State Library of Western Australia

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Alexander Library Building.

The State Library of Western Australia consists of the State Reference Library and the J S Battye Library within the building known as the Alexander Library Building, in Northbridge in Western Australia. Like all Government authorities, the name changes over time, so the identity was for a long time 'Library and Information Service of Western Australia (LISWA)' - ' State Library of Western Australia' or SLWA is the current form.

[edit] The Library Service

The State Library of Western Australia's Public Library Services section supplies books, audio books, DVDs, CD-ROMs etc, to the 67 metropolitan libraries, located in the suburbs of Perth and the 160 country libraries in country areas of Western Australia.

Each local authority is allocated a specific amount for State Library supplied items, who then further divide this amount up between the libraries under its control. The State Library supplied money can only be spent items on items listed on the Public Library Services weekly AOL (Advance Order List). The amount of money allocated to each library is converted to a specific number of Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction and Junior books. Most local authorities fund further supplementation of their library collections using rates of local residents.

The new books arrive after having been processed - covering, cataloguing, barcoded etc. every fortnight. This process is called Exchange, because for every Adult Fiction/Adult Non-Fiction/Junior item that is delivered to the library, an Adult Fiction/Adult Non-Fiction/Junior item must be returned to the Public Library Services section. Most libraries use the return exchange to get rid of books that are no longer useful - multiple copies of novels, older non-fiction, books that have been 'read-out' etc. Books that need to be repaired but the library would like to have returned have an orange return slip inserted in them stating which library it came from, and what repairs are required. Damaged audio-visual works have a green slip inserted in them detailing the damage.

When the return exchange items arrive at PLS they are sorted, and if required, repaired. Every fortnight public librarians go to the Alexander Library building to select any useful used books that they require. These are then added to the new books selected and delivered in the next exchange. The return exchange of country libraries is quite prized, as many of the items are in excellent condition - sometimes only having been read 10-15 times, which for metropolitan public libraries qualifies as new.

The State Library of Western Australia also supplies the prison libraries.