Introduction to Living Learning Libraries
Scope and purpose of the standards and guidelines
Living Learning Libraries: standards and guidelines for NSW public libraries is an evidence-based guide to the development of library services in NSW.
Written in two parts, it provides a practical basis for comparison among library services, as well as a framework for service assessment and continuous improvement. It is intended to encourage best practice in service delivery not by presenting theoretical targets, but by highlighting what standards are already achieved by leading libraries.
Commissioned by the State Library on behalf of the New South Wales Public Library Network Research Committee, these standards and guidelines are intended to assist public libraries and Councils to:
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Evaluate current services
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Set targets for improvement
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Develop continuous improvement in library service delivery, and
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Plan for future needs.
Public libraries in New South Wales are operated by Local Government Authorities (LGAs) or Councils in accordance with the Library Act 1939 and the Library Regulation 2005.The Act mandates the fundamental principle for public library services in NSW which is free and equitable access to information.
The Act sets out those core library services that must be offered free of charge, defines the relationship between Local Government and the State Government with regard to public library services, and articulates the State Government funding process.
This document underlines the key role of the Library Council of New South Wales and the State Library within the Public Library Network in providing leadership, coordination and support to promote high quality library services to all NSW citizens regardless of age, location, cultural background, disability or educational attainment.
Whilst Living Learning Libraries draws on recent work on standards and guidelines from Australia, the US and the UK, it is firmly grounded in contemporary practice as recorded annually in Public Library Statistics.
ABS 2006 Census data has been used throughout.
Living Learning Libraries complements other existing guidelines.
Update cycle
The quantitative targets expressed in the Standards section of Living Learning Libraries will be updated each year using the latest version of Public Library Statistics. This process will ensure that the evidence base remains current.The Guidelines section will be reviewed after three years, and then updated on a five-year cycle.
How to use this document
Living Learning Libraries contains performance measures to facilitate comparison among library services, and targets to assist in the development of library services.These measures are presented as Standards and Guidelines.
For the purposes of this document the following definitions are used:
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Standards: quality levels and goals for attainment
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Guidelines: a set of principles for developing levels of performance which lead to quality library services.
This document also contains strategies from library practitioners for tailoring services to the needs of local communities based on such factors as age, disability, socioeconomic status, cultural diversity and affordability.
Living Learning Libraries is not intended as a ‘one size fits all’ procedure manual, nor as a substitute for the experience and judgement of public library managers. Instead, the standards and guidelines need to be tempered in their application by the exigencies and possibilities of local conditions.
Part A presents standards with objectives. Targets are given where appropriate, along with measurement techniques.Part B presents a set of principles and practices for areas of library service provision and offers guidelines and checklists.This checklist approach, often adopted for library standards, is similar to that used in the statistical compilation tables in People Places, for which Living Learning Libraries is intended as a companion volume.
Additional information may be found in a glossary, bibliography and index.
Print format
Living Learning Libraries is also available in pdf format for you to download and print.
Living Learning Libraries 2008 version (PDF 410KB)Background
ALIA’s Towards a Quality Service: goals, objectives and standards for public libraries in Australia was published in 1990 and reprinted in 1994, and with the exception of some state initiatives, notably in Queensland, there have been few Australian publications to guide public library development since Much has changed since 1990.Like the Internet . . .
In February 2008 the State Library, on behalf of the NSW Public Library Research Committee,commissioned Libraries Alive! Pty Ltd to develop up-to-date standards and guidelines for NSW public libraries in conjunction with the NSW Public Library Network.From the outset, the Committee determined that the work should be evidence-based and grounded in NSW library practice reflected and reported annually in Public Library Statistics.
Initial work focused on a survey of Australian and overseas standards and guidelines, and on demographic and statistical factors relevant to the development of library services in NSW. Draft standards and guidelines were duly developed and endorsed by the Research Committee, comments were sought from the NSW Public Library Network, considered by the Committee, and incorporated.
The demographic, library and prior work contexts are summarised below.
NSW statistical snapshot – underlying demographic factors
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The population is ageing and growing slowly.
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The demography of Sydney is different from the rest of the State.
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In general, population densities decline steadily as one moves West and inland from the coast.This has implications for sustaining current numbers of service points and for continuing to operate at current levels with either a static or declining rate base. Local councils in these areas will be particularly vulnerable to the effects of inflation on salaries and materials.Current mobile and home library services are likely to come under strong pressure.
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Regions within the rest of the State are more similar to each other than they are to Sydney i.e. the proportion of older to younger people is increasing, and this brings with it a need to focus on services for older people.
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Sydney – as the most popular destination for intrastate and overseas immigrants – will continue to have the greatest proportion of young people. Services to multiple age groups, often in many community languages, will continue to be important.Sydney’s Councils will benefit from a steadily increasing rate base, giving them greater options for service evolution than their non-metropolitan counterparts.
Features in the library landscape
The literature survey revealed that many of the short- and medium- term trends impacting public library service delivery are already apparent.
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Lending books and related physical objects will continue to be core business for the foreseeable future.
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Public library provision of community spaces will continue to be core business for the foreseeable future.
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Notwithstanding the first two points, the provision of technology, especially connection to the Internet , will continue to be core business.
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The vast majority of public libraries will offer 24/7 access to their catalogues and digitised holdings through their websites.
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There will be accelerated uptake of Web 2.0 and successor technology for customer interaction and content creation.Library patrons will continue to expect access to resources managed by public libraries, with increasing emphasis on digital materials delivered to the desktop at a time that suits the consumer rather than the provider.
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All tiers of government will continue making information and services available only through a Web interface, and public libraries will be the nominated agencies for access provision for those who would not otherwise have it.
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Conversely, members of the community, already accustomed to using electronic commerce systems for banking, paying government fees and charges, and submitting information to government, will increasingly demand that government information be delivered electronically, be easy to find, and be stable and consistent.
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Computer familiarity will become ubiquitous – a development hastened by the astonishingly rapid cost reductions of new hardware and the fast take-up rate of new, especially networking software.
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As more and more digital information from commercial sources becomes available (at a cost), there will be increasing community demand for free public access to information and research produced by governments and other publicly funded organisations.
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For libraries, there will be increasing emphasis on digitising collections, creating digital archives and repositories, and improving methods of search and delivery. There may well be community pressure for funding, particularly for digitising projects with a local studies flavour.
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Open access research publishing will mean more material accessible to Web search engines managed by companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft.
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Library staff will be dealing with an increasingly sophisticated (Google aware) clientele. Staff will therefore need to be increasingly skilled in helping patrons find what they want, better trained in treating patrons the way they wish to be treated, and in contemporary information and communications technology (ICT).
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Library performance management and reporting will become increasingly sophisticated, with benchmarking practised universally.
Recognition of prior work
This draft set of standards and guidelines is based on information derived from NSW public library statistics and on previous work on library standards in Australia and overseas. The main sources consulted in deriving the standards and guidelines were:
Towards a quality service: goals, objectives and standards for public libraries in Australia. Australian Library and Information Association, 1990, reprinted 1994
Guidelines and standards for Queensland public libraries
The Queensland guidelines are a recent and very comprehensive Australian resource. They have built on the now dated ALIA publication Towards a quality service: goals, objectives and standards for public libraries in Australia but go further, in that they provide explicit guidance on baseline performance standards.
Public library service standards. UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, December 2007
The UK standards document focuses on performance measurement methodology, and has been a useful source of performance measures and for discussion of the many issues associated with performance calculations.
Wisconsin Public Library Standards, 4th edition. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, November 2005
The Wisconsin standards are a comprehensive planning resource, which includes a checklist approach to assist managers assess performance.
