If you had one sentence to describe to government and funding bodies what our public libraries do, what would you say?
The document
The Australian Library and Information Association is leading the formulation of a unified vision on Australia’s public libraries. This vision statement will guide a future framework. It will be used in lobbying government to help them understand the importance and mission of libraries. The vision, rationale, priority areas and questions are outlined in Developing a vision and national framework for Australian Public Libraries .
Feedback on the statement is sought until 11 December 2009. Feedback to: Jane Hardy ALIA Assistant Director: Strategy & Advocacy 02 6215 8235 advocacy@alia.org.au.
Priority areas
The areas to bring to government attention are identified as:
- Social inclusion and community engagement
- Children, early learning and a literate Australia
- Encouraging the digital economy and digital citizenship
- Health and aging.
I would add to the list something about recreation, fun and joy. This permeates the four areas, but I would list it separately. Yes, being happy makes one healthier and encourages engagement. Programs like wii gaming, or Santa in the library, or a sing-along for the elderly can be framed as having high “worthiness”, but they also have a very high fun index. I think this sometimes needs to be foregrounded in our funding requests – some of our activities are just straight out fun, and this is worthy in itself.
Any lobbying effort about the value of libraries should be coupled with sensible indicators of Return On Investment. I don’t mean stats about numbers of issues or number of legs that come through our doors or number of programs. Too often we give these easy to count numbers to our funding bodies as though they relayed our entire value. I think it is essential that we articulate what our aims are in the four identified areas and how we will measure them. I don’t mean research into what we are doing now (as mentioned in the document), but where we aim to be and how we will know when we get there.
The vision statement
All elements of the vision statement are well justified in the document, and I can see why all elements are included. The point is made in the document that “It is a lengthy statement. Is there an opportunity to shorten it?”. Yes, I think it should be shorter. Too many words, too much like any other government document, too easily ignored and not understood at first reading. Here is the statement
Australia’s public libraries, united behind common goals and ambitions, sharing best practice, contributing to strong communities, valued by people and government, continuing to provide universal free access to information, knowledge and ideas, and confirming the importance of their role for future generations.
Cutting a few words for brevity, rather than precision, can bring it down to:
Australia’s public libraries united by common goals and valued by citizens and government as they continue to strengthen communities by providing free and professional access to information, knowledge and ideas.
Trying to get shorter and punchier, although not so comprehensive, comes down to the vision below. It focuses on clarifying what we do. How we do it and who cares is not added in the vision, and I am not sure it needs to be:
Australia’s public libraries united as we strengthen our communities through free access to information, knowledge and ideas.
What do you think? Too bland?
You make some good points. “Fun and joy” while meaningful and important to staff working in the delivery of sessions (and meeting worthy goals relating to community engagement and literacy). The terms aren’t political speak and pushes no buttons with politicans – as much as we would like them to be 🙂
If we (the profession), want to be taken seriously by politicans we need, and must speak the language to demonstrate how we are achieving their priorities for the nation. Free access to knowledge, information and ideas – while worthy and is what we do, it doesn’t explain the significance of the role public libraries have within a community and peoples lives.
You’re right Helen.
I think we have to find a middle ground between speaking plainly and speaking in political language.
While the vision in the document is validly about libraries, I think that the only bit that is specific to public libraries is “free access to knowledge, information and ideas”. If you look at the rest of the vision and substitute in “Australia’s churches” or “Community Football” or “St John’s Ambulance Volunteers”, then all the points would be just as applicable.
I’m concerned that without specifically talking about what we do that is different from other community facilities, the vision just says “we can play nicely together and you should value us”… which is not terribly concrete. I think the focus should be on *what exactly* is in it for the people making the decisions. Every institution that wants funding will promise best practice and say that it should be valued.