State Library of New South Wales

ABSTRACT This paper describes research exploring a local studies collection in an Australian public library. It includes the current collecting practices and paradigms and their impact on what is added to this collection. This research was to discover how contemporary content, including items from rapid response collecting are incorporated in a local studies collection. It uses a social justice approach to investigate how current collecting practices represent the whole of the community in a public library local studies collection to provide multiple stories and perspectives. Ethnography was the research method used to enable in-depth understanding of the collecting practices of one public library. The results of the research show a tendency for library staff to rarely say no to unsolicited donations, as well as a focus on emotional and decision making based on relationships. This led to donations based on relationships and the risk of collecting from cliques and resulted in an increased cataloguing backlog for the local studies collection. The conclusion is that for more of the community to be represented in a public library local studies collection, changes in collecting practices need to be undertaken to include a social justice focus.

Across the two world wars two Australian former journalists – George Morrison (1862–1920) and Harold Timperley (1898–1954) – produced propaganda for the Chinese government. In doing so, they employed discourses of vulnerability and anxiety over Australia’s position in Asia. Previous arguments that Morrison or Timperley represent an Australian approach to Asia have not taken into account their biographies and their positions within the Chinese government. In this article, I argue that Morrison and Timperley’s depictions of Asia were heavily influenced both by their individual experiences and by developments in how successive Chinese governments made use of foreign journalists to communicate to the west.

IntroductionElectronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has drastically increased in recent years, particularly among adolescents. This poses several acute and chronic harms to young people, including poisonings, burns, serious lung injury and—where nicotine e-liquid is used—the potential to impact healthy brain development and precipitate future nicotine addiction. School-based prevention programmes have the potential to address this growing public health concern by reaching large numbers of young people during a critical period for intervention; however, the efficacy of such interventions has not been systematically explored. This systematic review aims to determine the existence and efficacy of school-based preventive interventions targeting e-cigarette use.Methods and analysisA systematic search of MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Scopus, CINAHL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and international clinical trials registries will be conducted from 2000 to April 2022 to identify eligible studies (randomised controlled trials, cluster randomised controlled trials and quasiexperimental studies) evaluating school-based interventions to prevent e-cigarette use among adolescents. Two reviewers will independently screen title, abstract and full text of all studies for eligibility. Both reviewers will independently extract the data and assess the risk of bias. Any discrepancies will be resolved by a third reviewer. Results will be summarised in a narrative synthesis and data will be meta-analysed if appropriate. Heterogeneity in findings will be assessed narratively, and using the I2 statistic (where meta-analysis is feasible), meta-regression will be used to explore potential factors associated with programme efficacy, where data permit.Ethics and disseminationThis research is conducted on published work and does not require ethics approval. The findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and used to guide the development of new school-based e-cigarette preventive interventions.Trial registration numberCRD42022323352.

"Ask, listen, empower: grounding your library work in community engagement." Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 71(1), pp. 113–114

Front Cover: The cover image is based on the Review Genome-wide transcriptomic and proteomic studies of Retisyndrome mouse models identify common signaling pathways and cellular functions as potential therapeutic targets by Rahul Krishnaraj et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/humu.23887. Cover image © Florencia Haase Images.

Funded by UCL Qatar (Mmember of Qatar Foundation) and Qatar University Library. There has also been support from the British Library Labs, and the Library of Congress Labs.

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This review of the cartographic record of colonial Sydney illustrates change from an isolated English penal colony of 1000 inhabitants, to an independent international city of half a million. Patterns of map production and distribution reflect changes in society and the structural evolution of a ‘world city.’ Histiocartographic analysis illustrates the: 1. transition from a make-shift village to a world centre, 2. evolution from a penal colony (1788–1840) via a ‘nodal city’ controlling exports, to an international city, important in its own right, 3. and the switch from a small, ‘walking city’ with colonial outposts to an urban/suburban complex absorbing its rural hinterland (the Cumberland Plain).