2020 Vision: Towards the Libraries of the Future.

2020 Vision: towards the libraries of the future: a report prepared for the Libraries Working Group of the Cultural Ministers' Council by Colin Mercer with Margaret Smith for the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy 1996 48pp ISBN 0724275126 $25.00 from State Library of Queensland PO Box 3488 South Brisbane Qld 4101

Navigating the economy of knowledge[1], the 1995 report of the Libraries Working Group to the Cultural Ministers' Council, contained the results of significant research into the use and perceptions of Australian state and public libraries. It established that publicly funded libraries attract more support: and use than any other public cultural institution in Australia. 2020 Vision goes a good deal further and, while it examines the future challenges and opportunities awaiting libraries, it also warns of the declining interest, dwindling into downright indifference, of some significant population groups, towards traditional library services. The `six themes--libraries, librarians, users, information technology, the public good and how to pay for it--remain the essential reference points to which 2020 Vision responds'.[2]

There is no public institution quite like the public library but if the concepts in the report are to be realised there will need to be a concerted effort to establish the position of libraries within the economy of knowledge. There is strong competition from other information and knowledge providers and public librarians will need to heighten their awareness of who are and who are not their customers and the influences that direct those choices. Librarians will also need to take a good hard look at the communities and the market in which they are operating.

This report sets out guidance to assist libraries in identifying their activities and products and provides suggestions for establishing and sustaining services in a changing environment. It accepts that some things have not changed--not yet. The public library is still `a key institution and network for addressing--and preventing--the gap between the information rich and the information poor'.[3]

Libraries developed out of a public need to read, at a time when books were a scarce resource. Now that the needs and expectations of significant groups of people have changed, librarians need to broaden their own acceptance of information technology beyond the bounds with which they currently feel comfortable. IT will continue to be a means for administering library systems but its expanded role, as an instrument of delivering customer services, is not sufficiently established, in public libraries at least. `Far from losing the traditional functions of self and civic improvement ... libraries are now in a position to reinvent them in the new economy of knowledge.'[4]

Providers

The authors believe that libraries will continue to provide traditional (core) services, but will need to develop and market, value added services for specific customers. Too many small businesses lack awareness of the range of resources and services already available to them. The potential market for library based value added services developed and publicised nationally is enormous.

Navigators

Librarians already provide assistance that gives customers access to existing collections. The report describes their future role as navigators through the confusions of the new knowledge economy and points out that if they are either unable or unwilling to steer customers through the bewildering profusion of web sites (a new one created every four seconds)[5] they can be sure there will be plenty of competitors who will.

Brokers

2020 Vision sees librarians as brokers providing services such as those traditionally the preserve of publishing agents, editors and distributors. Drawing on developments in media and communications, and the widespread preoccupation with genealogy, family and local histories, it: sets out ideas and some practical steps for libraries to use their existing advantages to gain a competitive edge in providing information to a captive user group.

The distinction between `core' and `value added' functions and services is defined and there is emphasis on `the crucial importance--for both democratic and commercial reasons--of identifying client needs and interests'.[6] The popular belief that restricts `value added' to productions that generate revenue is expanded to have social and cultural significance.

The reasons for Australia's (and New Zealand's) traditional failure to gain added value by processing raw materials, are compared with the existing infrastructure that supports the production of customised information. Elements of this infrastructure include a cooperative national network, a skilled and experienced workforce that understands the implications of information technology and communications, and high use from a strong customer base.

Librarians tend to view their professional network as an essential framework for providing access to the nation's information resources. Only when pressed do we ruefully admit that these resources are sought by only a small percentage of our total customers. Marketing of public libraries as a key provider in the information network has been relatively ineffectual. In Australia, public libraries outnumber MacDonalds by a ratio of 3:1[7] yet place the two together and the recognition factors are simply not comparable. We do not have to adopt all the compelling marketing techniques of the better known fast food outlets, but we do need to make our locations, services and skills more widely known. There is a need to establish improved recognition symbols indicating where libraries can be found, and to reverse the low level of awareness among nonusers of all but traditional services.

The report is well written and this makes it an attractive document to read. It is prefaced by an admirably succinct executive summary which provides an overview of the complete document. It is presented with clear print on high quality paper. Throughout, the material has been carefully organised and the sections tabulated with well judged use of shadowing to highlight important sections.

Salient points for guidance in the final sections include

* The need to know much more about nonusers, their information needs and how best they can be met

* In view of the competition already active in the cultural and content industries, libraries would be well advised to opt for `strategic alliances rather than head to head competition'[8]

* The need to persuade funders that libraries are producers of wealth rather than consumers

There is guidance and advice about marketing and promotion of library services but the report does not adequately stress the need to produce a convincing marketing plan to those who vote the funds. Investment and working capital are as necessary for public institutions as they are for any business. I would like to have seen this given emphasis, along with some guidelines for securing it.

It is always easy to view a distant prospect with unclouded optimism. From the current situation facing New Zealand libraries one can only envy a place where Cultural Ministers concern themselves about the immediate and long term future of libraries. This report provides vision seasoned with a heft dose of pragmatism of the sort that will be nec6ssary if libraries are to grasp the opportunities that are available to them.

`In the end what will be crucial for the library is that it manages the potentially massive expansion of client needs and expectations in the knowledge economy rather than the historical legacies of its own internal agendas.'[9]

References

[1] Navigating the economy of knowledge: national survey of users and nonusers of state and public libraries. Final policy studies report prepared for the Cultural Minister's Council by the Institute for Cultural Policy Studies, Griffith University March 1995

[2] 2020 Vision The foreword 

[3] ibid pi

[4] ibid p14

[5] ibid p16

[6] ibid p23

[7] ibid p29

[8] ibid p40

Rosemary Norman Manager Central Library Hutt City Libraries New Zealand