I picked up on at each and every library. It was great to hear that no matter what type of library our students (or even myself) end up in, there are the following constants:

1. Collections serve communities

This is something that I am regularly telling our MEd(TeachLib) students and I’m sure the BIS and MIS students hear the same. Your library collection must meet the needs of your community. It should be representative and approached with empathy. It should be constantly evolving to ensure you are continually meeting your community’s needs as they change and always try to be proactive rather than reactive. It didn’t matter whether we were hearing from the State Library, a school library, or the Fryer Library – each collection was developed and maintained with their community in mind. A particular area of focus for each library was how their patrons would access and use their resources. Accurate, comprehensive, and sensitive describing of resources was something that each library talked about too, with each library showing that they did things slightly differently, but the core business of serving their community was always front and centre in their approach.

2. Evidence-based practice

Each and every library had some way to collect data to show evidence of their impact on their communities. State Library Queensland presented us with the number of on-site and online visitors they’ve had in 2022. Brisbane Square Library and QUT Gardens Point Library spoke about they way they count visitors through their electronic gate systems. Fryer Library shared how they collected quantitative and qualitative feedback from patrons are they used the library. The school libraries were collecting evidence in borrowing numbers, but also feedback from students and staff about the programs they were running. It is clear that, in this data driven world, no library is exempt from evidence-based practice and it was great to hear how these libraries were going about it and how useful their data were.

3. Strategic and operational planning

Something that we talk a lot about in our subject ETL504 Teacher Librarian as Leader is how teacher librarians and school libraries need to make sure that their practices and policies align with the goals of the school. This alignment was reflected in each library we visited. Many directly referred to their Strategic Plan or to the Strategic Plan of the parent organisation and how they used these documents to help justify and protect their libraries. While this is something that often happens at the library management level, it was great for our students to hear how important this alignment of libraries to organisational planning is.

4. Collection development policy

I am pretty sure that my MEd(TeachLib) students are sick of hearing me talk about collection development policy (CDP). We focus on it a lot in ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum; in fact, their second assessment is all about it! So, it was great to hear each and every library refer to their CDP as a strategic document that was vital to not only the acquisition of resources but the protection of choices to include or remove items from their collections. What I love most about CDP is that it is the culmination of all the other themes I’ve discussed so far. The needs of the community should be reflected in a library’s CDP. The purpose of evidence-based practice should be included in the CDP and also inform changes to the CDP. The CDP should demonstrate alignment of the library to the strategic and operational planning of the organisation as well. Kay and I have done a lot of work to embed CDP into our subjects and it was really affirming to hear each and every library we visited mention this as a key strategic document they referred to when making or justifying decisions.

5. Passion for libraries

The final theme we noticed was how enthusiastic and passionate each and every person we met was. When we asked our students at the end what they liked most about the study visit, everyone noted how much they appreciated the genuine passion and enthusiasm each librarian had. When we visited the Fryer Library, one of their staff spoke about how much they loved having the students visit because it reminded them of where they started, stating it was reinvigorating. This passion and enthusiasm was clearly shared with our students as I heard many of them saying how much they wanted to work in a space like the one we were leaving. In fact, I did hear some students saying how hard it would be to choose just one type of library to work in. We truly do appreciate all the staff at the different libraries we visited giving up their time to give our students a behind-the-curtain peak at different libraries. Without our hosts’ generosity, visits like these would not be possible and so we are truly grateful to them all.

Final thoughts

As this was my first study visit, I don’t have much to compare it to. However, it is certainly up there with some of my favourite school excursions. I truly enjoyed getting to meet and know our students, and to share my Crocs collection with them all! I am glad that we are able to offer these in-person visits again and am already looking forward to next year’s study visit.