Minutes for NSW Local Studies Librarians meeting
Campbelltown Library, HJ Daley and online
24 March 2026 9.45am to 4.00pm
Present online: Adam Mitchell, Adrienne Brown, Allana White, Ana Maybury, Ary Ramires, Brian Scales, Candis Diaz, Christine Evola, Dean Palmer, Dominic Caron, Fujing Zhao Haining Lenane, Helen McDonald, Jane Britten, Jason Slattery, Jennifer Madden, Jessica Graham, John Merriman, Karen Hodges, Kimberly O'Sullivan, Kirsten Broderick, Louise Hyland, Lynette Plenderleith, Margaret Farlow, Mary-Clare Thatcher, Mel Duncan, Mel Irving, Monica Cronin, Natalie Funston, Ravneet Gill, Rebecca Oluwi, Rob Egan, Ruth Bingham, Samantha Starr, Simone Taylor, Sue Ryan, Victoria Bateman
Present onsite: Bess Gilmore-Lim, Michael Adams, Aleen Aleemullah, Andrew Allen, Gillian Allen, Tully Boundy-Collis, Athena Mosphilis, Darragh Christie, Sarah-Louise Cole, Sophia Contreras, Megan Crook, Katherine Day, Tara Eagleton, Jane Elias, Gialy Ly, Samantha Figueroa, Ellen Forsyth, Stephen Gapps, Donna Braye, Michelle Nicols, Kasia Malicka, Belinda Lancey, Bianca Luks, Jenny MacRitchie, Holly Millward, Jennifer McConchie, Fran O'Flynn, Jo Oliver, Celia Piper, Karen Richardson, Jackie Rossington, Catherine Ryan, Courtney Simpson, Emilia Stubbs Grigoriou
Agenda
9.45 – 10 am Welcome and Acknowledgement of Country
10 -10.40 am Bess Gilmore-Lim, Library Officer, Local Studies, Campbelltown City Library, Archaeology of the Dharawal
10.45 – 11.05 am Adam Mitchell, Local Studies & Digitisation Officer, Moree, Bringing Stories out of the Archive: the creation of a Local Studies Journal (online)
11.05 - 11.30 am Morning tea
11.30 am – 12.10 pm Dr. Stephen Gaps, Local Studies, and the Australian Frontier Wars
Historian, Henry Reynolds once noted the 'big picture' of Australia's Frontier Wars had been covered by historians and now we need local, focused accounts. In this talk Stephen Gapps will cover his work in undertaking some of these more focused histories including The Sydney Wars, the Bathurst War and his recent work Uprising which looks at the expanding frontier across NSW in the 1830s/40s. He will discuss the importance of local studies collections in his work, the significance of local First Nations stories, and the strengths and weaknesses of local studies collections in terms of The Australian Frontier Wars.
12.15 – 12.40 pm 10 Sides in 5 minutes
1.Helen McDonald, Sutherland, Notice of Transfer Collection: A House History Resource (online)
2. Andrew Allen, Campbelltown, Fisher’s Ghost
3. Samantha Starr, Parkes, Celebrating the Dish; Bringing together local history and film buffs (online)
4. Juliet Beale, Wollongong, Collecting strategy to document and reflect LGBTQIA+ stories in Wollongong
5. Katherine Day, Northern Beaches, Collection development: partnering with council teams to create contemporary, diverse, and interactive collections
12.45 – 1.05 pm General Business
1. Georgina Keep, CDP Generic Template for LS Collections
a. Small working group was formed to collaborate and produce a basic template for Local Studies Collection Development Policy (CDP).
b. The CDP framework needs to be sufficiently detailed to guide policy development and robust enough to defend decisions in collection development.
c. The CDP to include diversity, inclusivity and address digitisation and preservation policy and be able to be updated to address new policies.
d. A working draft on the template should be available by the November NSW LS meeting.
e. It will be displayed on the LS wiki beforehand for feedback.
f. The working group request anyone willing to share their libraries LS CDP and comments on what is working and what is not.
g. To share CDPs or for more information contact Georgina Keep, Local Studies Librarian, Randwick City Council georgina.keep@randwick.nsw.gov.au
2. Impact of Infrastructure changes in metro and regional area, impacting on population, housing etc and LS collecting strategies
a. Enquiring on the impact of infrastructure that may include rail, metro, or other transport projects; bridges and roads; buildings; airports etc.
b. Suggested ways to collect information on infrastructure projects and impacts:
i. Developer/Government mailing lists and project websites
ii. Council papers – exhibition papers, Environmental Impact Statements
iii. Community groups and community online forums set up to comment and provide feedback on developments – question on how to capture this information.
iv. Media releases from Council Comms unit can point to important documents – a reminder to check copyright.
v. Some Government departments can be forthcoming with photographic documentation and reporting on projects e.g. Transport NSW
vi. Collaborate with the engineers in Council as they often take photographs of infrastructure projects as part of their work.
vii. Reach out to other Council business units that may be capturing information that would be relevant to the LS Collection.
3. Wider LS meeting Meeting is 2-3 June 2026 at 11am
a. Day 1 will be presentations and Day 2 will be half day presentations and then discussions in the afternoon.
b. The program is almost ready.
c. Some topics that will be covered include Cataloguing First Nations materials; collecting around disasters; oral history in languages other than English; ten-minute talks
d. EOI for talks still open but finishing soon
4. Next LS meeting Thursday November 19 at Gosford Library
1.10 – 2pm Lunch
2 – 2.40 pm Lynette Plenderleith, Australian Citizen Science Association, Science for everyone: citizen science in New South Wales (online)
2.45 – 3.25 pm Andrew Redfern, Using AI for Family & Local History
Discover how artificial intelligence can assist family and local historians to research more efficiently, analyse complex records, and uncover new connections. This session explores practical, ethical, and creative ways to use AI to transcribe, organise, interpret, and share historical information while keeping the historian firmly in control. This talk was not recorded.
• Although AI can provide powerful tools for analysing local and family history data, it is still essential to check the outcomes AI provides. • Discussion on how AI tools are better used to identify patterns in data and performing tasks like table creation or timelines, transcription etc than using it as another internet search tool. • Consider how you use prompts – provide sufficient information, place parameters, specify the type of output required, use strong action-based verbs. • AI tools to investigate – ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Descript, Canva, Deepseek, Transkribus, MidJourney and many more depending on project.
3.30 – 4 pm Campbelltown City Library Tour with Andew Allen