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National broadband strategy

The LIS sector is a major stakeholder

The Australian library and information services (LIS) sector operates in the local, state, territory and federal government, school, TAFE, tertiary, research, health and business sectors. As a major player in Australia in delivering access to electronic information to the community, the sector is strategically placed to ensure that all Australians have fair and reasonable access to broadband and its benefits.

Library and information professionals have a great depth of expertise in providing access to electronic resources and services, building electronic resources content, and developing users' skills.

The national broadband strategy must include recognition of the huge demand and exponentially growing expectations in communities for assistance from public library staff in using electronic services, not only for government information, but for everyday living skills such as e-banking and email. A large part of this demand comes from people from lower socioeconomic levels, or from the unemployed, elderly and people with disabilities.

ALIA believes that with its high usage and knowledge of electronic information services and the significant number of public access points particularly in Australia's public libraries, the library and information services sector is a major stakeholder in the National Broadband Network implementation.

History of ALIA's involvement

The National Broadband Strategy Implementation Group (NBSIG) was established in 2003 to oversee the implementation of the national broadband strategy. The NBSIG was administered through the information economy section of the federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.

ALIA was represented on the NBSIG digital content working group by Dagmar Schmidmaier AM, at the time ALIA vice-president (president-elect).

ALIA's position on the working group arose initially from the forum held at ALIA House during Library and Information Week 2004 - Down and loaded: the right information at the right time.

The NBSIG established the digital content working group to examine three key sectors: cultural digital content (libraries, museums and beyond); government digital content (education, health and other services); and industry and broadband content (producers, distributors and technology).

In October 2005, ALIA, in collaboration with VICNET, a division of the State Library of Victoria, conducted a survey of public libraries to gain accurate data on the level of connectivity, broadband or otherwise, costs, and access to electronic information by both staff and registered users.