Librarians on tour at ALIAaccess

Last week I attended ALIA access 2010 in sunny Brisbane and the first day kicked off with various site visits to Brisbane area libraries. I was on the Brisbane city walking tour with a great bunch of people and we visited QUT library, Brisbane City Square Library, State Library of QLD and Southbank Institute Library. I was wearing my pedometer because I'm doing 10,000 steps with some colleagues at the moment and by the end of the day I'd walked well over 20, 000 steps! Yes, we were a tired bunch of librarians by the end of the day but totally excited and blown away by all the things going on in the libraries we visited. I got into quite a frenzy taking photos which I've put on flickr and embedded below. You can see from the photos what I was most excited about but overall I think there were a few trends:

• More support for multi-media in terms of consuming and creating e.g. there were listening stations, media lounges, digital story pods, editing suites, COWS (computers on wheels) and more!
• Open learning spaces with natural light and creative use of space, technology and furnishings
• Creativity in the library - displays of library community art, design, objects, crafts, jewelery, etc.
• Library as social and community hub with a range of related support and assistance available such as IT, photocopying, city council offices, academic literacy support

Enjoy!