Libraries and Learning: A Partnership for Life (1997)

Abstract: This paper was prepared for consideration by the Council of Australian State Libraries to promote partnerships between the library and education sectors. Such partnerships were discussed by representatives of the three spheres of government who met in Adelaide in May 1997 to discuss 2020 Vision: libraries of the future, the report commissioned by the Libraries Working Group of the Cultural Ministers' Council. To argue that public libraries and learning are not joint entities is inconsistent with their past, and denies their future Viewing libraries as a part of the learning process is not new. Public libraries in Victorian times were to be the `working man's university'. Andrew Carnegie's commitment to providing public libraries to the English speaking world was accompanied by comments such as Here is an institution (the library) which knows neither rank nor wealth within its walls, which stops the ignorant peer or the ignorant monarch at its threshold, and declines to unveil to him its treasures, or to waste time upon him, and yet welcomes the workman according to his knowledge or thirst for knowledge[2] Galbraith[3] in a paper commissioned by the US Department of Education's National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries and Lifelong Learning defines learning as 'a process of transforming experience into knowledge, skills, and attitudes through a variety of processes'. He continues by defining education as 'those processes, events, activities, and conditions that assist and encourage learning. Education from this perspective can be described as deliberate (planned) or unintentional random).' Learning is not simply confined to the four walls of a class room or lecture hall. It never has been. The current trends in education could not emphasise this more with their focus on * open learning * flexible service delivery * recognition of prior learning * lifelong learning To argue that libraries and learning are not joint entities is inconsistent with our past and denies us a role in the future. Learning to learn -- information literacy `Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where to find information upon it.' So wrote Dr Samuel Johnson to his friend William Strahan in 1775. Alan Bundy[4] asserts that while Johnson's statement was pertinent to the 18th century, it is even more germane to the 21St. century where information literacy is the key enabling competency in our information and learning society. Development of information literacy is being encouraged formally in the school systems of many Australian states. For examples, the South Australian, Victorian and Northern Territory Certificates of Education offer elements of student centred resource based learning. While commendable, these initiatives have in the main proceeded with no real assessment of the availability of resources within school and public libraries to support them.[5] Instead of simply sympathising with angst-ridden librarians and their frustrated users there are opportunities that can be seized. Turning cliches to reality It is easy for phrases like 'clever country' and 'information society' to come tripping off the tongue. Indeed such terms are no right up there with 'information superhighway' and 'equity of access' as cliches of our profession at this time. Add to these the concept of `lifelong learning' and the challenges for libraries start to look daunting. Where, then, does this leave Australian libraries? What lessons are to be learnt from other countries? International perspectives Australia is not the only country striving to be seen as `clever'. Nor is it the only place where information needs are escalating against a resource base diminished though economic rationalism. Singapore and the emerging European Union are but two examples of how this world wide trend is being addressed. …