4 May 1997

Spender highlights the importance of libraries

Renowned journalist and academic-cum-public administrator, Dale Spender, will speak on the unique importance of libraries and librarians to Australians in Brisbane on Wednesday 7 May 1997.

Spender, noted for her outspokedness on issues of public importance, is keynote speaker at the Queensland Australian Library Week (ALW) dinner at the Hilton International in Brisbane.

She will also present the 1997 Queensland Special Librarian of the Year Award at the function, which starts at 6.30pm.

ALW runs from Sunday 4 May to Saturday 10 May, this year.

This year's theme Libraries: a Web of Information, aims to highlight the growing and extended importance of libraries and librarians in the 'Information Age'.

"As more and more information becomes available through electronic means, librarians are becoming the navigators through the mass of material," the executive director of the Australian Library and Information Association, Virginia Walsh, said today.

"Public libraries are potentially the people's on-ramps to the information superhighway, places where ordinary Australians with limited funds and knowledge can gain both access and equity.

"Public libraries, with support from federal, state and local governments, can provide the ramps.

"Librarians are the navigational pilots, the people who help guide newcomers through the technology so that sophisticated computer systems are a conduit, rather than a barrier.

"Nowhere is the need for extra funds, and more librarians, apparent than in Queensland with its vast spaces and tyrannical distances.

"I believe Queensland Governments of all persuasions have done fairly well in providing funds to ensure Queenslanders aren't left behind in the 'Information Revolution'.

"But the need is obviously ongoing: at a time of budget cutbacks, it is important for people to keep their politicians informed that public libraries are among the most crucial elements of an increasingly sophisticated and educated society.

"If we don't keep up, we'll fall behind the rest of the world very quickly.

"I think Queensland and WA are the two States who stand to gain most from using funds wisely so that rural and remote people can be as 'information rich' as their city cousins," Ms Walsh said.