4 May 1998

Hayley Lewis launches Australian Library Week for Queensland

Queensland's program for Australian Library Week 1998 was launched today by swimming champion Hayley Lewis, making her first public appearance since the birth of her first child, a boy, at Easter.

Library Week runs from today until 9 May, the day before Mothers Day.

Hayley Lewis, as a 15-year-old, won five gold medals and a bronze at the Auckland Commonwealth Games in 1990. She followed up with gold at the world championships in Perth in 1991, then silver medals at both the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and the Rome world championships in 1994.

She retired from competition after the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

The Queensland launch of Library Week was at Alford Park in Toowoomba, next to the Toowoomba City Library, where a floral banner, a Darling Downs speciality, had been constructed, highlighting a pathway to the library.

The central theme of Australian Library Week 1998 is Pathways to knowledge.

Hayley Lewis was supported by the mayor of Toowoomba, councillor Tony Bourke, who will also host a literary soiree on Tuesday, highlighting the resources of the Southern Queensland Theology Library, at the Toowoomba City Library.

Queensland has one of the most-active State programs for Library Week, which is conducted each year by the Australian Library and Information Association to celebrate the economic, recreational and cultural contributions of libraries to the Australian community.

Several well-known libraries will be conducting tours to show the public how they operate, there will be an online quiz for children and other literary events.

In a message supporting Australian Library Week, the Minister for Communications, the Information Economy and the Arts, Senator Richard Alston, said that Australia's library community was responding to the opportunities of the 'information age' with vitality and dynamism.