Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Libraries (2012) Tomorrow's Library: Discussion Paper. State Government of Victoria.

This is certainly the odd one out of the 3 articles. The style is not academic and the few supporting statistics and references are both aging and sketchy. Five to seven years is the average age of the quotes and statistics provided as thought-provokers, when considered in the light of the 2.5 year cut off given for “items considered obsolete” and the general rate of technology development, seems somewhat dated. However, this is the first stage of the “landmark” (p. 2 para. 3) library review project: the brochure-styling being designed to capture the audience’s attention with the intention of acquiring input from this group of stakeholders – the practitioners. In a sense, this article is from a stage prior to that of the Lewis article, which was written after a forum in which the practitioners had their say about the challenges and priorities they see as important in their jobs. This article invites industry participation in the “forum” of the Ministerial Advisory Committee’s (MAC) initial stage of the “Tomorrow’s Library” project, and one might expect a literature analysis and report similar to the Lewis article to ensue.*

IT is mentioned in 3 sections of the article, but possibly surprisingly, more IT-related issues are raised in the “Service Delivery” section than in the “Technology” section. Only brief mention is made in the “Library Buildings” section (p. 6) about IT, in its broader sense of incorporating IT infrastructure into building design. Is there a danger here that buildings themselves could suffer obsolescence when built especially to house technology? The suggestion by Carr (in Stewart, 2003, p. 17) is, “the more tightly an advantage is tied to the technology, the more transient it will be.” The MAC seem to have covertly recognised that the main issues with IT are not with the physical technology but with the services associated with it – the people-power it requires. This section also gives the impression that more input is forthcoming, which one hopes will include some empirical data.

The “Technology” section (p. 8) contains some comment on the plethora of technological opportunities available to enhance library services, however this section is where the MAC really seems to need the most input from practitioners and literature analysis. As Tapscott (as cited in Kennan, 2014, para. 6) said in 1996: “For individuals, organizations, and societies that fall behind, punishment is swift”. The bent of the discussion here is really focussed on the implications of rapidly developing technology for an increase in community expectations. This discussion is continued in the next section, “Service delivery” (p. 10). In this section the authors really identify the problems facing 21^st century libraries: that increasingly, libraries are expected to “bridge the gap” in educating people about these technologies – a “challenge” when staff are aging and retiring and new recruits to the industry are fewer. The difficulty, says the paper, is in “attracting qualified and experienced staff” (p. 10, para. 4). There are some large issues at play here, much broader than the scope of the article, which seeks input from the front lines. It would suggest that what is needed (another common thread through the three articles) is more empirical (rather than purely anecdotal) research that is up-to-date with what is happening (now, not 5 years ago) in libraries, and in particular, what works and what doesn’t: where, when and why.

References:

Kennan, M A. (2014) The Digital Environment - IT fundamentals: Introduction [INF405 Module 1.1]. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from Charles Sturt University website: http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/INF405_201460_W_D/page/36481ada-3d37-46d3-806b-cf8fde1c1fda 

Lewis, D., Hodge, N., Gamage, D & Whittaker, M. (2011) Understanding the role of technology in health information systems. Working Paper Series 17. University of Queensland. Retrieved from http://www.uq.edu.au/hishub/wp17/

Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Libraries (2012) Review of Victorian Public Libraries Stage 1 Report. State Government of Victoria. Retrieved from http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/localgovernment/public-libraries/tomorrows-library-stage-1-and-2

Ministerial Advisory Council on Public Libraries (2012) Tomorrow's Library: Discussion Paper. State Government of Victoria. Retrieved from http://www.plvn.net.au/sites/default/files/TLTD002_Tomorrow's Library Discussion Paper final web.pdf

Stewart, T. A. (ed) (2003) Does IT matter? An HBR debate. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from http://www.johnseelybrown.com/Web_Letters.pdf