Study Visit Guidelines
A Study Visit is a four (4) day organised workplace learning activity to a major city or regional location where a group of 10-60 students, accompanied by School of Information Studies staff, visit a range of library, archives and other information environments.
Study Visits are a compulsory part of the Master of Information Studies, Bachelor of Information Studies and Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) courses and are designed to demonstrate the diversity of professional practice across the industry. International study visit options are also available to students.
Registration
There are limited spaces available for each study visit and closing dates apply. Students must be enrolled correctly to register in a study visit. Information about registering can be found here.
One month before your study visit begins you will have access to an Organisation site (in Interact2) which will have all of the relevant information for your visit. Students from the Master of Information Studies, Bachelor of Information Studies and Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) courses who are attending the same study visit will all have access to this site.
Programs
Programs vary from location to location, and a typical study visit might involve a number of visits over the four days to sites such as:
- libraries including state, university, public, special, corporate and school libraries
- archives and records units
- other information agencies such as vendors and data management centres
Programs generally do not become available until 3 weeks prior to the start of the study visit. Attendance is required from Tuesday morning through to early Friday afternoon. There is often an optional social event included in the program.
Lecturers from the School of Information Studies conduct the study visits.
Study Visit programs often include concurrent sessions. In such cases, students are asked to nominate their preferred sites by the Workplace Learning team prior to the study visit. It is advisable to nominate sites that align with your career and study paths.
You can view previous study visit programs here.
Participation
Student attendance is required for the duration of the study visit. This is monitored and students are required to sign the attendance sheet at each site visited. Punctuality extends courtesy and interest in the programs on offer.
Student Responsibilities
Study visits are a self funded workplace learning activity.
Student responsibilities are to:
- enrol in the appropriate subject for your degree for 2 consecutive sessions (i.e. 201930 & 201960 or 201960 & 201990); you must remain enrolled in both sessions regardless of when you complete your visit;
- register for your preferred study visit as soon as possible with the Workplace Learning Officer via our registration process;
- arrange travel, accommodation and meals as appropriate;
- be punctual at all times;
- actively participate in the study visit;
- sign the attendance sheet at each site visited;
- complete the assessment requirements as per your subject outline;
- contact the Workplace Learning Officer as soon as possible if you have to change your study visit registration.
Independent study visits
An independent study visit can only be undertaken in exceptional circumstances such as limited mobility or chronic illness. Offshore students may also be considered eligible. Once approved, Independent study visit requirements are negotiated with the subject coordinator. Please note, students are expected to design and organise their own program.
An independent study visit involves:
- selection of an agreed number of information agencies of different types, e.g., a school library, public library, university library, corporate library, a parliamentary library, specialist archives or other type of information agency;
- approval of the selection by the subject coordinator;
- approaching approved sites and negotiating mutually agreeable appointments;
- registration of program with Workplace Learning Team;
- undertaking the visits;
- submitting assessment as per subject outlines.