Choose a site from a previous study visit schedule and write some notes for yourself about it and who you think its users might be.

I chose the Adelaide Study Visit schedule from 2015. Students visited the SA Water Library on Thursday 30th June at 11:30am to 1:00pm.

This information agency caught my attention because it was somewhat surprising that they had a library. SA Water looks after water provision for the state of South Australia.

I wonder what their library collection would hold? It might have historical records of the agency’s activities in the state, South Australia’s water usage and origin, or information resources about water in a more general sense. It might have maps of South Australia with locations of important water-related landmarks, or pollution and waterway management information.

I wonder who the users might be? Of course, SA Water employees might need information from the library. Would there be any users from outside the organisation? Maybe external agencies, like builders, would need information about pipes. Or businesses might need to know about the management of waterways.

Research the agency and the type of users it has. Reflect on how hard or easy it is to find information about the organisation and its users, whether the information you found aligned with your assumptions of the site, and how you might frame your investigation if you were visiting the site.

When I clicked on the link provided in the Study Visit program, there was a Page Not Found error. So, I typed ‘sa water library’ into Google. The second link listed led to an error page. The fifth link looked promising but also led to an error.

Already, it is hard to find information about this agency. I should bear in mind, though, this Study Visit was scheduled five years ago, so things will have changed.

I did find a SA Water Library Registration Form, available for school teachers who wanted to borrow resources for their teaching units. The SA Water website itself also had some pointers as to what the library might contain. There was information about water services, recycling, drinking and tap water, wastewater treatment, and more.

My assumptions were a little off! It certainly seems as though the SA Water Library caters for external users as much as it would for employees. I am interested to visit SA Water in Adelaide CBD to check it out!