ALIA Children's and Youth Services (Qld)

Frameworking the Future: Guiding Principles for Cross-Sectoral Co-operation

Anne Spelman
Consultant young people's services
State Library of Queensland

People in a learning society need libraries throughout their lives[1]. Public libraries serve the entire community from birth onwards by providing a bridge from babyhood into formal learning and access to resources that meet young people's educational, informational, recreational and personal needs as they grow into self-determining adult learners. School libraries support the school curriculum as their first priority and also provide for the personal, recreational, and informal learning needs of many young people. Mathews states that:

When both types of libraries are well supported, they can team up to provide a seamless information and enjoyment resource [2].

Over the years significant effort has been made by people working in the education and information sectors to develop partnerships that achieve better outcomes for young people's learning. However, reliance on individual rather than institutional relationships has resulted in many worthy and innovative projects, the history and inspiration that gave them form, vanishing with something as basic as a change of staff. In these times of expanding library service development the time has come to formalise and provide a framework for co-operation between the education and information sectors. This will ensure the survival and evolution of a co-operative and comprehensive library service for young people.

The mission and driving principle of ALIA Children's and Youth Services in Queensland is to develop library services for young people by promoting interaction between library and information specialists who work with young people. ALIA Children's and Youth Services Qld comprises a broad group of information professionals from school, public and tertiary sectors.

In partnership with the State Library of Queensland, ALIA Children's and Youth Services Qld have held an annual seminar for the last three years. These seminars promote interaction and information sharing between the education and information sectors.

The idea behind the first seminar, Profusion, held in 2001 was that public and teacher-librarians joined together to share their knowledge and expertise. Public and teacher-librarians presented sessions on:

• Visual literacy
• Reading groups and public libraries
• Displays
• Booktalking
• Conference debriefs
• Storytelling workshop and demonstration

The seminar demonstrated how much teacher and public librarians had to share with each other and how much they had in common.

The 2002 seminar Essential Connections: Connecting School and Public Library Professionals went on to explore the relationship between public and school librarians and what facilitates and prevents co-operative practice. Alan Bundy's paper Essential Connections: school and public libraries for lifelong learning provided both the inspiration and content for the seminar. Based on the results of a survey published in Alan's paper about public and secondary school libraries' level of interaction key areas of concern were identified and explored in the seminar. They were:

• Specialist skills and knowledge sharing
• Homework and assignment support
• Working collaboratively to maximise resources
• Cross-sectoral communication
• Formal support for cross-sectoral co-operation

It is from this last area of concern, formal support for cross-sectoral co-operation, that the idea for the 2003 seminar Frameworking the Future: Guiding Principles for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration evolved. It was identified in the Essential Connections seminar that the lack of a framework for cross-sectoral co-operation impacted significantly on the sectors' ability to:

• Maintain networks
• Maximise resources, and
• Share skills and knowledge

During Frameworking the Future seminar participants from the voluntary, school, tertiary and public library sectors produced a set of guidelines that demonstrated ways in which they could maintain networks, maximise resources and share knowledge and skills. The guidelines were developed around six focus areas:

• Partnering
• Planning
• Advocacy
• Professional development
• Information and resource sharing
• Programming

In small groups participants worked together to produce statements of purpose around the focus areas. Post workshop the principles were further developed by the ALIA Children's and Youth Services executive committee and distributed for comment via an e-list to seminar participants. The principles have since been revised and are as follows:

Guiding principles for cross-sectoral co-operation

To support an environment where learners can seamlessly access the widest choice of materials to support their information, leisure, cultural and social needs the education and information sectors together need to:

Partner

• Encourage and support the development of formal partnerships between related agencies
• Interact and communicate consistently with each other to establish and maintain open and mutually beneficial relationships

Plan

• Identify tasks, responsibilities, time frames, funding and outcomes when planning co-operative ventures
• Plan, implement and evaluate co-operative activities in consultation with key stakeholders

Information and resource share

• Initiate, develop and maintain a connectedness that maximises information and resource sharing between young people and their information agencies within and between local, national and global communities
• Promote and foster the sharing of ideas, resources, skills and space

Professional development

• Commit time and personnel to support ongoing skill sharing, professional development and information exchange

Advocate

• Advocate the value of all libraries and librarians for young people, to their peers, the community and the government
• Actively promote at all levels each other's skills and resources

Program

• Create dynamic and interactive programs that engage library staff, young people, parents and carers in meaningful learning experiences that develop their information literacy skills, expand their love of reading and stimulate their imagination

It is hoped that public, school and tertiary institutions will adopt these guidelines. Where appropriate the guidelines could be incorporated into policy documents, and ideally into long term strategic planning. It is further suggested that peak bodies in Queensland such as the School Library Association of Queensland, Queensland's Public Library Association and the State Library of Queensland as well as ALIA be approached to support these guiding principles and their implementation [3]

In 2004 Queensland ALIA Children's and Youth Services (CYS) activities will focus on implementing the strategies for partnerships that the three seminars have developed.

Footnotes

1. Mathews 'Alliance for Excellence: Librarians Respond to a Nation at Risk' in Fitzgibbons, S. School and Public Library Relationships: Essential Ingredients in Implementing Educational Reforms and Improving Student Learning. US Department of Education, 1998 - 2000. http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/AASL/Publications_and_Journals/School_Library_Media_Research/Contents1/Volume_3_(2000)/relationships.htm, referenced August 2003.

2. Mathews 1999 in Fitzgibbons, S. op cit

3. Spelman, A and Kelly, P. 'In Visible Light: Illuminating Partnerships Across Libraries to Facilitate Lifelong Learning for Young People'. Paper presented at Joint conference of the Children's Book Council and Australian School Library Association, 2 - 5 October 2003, Hobart Tasmania.