Opening the door: partnership issues in developing a public library learning service for all Australians.

• Author: Goodman, Jack

Few people working in the field would disagree that innovation is essential to the longterm capacity of Australia s public libraries to meet the diverse needs of their extremely wide range and large number of users. If we turn our minds back 20 years we can recall when videocassettes, audiobooks, and dvd loans were perceived as noncore public library services. Just 10 years ago a high speed internet connection and public pcs were ideas we were just coming to grips with. Today, internet access is one of the most used services libraries provide, and the loan statistics for multimedia collections of most libraries indicate their enduring popularity. As a brief imaginative exercise, take a moment to consider what would happen if--in your library today--all of these supposedly noncore services and materials were suddenly removed. It is hard to know which would come first: the outrage of users or the door closing shut as they left the library--never to return.

The above exercise gives a simple, free, way to comprehend the risks associated with failing to innovate. Were the range of library service offerings to remain frozen, it would simply be a matter of time--and not a lot of it--before declining usage and loan statistics would be seen. Once we start to travel that path, it is a vicious circle of shrinking budgets and ever contracting opening hours, services, programs and materials.

To avoid this fate we need to encourage library stakeholders and senior decision makers to exhibit a trait which is too rare in the world: entrepreneurship and measured risk-taking. These can be scary words that run counter to the natural instinct to preserve and protect modest budgets and to husband every precious dollar. Yet when exercised properly, innovation through entrepreneurship can deliver both the change that is essential to a successful public library service and also the vibrancy of a truly dynamic and exciting workplace. Through strategies such as pilot programs and strategic partnerships, libraries can further mitigate some of the risks associated with innovation while ensuring they are positioned to enjoy the positive outcomes of their successes. The rest of this editorial addresses library innovation and entrepreneurship within the context of a new learning service called online tutoring that has gained in popularity in the last decade. It will also suggest ways for library leaders to develop partnerships with both the public and private sectors to expand their capacity to innovate and position themselves as core developers and providers of social capital in their communities. This is in the context that most public libraries do not appear to have a budget line for trialing new initiatives.

Australia's public libraries in fact perform remarkable work on what can only be described as generally shockingly inadequate budgets. For years we have all been aware of the state/local government cost shifting that has occurred, to the point where public libraries may rely on their local councils for 90 per cent or more of their annual budgets. As will become clear below, while it is remarkable what libraries have accomplished, it is possible they have done a disservice to themselves and their many users by giving funding bodies the impression they can make do with static, or even shrinking budgets. For a...