ABS Information paper 2007.0

Census of population and housing: ABS views on content and procedures 2006

Submission by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)

Susan Magnay
Australian Library and Information Association
Manager, planning policy
ph 02 6215 8225
PO Box 6335 Kingston 2604
susan.magnay@alia.org.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address)

30 June 2003

Question 1
The submission relates to a change to an existing topic

Question 2. Name of the topic
Main language other than English spoken at home/proficiency in spoken English.

Question 3. Define the topic and/or describe modifications you are proposing for the 2006 Census as precisely as possible
ALIA does not support the proposed change to the question on the main language other than English spoken at home. We do not support the proposal that the question output categories be reduced to only 'English' and 'Other' for the 2006 Census, with a more detailed set of response options asked every 10 years.

ALIA proposes that the more detailed question used in the 2001 Census should be maintained in the 2006 Census.

Question 4
Not applicable

Question 5a. For what specific purposes will the information from your proposed topic be used?
Data on languages spoken at home other than English are required at small area level and for small population groups for planning and delivery of public library services at the local government level and to meet the needs of local populations. Public libraries monitor the changes to their community language groups to plan for services including collections in community languages, collections for learning English, signage and translations of library information.

Benefits of this data include:

• Delivery of library services relevant and targeted to community needs.
• Efficiency and effectiveness in planning and delivery of public library services.

Some regions experience high levels of internal migration and therefore a gap of 10 years in the collection of this data would render the data much less useful than if the question is included in each Census.

Question 5b. What output from the census would be required to support the uses you have described?
The output required is data on languages spoken at home other than English, as for the 2001 Census.

Question 6. Are you aware of any classification changes that would be required?
Since we are proposing maintaining an existing question, rather than adding a new topic, we are not aware of any classification changes that would be required.

Question 7. How, and with what other topics, will the information provided from the proposed topic be cross-classified?
No comment

Question 8. At what geographical level do you require this information to be tabulated?
Collection district level and statistical local area level.

Question 9. Where information is available from other sources, indicate in what ways these sources are inadequate for your requirements.
While a question on the main language other than English spoken at home was included in the 2002 General Social Survey, since it is a sample survey it does not provide data at the statistical local area level.

Question 10. What would be the consequences for your organisation (or other users) if your submission is not successful?
If our submission is not successful the quality and timeliness of data available at small area level on languages other than English spoken at home will be reduced.

The consequences of this for public library services would be reduced ability to plan and deliver library collections and services in community languages to meet changing needs of their user communities.