Jane Garling

BA LLM

Jane Garling is a Legal Practitioner with extensive experience working as a solicitor in the area of dispute resolution. She has also been engaged as a lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Macquarie University and subsequently at the University of Technology Sydney. In both her commercial and academic roles, her area of interest was the strategic management of significant claims to ensure their efficient and appropriate resolution, including the wide-ranging use of alternative dispute resolution initiatives. She has served on boards of not-for-profit organisations and is a proprietor of a beef cattle grazing property. She is currently undertaking research into modes of collecting eighteenth century art and artifacts.

What inspired you to take this role?

The State Library of New South Wales has played a central role in the cultural life of our State by allowing access to its remarkable collections since its inception in 1826. My early introduction to the Library’s collections was through study in the Mitchell Reading Room but greater access to the collections is now possible due to the development of facilities in the Macquarie wing and through the Library’s online platforms. A new level of accessibility will be offered with the opening of the Michael Crouch Family Galleries and the John B Fairfax Centre in 2018. Beyond ensuring continuing good governance of the Library, my particular interests on the Council are the acquisition and presentation of the extraordinary collections and its educative role, so the opportunities afforded by these developments are particularly exciting for me. Given my deep interest in and research of early Australian art, I look forward to viewing the results of the tireless work of the specialist staff who will bring the collection to life in these spaces.