Helen Hayes

1998 ALIA vice-presidential candidate

Critical issues facing the library and information sector?

Libraries now operate in a highly-competitive environment, where customers move around to find the services and products that they want. There is less respect for the past and organisations are competing for new and innovative ways of adding value to products and services to maintain and increase their user base. Education is changing to greater self-directed learning. Technology is creating opportunities that could not have been imagined before and entrepreneurship is a necessary skill in the nineties. All libraries must embrace new technologies, continuous improvement philosophies and have a capacity to change and redesign services to meet the needs of users. Greater accountability including measures of performance is a key element in systems management thinking and a planning culture is essential for delivering on customer expectations. Skills need to be continually updated to meet the challenges ahead. Demarcation lines are becoming blurred within library management structures and between libraries and information providers. Those organisations that look for opportunity, use creative energy and are able to move resources to high priority, high impact areas, will be successful.

What effects do you consider wholesale changes in service delivery philosophy and policy might have for the sector?

While libraries have generally been well-managed and have excellent service delivery philosophy, the sector will be under increasing pressure as a result of competition privatisation and contracting out. This will require that librarians have well honed management tools for achieving optimal efficiency and effectiveness. A high level of accountability will require that librarians use benchmarks and other performance measures to convince senior executives and decision makers that quality outcomes are being achieved without resource wastage. Pressure to reduce costs will mean that services will be provided on evidence of need and benefit to the community.

User-pays strategies will need to be openly debated in line with pressures to reduce costs. There will be greater acceptance of user-pays and subsidisation strategies and it will be important to articulate organisational values in this context as they relate to issues such as freedom of information, equity, and cultural diversity. Good human resource management practices will be required as libraries need to find new ways of recognising and rewarding staff. Librarians will also need good networks and a high level of community support, the development of key alliances, strong market focus and effective communication strategies.

Key outcomes from the ACLIS/ALIA merger?

A strong and effective organisation providing leadership to the library and information industry in professional and organisational issues. The aims of the organisation will be clearly understood and the goals will be aligned to the needs of the industry. The organisation will be able to act quickly, form strategic alliances and operate within a collaborative and co-operative framework involving other key bodies including single sector industry bodies to enhance and extend services to its members. Its role will include effective advocacy to government, representing and raising the profile of the industry to the community, anticipating the needs of the profession into the next century and assisting members to operate effectively in a rapidly-changing environment.

Vision for the library and information sector?

Libraries will operate more effectively in an environment where the market is clearly understood and services will be aligned to the particular client needs of that community. Libraries will develop new roles taking advantage of opportunities to add significant value to the information environment using the skills of librarians to organise knowledge, package information and provide client centred services. Libraries will not only be a source of information content and access to the knowledge economy, they will promote cultural awareness, creative growth and personal fulfilment for an increasingly diverse and discerning user community. Opportunities for libraries to work co-operatively across all sectors will increase and strategic alliances will develop between these and other cultural institutions.

As lifelong learning and self learning philosophies continue to thrive, libraries will be recognised as an essential element in the learning process.

To enable new strategic partnerships to develop the Association will need to support a climate of communication and common purpose across sectors. The Association will need to lead from the front identifying and developing programs which meet the current and future needs of the sector such as legal and regulatory issues, training needs, management issues and national resource sharing programs including document delivery and collection strategies.