Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association: Social Work in Libraries Special Issue

To raise awareness of the possibilities for Australian libraries to include some form of social work practice to assist them in meeting the complex needs of many of their visitors, the Charles Sturt University library social work team hosted a Social Work in Libraries Symposium in 2022. Following the Symposium, the team at Charles Sturt University recognised the need for more formal sharing of knowledge about the possibilities for libraries to gain support from social workers. Although the level of interest in library social work was high, as evidenced by the large number of registrations from people across the world keen to take part in the Social Work in Libraries Symposium, the number of scholarly papers reporting on the relationship was relatively low. As a step towards increasing publishing opportunities for researchers working in the area, the decision was taken to produce this Special Issue of the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association.