CityLibraries to host national gathering of public librarians

Date: Monday, 12th October 2009

Townsville is hosting a national gathering of librarians this week and high on the agenda is the changing role of public libraries.

The conference, titled “Change and Challenge”, is being convened by Public Libraries Australia and the Queensland Public Libraries Association from today (Sunday) to Wednesday.

It will consider how libraries can respond better to technology, organisations and the community.

Often stereotyped as quiet and authoritarian repositories, libraries are becoming welcoming and interactive spaces, with coffee carts, games rooms, author talks, exhibitions, and public computers enabling patrons to keep in touch with friends and relatives.

One of the keynote speakers, demographer and social commentator Bernard Salt will challenge delegates to come up with a new name for libraries.

“What we need is a new term or edgy acronym that captures what libraries are all about today,” Mr Salt said.

“Libraries used to be places of strict protocols, contents, times and uses, but now they are places of inquiry, debate, stimulation, exhibition and even confrontation.

“What we’re seeing is that the hard edges of society are being removed in favour of a more blurred environment.

“They are a crucible for ideas and a democratic place for every age group and income. We haven’t seen such a place of communion since the shopping centre or the church.”

Mr Salt said he would also implore librarians to meet the challenge of being thrust from the margins to centre-stage of society.

“Public libraries, whether they accept it or not, are the new heart of the community and they are ‘Houston control’,” he said.

“Municipalities need to re-cast their thinking about their role and location – not tucked away at the back of the town hall.

“Some are responding to their modern role, while others are constrained by thinking or infrastructure.

“One thing’s for sure: this trend is not going away and it will only grow as Generations X and Y demand more and the baby boomers age.”
 

Other speakers will include:

• Aboriginal lawyer and land rights activist Noel Pearson
• Library and information science educator Michael Stephens from Illinois
• Web developer Paul Hagan from the National Library of Australia
• Early literacy specialist Bettina Nissen from Deception Bay Library
• Heritage library co-ordinator Caroline Foxon from the Sunshine Coast Libraries

The conference will be held at Jupiter’s Townsville. Details are available at www.pla.org.au/conferences.html.