In visible light: illuminating partnerships across libraries to facilitate lifelong learning for young people.

There are many groups and individuals which have common goals and a shared vision of young people as information literate, independent lifelong learners. Significant effort has been made by people working in the education and information sectors to develop partnerships to achieve better learning outcomes for them. However, reliance on individual rather than institutional relationships has resulted in worthy and innovative projects vanishing with something as basic as a change of staff. With expanding library service development the time has come to formalise a framework for cooperation between the education and information sectors to ensure the evolution of a cooperative and comprehensive library service for young people. Yarra-Melbourne Regional Library Corporation is forging partnerships with the School Library Association of Victoria and other public libraries in leading the way in the Victorian education and information sectors, strengthening action that supports these common goals and vision. In Queensland the development of a Smart Library Network which includes the State Library of Queensland, the public library sector, Alia Children's and Youth Services and the education sector, is already helping to facilitate an integrated network of both physical and virtual community spaces which creatively link diverse groups to information, knowledge and each other. Edited version of a revision of a paper presented at the Joint conference of the Children's Book Council and Australian School Library Association 2-5 October 2003 Hobart Tasmania 

   Everyone has a stake in building information literate communities.
   Corporate and nonprofit, government, education, social service and
   other sectors are all potential partners in ensuring that all
   people have the resources and skills they need to fully participate
   in an information society (1)

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People in a learning society need libraries throughout their lives. (2) Public libraries serve the entire community from birth by providing a bridge from infancy into formal learning, and access to resources that meet young people's educational, informational, recreational and personal needs as they grow into self determining adult learners. Hand in hand, resources and activities develop young people's love of reading and information literacy skills; engage the curious mind and, through a broad range of formats, support different learning styles and needs. School libraries support the school curriculum as their priority and also provide for the personal, recreational, and informal learning needs of many young people. As Mathews states

   When both types of libraries are well supported,
   they can team up to provide a seamless
   information and enjoyment resource (3)

People encounter all types of libraries during their lives, through private collections and the interest groups they belong to, through continued learning at tertiary institutions and in the workplace. Communities are rich in information. The role of educators and information professionals is to facilitate young people's access to that information by working with all agencies so that young people can '... recognize the need for information and then identify, access, evaluate and apply the needed information' (4) in their daily lives.

Much of the research comes from the US. The 1977 National Commission for Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and the Association of American School Libraries taskforce on the integration of school library programs into a proposed national network, stated that the ideal is

To provide every individual in the US with equal opportunity of access to that part of the total information resource which will satisfy the individual's educational, working, cultural, and leisure time needs and interests, regardless of the individual's location, social or physical condition, or level of intellectual achievement. (5)

Young people need to be able to manage information. As Butterworth summarises

* it is a prerequisite for participative citizenship

* it is required for the production of new knowledge, on which the future economic success of all countries depends and

* lastly, information literacy is needed to address global problems which challenge the planet and the survival of civilisations (6)

In today's information maze, however

   Where we turn for information and how well we
   are able to evaluate it can make the critical
   difference between a good decision and a bad one (7)

As far back as 1966 Fenwick recognised that

   Both school and public library will be
   responsible for learning that will span lifetimes,
   and the education of children will be only the
   beginning. To recognise these developing needs
   there must be continuous planning of all
   community organizations, but especially of
   schools and public libraries, for this challenging
   common endeavour (8)

Cooperation is necessary because it supports young people's access to the total information resource. It is also because '... no one institution is self sufficient in its role as information provider'. (9)

Until recently

   ... a well-funded academic, public, school,
   institutional or corporate library could reasonably
   expect to meet most of the needs of its users
   through a collection of materials housed within a
   single building. (10)

However, the rapid growth in the publishing and ICT industries and the accompanying upsurge in the variety and specificity of users needs, combined with inadequate library funding, have far surpassed the capacity of any one library.

Fitzgibbons states that

   Cooperation may be the only solution to providing
   adequately for the library needs of children and
   young adults ... their total needs, including
   education, personal information, recreation,
   personal interests, and career needs. (11)

Providing seamless access to resources is not the only reason for organisations to work together.

Public libraries and schools have shared goals. Both promote library use and a love of reading. Both endeavour to meet young people's informational, recreational, personal and social needs. One commentator has identified three common goals

* ensuring that students develop as information enabled learners

* providing access to a wide range of analog and digital resources

* motivating students to use libraries and their professional staff for informational and recreational purposes (12)

Fitzgibbons maintains that the educational role of the public library has always existed. Public libraries currently support young people's literacy and learning through preschool literacy activities, writing and reading programs, home schooling, homework centres, and family literacy. She states, however, there is a need to expand this role to keep abreast with the changing needs of the community and shifts in educational practice. (13)

Public libraries support young people's learning. That is why children and teenagers flock to the library after school looking for help with their homework. As it may not be possible for parents and carers to access school libraries, the public library is the main resource they turn to for materials to support their children's school assignments, in a context where '... typically already at least 30 per cent of public library users are school, Tafe or university students'. (14)

US research on the roles of the public library identified the provision of educational support, at 88 per cent, as one of the highest rankings. (15) Research into young people's reference enquiries determined that 85 per cent of information questions posed to public librarians by children were homework driven. (16)

Zobec also points out that

   The public library is a community based support
   for the school library. Its collection is also equally
   available to the students. Its purpose is to fulfil the
   community's information needs, and high school
   students are part of that community. (17)

School and public libraries can impact significantly on young people's educational attainment. Canadian research found that the quality of school and public libraries and number of books per student in the school library and public library circulation were significant predictors of reading achievement. (18) US research revealed that students in schools that were well managed and resourced and worked with public libraries in the delivery of services, such as book talks and summer reading programs, averaged reading scores up to 15 points higher than under resourced, professionally isolated organisations. (19)

Haycock identified the shared educational focus as one of the most critical factors in rationalising cooperation and collaboration between libraries

   In today's information rich society, both types of
   libraries can provide resources to complement
   students' curriculum and literacy needs. Because of
   the complexity of technological access, both the
   role of the information intermediary and the role of
   instructor in computer and information literacy
   need to be shared. (20)

Important, also, is the fact that school visits to the public library and public library programming in schools may serve as the only contact some young people have with the public library. Last but not least, the tax dollar funds both institutions and there are substantial economic benefits in working together to meet young people's information needs. Cooperating in areas such as collection development can help avoid duplication paving the way for the purchase of and access to a wider range of resources. The sometimes prohibitive cost of online databases can be shared through cooperation and familiarisation with each library's existing subscriptions. (21)

Models of cooperation

Over the years significant effort has been made by people working in the education and information sectors to develop partnerships to achieve better outcomes for young people's learning. However reliance on individual rather than institutional relationships has resulted in many worthy and innovative projects, and the history and inspiration that gave them form, vanishing with something as basic as a change of staff.

Open and informed communication is a critical factor in building partnerships.

Cooperation begins with communication and effective communication drives the cooperative process. Buchhave also recommends taking time to get to know each other and build up an essential common set of values. (22) Baxter and Haggberg in Ladies who lunch describe their experience of developing a successful cross sectoral partnership

   We believe our collaboration has worked because
   we took the time to get to know each other. Our
   easy familiarity allowed us to write a grant
   together, to trust that each side would follow up on
   commitments, and to handle snafus without hurt
   feelings. True collaboration is not spontaneous. It
   involves building a relationship--like a marriage,
   friendship, or business partnership. (23)

Callison emphasises the importance of joint planning, implementation and evaluation, stresses the need for a high level of commitment from the parties involved, and defines characteristics that lead to successful cooperation

* initial communication that is open and welcome at any level

* follow up communication that leads to decision making for action and support from all involved

* plans and policies that are developed to address the strengths and weaknesses of both institutions

* an agenda for future cooperative efforts that can be identified and portions frequently implemented (24)

There are many levels for cross sectoral cooperation, from the most basic forms of communication to complex examples of joint use facilities. Cooperative activities can range from little or no cooperation, through informal communication, to formal, systematically planned activities and arrangements. (25)

Shannon, in her model for cooperation between the school library and public, identified four levels of activity

* no cooperation Neither the media teacher nor the public librarian has initiated contact

* informal communication Either the media teacher [silly US term for teacher librarian ed] or the public librarian has established contact with sporadic communication occurring for reference enquiries or notification of forthcoming assignments. However both information centres still rely almost totally on their own resources to satisfy user needs.

* informal cooperation Cooperation occurs regularly and fairly frequently. Class visits to the public library are arranged by the media teacher or public librarian or both. Media teachers and public librarians are regularly and routinely in contact in regard to assignments. The media teacher acts as liaison between teachers and pupils and the public library. Public librarians make visits to the media centre. School projects are displayed in the public library on a regular basis. Resources are shared through interlibrary loan.

* formal cooperation All the cooperative activities described in the third level occur and formalized policies and procedures exist as part of school policy and public library policy. At this level mutual sharing of materials through cooperative collection development, sharing of central processing facilities and or union list of holdings occurs. (26)

Fourie and Mercier emphasised formal communication as a prerequisite to formal cooperation. Mercier describes cooperation as

   ... a gradual progression from informal to formal
   communication in a cyclical process in which
   subject teachers, media teachers, pupils, public
   librarians as well as parents communicate about
   the topic assigned and the availability of
   information sources. If all factors are favourable
   formal communication can pave the way for
   formal cooperative agreements. (27)

Findings from the NCLIS forums also stressed that

   School and public libraries can be partners only
   when each exists as a strong contributor to the
   partnership. One cannot substitute for the other. (28)

Thus it is widely recognised that, in these times of expanding library service development, there is a need to formalise relationships within the education and information sectors at the federal, state and local level. By investing the necessary time to establish open and informed communication practices, and by creating formal policies and procedures, cooperation becomes the responsibility of an entire organisation and is not reliant on individual personalities or specific staff. Cooperation needs to be planned, implemented and evaluated in consultation with key stakeholders.

For successful cross sectoral cooperation stakeholders need to be identified and involved in the processes that lead to, and culminate in, collaborative ventures.

In Del Vecchio's model for communication between public libraries and schools, communication '... is needed in both directions between the internal system of the school and the external system of the public library'. Teachers, parents, public librarians, school librarians, school administrators and students are identified as stakeholders in ongoing cooperative activities. (29)

Fourie stresses that school principals need to be convinced of the importance of cooperation between the school and public library

   In this way each institution will be informed
   about the activities and programs of the other and
   problems encountered and ways found to solve
   these problems could be discussed. (30)

Because libraries are inextricably bound up with learning that spans lifetimes, Fenwick states that

   Cooperation between school and public librarians
   must, to be successful, involve eventually the
   entire staffs of the two institutions as well as those
   of university and special libraries (31)

Mathews takes this a step further, maintaining that the public, community leaders, policy makers at all levels, institutional funding bodies and community partners also need to be involved and committed to providing superior service to all young people.

Holistic assessment of the information needs of a community and the resources that exist within the community is critical to planning any form of cross sectoral cooperation.

Many people within a community are involved in young people's information retrieval activities. Impacting on young people's learning is community knowledge of available information sources and their ability to interpret and evaluate information. All communities are rich with information that could support young people's education. Identifying individuals and organisations within the community that work with the same client groups as libraries may lead to new and/or unique resources that will support young people's learning.

Recognising that cooperation between institutions with different organisational structures and working hours poses many problems, Fourie states that '... public libraries and schools must engage in some form of prior research and analysis'. (33) Fitzgibbons emphasises that a needs assessment of the community must involve both school and public library officials. (34) Fourie identified key areas for research, prior to embarking on cooperative ventures

* pupils' curricular use of the public library and media centre (school libraries)

* their curricular use of other community information services 

* their reasons for using the public library in addition to the media centre

* their degree of success in finding information and the factors that hinder public librarians' ability to meet their curricular information needs the levels of cooperation between schools and public libraries, and librarians' views on cooperative activities with schools. Research findings on these aspects could be used

-- to determine the forms of cooperation between schools and public libraries required to improve pupils' abilities to acquire information from different information services

-- as the basis for drawing up practical guidelines for cooperation between schools and public libraries (35)

Areas for cooperation

The common areas for partnerships that meet the shared goals and objectives of public, school and tertiary libraries are broad and include collection development; programming for library staff, students and parents and carers; reference services; resource development; cross sectoral advocacy and service promotion and professional information exchange.

The US Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) 1997 outlines areas for cooperation between public and school libraries, including the need to

stimulate excellence and promote access to learning and information resources in all types of libraries for individuals of all ages

* promote library services that provide all users access to information through state, regional, national and international electronic networks

* provide linkages between and among libraries

* promote targeted library services to people of diverse geographic, cultural and socioeconomic background, to individuals with disabilities, and to people with limited functional literacy or information skills

* participate in cooperative purchasing and licensing programs

* compatible and equal technological access to each other's catalogues

* participate in interlibrary loan and delivery to provide for the sharing of library materials

* plan and develop collections cooperatively (36)

As Baxter and Haggberg state '... true collaboration is not spontaneous'. Critical to the success of collaborative projects is a formal planning process that identifies tasks, responsibilities, timeframes, funding and outcomes. The plans, policies and procedures that are developed should also identify the strengths and weaknesses of both institutions. Working cross sectorally requires at least the same level of structural support derived from planning, policy and procedures practices that are applied in a single institution, if not considerably more.

Resources

Collections are the heart of any library (37) and maximising resources is one of the major concerns of public and teacher librarians. US studies in the 70s and 80s determined that there were significant overlaps in young people's collections in school and public libraries. Doll's study found that the average overlap between school and public libraries was 50 per cent. Because school libraries tend to have a greater number of unique titles the overlap between schools was 30 per cent. (38) As well as confirming that school and public libraries can benefit from resource sharing these figures also indicate the efforts made by public libraries to provide support for schools within the community.

Garland, in a US Education Department funded examination of the differences in use of young people's materials in school and public libraries, concludes that '... there is a need to make cooperative decisions on non fiction titles to provide a diversity of titles while still duplicating titles in high demand'. (39)

The need to formalise cooperative collection development activities with joint agreements on collection development, creation of new materials, collection storage and book selection was emphasised by Fourie. (40)

Fourie also identified a number of areas that joint collection development policies should cover

* the range of subjects and the depth of subject coverage of materials for pupils from all schools in an area and collection development responsibilities of each restitution in regard to specific subject fields

* which institution will concentrate on instructional, recreational or informational materials

* which institution should purchase particular kinds of materials such as encyclopaedias and other reference works, periodicals, audiovisual media and computer software

* identification of areas of collection overlap to determine how much duplication of titles is necessary in both types of libraries

* cooperative development of pamphlet collections

* access to union catalogues, bibliographic databases, telecommunications and computer facilities

* updating of database records, the weeding of outdated materials (41)

Programming

The primary aims of programming are to make meaningful, library collections held in either electronic or hardcopy, and to promote a love of reading and the library habit.

Well promoted activities draw users and non users into the building. Public libraries have considerable experience in delivering programs to the entire community because often the main performance measure used to assess their success and hence maintain funding are usage and membership statistics. Because school libraries' main priority is inextricably bound to supporting the curriculum there has been less need for them to provide the range of activities on offer through public libraries. This is not to say that their budgets are not linked to statistics, rather that they have not had to find ways to attract the masses.

Public libraries are more likely to use novelty to entice reluctant readers through the doors. They also expend a great deal of energy promoting their programs within the community. School libraries are often in the fortunate position of having entire classes brought willingly or otherwise to the library by classroom teachers.

Public, school and tertiary institutions have much to learn from each other. In Australia teacher librarians are recognised as having an indepth knowledge of current fiction trends and homework requirements. In the public library sector, the move away from specialist to generalist positions, has meant that fewer library services, even at the state library level, have young people's librarians resulting in an overall loss of knowledge in the areas of children's literature and curriculum requirements. Knowledge sharing between the three institutions around programs that engage young people with collections would broaden librarians understanding of what is possible and pave the way for cooperative programming.

There is a broad range of programs that public, school and tertiary libraries can cooperatively plan, develop and implement. Many are featured in detail in Examples of cooperation, including

* writing and reading programs

* homework help

* library orientation

* membership drives

* resource development to support programs such as Children's Book Week, summer reading programs and curriculum units

* literature festivals

* information literacy programs

Reference service

Providing for young people's education and information needs is challenging at both the school and tertiary level. Public libraries are involved, but often not informed participants in this process.

All of the literature available on young people's reference and information use emphasises the need for public and schools librarians to communicate

   ... on curriculum topics, specific assignments,
   and recommended curriculum related materials, as
   well as the need for sharing the responsibility, as
   information intermediaries, of teaching searching
   skills while providing help to individuals and
   groups. (42)

Fourie found that public and teacher librarians were

   ... unanimous in their view that this form of
   cooperation would enable the public library to
   make available sufficient sources to curricular
   information seekers because adequate time would
   be available to identify, locate and place on
   reserve relevant sources. Advance preparation
   would also relieve the pressure on staff when
   demand is at its peak. (43)

The general lack of policy and procedures at an administrative level means that there is no system in place to support the exchange of information between teachers and teacher librarians and public and tertiary librarians. While there is no strategy in place for information exchange about young people's information needs, frustration will continue to mount in all sectors and young people will continue to receive reference service inferior to that potentially available to them.

Barriers to cooperative library service provision

It is clear from the literature that there are many sound reasons to partner with related organisations, that many organisations understand this, and that they are productively working together to provide a comprehensive learning environment for young people. However, most organisations be they corporate, nonprofit, government, education, or youth related do not work together for the benefit of their clients.

The barriers to cross sectoral cooperation cited in the literature are numerous and include funding, staff, and governance issues, poor cross sectoral communication practices, resistant attitudes and a lack of knowledge about other's roles, organisational purpose and practice.

Gorman, (44) Haycock (45) and Bundy all identified a lack of communication as one of the major barriers to cooperation. Bundy specified inadequate consultation and notification about homework assignments as still a stumbling block from a public library perspective. (46)

'Attitude' also significantly hinders the potential to cooperate at most levels. Gorman identified a number of attitudes endemic across public and school library sectors

* both groups of librarians work in isolation from one another and see their roles as different

* resistant attitudes on the part of library staff--self preservation and protectiveness

* perception that roles are different and not open to cooperation

* perception that purposes are different (47)

The South African national council for cooperation between public and school libraries identified two key aspects underpinning successful cooperation '... one is the ethical and psychological level issue and the other is issues related to the legal, policy and governance levels'. It concluded that the only way to overcome ethical and psychological barriers is to grow an inspired, capable and willing public service sector. (48)

Bundy's 2001 survey of Australian public and secondary school libraries interaction and perspectives reported a range of attitudes.

Public librarians' responses included

* teacher librarians are often defensive of their role and act as 'gatekeepers'

* initiatives come from teachers and principals rather than teacher librarians

* our Bookweek staff attended local schools for story sessions but felt they were seen as 'babysitters' as teachers left the room, marked papers and held discussions during the session

* there has been a steady increase in the number of teachers who utilise our service ... but school libraries don't feel the need to work with us

* it is really annoying when teachers take all of our resources on a topic--and then send their students in to find more resources

* schools are busy with their own issues and problems and seem to see public libraries as more of a threat than a help--public libraries need to be a bit more sensitive in the way we approach schools

* teacher librarians don't seem to be interested in cooperation

* public libraries are quite enthusiastic about cooperation, but schools don't really consider it to be very important

* there doesn't seem to be much need for cooperation. School libraries seem to be fairly well resourced and self sufficient

* too often, teacher librarians view public librarians as professional rivals, rather than a source of support and cooperation

Teacher librarian responses included

* the perception is that the two libraries are competing when in fact they should complement each other

* I would have to be convinced of the benefits--I am very busy and it would be a low priority at the moment

* the local city library doesn't see the need for communication at the librarian level--student users are just library users with no special consideration

* I'm not sure why we would need to interact with the public library. We have a very well resourced library ... all the online databases we need

* their attitude is that school students with research requirements are a bit of a nuisance 'Can't you get the information from your school library?'

* it's nice to have friendly relations, but the needs of our client groups are quite different

* desk service at the public library is not friendly--need training in PR

* it would be good to have a forum to discuss issues, but of course we all wait for 'someone else' to organize this kind of nonthreatening meeting

* student statistics have to be at the maximum to justify funds from the school budget--I do not want students using public libraries rather than school students are free to visit public libraries--I see no reason for schools and public libraries to interact

* the philosophy of the local library is that it should not spend money on secondary resources as the schools are well endowed--a sheer nonsense

* would my cynicism show if I said they wanted our support when they applied for increased funds--have not seen them since! (49)

Many of the negative attitudes held by public and teacher librarians can be traced back to poor communication and a lack of professional awareness. Bundy discovered that

   ... 71% of public librarians assessed their
   knowledge of school library issues and
   developments as very low or low ... compared
   with 63% of teacher librarians ... who ... assessed
   their knowledge of public library issues and
   developments as very low or low. (50)

Tyson believes that many negative attitudes can be changed

   ... in part, by seeking out training experiences
   and by accepting the challenge of self knowledge
   and learn[ing] to value the differences in attitudes,
   values, and skills of our colleagues. (51)

Buchhave emphasises that

   Cooperating across professional cultures requires
   a thorough knowledge of one's own culture and
   other cultures and mutual respect is essential ...
   There must be time to get to know each other
   and learn about each other's worlds--to build up
   the essential common set of values and create an
   ideological platform. This is the basis for co-operation
   at a high level and good cooperation
   between the partners is the greatest driving force
   in any given project, (52)

Bundy found that librarians who had worked cross sectorally were open to cooperation and found it easy to validate and facilitate. One public librarian commented

   Having worked in a school library previously I
   can see the tremendous benefit derived by
   students in having a public library on site. The
   availability and ease of procuring 'hard to find'
   resources is fantastic ...

A teacher librarian remarked

   ... we interact on many levels--school
   students as borrowers/casual staff/work
   experience/volunteers; teachers as borrowers
   and parents. (53)

However, a lack of coordinating bodies at federal, state and local levels and a lack of policy and legislation means that there is no tangible support for library staff to participate in cross sectoral cooperation. Because governing bodies do not recognise the value of cooperation it is given low priority by organisations and efforts are hampered by a lack of administrative support that provides access to funding, time and staff. Other issues related to governance and administrative support that hinder cooperation include

* conflicting schedules--school librarians busiest during daytime/public librarians busiest right after school

* staffing--particularly for school librarians who often are the only professional staff in the library

* only 11 per cent of public libraries employ a full time young adult librarian-research shows that exemplary cooperative programs most often involved a young adult librarian initiating contact with schools

* lack of a joint collection development policy--scheduling conflicts and staff availability make it difficult for staff to share reviews of materials (54)

* lack of qualified fulltime teacher librarians with whom to work, particularly in primary schools

* communication difficulties caused by turnover and absences of school library staff (55)

Bundy's survey also found that

   If school administrators and teachers did not see
   the school's librarian as their link to a wider
   information community, or if they did not see
   such a role as valuable or necessary, the
   librarian's work outside the four walls of the
   school was not viewed as central to the job. (56)

However, as Haycock emphasises, to implement change, particularly institutional change '... requires persistent advocacy and continual leadership and school support'. (57)

Nonetheless, there is a number of practitioners from both areas advocating on behalf of young people who refute the idea that there IS no money, time, staff, support or interest, arguing that we have all of these things but we are just using them on something else. (58)

Institutions that work with young people need to decide the value of cross sectoral cooperation and the value of providing young people with access to a community's entire resources. They need to assess the impact that comprehensive service provision will have on the quality of young people's whole lives and not just the lime they spend in their institutions.

A decision needs to be made by the community about how important it is to meet young people's information needs. The community as a whole needs to have an understanding and a belief that libraries play an essential role in young people's lives and that cross sectoral cooperation builds support that brings resources from people and organisations within the community eg parents, schools, teachers, their friends and family, youth agencies and government.

Recommendations for successful cooperation

A number of recommendations for successful cooperation recur through the literature in the areas of planning and policy development; communication and networking, and advocacy.

A shared vision and common goals coupled with a formal planning process and adoption of joint policies and procedures was identified as critical for supporting meaningful ongoing collaborations between information services.

Mathews, in Kids can't wait, recommends state and community wide planning '... including vision statements and action plans with a focus on legislation ... that spell out collaboration and roles of all agencies and institutions'. (59) Fitzgibbons stresses the need for the planning process to '... be a community based activity that includes politicians, community leaders, educators, parents, librarians, student representation, and for young children, their caretakers and advocates'. (60) The need for adequate funding to be built into the planning process is also emphasised.

The NCLIS 1993 forums on 'Children and youth services' conclude that 'Community wide and statewide planning is needed to provide for optimal services'. (61)

As part of its policy on cooperation between public and school libraries, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners recommends that 'In so far as practical, public libraries and school libraries develop coordinated policies and procedures'. (62)

Advocacy for the profession and for service development is identified as crucial for successful cooperation. In Australia, as in the US and Canada, there is a need to advocate to assuage the threat to the positions of young people's specialists in public libraries and to teacher librarians in schools by

* providing a strong voice of advocacy from the library administration level for information specialists in related agencies

* encouraging staff and administration to advocate for all librarians among their colleagues and peers in professional organisations 

* encouraging library staff to advocate for all libraries within their communities (63)

Delegates at an Alia Children's and Youth Services seminar concluded 'Libraries across all sectors should work together to advocate the value of libraries and librarians for young people'. (64)

Mathews also states that guidelines and advocacy for funding are necessary '... to plan true collaboration by school and public libraries that takes into consideration current and future learning'. (65)

Planning for any type of cooperation between information services should be based on a needs assessment of the total community. (66) A needs assessment that determines the information needs of the community, identifies information resources, access points within a community and identifies all potential partners, will support both the planning and advocacy processes.

Recommendations throughout the literature also support the need to establish clear channels of communication that would include

* a designated appointed liaison within each service who is responsible for cross sectoral communication and the development of cooperative programs and services (67)

* participation in regularly scheduled meetings and communication about each other's activities and programs (68)

* forming an advisory group of people within the community and region who are involved with young people including public, tertiary and school library personnel, educators, juvenile justice and social welfare organisations, youth advocacy and advisory groups (69)

The literature recommends a wide range of activities on which libraries can work cooperatively, which provide the needed services and resources to key stakeholders such as young people, librarians, educators and parents.

They include

* school and public libraries should be centres for using networks and other information technologies, ensuring access for everyone (70)

* instruction in information skills for young people and their parents and carets that includes school and public library orientation sessions (71)

* public library programming in school classrooms as well as public libraries (72)

* joint help with school based projects such as science fair projects, academic contests, career fairs (73)

* joint help with public library based projects such as Children's Book Week, reading programs, membership drives

* participate in cooperative purchasing and licensing programs(74)

* participate in interlibrary loan and delivery to provide for the sharing of library materials (75)

* participate in shared professional development activities (76)

* enhance communication and break down some of the perceived 'cultural' barriers by creating job shadowing opportunities (77)

Examples of cooperation

There is recognition at a global level that cooperation between information services is vital in meeting young people's information needs. Cooperative endeavours from the US, Canada, Europe and Australia are featured below with an emphasis in Australia on Queensland and Victoria.

United States and Canada

Massachusetts -- Resource Sharing & Central governing body

As far back as 1965 resource sharing and electronic networking between various libraries has been in place. Communications, cooperation and coordination is supported by a central governing body, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The board performs an advisory role as well as providing technical assistance and training to facilitate collaborative community service delivery across all libraries. It provides grants to public and school libraries and operates from the position of understanding the importance and uniqueness of both school and public libraries and that cooperative efforts do not diminish the positioning of either. (78)

Arkansas -- Information literacy development A model program has been developed by a public library to provide information literacy sessions to multidisadvantaged families working in conjunction with teacher librarians from neighbouring schools as an extension of the school program. LSTA funds were awarded to expand computing facilities and reference collections were geared to student/school curriculum support. (79)

Redwood City, California--School Liaison Officer & Joint vendor access

A school liaison officer bridges the provision of library services through schools and public libraries. This position is funded by the public libraries and school district. The salary is provided by the public library and the school district provides space and equipment. In 2002 a construction bond was provided to public libraries that had a relationships with the school in their service area. Joint vendor access increases purchasing discounts to both sectors.

Multnomah County -- Collections, staff & volunteer homework support, training team, database access

The Multnomah Public Library supports students academically by

* collections access Student surveys reveal that the public library's collection is used extensively for homework requirements to supplement the materials available through school libraries

* youth librarians and volunteer homework helpers available during non school hours.

* school corps--a training team of librarians provide training to teachers, school library staff and students. Bibliographies and webliographies are requested in relation to specific topics by phone or email

* books 2 U program--staff and volunteers visit schools and other community locations and promote reading for fun. Primary schools are the focus with increased services planned for middle schools

* databases--free access to subscription databases. Some schools then supplement this with other selected databases (80)

Chicago -- Card-a Kid Campaign

The Card-a-Kid campaign signs up all first grade students annually to public libraries. Annual meetings for teacher librarians and public librarians are sponsored by the Children's Services Division of Public Libraries and Teacher Librarians Association of Chicago. Grant funding supports further meetings of these groups to address specific opportunities to develop cooperative projects. Chicago schools have tied grants to membership of the Chicago Public Library system. This card drive has had benefits of increasing students' awareness of public library resources, rebuilding some school collections as well as fostering relationship building between the teachers from Chicago public schools and public libraries. (81)

New York -- Clasp: Connecting Libraries and Schools Project

The City of New York Public Libraries including Queens, Brooklyn and New York, develop programs, outreach to schools, and deliver training for teacher librarians, teachers and students. It is funded by the City of New York and focuses on reading and books for young people, preschool to 13 years old. (82)

Richmond, Virginia-Teen Read Week Virginia schools and public libraries joined together to engage young people in the design, promotion and delivery of a fabulous competition encouraging teens to read and share their favourite books. The project had a multimedia approach with young people having the chance to get involved with recording on air radio promotions with prizes including free tickets to a rock concert and back stage to meet the band opportunities. The local public librarians conducted an on air book talk for teens as part of the program. (83)

Berkley -- Earphone English

An inspirational partnership program between Berkley High School and the local public library offers students whose prime language is not English a chance to practise their spoken and aural English. Development of and access to the Berkley Public Library audio book collection has been pivotal to this program. Goldsmith has developed a weekly teen book club that encourages lively discussion and book talking. In conjunction with support from the local teachers and students this multicultural program has become a firm favourite. (84)

US Department of Education: assessment of the role of school and public libraries in support of educational reform : a national study

This paper advocates literacy development as the main focus of the public library school readiness partnership. The current role of public libraries in preschool education is examined and many of the activities that are already happening in public libraries globally are acknowledged. The offering of story times and the support of parents as the child's first teacher in resourcing literacy development are critical core services. The public library is viewed as a collaborative community wide contributor in the educational process of supporting literacy education and school readiness. (85)

Canada -- Think globally .. search locally--a strategic plan for a multitype library system in Saskatchewan

The strategies the Multitype Library Development Advisory Committee has recommended as actions to achieving this province wide Canadian cooperative library project are based on the notion that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It defines its mandate as maintaining and enhancing a consistent and high quality cooperative interdependent information network.

Whilst broad scale, and not restricted to only school and public libraries the plan provides a comprehensive big picture look at whole of state partnership potential and a plan of action clearly defined. The full strategic plan has been identified by the committee and a subsequent discussion paper has been prepared. (86)

Europe

United Kingdom

A declaration from the library and information community In this declaration the library and information community in the UK notes the crucial role libraries play in '... preserving and giving access to the nation's wealth of recorded human knowledge'. It states support for the following principles

* parallel development of information and resource access across all library types

* value of partnership

* sharing of skills

* acknowledgment of the difference between the information rich and the information poor

* role of the government in providing vision and funding to support networks to address these issues

A determined commitment is made in this declaration by a broadange of library groups to create a new networked global response to a learning society and an information nation. (87)

School libraries: making a difference The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, the School Library Association and the Association of Senior Children's and Educational Librarians have joined together in a campaign to demonstrate to government and influential agencies how properly resourced and staffed school libraries can support teaching and learning, and improve standards and academic achievement. (88)

Empowering the learning community is a joint initiative led by the Department for Education and Skills and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The brief of the project is to progress Empowering the learning community task group report recommendations

* public and educational libraries in communities or defined geographic areas should establish cooperative arrangements to improve services to their users

* flexibility in funding arrangements for libraries should be examined. (89)

Inspiring learning for all is a best practice framework for museums, archives and libraries. Its purpose is to provide a basis for assessing the quality of learning services in all three domains, the extent to which those services are accessible, and their impact upon users and communities. (90)

Learning worm is a joint venture between the University of Sunderland and Gateshead College to provide a friendly, accessible and alternative learning experience in the Metro Centre, which is Europe's largest shopping mall. Open at weekends and in the evenings, it is based close to where people work, shop and live. Within two years it has recruited about 4,000 new learners to business, computing, health and language courses, from basic to master s level. (91)

The Reading Agency (TRA) works to develop services to readers by inspiring, challenging and supporting libraries and working closely with the main library networking bodies, including the Society of Chief Librarians, the Association of Children's and Education Librarians and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. TRA's vision is to inspire a reading nation and its core objectives are

* influencing to change the way influencers see and fund libraries' work with readers

* innovating to open up new ways of working with readers and new routes to finding them

* training; dissemination; audit frameworks; internal networking and sharing and nationally available promotions and resources (92)

An example of a TRA project is Developing reading communities which is an action research program, in partnership with Education Extra (leading out of school hours learning charity) that builds models of how to link reading activity in schools to the resources in public libraries. (93)

Denmark: cooperative collection management In Denmark almost all children's libraries and school libraries cooperatively select, acquire and process books. There is interdisciplinary cooperation between daycare centres, schools, school libraries, child psychological services, children and families to stimulate language and reading targeted at 5-8 year olds. Joint use experimental libraries exist in some schools. (94,95)

Australia

School and public libraries do have a sense of common endeavour and there has been a noticeable increase in interaction between the two over the past five years. Many schools and public libraries are making progress towards this end. (96) Some examples of grass roots programs in Australia include

* displays and book reviews for display in public libraries from local schools

* school visits with authors, library orientation and resource access visits

* promotion of events in newsletters, share displays, book launches, membership drives, Children's Book Week activities--some funded by local government as joint initiatives

* Finding my place a partnership between Ruth Faulkner Public Library in WA and Department of Education and Training that targets 'at risk' youth. Through a range of workshops, the program provides support for young people in a competitive labour market

* Child care centre students grades 9 and 10--preschool storytime project (Tasmania)

* Clasp project--Connecting libraries and schools project (Tasmania)

What's happening in Queensland

Alia Children's and Youth Services The mission and driving principle of Alia Children's and Youth Services in Queensland is to develop library services for young people by promoting interaction between library and information specialists who work with young people. It comprises a broad group of information professionals from school, public and tertiary sectors.

Over the last three years, in partnership with the State Library of Queensland, the group has held an annual seminar. The idea behind the first seminar, Profusion, held in 2001, was that public and teacher librarians joined to share their knowledge and expertise. Public and teacher librarians presented sessions on

* visual literacy 

* reading groups and public libraries

* displays

* booktalking

* conference debriefs

* storytelling workshop and demonstration

The seminar demonstrated how much teacher and public librarians have to share with each other and how much they had in common.

The 2002 seminar Essential connections: connecting school and public library professionals went on to explore the relationship between public and school librarians and what facilitates and prevents cooperative practice. Dr Alan Bundy's paper Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning provided the inspiration and content for the seminar. Based on the results of a survey published in his paper about public and secondary school libraries' interaction, key areas of concern were identified and explored in the seminar.

They were

* specialist skills and knowledge sharing

* homework and assignment support

* working collaboratively to maximise resources

* cross sectoral communication

* formal support for cross sectoral cooperation

It is from this last concern that the idea for the 2003 seminar Frameworking the future: guiding principles for cross sectoral collaboration evolved. It was identified in Essential connections: connecting school and public library professionals that the lack of a framework for cross sectoral cooperation impacted significantly on the sectors' ability to

* maintain networks

* maximise resources

* share skills and knowledge

During the Frameworking the future seminar participants from school, tertiary and public library sectors produced a set of guidelines that demonstrated ways in which they could maintain networks, maximise resources, share knowledge and skills.

Guiding principles for cross sectoral cooperation

To support an environment where learners can seamlessly access the widest choice of materials to support their information, leisure, cultural and social needs the education and information sectors, together, must

Partner

* encourage and support the development of formal partnerships between related agencies

* interact and communicate consistently with each other to establish and maintain open and mutually beneficial relationships

Plan

* identify tasks, responsibilities, time frames, funding and outcomes when planning cooperative ventures

* plan, implement and evaluate cooperative activities in consultation with key stakeholders

Information and resource share

* initiate, develop and maintain a connectedness that maximises information and resource sharing between young people and their information agencies within and between local, national and global communities

* promote and foster the sharing of ideas, resources, skills and space

Professional development

* commit time and personnel to support ongoing skill sharing, professional development and information exchange

Advocate

* advocate the value of all libraries and librarians for young people, to peers, the community and the government

* actively promote at all levels each other's skills and resources

Program

* create dynamic and interactive programs that engage library staff, students, parents and carers in meaningful learning experiences that develop their information literacy skills, expand their love of reading and stimulate their imagination

It is proposed that public, school and tertiary institutions will adopt these guidelines. Where appropriate the guidelines can be incorporated into policy documents, and ideally into long term strategic planning. It is further suggested that peak bodies in Queensland such as the School Library Association of Queensland, Queensland's Public Library Association and the State Library of Queensland, as well as Alia, are approached to support these guiding principles and their implementation.

Libraries for lifelong learning network

In September 2002, Linda McMahon Brisbane City Council Libraries organised for a group of information and education professionals to meet at Education Queensland's library service, AccessEd, to explore potential areas for cross sectoral cooperation to support young people's literacy and learning.

As a first step the group collaborated on the paper Libraries for lifelong learning. The article was published in Education views and the School Library Association of Queensland's newsletter (November 2002) and in Australasian public libraries and information services 16(1)March 2003 and can be accessed at www.slq.gov.au/publib/yps/lifelong.pdf.

The purpose of this network is to facilitate the development of a cooperative environment where learners can seamlessly access the widest choice of materials to support their information, leisure, cultural and social needs.

The group aims

* to promote an awareness of the importance of information literacy for lifelong learning

* to promote the role of libraries in the development of information literacy skills for lifelong learning

* to promote all library sectors to information providers and learners

* to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between library sectors

The network exists predominantly to disseminate information that would be of interest to information professionals. The network holds regular meetings and uses the listserv libll (Libraries for lifelong learning) as a clearinghouse to disseminate information cross sectorally.

The type of information disseminated via the libll listserv includes, professional development, collection development, resources, children's literature, policy, events for staff or for young people, queries, curriculum, information literacy and networking.

Cooperative activities in Qld

Throughout Queensland there are many innovative programs where public, school and tertiary libraries are working together to broaden the range of information services and resources available to young people.

Grass roots programs

Queensland has many grass roots programs that connect young people with libraries. Two such programs are

* Flame (Flexible Learning and Alternative Mobile Education) is a program in which schools and the Noosa Youth Services provide alternative social and personal development experiences within an educational framework for students experiencing difficulties in mainstream schooling.

These young people attend Flame one or two days a week at Noosa Library where internet and pc facilities and library materials support their work with specialist teachers

* Ipswich Library and Information Service runs the Friday fun for schools activity program which provides an alternative for primary school children not participating in school sport. The program is literature based and incorporates reader's theatre, puppet/marionette workshops and craft activities

Membership drives and library orientation A number of libraries run membership drives which often include orientation as part of the program.

Several public libraries are running a version of the US Goal (Grade One at the Library) program. All libraries are finding that the program strengthens links with local schools and encourages whole families to join. Teachers are asking for the program to be run for other year levels.

Brisbane City Council Library Service's Every child a member program aimed to join up 10,000 new young people in 2003. Library staff visit schools throughout Brisbane to promote their library service, train young people on how to use online databases and to join up members on the spot using a laptop computer.

In Toowoomba, funding has been made available for every year 5 class to be bussed to the public library and art gallery for a library orientation, information literacy and arts programs.

Networks that work together

Redland Shire Council Library Service support and youth services librarian, Jennifer Slattery always attends the local primary teacher librarian network meetings, and the library also takes turns in hosting these meetings. The library works with local schools in a wide variety of ways from providing a venue and the publicity for a local primary school's year one puppet plays; conducting library tours for schools as part of the council's young citizens program; working with an educational consultant (part of youth citizens program) to ensure that there are close links between council activities on offer and school curricula, through to visiting local high schools to talk to early childhood students about good books for kids and storytelling.

Jenny Stubbs, coordinator of the Ipswich District Teacher Librarian Network and Dromkeen Award winner 2002, worked closely with Ipswich Library and Information Service, Global Arts Link and West Moreton Anglican College to host the 2003 Ipswich Festival of Children's Literature. The festival includes author and illustrator visits to local schools, camps for young writers and young illustrators and interact relay chat sessions between authors, illustrators and young people from all across the state.

Thuringowa City Council and Townsville City Library Services have a developed a solid working relationship with local schools. Public and teacher librarians participate actively in the North Queensland teacher librarian network by attending regular meetings and via a listserv, which has grown to include teacher librarians in other areas such as Charters Towers and Bowen. Public libraries and schools work together on a variety of projects including the children's literature festival Books North and professional development days such as Children's Book Week and Alia workshops. Online databases are shared and the network produces resources and kits that support the curriculum. Public libraries host teacher information nights and schools actively promote public library reading programs such as Men read 2.

Cooloola Shire Council Library Service, with local primary and secondary school librarians, participates in the Gympie library network. This collaborates on author visits, b7ook week competitions, public library visits and share information and advice about library services for young people in the community.

Redcliffe City Council Library Service has invited all the primary and high school teachers on the peninsula for afternoon tea to meet and discuss networking and collaborative possibilities. The public library regularly visits local primary and secondary schools for booktalks and public library orientation. The young people's services librarian, Jane Jones, also participates in the school librarians' network and School Library Association of Queensland meetings.

Shared resources 

Mt Isa City Council Library and the district teacher librarian network have produced a union catalogue on cdrom. It includes the collections of the Mt Isa City Council Library and eleven primary and secondary schools in the city. As well as providing schools and the community access to the wealth of materials held in the various collections, the catalogue has also enabled cost saving for individual centres. Teachers have been able to develop bibliographies, pathfinders and units of work and students have been able to plan their information searches based on available local resources.

University of Queensland Cybrary's UQL Cyberschool www.cybrary.uq.edu.au/ schools offers teachers and students access to quality information, technical support and training. Through UQL Cyberschool schools are able to negotiate discounted purchase prices for access to ejournals and online databases. The website links provide open access to selected internet sites in key subject areas. Also available are a virtual reference collection; authoritative eresources for each of the key learning areas of the curriculum and the University Cybrary's online catalogue. The service also provides senior secondary students with tours of the Cybrary's branches and guidance in the use of relevant information resources. The Cybrary also prioritises community partnerships through a variety of services including UQL Cyberschool. To view the Cybrary's Operational plan 2003-2007 see www.cybrary.uq.edu.au/about/2003profile.pdf.

Resource development

The State Library of Queensland facilitates and supports cross sectoral, holistic service provision for young people by working in partnership with the Queensland public library network and a range of organisations and individuals to develop resources that are used by teachers and information professionals throughout Australia.

The State Library of Queensland participated in National Simultaneous Storytime 2003 by providing a webcasting of the story read by well known Australian actor Carol Burns. The online presentation was available on the State Library's website throughout September 2003.

The State Library offers a range of online information services for young people and training for the community and librarians including

* Internet for teenagers www.slq.qld.gov.au/pub/teeninter/index.htm

* multicultural and Indigenous activities www.slq.qld.gov.au/pub/festivals/index.htm

* free internet training throughout regional, rural and remote communities in Queensland in partnership with BHP Billiton bhpskillsnet.slq.qld.gov.au/index.htm

* Child's play childsplay.slq.qld.gov.au/ funded by the National Council for the Centenary of Federation, is a State Library of Queensland project, in association with Education Queensland, Queensland History Teachers' Association, Queensland School Curriculum Council, Queensland State Archives, the Queensland University of Technology's School of Humanities, and the History Department at the University of Queensland. The Child's play site features over 1,000 photographs of children from the 1890s to the 1920s and includes resources which educators and students can use in the classroom, with activities that are linked to the Queensland Studies of Society and Environment syllabus 

* Picture Queensland www.pictureqld.slq.qld.gov.au/ contains images from the photographic collection of the John Oxley Library on Queensland's people and places, past and present. The collection benefits Queensland students, researchers and lifelong learners, publishers and authors, genealogists and enthusiasts of all ages who have an interest in, or need to research, any aspect of Queensland's history or development

The Rawson Archive www.rawson.slq.qld.gov.au/asp/index.asp showcases a rare and insightful collection of hand written pen and ink illustrated diaries and photographs of the Rawson family. The images have been selected from a larger collection of family documents in the State Library's John Oxley Library. The two teaching modules, The Rawson family time-machine and Environments, race and gender in 1870s Queensland, contain suggested learning activities for upper primary school and for middle secondary students respectively. These resources are available as pdfs

The online Children's Book Week resource www.slq.qld.gov.au/pub/cbw2003/index.htm that public libraries developed in partnership with the State Library is as popular with primary school teachers as it with public librarians.

In 2003 public libraries and the State Library worked together to develop the library based online summer reading program Dive into a book. The library based program is accessible from www.connectqld.org.au/asp/index.asp?pgid=10455 and the online program from www.connectqld.org.au/dive2003. Public libraries and school libraries are working together to promote the reading program to young people in Queensland.

Shadowing

Fitzgibbons states that 'One way to understand and appreciate the roles of a partner library is to exchange job roles for a day or a week, or even ... a whole year'. (97) Mackay City Council young people's librarian, Claire Grandcourt and Mackay West State School teacher librarian Margaret Spillman participated in 2003 in a one week library shadowing. For more information about this project and other cooperative ventures see www.mackwestss.qld.edu.au/work_shadowing.htm.

Public library and tertiary collaboration

Toowoomba City Council Library is working with the University of Southern Queensland to develop an after school homework help club. The homework club, which is based in the public library, was staffed by trainee teachers who as part of their Professional context experience assisted school students with school projects and assignments, developing their information literacy skills by working one on one with the them. This program was designed to fit into the curriculum.

Mackay City Council Library and Central Queensland University collaborate to produce a program of activities and displays in Mackay libraries during Under 8s Week. As part of their assessment, third year early childhood education students work in consultation with young people's librarian Claire Grandcourt to develop and deliver the program.

Community access to ICT in schools

Brisbane City Council Library Service in partnership with Education Queensland provides training to members of the community who have few opportunities to access and learn about technology. Brisbane City Council provides the training and curricula and Education Queensland the training facilities. The training also utilises the State Library of Queensland BHP Billiton training modules bhpskillsnet.slq.qld.gov.au/index.htm

What's happening in Victoria Trip--Teacher release to industry program

Yarra-Plenty Regional Libraries has participated in the program for two years. This placement capitalises on the knowledge and expertise of a teacher librarian and fosters relationships with schools from the position of working from the public library. It has allowed the public library service to develop structures and procedures to support school and public library partnerships. (98)

Information literacy partnership program Melbourne Girls College and Yarra-Melbourne Regional Libraries have developed an information literacy partnership program to foster access and skill development for young people's out of hours use of online resources via the local public library website.

A homework support program at Richmond Library promoted by Melbourne Girls College and funded by local priorities funding through the Department of Infrastructure fosters links to students with high level needs for information access support. (99)

Homework programs

The Brotherhood of St Lawrence in conjunction with Fitzroy Library delivers a homework program with resource and venue support provision by Yarra-Melbourne Regional Libraries.

The United Somali Women's Group and Mackillop Family Services in partnership with North Melbourne Library delivers a homework support program established by School Focused Youth Services--North Melbourne and Flemington. This program supports the homework, language and information needs of young people and their families across North Melbourne.

Carlton Library delivers Youthlink, a homework help support program funded by City of Melbourne local government youth grants and supported by local youth organisations including Carlton/Parkville Youth Services. A homework support project is being developed between local youth organisations, Yarra-Melbourne Regional Libraries, and school focused youth services with the intention of a coordinated and joint funded homework program approach across the City of Melbourne.

Children's and young adult author/ illustrator joint projects Sarah Boland, in partnership with Carlton Library and Princes Hill Secondary College Year 7 students, is developing an online young adult fiction writing project, bumble.com. (100)

Children's and young adult book authors and illustrators, including Sally Rippin, Archie Fusillo, Elise Hurst, Paul Collins and Michael Pryor have launched new books at Yarra-Melbourne Libraries with the collaboration of local schools including North Carlton Primary School, Princes Hill Secondary College, North Melbourne Primary School, and Carlton Primary School.

Young adult audio book of the year awards Nazareth College, Vision Australia Library and the Australian Centre for Youth Literature hosted the Young adult audio book of the year awards, a project that involves young people in the selection and conferring of awards on outstanding audio versions of Australian young adult audio books. (101)

Conference to address collaborative practice and common goals

The School Library Association of Victoria conference in March 2003 featured Libraries, literacy and engaging learning. This was coordinated by the Partnerships Reference Group whose aim is to highlight potential for partnering for fostering learning. Dr Alan Bundy presented the keynote address Only connect: towards the information enabling of young Australians. In this keynote address he stated that an information enabled nation requires

* an enhanced ability by libraries and library professionals to anticipate, provide and educate for the meeting of information needs

* a recognition that information literacy is the most critical framework issue for the information age

* a greater connection within the broad church of librarianship, particularly between professionals with shared goals in working with Australia's children to meet this vision. (102)

Middle years information literacy partnership project

The Victorian Public Library Network Unit, Statewide Public Library Projects Youth Advisory Committee has secured funding for the development of the middle years information literacy partnership project. $50,000 has been allocated in 2003/04 to develop a toolkit to foster partnerships for learning and development of information literacy across the middle years. The project will employ a half time project worker and be piloted in three public libraries across Victoria, before being printed and disseminated across all public libraries in Victoria in June 2004.

The project aims to make recommendations and deliver outcomes including

* the development of partnerships

* provision of professional development sessions for public library and school library staff

* identification of links to a range of cross sector resources

* provision of strategies to market, promote and share resources

* provision of ideas for maximising resources and talents in implementing lifelong learning

* documentation of templates for the development of information literacy skills in relation to public library resource access for young people

A further stage of the project aims to develop the potential for joint or collaborative virtual collection management of cached websites with the possibility of joint efforts of public libraries and schools in the selection, acquisition, maintenance and evaluation of web resources via a common information portal.

Hotlist of electronic information references and resources on school and public library partnerships

Paula Kelly has collected web information on school/public library partnerships. This information has been recently updated and includes national and global examples, some of which have been referred to elsewhere in this paper. (103)

Conclusion

   Partnerships are hard work and time consuming,
   but all the evidence indicates that pooled
   resources and shared expertise will help libraries
   to provide holistic services to promote social
   inclusion, meet special needs and touch the lives
   of hard to reach groups. (104)

Although children's and teenagers' information needs are largely prescribed by external forces such as the need to learn to read and write, complete schoolwork or find a job, their information seeking activity is often impeded by a lack of connectivity within their communities. Our responsibility as a community is to support young people's educational, cultural and social development by providing an environment where they can seamlessly access the widest range of resources to enable them to develop their own talents and life skills that will lead them to fulfilment.

The only way a community can meet the current and future information needs of young people is by developing a shared vision, an 'ideological platform' that supports cooperative activity between organisations. Cross sectoral cooperation needs to be championed through government policy. Relevant departments at federal and state levels need to be generating quality frameworks that create interagency partnerships and collaboration. Although, according to the UK Library and Information Commission* '... improving this situation is not so much an issue of increasing funding as of making better use of the funding already available' (105) governments need to be providing incentives to promote and support cross sectoral cooperation. There also '... needs to be sufficient flexibility to allow funding to move across traditional boundaries'. (106)

As well as leading in the development of policies that support interagency cooperation, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information's (Cilip) report Start with the child states that

   All government initiatives aimed at developing
   literacy and learning opportunities or other
   services for children and young people, should
   involve library services, acknowledging the
   contribution which they have already made and
   enabling them to contribute fully in the
   future. (107)

There is also an overriding need to evaluate the impact on communities of cooperative projects and to disseminate this research nationally and internationally. There has been a lack of planned research and strategic dissemination of learning. This has resulted in the loss of 'powerful advocacy opportunities which should emerge from value and impact studies'. (108)

Young people's information needs cannot be met by libraries working alone. The whole community needs to be committed to facilitating their access to information and the wealth of resources around them.

Governments have a responsibility to invest in all libraries--in their buildings, collections, services, technology, staffing and research. Tertiary institutions, schools and educationalists have a responsibility to promote library use and make information literacy an essential ingredient within curricula. Local governments need to invest in their library services to provide comprehensive support for young people. Public libraries need to continue to develop new services that engage and inspire young people and ensure that staff are well trained; confident and competent in supporting young people. Finally, all library managers should be working closely with other managers to provide the greatest support for every individual child. (109)

* superseded by re: Source www.resource.org.uk

References

(1) Australian Library and Information Association Statement on information literacy for all Australians 2001:A library advocate's guide to building information literate communities www.alia.org.au/policies/information.literacy.html accessed August 2003

(2) Alliance for excellence: librarians respond to a nation at risk (US ED 1984) Report quoted in Fitzgibbons, S School and public library relationships: essential ingredients in implementing educational reforms and improving student learning US Department of Education 1998-2000 www.ala.org/ala/aasl/pubsandjournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume32000 /relationship.htm accessed August 2003

(3) Mathews 1999 qv Fitzgibbons, S op cit 

(4) Butterworth qv Bundy, A For a clever country: information literacy diffusion in the 21st century Background and issues paper for the first national roundtable on information literacy conducted by the Australian Library and Information Association (Alia) and held at the State Library of Victoria 28 February 2001 www.library.unisa.edu.an/about/papers/clever.htm accessed August 2003

(5) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(6) Fenwick, qv Bundy, A Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning Paper presented at Forging future directions 17th conference of the Australian School Library Association Twin Waters Resort, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, 30 September-4 October 2001 www.library.unisa.edu.au/about/papers/essential.htm accessed August 2003

(7) Australian Library and Information Association op cit

(8) Bundy, A Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning op cit

(9) Zobec, H Cooperation between school and public libraries Australasian public libraries and information services 3(4) December 1990 p245

(10) Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners www.mlin.lib.ma.us/mblc/publications/stratplan.shtml#iss1 accessed August 2003

(11) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(12) Bundy, A Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning op cit

(13) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(14) Bandy, A Vision, mission, trumpets: public libraries as social capital Paper presented at NSW County Public Libraries Association conference, Public libraries light up lives, Tweed Heads NSW 3 July 2003 p15

(15) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(16) Bolin, N and Dyson, L After 3:00 p.m.: where have all the students and their questions gone? Children's use of public libraries to meet their information needs School library media activities monthly 16(5) 2000 pp25-26

(17) Zobec, Hop cit

(18) The crisis in Canada's school libraries: the case for reform and re-investment. A report for the Association of Canadian Publishers June 2003 www.publishers.ca/pages/HaycockACP2_v2rev%20FINAL.pdf accessed August 2003

(19) Library Research Service, Colorado State Library Well managed library media programs that cooperate with local public libraries linked to higher CSAP test scores. Fast facts: recent statistics from the Library Research Service (150) 1998 www.lrs.org/document/fastfacts/150LM2PL.PDF accessed August 2003

(20) Haycock, K qv Fitzgibbons, S

(21) ibid

(22) Buchhave, B On the occasion of children's culture to develop the institution and the professions in a public library World Library and Information Congress: 69th Ira general conference and council 1-9 August 2003 Berlin www.ifla.org/IV/ifla69/papers/002eBuchhave.pdf accessed August 2003

(23) Baxter, K and Haggberg, S Ladies who lunch School library journal 46(9) Sept 2000 p33

(24) Callison, D Expanding collaboration for literacy promotion in public and school libraries Journal of youth services in libraries 11(1) 1997 pp37-49

(25) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(26) Shannon, D Cooperation between school and public libraries: a study of one North Carolina county North Carolina libraries 49(2) 1991 p69

(27) Fourie, J Cooperation between schools and public libraries: meeting pupils' needs for information in independent learning South African journal of library and information science 64(4) December 1997 p215

(28) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(29) Del Vecchio qv Fourie, J op cit p207

(30) Fourie, J op cit p211

(31) Fenwick, S qv Bundy, A Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning op cit

(32) Mathews quoted in Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(33) Fourie, J op cit p214

(34) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(35) Fourie, J loc tit

(36) Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners www.mlin.lib.ma.us/mblc/publicadvisory/school_public/ps_lsta.shtml accessed August 2003

(37) Gardner Connor, J Children's library services handbook Phoenix, Oxy Press 1990 p15

(38) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(39) Garland qv Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(40) Razzano, qv Fourie, J op cit

(41) Fourie, J op cit

(42) Fitzgibbons, Sop tit

(43) Fourie, J op cit p211

(44) Gorman, S Public and school library cooperation home.nycap.rr.com/burdicklynn.cooperation.htm accessed August 2003

(45) Haycock, K in Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(46) Bundy, A Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning op cit

(47) Gorman, Sop cit

(48) South African national council for cooperation between public and school Libraries A way forward for cooperation between school and public libraries: draft national guidelines for the cooperation between school and public libraries in South Africa 66th Ifla council and general conference, Jerusalem, Israel, 13-18 August www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/papers/151-133e.htm accessed August 2003

(49) Bundy, A Essential connections: school curl public libraries for lifelong learning op cit

(50) ibid

(51) Czopek, V Extending public library resources into the classroom Emergency librarian 22(5) May/June 1995 p23

(52) Buchhave, B op cit p8

(53) Bundy, A Essential connections: school card public libraries for lifelong learning op cit

(54) Gorman, Sop cit

(55) Bundy, A Essential connections: school curl public libraries for lifelong learning op cit

(56) ibid

(57) Haycock, K Research in teacher-librarianship and the institutionalization of change Annual conference of the International Association of School Librarianship, Pittsburgh (ED 399 954) 1995

(58) Jones, P Library services to teenagers Seminar Ballina Public Library NSW

(59) Mathews 1999 qv Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(60) Fitzgibbons, Sop cit

(61) ibid

(62) Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners www.mlin.lib.ma.us/mblc/public_advisory/school_public /ps_nine_activities.shtml accessed August 2003

(63) Bush, M and Oehlke, V The public library's role in student success: a planning grant to determine best practices for Multnomah County Library, final report February 2002 www.cascadelink.org/ear/pslp accessed August 2003

(64) Alia Children's and Youth Services 2003 unpublished conclusions from Frameworking the future seminar Moreton Bay College, Brisbane, Queensland 2003

(65) Mathews 1999 quoted in Fitzgibbons, Sop cit

(66) Fitzgibbons, S op cit

(67) Matthews, V op cit

(68) Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners loc cit 

(69) Bush, M and Oehlke, V op cit

(70) Fitzgibbons, S loc cit

(71) ibid

(72) ibid

(73) ibid

(74) Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners loc cit

(75) ibid

(76) Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners loc cit

(77) Bush, M and Oehlke, V op cit

(78) Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners www.mlin.lib.ma.us/mblc/public_advisory/school_public/ps_policy.shtml accessed August 2003

(79) Kerns, B Providing the library advantage to disadvantaged students Arkansas libraries 48 (6-7) 1991 pp7-9

(80) Bush, M and Oehlke, V op cit

(81) Del Negro, J In unity, strength: school/library cooperation at the Chicago Public Library Illinois libraries 72(2) 1990 pp132-136

(82) Tice, M and Kennedy Bright, S Clasp-Connecting Libraries and school project.[online] New York Public libraries. www.nypl.org/branch/clasp/aasl.ppt Microsoft Powerpoint 97 accessed September 2003

(83) McKay, P and Baumgardner, J 1999 Teen read week sparks regional cooperation in metropolitan Richmond Virginia Polytechic Institute and State University scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/VALib/v45_n3/mckay1.html accessed September 2003

(84) Goldsmith, F Earphone English--an old standby (the audiobook) has become a hip tool for teaching teens a second language School library journal 5/01/2002 Reed Business Information slj.reviewnews.com/index/asp? layout=articleArchive&articleid=CA213882&pu blication=slj accessed September 2003

(85) Herb, S 2001 School media research. American Association of School Librarians. American Library Association. www.ericit.org/fulltext/IR544164.pdf accessed September 2003

(86) Think globally ... search locally--a strategic plan for the implementation of a multitype library system in Saskatchewan The Minister's Multitype Library Development Advisory Committee 1996 www.lib.sk.ca/staff/multitype/stratpln/strategies/html Saskatchewan Provincial Library accessed September 2003

(87) A declaration from the library and information community 2002 www.la-hp.org.uk/directory/prof_issues/declar.html The Library Association accessed September 2003

(88) School libraries: making a difference www.schoollibrariesadvocacy.org.uk accessed December 2003

(89) Empowering the learning community www.lifelonglearning.dfes.gov.uk/empower accessed December 2003

(90) re:source The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries Inspiring learning for all www.resource.gov.uk accessed December 2003

(91) Empowering the learning community op cit

(92) The Reading Agency www.readingagency.co.uk accessed December 2003

(93) Developing reading communities www.readingagency.co.uk/html/whatwedo03.cfm?loc=projectS&projectID=53 accessed December 2003

(94) Christensen, J Cooperation between the public library and the school library: differences and similarities between the public libraries and school libraries Resource sharing and information networks 7(1) 1991 pp115-120

(95) Buchhave, Bop cit p8

(96) Bundy, A Essential connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning op tit

(97) Fitzgibbons, Sop cit

(98) Drummond, M Bridging the gap--Trip and Yarra-Plenty Regional Library: establishing partnerships with schools FYI, Partnerships-public libraries 7(1) Summer 2003 pp9-12

(99) Sutherland, S and Kelly, P A flow of information along the Yarra FYI, Partnerships--public libraries 7(1) Summer 2003 pp26-28

(100) Boland, S Bumble.com pop fiction 2003 www.bumble.com.au accessed September 2003

(101) O'Leary, C and Boles, M The partnerships between a public and school library FYI, Partnerships--public libraries 7(1) Summer 2003 p9

(102) Bundy, A Progressing the partnership: school and public libraries for lifelong learning FYI, Partnerships--public libraries 7(1) Summer 2003 pp4-8

(103) Kelly, P Partners in learning--schools & public libraries An internet hotlist on school/public library partnerships www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listschoolpa.html accessed September 2003

(104) Cilip Start with the child: report of the Cilip working group on library provision for children and young people UK, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals 2002 p72

(105) Empowering the learning community op cit

(106) ibid

(107) Cilip op cit p 20

(108) ibid p 72

(109) Cilip loc cit

Anne Spelman is the consultant for young people's services at the State Library of Queensland. She manages the young people's collection for the Country Lending Service and offers advice, support and training for librarians throughout Queensland on issues affecting young people. Anne is convener of Alia Children's and Youth Services in Queensland. Email [e-mail]

Paula Kelly is the coordinator of Carlton Library and regional children's and youth services for Yarra-Melbourne Regional Library Corporation. She advocates for strategic partnerships across community and education sectors and has led her team in the development of innovative services and best practice for learning outcomes for young people. Paula is a member of the statewide advisory committee for youth projects convened by the Library Network Unit in Victoria. Email [e-mail]