2 May 1998

The Val Gauld Award

Presentation of the Val Gauld Award to the Pinaroo Primary School library on 5 May will be a highlight of Australian Library Week activities in South Australia this year.

The award is the only one of its kind in the world for a joint-use library involving a school and the wider local community. It is presented by the South Australian Branch of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), which sponsors Australian Library Week.

Val Gauld was an outstanding teacher/librarian employed by the Education Department of South Australia in the 1970s and 1980s.

South Australia pioneered the development of joint-use libraries, which are now widespread and highly successful in the state.

South Australian authorities receive many inquiries from around the world about adoption of the joint-use system but many efforts overseas have failed because of the careful balance of interests that must be achieved between the various parties involved in such arrangements. New Zealand has been a notable exception.

Pinnaroo is in the State's far-east, near the Victorian border, and the School Community Library serves a local community that actually extends across the border.

Australian Library Week 1998 runs from 3 May to 9 May. Dr Lois O'Donoghue, former chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, launched it officially in Adelaide on 29 April.

In the course of the week, every South Australian politician will receive a postcard from the SA Branch of ALIA, featuring one of the striking posters promoting the week, with its theme Pathways to knowledge.