#LIS STUDENTS STUDY TOUR TO SUVA:

#LIS STUDENTS’ STUDY TOUR TO SUVA

In August ten students studying at the Charles Sturt University School of Information Studies (Wagga Wagga, NSW) and their lecturer visited Suva to tour a range of libraries and archives as part of their studies. The students, who all study online, travelled from regional NSW and Victoria, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra to make the overseas trip. They are studying at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, in areas such as teacher librarianship, records and archives management and librarianship.

During the week-long study tour, students were greeted by representatives from the Fiji Library Association at a busy and productive networking event at the University of South Pacific Library. The students especially enjoyed getting to meet and talk to fellow library and archive students and professionals in the social environment.

The study group visited ten sites across Suva and Nausori to see the breadth of work being done in the library and archive sector in a neighbouring country. The quality of libraries and archives available to visit in Fiji was exceptional, and gave the students an opportunity to see what they were learning in class put into practice, such as collection management, community outreach, and the challenges of digitisation.

Some of the highlights from the trip included seeing a perfectly preserved copy of the Fiji Times from 1869 at the National Archives of Fiji, participating in a children’s craft workshop based around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, at the Davuilevu Theological College and visiting the Library Directorate of Fiji. The study group also visited the International School Suva where they were hosted by Charles Sturt alumna Wakanisi Vaciloa, the librarian at the school. Students said the school had a very impressive library that outshone many libraries they had worked in or visited in Australia.

Other libraries the group visited included the University of the South Pacific Library, the Library of the Pacific Community, Suva City Carnegie Library and the Nausori Town Library.

The staff and students at Charles Sturt University are very grateful to the different sites and librarians who graciously hosted and shared their expertise with us during the trip, and hope to continue to develop relationships with the Fiji Library Association and its members.

Dr Jessie Lymn; is a Lecturer in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. Jessie received her PHD from the University of Technology Sydney in 2014. She also holds a Master of Arts (Information & Knowledge Management) from UTS (2008). Prior to starting at CSU in 2016 Jessie worked in a wide variety of organisations, including as a Web Manager at the Australian Tax Office, archivist at a small community archive, at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Data Archive, as an information consultant for an NGO in Vanuatu, and a Research Officer at the UTS Centre for Local Government, with a research focus on public libraries.