4 May 1997

Library chief calls on politicians to provide better access, more equity

The library community and Australians generally need to get the message across to politicians that much greater funding for digital library resources is vital, the executive director of the Australian Library and Information Association, Viriginia Walsh, said today.

"It is especially important that public libraries receive adequate extra funds, because access to the best information available is a fundamental equity right of all Australians," she said.

"As a nation we will rapidly fall behind the rest of the world in information cleverness if we don't act now to bolster digital resources in public libraries in this country.

"We will also miss a major opportunity to defeat the tyranny of distance in Australia, particularly for our rural and remote people, including Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

Ms Walsh's comments came at the start of Australian Library Week (ALW), which runs from Sunday 4 May to Saturday 10 May, and has a theme of Libraries: a Web of Information.

She said all politicians - at federal, state and local government level - needed convincing.

"Libraries are Australia's most frequently-used cultural institution," she said.

"They are also an integral part of the recreational, educational and business infrastructure of the nation.

"Like roads, they need regular maintenance and occasionally a major upgrading.

"With the explosion of information availability on the internet and World Wide Web, it is crucial that Australians have the capability, and the right, of access through public libraries.

"For most Australians, who are not hooked into the web, librarians are the guides and first instructors.

"Librarians' roles are in fact expanding, rather than contracting, as more information becomes more easily available."

Ms Walsh said this year's ALW theme, Libraries: a web of information, was designed to remind the community of the very important role our libraries play in providing a whole range of information.

"Information is not just available in traditional formats, like books and magazines, but is increasingly to be found through online computer systems.

"We will quickly start lagging behind the rest of the world if we don't keep up relative funding of online hardware and software, and the access paths to the information superhighway.

"Equally, we will miss the chance - possibly of a lifetime - to put rural and remote Australians on an equal footing with urban Australians."