(c.) Possible strategies which would enhance the wider use and distribution of information resources held by libraries, including the establishment of library networks, improved online access in libraries, online libraries, and greater public knowledge and skill in using library resources; and
(e.) The roles of various levels of government, the corporate sector and libraries themselves in ensuring the most effective use of libraries as a primary public information resource in the online environment
Connecting Australians
Australia's library and information services sector is a dynamic and innovative participant in the information industry. The sector strives for equitable access to information for the Australian community within the context of their work, leisure, educational and cultural pursuits, and to ensure that Australians have the skills to access and utilise this information.
The Australian people look to the federal government to provide leadership in upholding their democratic right to equitable access to information and establishing the key role of information in our society and for our economy. The Australian Library and Information Association believes that this can be achieved through federal government policy directions that:
- Deliver programs to enable:
- Citizens to fully participate in the democratic process to create an economic and social environment where Australians can enjoy the best quality of life and standard of living;
- Communities, individuals and business to access information unconstrained by costs, restrictions, or communications infrastructure;
- Individuals to access, evaluate and use information efficiently and effectively, that is, to be information literate;
- Gain commitment from state, territory and local governments to support federal and industry initiatives;
- Engender a knowledge culture within Australian society.
An investment by the federal government in the library and information services sector is an investment in Australia's social, cultural, economic and knowledge future.
Connecting Australians comprises the following proposals by the Association for adoption by the federal government.
Bridging the information divide in Australia's communities
An issue close to many Australians is the so-called 'digital divide'. This has been seen as particularly relevant to rural Australians. However, evidence suggests that many Australians who live in urban areas are also struggling to access quality, up-to-date information, often as a result of inadequate funding of public institutions such as libraries to provide facilities and training. ALIA recommends that this be included in the terms of reference for the review of Networking the Nation.
Most communities have access to a public library, and these libraries have high levels of use by those sectors of the community who would generally not have the financial resources or skills to access electronic information resources. Australia's public library network is ideally placed to help to bridge the information divide, both in rural and urban areas.
The Bridging the information divide in Australia's communities program would offer specific grant funding to establish the public library as the focal community access point for publicly available electronic information and government interactive electronic resources, and school grants to support ICT and access to online databases and resources. In addition to funding for ICT there would be funding for a national information skills and literacy public education and training program centred in Australia's public libraries. ALIA and other relevant bodies would steer the program. State and local governments would take responsibility for physical space, telecommunications costs and staffing support.
School libraries utilise the internet to aid the delivery of information services to the whole school community. Sharing arrangements between school libraries and public libraries should be encouraged and supported.
An important corollary to this program would be government initiatives for improving the telecommunications infrastructure including equitable pricing of services, and reliable connections with adequate bandwidth.
A further initiative proposed is to extend the Corporate Citizenship Arrangements (NOIE) program to include a partnership with government arrangement to:
- Set up a register where ICT companies planning to undertake CCA could register their willingness to participate in a community project in partnership with libraries, education, community or not-for-profit organisations; and
- Provide an application based funding resource to support the information literacy and skills component of the partnership proposal to be delivered by organisations such as libraries that would not have the financial resources within their budgetary provisions.
Investing in information for a better society
An investment in information is an investment in knowledge, learning, research and business for Australia's future growth. It is timely to move beyond technology and connectivity to realising the value of information to our communities, business, and individuals.
The Investing in information program has six components.
Information skills training, including responsible use of the internet
More and more Australians are becoming computer literate. Many of these are not sufficiently information literate and with the creation of information and use of electronic information resources increasing the need for information skills training has never been more critical. Information literacy skills give individuals the capability to recognise a need for information and access, evaluate and use that information efficiently and effectively. Training in responsible use of the internet is a socially responsible approach to enabling users to enjoy positive internet experiences. Investing in information would design and develop both online interactive and face-to-face user training programs and training for library and information professionals to deliver these programs within their educational, research, government and business communities. Better information creation and use will ensure that Australia is not only competitive but takes a leading role in the global information and knowledge economies.
Consortia support
Support for consortium and other network formation would greatly assist state or institute based research centre libraries to achieve some economy of scale in addressing the many issues around online resources.
In Australia, the university libraries combine under the auspices of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). In the UK, bodies such as the Joint Information Systems Steering Committee fulfil this role. The USA has the Association of Research Libraries and the National Library of Medicine's National Network of Libraries. The Canadian health librarians have a proposal to form a National Network of Libraries for Health. There is no equivalent peak body supporting the interests of the dispersed research library sector.
A national network could assist with:
- Support for systems of authentication and authorisation to online resources;
- Coordination of national resource sharing purchases;
- Coordination of consortium arrangements; and
- Input into national online information policy.
Valuing Australian content
Government departments and agencies play an important role in producing Australian online content. This work to develop and offer significant text, image and bibliographic databases benefits government, research, education, business and the wider community in Australia and contributes to international scholarly communication.
Examples of the many subject specialist databases, produced by Federal government agencies include:
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ANRO: Australian agriculture and natural resources online, is supported by a consortium of 24 organisations with interests in rural and natural resources research. Its databases include Streamline, ABOA and ARRIP, a research in progress database
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Australian Federal Police Digest, produced by the Australian Federal Police Library
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AGIS: Attorney General's Information Service, produced by the Lionel Murphy Library, Attorney General's Department
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AIATSIS Indigenous Studies Bibliography, produced by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies Library
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CINCH: Australian criminology database, produced by the J. V. Barry Library, Australian Institute of Criminology
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MAIS: Multicultural Australia and Immigration Studies, produced by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Library
The federal government has a role in ensuring that resources are allocated to maintain the currency and comprehensiveness of these databases as part of the national record.
Independent review
It is widely understood that Australians value libraries highly. However, there is no reliable current national data on how the Australian public use and access public library and information resources. Nor is there a nationally endorsed commitment in place to the future role public libraries can take in positioning Australia as a leader in the provision of publicly accessible quality information services.
An independent review of public access to resources and information services through public libraries is proposed. The review would confirm the importance of public library services to the Australian public and inform governments and the community in determining the best utilisation of public libraries as a public resource. A national set of data on the use and value of library services would assist strategic policy development and create a better understanding of the funding requirements for library and information resources. A policy priority would be to establish an infrastructure with agreed basic standards in place to improve community access to information technology facilities and service and to provide the community with low-cost high-value access to online facilities, information, training and support. The terms of reference should include an investigation of quality programs in other countries such as Canada, USA and the UK that may be of benefit to Australia.
Improved data collection
The availability of current data could be improved by:
- The provision of recurrent funding for the percentage and number of internet access points in Australian public libraries, the number of libraries connected, their telecommunications and connectivity capabilities, levels of use and use purpose, a breakdown of funding sources, the extent and nature of training, level of use of blocking technologies, and the level of use of linguistic and disabilities access enhancements to be included in national statistical collection on internet use;
- Funding support for a six monthly electronic survey conducted by the National Office of the Information Economy
Copyright in the digital environment
Each year libraries provide a range of services to millions of researchers, students and members of the public. These services are performed in conformity with copyright law. Librarians are aware of the advances in digital technology and wish to take advantage of the efficiency which digital technology offers to their information services. They are equally aware that digital technology poses a threat to copyright protection and are sympathetic to the needs of copyright holders.
Copyright protection should encourage, not inhibit use and creativity. Copyright law should not give rights holders the power to use technological or contractual measures to override the exceptions and limitations to copyright and distort the balance set in international and domestic copyright law.
It is in the public interest to have access to information in all formats. And it is the public duty of libraries to provide access to copyright material.
While the library community strongly supports the exceptions granted under copyright law, there are some areas where different procedures and policies need to be changed or developed. Of particular interest to ALIA's members are the following:
- Definition of a work
The Copyright Act protects original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, (published and unpublished) sound recordings, a/v broadcasts and published collections of works. Literary work is defined in the Act as including tables, compilations and computer programs.
Many attributes are not defined in the Act but by case-by-case interpretation in common law. The general principle is that the work requires originality and skill. The work is also supposed to be substantial.
There are many grey areas. It is probably wise to leave much undefined legislatively, so that competing parties can argue individual cases. In this way, protection for computer programs was developed to the satisfaction of the industry with sufficient clarity for legislative definition.
The threshold for originality should be raised. The federal government should legislate to overturn the decision in Desktop Marketing v Telstra [2002], which found that the white pages and yellow pages were 'original works.'
- Fair dealing
The rights of copyright owners are not entirely unrestricted, but are subject to considerations of what is fair and reasonable use of material. The Act allows certain use of works and other subject matter without the need to get permission from the owner of copyright. A broad, single defence of fair use should be introduced, as recommended by the Copyright Law Review Committee (CLRC) in its report on the simplification of the Copyright Act.
- Library provisions
There are approximately two hundred and fifty libraries attached to 'for profit' organisations in Australia. These libraries have been relying on the library copying exceptions to deliver research and information services to the business, research and scientific community and to share their specialist collections with the wider community.
The Copyright Law Review Committee (CLRC) recommended in its report on the Simplification of the Copyright Act that all libraries should have access to the exemptions, and states that the benefits to copyright owners of isolating libraries in the 'for profit' sector would not be significant.
- Use of technological devices
National copyright laws should aim for a balance between the rights of copyright owners to protect their interests through technical means and the rights of users to circumvent such measures for legitimate, non-infringing purposes. The exemptions for users in relation to technological users should be expanded to include fair use.
- Safe harbours
Although, libraries as intermediaries have an important role to play in ensuring compliance with copyright law, liability should ultimately rest with the infringer. Copyright law should enunciate clear limitations on liability of third parties in circumstances where compliance cannot practically or reasonably be enforced.
- Compulsory licenses and collecting societies
Copying licences allow organisations access to vital information while at the same time helping them to fulfill their legal copyright requirements.
The IPCR advised that copyright-collecting societies should be subjected to greater scrutiny. It also made a number of recommendations relating to collecting societies and the operation of the Trade Practices Act in relation to intellectual property.
They argued that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) should be accorded a greater role in overseeing the role of copyright collecting societies, and monitoring contracts and license agreements dealing with the exploitation of copyright material.
The codes of conduct for collecting societies provide insufficient protection for copyright users.
- Contract verses copyright
Copyright protection should encourage, not inhibit, use and creativity. Copyright law should not give rights holders the power to use technological or contractual measures to override the exceptions and limitations to copyright and distort the balance set in international and domestic copyright legislation. Licensing agreements should complement copyright legislation, not replace it.
ALIA believes that nothing in a licence or contract should be able to extinguish fair dealing uses or limit the rights of libraries under the Copyright Act.
- Right of first digitisation
The Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act presumes that there is a fundamental difference between the print world and the online world. It offers recognition of a 'right of first digitisation'. This right should be abolished because it is based upon a misunderstanding of copyright law.
- Duration of copyright
Under Australian law, once the copyright period has finished it cannot be revived. There is general agreement by Australian copyright users that the period in Australia should not be changed. There is no empirical evidence that extending the period further offers more encouragement of creativity or substantial commercial advantage.
Libraries and their users need effective, well balanced national copyright laws that recognize not only the copyright owners' right to remuneration, but also the critical purpose of public information, education and research.
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