30 April 2004

You can too - Adult Learning in Australia
LC 724, GPO Box 9880
Department of Education
Science and Training
Canberra ACT 2600

You can too - adult-learning in Australia

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Department of Education, Science and Training's consultation paper You can too - adult-learning in Australia.

ALIA is the professional organisation for the Australian library and information services sector and represents 5000 individual members, 900 institutional members and the interests of 10.7 million library users.

Our submission, developed with the assistance of the Association's Information Literacy Forum, focuses on the role of libraries in ensuring access to learning opportunities for adults and in engaging communities in learning activities. In libraries, members of the community access educational and information resources that encourage their ongoing learning - a factor critical to the development of a knowledge economy.

ALIA recommends the establishment of a policy framework which draws together all stakeholders in adult-learning to encourage greater coherence in policy development and program delivery for adult and community education and the development of funding models open to all adult-learning providers. Libraries and library adult-learning initiatives need to be factored into the development of policy and programs for adult-learning and libraries, as recognised providers of adult and community education, need to have the capacity to seek direct funding for the adult-learning activities they provide. In this way libraries will be positioned to maintain and expand the learning programs that their clients have come to expect and the adult-learning goals that the Government aims to achieve.

Adult education and libraries have been closely-linked in Australia since the establishment of Mechanics' Institutes during the 19th century. Through their libraries, the institutes provided access to the resources Australian workers needed to develop and enhance knowledge and skills beyond initial occupational education and training. In the 21st century, as new and changing technologies are introduced, the role of libraries in enabling access to resources is becoming even more significant. As materials become available in an increasing variety of formats - online, print and other media - adult learners are looking to libraries and librarians to help them to identify and access resources irrespective of format.

Adult attendance at national, state and public libraries has increased significantly during the period 1999-2002 from 36.8 per cent to 42.1 per cent. Surveys conducted by libraries, together with anecdotal evidence, indicate that a major reason for this is the availability of the internet and online access. This is particularly true, as noted in the Senate report, Libraries in the online environment, for young adults and adults aged 55-64 years where library attendance jumped from 38.1 per cent to 47.2 per cent and 30.5 per cent to 36.9 per cent in the respective groups .

At first consideration, the free access to electronic resources which libraries generally offer their clients might be deemed to explain increased library attendance by adults, particularly by those who have no other avenue of access to the internet and other electronic resources. But, at the same time that adults are choosing to use libraries more because of the availability of online access, Australian household access to the internet is escalating - up from 16 per cent in 1998 to 46 per cent in 2002. Access to online information does not depend then on connectivity alone. Library clients have particular expectations that libraries and library staff assist them to locate more-efficiently and effectively the information they need for ongoing learning .

In today's society, developing technologies are impacting on the ways in which people work, conduct business and spend their leisure time. Changing social structures mean that adults currently in the workforce will be encouraged to remain beyond the age at which many workers of earlier generations retired. As new technologies are introduced, adult learners will need to systematically update their skills and knowledge in order to cope with ongoing technological, workplace and social change.

While workplace training or formal education may introduce adults to new technologies and the skills required to operate it, many adults prefer an informal learning environment where they can progress at their own pace. Libraries have long been recognised as offering a non-threatening and informal learning environment; indeed in rural and remote areas the library is often the focal point for adult-learning activities. In many instances, adult and community educators select the local library as the most friendly of venues for learning activities, such as English classes offered to members of the community from non-English speaking backgrounds through branches of the ACT Library Service.

But libraries also play a very active role in the education of adults by helping them to become information-literate. Simply providing access to new technologies is not sufficient to meet adult-learning needs. Because of their training, librarians are highly-aware of a client's need to develop information literacy skills. Consequently, as new technologies are introduced, librarians and libraries have developed and are continuing to develop education programs which will enable their clients not only to access the multiplicity of resources available - whether in print or electronic format or in other media - but which will also teach them to locate, evaluate and effectively use information to enhance their learning and develop new skills and become information literate.

While many of the programs are aimed at developing the information skills of members of the community in general, librarians also recognise that some of their clients have special needs and develop programs specifically targeted to those groups, for example seniors and indigenous peoples. Kelmscott Library introduced a Surfing Seniors educational program to encourage seniors to go online. The program aimed to show seniors the many facilities available on the internet, such as banking and shopping, and to develop their skills to explore the web with confidence. The Indigilinks program offered by the Alice Springs Public Library, introduces members of the indigenous community to a restricted version of the internet so they can become familiar with the online environment and develop basic search skills before moving to the web. Appendix A offers a sample of the wide variety of educational programs for adults made available through libraries.

Libraries play a significant role in adult-learning by providing access to education and information resources, including electronic resources and the internet. Further, libraries offer professional support to assist those accessing resources in libraries and also to provide community programs which enable clients to gain new knowledge and skills.

Yet the important role of libraries in supporting adult-learning is not recognised in current funding of adult and community education. Libraries make an important contribution to assist ongoing adult-learning - essential if we are to become a knowledge economy. Learning activities offered through libraries are generally funded through the library's own budget and this has implications for the services and learning programs the library can in the longer term provide.

By its very nature, adult education is diverse, ranging from formal education and training and workplace learning to informal learning and skills development. Our society will be best-placed to benefit from the outcomes of ongoing adult-learning when all stakeholders, such as educational institutions, employers, industry, libraries as community education providers and others, are brought together in a rationalised approach to developing and supporting adult education programs.

Yours sincerely

Jennefer Nicholson
Executive director
ph 02 6215 8215, fx 02 6282 2249
jennefer.nicholson@alia.org.au

Appendix A

Overview of adult education opportunities offered through libraries - a sample from local news stories

• Most public libraries offer programs aimed to develop adults' information literacy skills, that is education and training which shows people how to access information via the technology available but which also teaches them how to effectively use and evaluate information once they have located it. State and local public libraries offer information literacy training, for example the State Library of Queensland develops programs that are available to public libraries around the state.
• Kalgoorlie library provides independent learning activities for adult literacy students through a series of specially-developed resources including current popular novels rewritten for the adult literacy student and Narkaling audio books with variable speeds of reading to enable students to better link the words they are hearing to the print counterpart.
• Drug information in public libraries project. For example clients at Bathurst library, a participant in the project, were able to learn more about drug information resources and services benefiting from staff trained in this area.
• Redbank Plaza library ran a series of seminars in 2003 on The art of happiness - is it inside or outside? The seminars were a key component of the library's information literacy program with participants having the opportunity to learn the skills needed to access information remotely through select databases and via the internet.
• In 2002 Bordertown Public Library in conjunction with the TAFE Learning Centre undertook training of volunteer English tutors to assist migrants learning English which resulted in regular English classes for migrants being offered at the library.
• Free access to legal information is available state-wide to public library clients through the Legal Information Access Centre based in the State Library of NSW.
• Homework survival seminars were introduced in 2003 at Cessnock City Library. Aimed at helping parents become more confident in using the library and helping their children with homework projects, the seminars introduced parents to a range of resources and services they could use to help their children and included demonstrations of how to use the library catalogue and access information on the internet.
• A purpose-built library complex incorporating training rooms and other facilities to assist people to more actively engage in lifelong learning activities within the library environment is proposed for Greater Dandenong by 2015.
• In 2003 Noosa Library received a Queensland state government innovation grant for a Learn to drive project. This involved the establishment of a car simulator in the library, storytelling and workshops on road safety.
• A technology training centre has been established at Auburn Library to allow clients to experience working with new software and to develop computer skills.
• An Indigenous Gathering Place has been opened in Maribyrnong Library to provide a number of programs, including mental health and cultural programs, for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
• Late in 2003 the Age Public Library within the Hume Global Learning Centre, began developing a teacher-training program to improve teachers skills in the use of media and current events in curriculum contexts.
• The library in Northtown, Townsville is part of a Knowledge Centre which integrates library, adult-learning and research facilities.
• The State Library of South Australia offers a Family History training course which introduces clients to genealogical searching and in more-advanced classes teaches participants how to care for documents so that they can be preserved with minimal deterioration.
• Health on the internet is one of a series of seminars on health offered by Chermside Library in 2004. It offered information on searching some of the available health databases and websites.