Documenting ordinary stories: Local studies collections in public libraries - a couple of papers and a thesis

Documenting ordinary stories: Local studies collections in public libraries

This paper describes research to consider how practices for local studies collections in Australian public libraries might need to shift to ensure that as well as including the historical past, that recent and current concerns and interests of the community are appropriately collected and reflected in their collections. This research used ethnography as a method to explore one public library in detail. Drawing on the metaphor of mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors, the research results describe how a social justice framework for local studies collecting in public libraries could ensure greater inclusion and equity. Such approaches can amplify voices that may have been silenced and enable people and themes with little visibility to be much more visible within local studies collections in public libraries. The conclusion is that a social justice approach to local studies collections in public libraries has the potential to provide a more representative record of the community as a wider range of voices and stories are documented, collected, preserved and made available for research and other uses. For this paper you may need to contact your friendly aggregator https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000624129031

 We collect ‘everything’: A case study of a local studies collection in an Australian public library 

This paper about research which I undertook, was recently published in Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association The abstract is here: This paper describes research exploring a local studies collection in an Australian public library. It includes the current collecting practices and paradigms and their impact on what is added to this collection. This research was to discover how contemporary content, including items from rapid response collecting are incorporated in a local studies collection. It uses a social justice approach to investigate how current collecting practices represent the whole of the community in a public library local studies collection to provide multiple stories and perspectives. Ethnography was the research method used to enable in-depth understanding of the collecting practices of one public library. The results of the research show a tendency for library staff to rarely say no to unsolicited donations, as well as a focus on emotional and decision making based on relationships. This led to donations based on relationships and the risk of collecting from cliques and resulted in an increased cataloguing backlog for the local studies collection. The conclusion is that for more of the community to be represented in a public library local studies collection, changes in collecting practices need to be undertaken to include a social justice focus. You should be able to access the paper to read it at this link https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2024.2386642

If you want to access the papers and can't please contact me. 

If you really want to read more, my thesis:

If we don't take that who will: an ethnographic exploration of a local studies collection in an Australian public library is available to read here  (and you can read the abstract there too).