Fiona Salisbury is the University’s new Executive Director of Library Services.
Fiona joins Western from La Trobe University, where she has served as Executive Director and University Librarian for the past three years, and brings a career track record of success that has spanned learning, research, literacy and engagement Library portfolios. Fiona brings highly regarded expertise in working in a multi-campus environment and a deep, scholarly understanding of the role of the university library in the future of higher education. She has an outstanding reputation for successfully building new forms of engagement between libraries and their many different stakeholders, including students, researchers, teachers and communities, through innovative digital, community outreach and on-campus initiatives.
At the national level, Fiona is Director of the Enabling a Modern Curriculum Program for the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), and she previously led the CAUL Digital Dexterity Capacity and Capability Building Project. She has also led projects on open access eTextbook publishing and digital readiness. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), Fiona received a national Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning from the Office of Learning and Teaching in addition to university awards.
Fiona is currently completing her PhD in education and has recently published on connecting the library to the curriculum, and on students as partners in the academic library. She is highly regarded amongst her peers and more generally in the sector for her expertise on the development and adoption of Open Electronic Resources (OER) and digital literacies on Australian university campuses.
The Executive Director Library Services at Western leads the strategic direction and implementation for the University’s scholarly information resources and services. The Director Library Services is also responsible for University wide copyright matters and the curation of Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection.
About Western Sydney University
Western Sydney University is a modern, forward-thinking, research- led university, located at the heart of Australia’s fastest-growing and economically significant region, Western Sydney.
Located within the Academic Division, the University Library delivers academic and research services that are strategic enablers of the University Strategic Plan 2021-2026, particularly its focus on Learning and Teaching, Student Experience and Research and Innovation. It works closely with academic staff and researchers in the provision of programs, resources, services and spaces – including the development of academic literacy skills – to enable student transition and retention through the education lifecycle, fostering independent learning and the development of graduate attributes. Exploring and sustaining new ways to catalyse emerging modes of student and scholarly endeavour including collaborating in the development and curation of OER is central to the Library’s responsibilities to the diverse range of communities it serves.
More about Western Library
In 2021 Western Library took on the management of the Dharawal Pharmacopeia, an important repository of Indigenous knowledge which will be used for education and research about local plants and their medicinal uses, within Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) rights. There are plans to build a medicine cabinet in the Library grounds for education, research and community engagement.
More about Sydney’s libraries
Elizabeth Farrelly looks at the boom in new award-winning civic libraries in Sydney (Sydney Morning Herald 11 September 2021).
