ALLA Pacific Law Library Twinning Program

• Information for Pacific Agencies
• Information for Australian and New Zealand Agencies

The concept of 'twinning' with like organisations from other countries has become part of the world landscape. It is common for schools, cities and towns to have a 'sister' with whom they exchange hospitality, ideas and information.

The ALLA Library Twinning Program was born at the 1991 Asia Pacific Law Librarians conference out of concern about the ad hoc provision of legal materials to the South Pacific. Several organisations at this time voluntarily took on 'twinning' arrangements with like organisations in the Pacific focussing on the provision of both legal texts and librarian training.

Since this time a number of law librarians from Australia have travelled through the region to provide expertise and training in the establishment of law libraries, physical organisation of collections, cataloguing of materials and support of library staff.

The ALLA Pacific Law Library Twinning Program aims to assist in the development and provision of law library services, collections and staff in the Pacific region.

The release of the White Paper on the Australian Government's overseas aid program 'Australian Aid: Promoting Growth and Stability' with one of it's organising theme's being fostering functioning and effective states through amongst other areas, the law and justice sector, provided a confirmation to ALLA of the importance of this work and the long established relationships fostered by this Program.

In 2007 the Lionel Murphy Library through ALLA agreed to coordinate Pacific Twinning activities. The program now involves 14 Australian and New Zealand law libraries twinned with 22 counterparts in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa.

In addition the ALLA supports the Twinning Program through the provision of a Pacific Libraries Scholarship which provides an opportunity for law librarians and law library staff to attend the ALLA annual conference.

For more information on the Pacific Twinning Program please contact the Administrative Coordinator (Pacific) at Lionel Murphy Library at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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