InULA Notes Vol. 1998 Annual Membership Meeting - Summary of Activities Linden Fairbairn, Librarian for Economics at Fisher Library, the main library of the University of Sydney, talked about academic librarianship in Australia at the October 6 InULA fall membership meeting held in the Women's Faculty Club of the IU Memorial Union. Serving a student body similar in size to that of IUB, the University of Sydney Library employs a total staff of 280, eighty-six of whom are librarians. Very few student workers are used, mostly just for reshelving tasks. Very few academic librarians in Australia have faculty status, and hence are not eligible for sabbatical leaves, but after ten years of continued employment at an institution, each staff member receives three months of paid leave.
Most librarians belong to unions, which negotiates the terms of employment for their members.
Fisher Library has both undergraduate and research collections, which share a common reference desk. It is staffed by a team of librarians, including subject liaisons, the rare books librarian, instruction and information services librarians, lending services librarians, and catalogers. Subject liaison librarians are responsible for the acquisition mainly of reference materials and electronic resources. Teaching faculty members select print materials for the collections. Linden vividly brought out the similarities and differences in the Sydney and Bloomington situations.