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National Standards and Guidelines for Public Libraries
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In November 2009 the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Public Library Associations commissioned Libraries Alive! to examine the feasibility
of developing national standards and guidelines for Australian public libraries.
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Not since 1990 when ALIA published Towards a Quality Service: goals, objectives and standards for public libraries in Australia, has there been a single document to guide public library development at a national level.
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Libraries Alive! already produces the NSW standards and guidelines (Living Learning Libraries, 2nd ed., 2009) and the new project seeks to make a flying start
by extending the evidence-based methodology from the state to the national arena.
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Working closely with National and State Libraries Australasia (NSLA), the collator and reporter of national-level statistics, the project will identify relevant state
and territory datasets to determine whether it is practicable to derive standards and guidelines which are applicable in all
jurisdictions. Prior work, case studies and other material documenting best practice service provision will also be referenced.
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The aim of the project is to support the work of Australia’s 1600 public libraries in bringing information, recreation and
lifelong learning opportunities to all Australians.
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If you are interested in more information, please contact us on 02 6257 9177 or
mailto:email us
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Resources
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An environmental scan of the public library environment, 'Features in the library landscape',
is presented in the Introduction to Living Learning Libraries. The NSW guidelines drew on guidelines developed in other states of Australia and on some overseas work; a select list of relevant standards and background research (to mid-2009) is given in the bibliography.
We would be grateful if stakeholders could advise us of other material relevant to the national guidelines.
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A list of public standards and guidelines is also accessible from the ALIA public libraries webpage.
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Progress reports | |
1 September. Spring blossoms! The exposure draft of Standards and guidelines
for Australian public libraries was completed and sent to ALIA/PLAC at the end of August. Former National President Jan
Richards will be telling the good news to the ALIA Access Conference which opens in Brisbane today. This latest, 61-page
version with 12 standards and 20 guidelines is now open for comment until 17th September. Once these comments have been
incorporated the first edition will be considered complete and will be published by ALIA. Thanks to all who have helped us in what has been a major
undertaking, and especially John Murrell at West Gippsland Regional Library (Vic.), Russell Varney at the State Library of
Queensland and Leona Jennings at Gold Coast City Libraries (Qld).
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29 June. The comprehensive draft version of the national standards and guidelines for public libraries was today sent to the Reference Group
for comment prior to release as a public discussion document. The draft contains 11 standard targets at base and enhanced levels. These are:
members as a percentage of population; library expenditure per capita; visits per capita; staff ratio for catchment population;
qualified staff for catchment population; library materials expenditure per capita; items per capita in collection; collection age;
stock turnover; provision of Internet computers; and satisfaction with library services. Guidelines cover library buildings, staff,
opening hours, collection management, information technology, information services, ILL, programs, customer service, marketing, mobile
libraries, local studies, literacy, services for Indigenous Australians, services for culturally diverse communities, services for
people with disability, services for young people, services for older people, and home library services. The draft standards and
guidelines will be discussed by ALIA and the Public Library Associations meeting at Albury on 13 July.
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16 June. Early in May we were part of an ALIA/Public Library Associations teleconference to provide an update
on the project. On 24 May, also by teleconference, we participated in a lively discussion with the Queensland Public Libraries Standards
Committee, focusing on the differing purposes of state and national standards and guidelines. Last week we received the 2009 NSLA figures
(minus Tasmania who have yet to report) and their receipt has triggered a further refinement of our methodology. We are now experimenting with a
working hypothesis which accepts the 2009 NSLA averages as the base targets, and sets the enhanced targets as the average of the three best
performing states/territories. In this way we can retain a strong evidence-based approach to base targets, provide ‘aspirational’ targets
which are also evidence-based, and still preserve a simple update capability triggered by the release of successive annual NSLA statistics.
We are now drafting the standards and guidelines first for the Reference Group, and subsequently for presentation and discussion at the Public
Libraries Conference in Albury on 13 July.
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21 April. A discussion paper on the rationale for determining Baseline and Enhanced targets for standards has been
produced for comment by the Reference Group. The main issue is whether to work with the NSLA reported averages, or to calculate medians from an
already-aggregated data set. Russell Varney from the State Library of Queensland has, with permission, supplied a comprehensive spreadsheet of NSLA data
from 2004/05 through to 2008/09. At this stage in the project we believe we have established a prima facie case for the feasibility of producing national
standards and guidelines for Australian public libraries – and we have almost all the data we need. Thanks to all involved.
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14 April. Following the February meeting in Melbourne between ALIA and the Public Library Associations a Reference Group
was established to provide oversight for the project. Members are Leona Jennings (Gold Coast City, Qld), Sheena Joyce (City of Swan, WA), John Murrell
(West Gippsland Regional Library, Vic) and Janice Nitschke (Wattle Range, SA).
All States and Territories have now been contacted and granted approval for the use of their 2008/09 data as reported to NSLA as the evidence base for the
first cut of the draft Standards and Guidelines.
The State Library of NSW has generously given permission to use elements of the content, format and layout of the NSW standards for the national project.
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Sherrey & Ian
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