The Library Reimagined explores and articulates the kind of spaces, services, skills and partnerships that will support and sustain Western Sydney University’s library of the future.
The Library Reimagined Project needed a solid evidence base from which considered and creative decision making could arise. We called this the Data Gathering Process.
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Big Sky Libraries (BSL) is a regional library service comprising three north-western NSW shires: Moree Plains, Walgett and Brewarrina.
Black-soil plains and underground artesian water supplies have supported large scale cotton, canola, cereal crops, olives, pecan nuts, sheep and cattle industries across the region.
Opal mining around Lightning Ridge, hot mineral springs, abundant birdlife and significant Aboriginal cultural heritage sites support growing tourism opportunities.
As generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have known for 60,000 years, creating culture is what we do.
We adorn ourselves with garments, beads, rings and tattoos; we create stories, myths, jokes and cinematic masterpieces; we use any surface we can find to scratch messages, honour gods and goddesses, and express beauty, terror and yearning through art making of all kinds. We dance and listen to music; compose poetry, screenplays and Tweets; build backyard sheds and soaring temples; knit beanies and exquisite tapestries; pack out music arenas to hear our favourite bands, go to majestic concert halls, or visit a local pub.
Since it opened in December 2018, Oodi has welcomed over three million people. The 10,000 square metre building was a birthday present to the city to acknowledge 100 years of liberation from colonial rule, first Swedish, then Russian.
How apposite that Oodi looks out over a large civic square to Parliament House, an architectural relic from another era. This is the real ‘people’s palace’. This is where civic experimentation is taking place on an epic scale.
I spent five days at Oodi in September 2019.
‘If everyone can be creative, and if creative thinking and ideas already permeate Victorian public libraries, then what is The Creative Library? What could it be?’
In 2016, Creative Victoria’s Creative State Strategy was released. An investment of $115 million was attached to strategy implementation. Victoria’s 47 public library services were not referenced in the Creative State document. Not one cent of the $115 million available to “put creativity at the heart of Victoria’s future” would go to the extensive cultural infrastructure and programs embodied in the state’s public library network.
The Nambucca Shire is situated on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales. From the coast to the hinterland, it spans the ancient and productive lands of the Gumbaynggirr Nation. The population is around 20,000, mainly Anglo-Celtic but with significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The Nambucca Library Service comprises two branch libraries; one at Macksville, the Shire’s administrative centre; and another at Nambucca Heads, a busy tourist town. Like the rest of the Mid-North Coast, the landscape is spectacularly beautiful.
‘History is buffeted by numerous variables; sometimes stationary, sometimes volatile, but always in flux.’
I wrote this sentence for Creative Melville, the City of Melville’s cultural strategy 2018 – 2022. It could describe the strategy development process itself. Working with a forward-looking team to craft a sensible and ambitious cultural strategy was a privilege. It took longer than anyone expected. We chose a highly participative strategy development process, involving everyone who worked in libraries, galleries, museums and arts programs, as well as broader community and arts-related groups.
People who inhabit the spaces between categories, who seek a form of creative expression beyond formulas, people who choose the road less travelled, invariably exhibit sisu.
People like Jane Siberry.