Prese

1. A message from libraries: we need
you!
Roxanne Missingham
Parliament of Australia Librarian – shortly to be
University Librarian, ANU
Past president, ALIA

5. Over 50% of the world’s population is under
30
Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1
activity on the Web
Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic
If Facebook were a country it would be the
world’s 3rd largest
80% of companies use social media for
recruitment;

6. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:
 Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years),
 Internet (4 Years),
 iPod (3 Years)…
 Facebook added 100 million users in less than
9 months…
 iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.

7. And next......
 Consumer electronics set the trends
◦ i-pads/androids
◦ E-books
◦ Games
 Old school
◦ Email
 The cloud?

9. What is a library in this new world?
1. Users everywhere online
2. Many channels
3. Many diverse offerings
4. Competition for time and as
information access services
5. So what are libraries doing?

10. New Solutions: Collect and reveal

11. New Solutions: Digitise

13. New Solutions: Collaborate

17. Contributing to a digital democracy

18. Digtial democracy
Australian Labour Party
Liberal Party/National Party
Coalition
Australian Greens
Other minor parties and
independents
15.8% of Senators and Members are on Twitter

23. ALIA : linking people with ideas
 Professional association for workers,
students and others
 Key areas of work
◦ Education & professional development
◦ Advocacy (e.g. copyright)
◦ Activities – events, group opportunities
◦ Research including a research fund
◦ Awards
◦ Financial management & governance

24. ALIA : linking people with ideas
 Contacts
 Networks
 Employment – helping your career
 Attend all the event you can!
 Awards – student awards

26. Online
 23 million Australians
 12 million public library users
 Public libraries have 4,638 Internet
workstations for Australians to use

27. Employment
 Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006
census:
 Library workforce is
◦ 10,085 librarians;
◦ 6,510 library technicians; and
◦ 8,254 library technicians

28. Employment
 Librarians are older than the average age
for Australian occupations:
◦ 65% are 45 or older (compared to 36% of the
average total workforce);
◦ 88% are 35 or older (compared to 58% of the
total workforce)
◦ Only 12% are under 35 (compared to 42% of
the total workforce)

29. Inquiry into school libraries and
teacher librarians

30.  29 per cent of schools in general (and 54 per cent
of government schools) have an annual budget of
less than $5 000 to provide curriculum support,
reading materials and electronic resources.
 According to the Children’s Book Council of
Australia (CBCA), many school libraries receive
budgets below 1975 levels. (in 2010) the average
school library budget of respondent schools today
equates to just $25 per child.

31.  A vicious cycle has resulted from under-
resourcing school libraries and having insufficient
numbers of appropriately qualified staff in them,
leading to a poorer quality service, which reduces
the demand for teacher librarians ...
 The Committee has been struck by the breadth
of anecdotal evidence that it received
demonstrating the significant contribution to
learning outcomes in primary and secondary
schools that a fully resourced school library,
when staffed by a fully qualified and active teacher
librarian, can make.

32. Recommendations

33. Literacy
 Over 6 million Australian adults (47%)
don't have adequate literacy skills to cope
with the demands of everyday life and
work (level 1/2).
 Only 17% of adult Australians had literacy
skills at levels 4/5.
 ABS 1996

35. Where to from here?