Part 2 of study visit

Thursday

This morning I had to trek all of the way to St Leonards to visit the Douglas Piper Library at Royal North Shore Hospital. Don't these people understand that if you live in the Shire you don't venture that far from home.
I wish I could say that it was worth the trek, but unfortunately I can't. This excursion was ranked up there next to the Conservatorium library. BORING!!!
Thankfully it finished half an hour early which was great because then a group of us were able to enjoy a leisurely lunch which was quite enjoyable.

After lunch I had to travel back to the city to see the Powerhouse Museum research library.
This was probably one of the highlights for me as we were taken on a tour of the latest exhibition which was the Benini fashion and photography exhibition. It was great. I loved finding out all about the photographer and seeing the beautiful fashions. One of the dresses that he photographed was remarkably like the Leona Edmiston dress that the lady at the law library had been wearing.
We were told that the library is a research library that is funded by the NSW government and is open to anyone by request.
Baz Luhrmann used the library to research for the movies Australia and Moulin Rouge. He was able to do so at no cost and they were only too happy to help find information for him.
Kit Willow the fashion designer also did research here for her collection. She was most interested in fashion from the 1970's.
Overall it was a really interesting library especially when you could see old Patons knitting patterns and old Women's Weekly's. This was a really good experience after the poor one at the hospital in the morning.

Friday

Our last day of visiting libraries was spent at the University of Technology. How motivated was Mal the guy that spoke first. It was exciting to see photos of the robot system that has been installed at Macquarie University to retrieve books from their underground storage. Andrew has been in charge of building this facility so it was good to be able to see the structure that he has been so proudly telling me about for months.
In the UTS library they have made a room for groups to use that has a white board along one whole wall. It was made with whiteboard paint in a similar way that people paint their walls with chalkboard paint. I would love to do that in a school library.
Unfortunately the other speakers weren't quite as inspiring as him.
After a tour of the library we handed in our reports that we had done of the libraries and that was it for that part of the subject.

It was actually quite sad to leave these people that I had spent the week with. Our common purpose to pass this subject had somehow bonded us together quite quickly. It made me realize again just how much I miss the face to face contact of university when you do it by distance education. Oh well hopefully I will see some of them again if I go to graduation.