Research Library – Powerhouse Museum

We are enjoying a feature of Koha that allows us to track invisible users. These are the people (internal and external) who consult material within the Library without needing to borrow. When they’ve finished reading, they leave the items on a trolley, ready for shelving by Library staff. Formerly, the items were simply replaced on the shelves.

Now though, we can capture that unobserved browsing. Before shelving we scan the barcodes of the used items to a statistical borrower. The addition of these statistics to our other circulation figures, gives us a more accurate picture of how the Library is being used. It’s especially satisfying to be able to quantify the enormous numbers of books, pamphlets and serials, not to mention the diverse subject areas called for by both internal and external clients. An excellent measuring tool.

Last Thursday, 16 students and a lecturer from Charles Sturt University called in.
Library & Information students from CSU spend two days at the end of each year in Sydney, touring libraries from a range of organisations, including the Powerhouse Museum. By the time Thursday’s group appeared, they’d already visited the respective libraries of the NSW Art Gallery, NSW Health Department, NSW State Archives, NSW Parliament, a law firm, and the ABC. Far from being jaded, as you might expect, they were keen to see how a museum library worked.
With group visits,we usually divide the participants between the three of us and, starting at different points in the library, give the grand tour, pointing out store and auction catalogues, new books and journals, vintage journals, sewing patterns, knitting patterns, trade literature etc This time was different, thanks to colleague Dimity Holt, who has hit upon the clever idea of referencing current exhibitions in the museum by spotlighting parts of the library collection. She used the Benini Exhibition to set up a thematic display of books about fashion photography, cameras, fashion photographers, fashion models, history of photography. This enabled the students to see clearly, the connection between the Library collection and what is on in the museum. We added further emphasis by finishing off the tour with a walk through of the fabulous Benini Exhibition.

Last Friday saw a visit from Australian fashion designer Kym Ellery and her production co-ordinator Rachel Sherwood. You can see some of Kym’s creations on her website. Ellery’s clothes are HOT. The Rosemount Australian Fashion Week 2010 website notes that Ellery is the “go-to label for Australian it-girls” and that her “effortlessly hip aesthetic is [seen as] fashion’s newest asset”.

Kym and Rachel came to the Research Library to source ideas for their Autumn-Winter collection of 2011. They are researching costume and adornment of the French Revolution, as well as knitwear and lace motifs. Using the characters from the 2001 movie “The Royal Tenenbaums” as base silhouettes, their new range will combine the film’s costumes and colour palettes with the costume styles of the French Revolution plus a soupçon of contemporary knitwear designs. Oh, and lace as well – magic!