National Sport Information Centre Lounge
The National Sports Information Centre located in the grounds of the Australian Institute of Sports in Canberra is Australia’s premier sports research library and information service, providing the Australian Sports community with access to a comprehensive range of research resources. Primary clients include ASC staff; AIS athletes; coaches and scientists; national sports organisations and peak sport bodies; commonwealth, state and territory government agencies. (1)
My visit was organised by the Librarian, Christine May who provided a tour of the resources and some time to browse the Olympic and Commonwealth Games collections. The collections of the NSIC as a whole are scientifically and technically orientated in line with the needs of the user base and contain a large number of audiovisual materials including the Australian Paralympic Committee’s collection of technical and sport footage and Paralympic Games broadcast footage. There is also a small audiovisual team constantly engaged in recording and editing sports broadcasts to build upon the collection.
The original NSIC librarian, Greg Blood, who is now AIS Emeritus Researcher happened to be present in the building during my visit and he spoke about the divisive potential that major events have within local communities. People don’t always approve of the decision to host a major Games until after the event has successfully taken place and Greg feels that oral histories and documentary footage of past events can be used positively to engage and educate local communities in the lead up. This sentiment had a particular resonance since a controversial documentary that had had it’s first airing in Australia as part of the Sydney Opera House 40th anniversary celebrations was hot on the lips of some of the people I had met over the preceding days. Autopsy On a Dream was commissioned by David Attenborough during his tenure as controller at BBC2 and originally aired in the UK in 1968 although it was never shown in Australia. Thought to have been destroyed, the film was unearthed and restored by an ABC producer looking for archive footage at the BBC. At the time of construction, the political and architectural scandal that beset the project made the site a national embarrassment – a far cry from what is now recognized as “a masterpiece of 20th century architecture” (2) on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Dr Ralph Richards, Senior Research Consultant at NSIC showed me around the Clearinghouse for Sport website. The Clearinghouse is an Australian sport sector information and knowledge sharing initiative. The level of information available is very deep and covers high performance sport, sport development and participation. Ralph has been involved with the project since its inception and explained the process of setting up and maintaining the site as well as the challenges of working with collaborators in the Australian sports sector.
The Travelling librarian 2013 