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Keywords: Libraries

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Digital discrimination

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 04 July 2024

    Digital dominance and the disappearance of print newspapers leaves older generations grappling with endless new tech. I still seek the tactile experience of newsprint — a challenge as publications move online. In an increasingly automated world, I’m not alone in reminiscing about the days when personal interactions were the norm.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Referendums and reading lists reveal similar societal anxieties

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 04 October 2023
    4 Comments

    An examination of school reading lists and libraries unveils striking parallels with the debates and concerns surrounding the Referendum, highlighting the pervasive societal anxieties and the intricate interplay of national identity and values, and the ongoing need for empathy. 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    In praise of libraries

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 01 May 2023
    2 Comments

    As the world moves towards digitalisation, the importance of physical libraries is increasingly being questioned. But as local libraries struggle with underfunding and centralisation, the question remains: where else have we found their equivalent today?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    We still need libraries and book stores

    • Mary Dalmau
    • 07 December 2018
    16 Comments

    While it is said we read to know we are not alone, it is also true that libraries and bookstores are communal places, providing a safe environment for all and filling vital, societal roles. Of all my interactions over the years with readers, customers and library patrons, two instances remain strong in my memory.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A love letter to libraries

    • Sheila Ngoc Pham
    • 10 August 2018
    12 Comments

    We had some books at home so I wasn't wholly deprived but I did have to discover reading without any real parental guidance; English wasn't even our home language. But when I started working at my local public library, it became clear that while I might have been the child of refugees, for many, libraries themselves were a refuge.

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  • PODCAST

    Faulty memories and cultural institutions

    • Podcast
    • 26 July 2018
    1 Comment

    How do we make sure galleries, libraries, archives and museums are truly inclusive in the stories they tell? Nathan 'Mudyi' Sentance grew up on Darkinjung country in New South Wales. He works to ensure that First Nations stories are being told and controlled by First Nations people.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Libraries adapt to the age of free information

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 06 July 2017
    6 Comments

    I often visit my local library. I tend to go in the after-school hours, so there are children everywhere. I can see mothers guiding young, chubby hands across picture book pages. I think of Mem Fox's advice about how children should hear a thousand stories before learning to read. With the internet and ebooks, the free information that made a library unique is no longer exclusive. Classic literature can be found with a Google search. So what do brick and mortar libraries offer that Amazon can't?

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  • AUSTRALIA

    In praise of local councils

    • Fatima Measham
    • 27 October 2016
    7 Comments

    Unless you have lived elsewhere, where taxes and rates rarely manifest as a tangible and permanent benefit, it is easy to take councils for granted. I grew up in a town where potholes are forever, healthcare is ad hoc and libraries are private. The things that I see my local council do as a matter of routine are wild luxuries in other places around the world. Such competencies arguably measure the health of a democracy - it means that most of the money has not been lost to corruption and fraud.

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  • MARGARET DOOLEY AWARD

    Our future is public

    • Andy Lynch
    • 27 August 2014
    9 Comments

    The kind of Australia we live in today can be directly attributed to the kinds of institutions built 150 years ago - schools, universities, libraries, museums, and more. But in 2014 is it even possible to carve out new public institutions or give new life to those that have waned in relevance?

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Libraries lead the e-book revolution

    • Philip Harvey
    • 01 March 2010
    9 Comments

    We are seeing only the early technology of the e-book. In five years the e-book will look, feel, sound, smell and gesticulate in very different ways from its iPad and Kindle prototypes. As usual, libraries are quietly ahead of everyone else.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    A tale of two cities

    • Don Gazzard
    • 11 May 2006

    Don Gazzard visits the national libraries of France and Britain.

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