Media releases

State Library has launched Design Online, a new public web space for exchanging ideas and generating knowledge around design in the Asia Pacific.

State Librarian Janette Wright said design thinking is becoming an increasingly recognised tool for exploring complex 21st century problems.

“Last year we welcomed world-leading visionary, innovator, designer and author Bruce Mau to speak at State Library,” said Ms Wright.  “Bruce has a reputation for interdisciplinary and purpose-driven design innovation, and believes the power of design is boundless and has the capacity to bring positive change on a global scale.

“He challenged us to see the entire world as a design project, encouraging people to look at solving global problems with innovative, home-grown and thoughtful solutions.

“Design Online www.designonline.org.au is a unique platform that will go a long way to helping achieve this,” she said.

“Through Design Online, industry, academia and the public can share in a global discussion, and access the best digital content in the form of vodcasts, podcasts, articles, events, workshops and exhibitions.

“Based around the idea of ‘creative propulsion’, the design community can also author content, building on the ideas of others and generating new knowledge and understanding,” said Ms Wright.

The website has been developed by State Library’s Asia Pacific Design Library (APDL), in collaboration with the broader design community.

APDL have also created Design Minds, an educational site launched in conjunction with Design Online.

Design Minds www.designminds.org.au provides public access to design education content, increases the capacity of Queensland teachers to teach creativity and design, and gives young people access to world-class design projects and activities. 

Design Online and Design Minds were launched on 28 June at the 2012 Queensland Smart Design Awards.

Design Minds is proudly supported by Arts Queensland in the Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts and endorsed by QUEENSLANDERSIGN™ an initiative of the Queensland Design Council.

A collection of stories recorded by Toowoomba and Lockyer Valley flood survivors and rescuers has been given to the State Library of Queensland.

The collection of broadcast quality recordings, telephone interviews, photographs and videos was compiled by local journalist Amanda Gearing.

State Librarian Janette Wright said that the Amanda Gearing Collection is extremely valuable to record this devastating moment in Queensland’s history.

“I am deeply moved by the determination of the survivors to share their experiences so that others can have the chance to learn and understand what they went through.”

Oral histories, photographs and videos were gathered from survivors in Spring Bluff, Murphys Creek, Toowoomba, Withcott, Postmans Ridge, Helidon, Carpendale and Grantham.

“These materials will be able to be accessed by all Queenslanders via State Library’s online catalogue, as well as other flood-related items in the State Library’s collection, including oral history recordings from the 1974 floods, digital stories relating to the 2011 floods and photographs of the 1890s floods, as showcased in the Floodlines exhibition,” Ms Wright said.

Floodlines is open until 19 August 2012.

Visit www.slq.qld.gov.au to search the State Library’s collections or www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on for more information about Floodlines.

Arts Minister Ros Bates has announced Brisbane-based historian Don Watson as the winner of the 2012 John Oxley Library Fellowship.

Ms Bates said it’s one of three Queensland Memory Awards presented at the State Library as part of Queensland Week.

“Don Watson is an adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Queensland and an architect in the Queensland Government,” Ms Bates said

“He is researching Queensland’s early architects and how they adapted their skills to an unfamiliar climate.

“Professor Watson will receive $20,000 as part of the fellowship, along with his own work space within the State Library of Queensland’s John Oxley Library.

“Through the fellowship, he can extend his previously published research – Queensland Architects of the 19th Century: A Biographical Dictionary – into the 20th century and explore the impact of new technologies on architecture.

Filmmakers Sean Gilligan and Adrian Strong have won the John Oxley Library Award for their documentary Fantome Island.

“Their documentary has revealed an important part of our state’s history unknown to many Queenslanders,” she said.

“The film tells the tale of Joe Eggmolesse who in 1945, at the age of seven, was removed from his family and confined to an Indigenous leper colony off the coast of North Queensland.

The final award, the John Oxley Library Community History Award, was presented to Cardwell & District Historical Society for recording the events of Cyclone Yasi, despite their own museum being destroyed by the cyclone.

“I congratulate the Cardwell & District Historical Society on the great community spirit they displayed as they worked together to salvage their valuable collections in addition to collecting oral histories from the town’s inhabitants in the wake of Yasi,” she said.

The extraordinary diversity of migration to Queensland is the focus of a special Discovery Day at the State Library.

State Librarian Janette Wright said, “The John Oxley Library Discovery Day on 2 June, during Queensland Week, is a fantastic way to explore the everyday treasures of many people born far away who now call Queensland home.”

“From Australian South Sea Islanders to Russian migrants, there are so many cultures that have made their mark on Queensland."

“People can find photos, documents and oral histories with personal stories from our migrant communities held in State Library’s John Oxley Library collection,” she said.

The Discovery Day free program will include international food on sale at The Library Café, music and dance performances, talks, tours of the Floodlines exhibition now open at the State Library and a Damper Station morning tea.

Visit what's on to view the full John Oxley Library Discovery Day program.

CEO and State Librarian Janette Wright has invited Queenslanders to celebrate Library and Information Week (20-26 May) as a highlight of this year’s National Year of Reading.

“Reading a story to children is a sure-fire way to bring home the message of National Year of Reading, that literacy can greatly enrich the lives of people every day.”

Ms Wright said Library and Information Week was a way for libraries to show the valuable role that public library professionals played in providing literacy services to the community.

“As part of this week’s activities, the State Library is leading a forum for public library professionals to come together and gather ideas about successful literacy initiatives to bring back to their own communities,” she said.

“The forum will look at innovative programs that deliver family-centred literacy activities, usually involving parents or carers and their children, and focus on the importance of intergenerational activity in the development of literacy.”

Visit www.love2read.org.au and www.alia.org.au/liw to find out more about Library and Information Week around Australia.

Responding to natural disasters around Australia, architects are reconceptualising the structure of our homes and communities, paving the way for innovative and disaster proof designs.

As part of State Library's Floodlines exhibition you can join the conversation as Queensland architects discuss Designing for Disasters on Tuesday 29 May.

Architects will talk about their projects and infrastructure following disasters, provide homeowners with advice on how to make their homes more flood resilient, and reflect on some of the volunteer programs carried out in the most recent floods.

One of the speakers will be James Davidson of Emergency Architects Australia (EAA), a group which coordinated a large volunteer effort during the 2010-11 floods.

Mr Davidson said EAA had provided guidance to uninsured home owners, and continued to focus on rebuilding and redesigning homes which had been destroyed by flood waters.

“EAA volunteers have undertaken more than 220 in-home flood assessments and worked with more than 1000 families through community meetings in 34 suburbs in Ipswich and Brisbane,” he said.

“More than 60 registered architects and 100 students and graduate architects gave their time to the project.”

Mr Davidson said Queenslanders did not necessarily need to rebuild in order to protect their homes against floods.

“I would recommend looking into how they can adapt their houses for greater flood resilience. “Rather than being reactionary, I believe the best option for homeowners is to design for resilience in choosing appropriate construction systems and material selections that will withstand flooding.”

Designing for Disasters
Tuesday 29 May at 6.30pm
State Library of Queensland
Free, bookings at slq.eventbrite.com or 3840 7768

Umagico is Queensland’s 21st remote community to get its own unique library service, in the form of an Indigenous Knowledge Centre (IKC).

State Library of Queensland CEO Janette Wright said the Umagico Knowledge Centre in the Northern Peninsula Area opens on 25 May, and will provide a place to record, preserve and share local history and traditions.

Indigenous hip-hop heavyweights The Last Kinection will headline a free celebration at State Library of Queensland to kick off Reconciliation Week in Brisbane.

While live music and arts will take centre stage, reconciliAction @ SLQ on Sunday 27 May is a chance for young people to take control of reconciliation.

Odd things are happening at State Library of Queensland as The Odditoreum, a free family exhibition, prepares to open on Saturday 26 May.

State Librarian Janette Wright said The Odditoreum, a travelling exhibition from Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, features a selection of weird, wonderful and wacky curiosities to ignite the imagination of both young and old.

A new exhibition now open at the State Library of Queensland celebrates the work of Queensland’s leading Indigenous arts collective proppaNOW.

This exhibition presents a social history of the proppaNOW collective, which was established in Brisbane in 2006 to give urban-based Aboriginal artists a voice.

Using a constantly innovative approach across a range of different media such as video, drawings,paintings, sculpture and installation, proppaNOW presents a perspective of our country’s culture designed to confront and provoke thought.

The collective is comprised of well-known artists Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Richard Bell, Jennifer Herd, Gordon Hookey, Laurie Nilsen and Megan Cope.

The proppaNOW exhibition is open daily at State Library from 14 May until 10 September. There will also be A Night by the Fire series of monthly talks with the artists.

More information and the events program