29 April 1998

Pathways to knowledge - Dr Lois O'Donoghue

Dr Lois O'Donoghue CBE AM

Australia's indigenous people must be encouraged to increase their involvement in the library sector, said Dr Lois O'Donoghue, the former chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, when she launched Australian Library Week 1998 in Adelaide today.

Dr O'Donoghue said that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were only now beginning to understand the value of libraries as keeping-houses of knowledge. That understanding needed to be promoted to indigenous communities and the library sector.

'There is still a long way to go to achieve a genuine understanding between those in the library and information services sector and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on what each can offer the other,' she said.

'This will require an attitudinal change by both groups, and a change in library practice. Libraries are not generally perceived by Aboriginal people as welcoming places. They may feel intimidated by the physical layout and about asking non-indigenous people for assistance in using the various technologies and cataloguing systems.'

Traditionally, senior initiated men had played a role equivalent to that of librarian for their particular area of knowledge.

However, Dr O'Donoghue said, modern developments in libraries and information systems were bridging the gap between the written tradition and that relying on spoken stories, songs and dances.

Libraries that held Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural material and information had responsibilities beyond those of observing copyright and intellectual property laws.

'Legislation will protect the rights of the authors, painters, photographers, recorders and publishers, but it does not protect the interests of those who are portrayed in or who 'belong to' the knowledge and information,' she said.

Dr O'Donoghue said the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols for libraries, archives and information services provided a good guide for the handling of information with indigenous content and for interaction with indigenous peoples.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), sponsor of Australian Library Week, played a key role in the development of these protocols, which represent world best-practice.

Dr O'Donoghue said that many libraries were now working towards better management of indigenous resources through consultation and co-operation with elders and other community members.

Access rights to secret and sacred materials were being observed. There was warning of potentially-offensive material and degrading labels were removed.

'This is not censorship,' she said. 'It is the sensitive management of cultural resources to respect that culture's information management traditions.'

Dr O'Donoghue said that a 1996 ALIA survey of 396 publicly-funded libraries across Australia identified 103 Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander workers in a total of 23 684 - as identified by the census in the same year.

Of the 103, twenty-five were funded under government employment programs and four under organisational employment strategies, seven were qualified librarians, six were library technicians and two were teacher-librarians.

Dr O'Donoghue, who is now a Visiting Fellow at Flinders University of South Australia, launched Australian Library Week, which runs from 3 May to 9 May, at the Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Adelaide on 29 April. Dr O'Donoghue's speech is available online.