Changing Lives, Making the Difference: The 21st Century Public Library

From a slow start in the middle of the 20th century Australia now has one of the most accessible and heavily used public library networks in the world. Those libraries are by far the most heavily used and appreciated community provision by local and state governments. There is increasing research demonstrating the qualitative as well as the quantitative value of the libraries and their potential as the focus for learning cities or communities. However much needs to be done in the 21st century, mainly by local government, to address issues such as poorly located, crowded and unattractive buildings, poor hours of opening, limited book and other resources, technology constraints and lack of specialist librarians. Because many councils still do not have library advisory committees with community representation, Friends of Library groups need to consider how they should represent library users to councils and state governments. Version of a paper delivered at the annual general meeting of the Friends of Mitcham Library Services Adelaide 31 July 2002 ********** The Unesco Public library manifesto 1994: a living force asserts that Freedom, prosperity and the development of society and of individuals are fundamental human values. They will only be attained through the ability of well informed citizens to exercise their democratic rights and to play an active role in society. Constructive participation and the development of democracy depend on satisfactory education as well as on free and unlimited access to knowledge, thought, culture and information. The public library, the local gateway to knowledge, provides a basic condition for lifelong learning, independent decision making and cultural development of the individual and social groups. This Manifesto proclaims Unesco's belief in the public library as a living force for education, culture and information, and as an essential agent for the fostering of peace and spiritual welfare through the minds of men and women. Unesco therefore encourages national and local governments to support and actively engage in the development of public libraries. It was with a similar sense that free access to public libraries and what they provide is a right, not a privilege, that Andrew Carnegie observed in 1904 as justification for his funding of public library buildings in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and elsewhere If it is right that schools should be maintained by the whole community for the well being of the whole, it is right also that libraries should be so maintained. Earlier than that, since the mid 1850s in the US and UK the public library was seen primarily as a centre for learning for the working classes. This was not a new idea but another manifestation of a 15th century idea that promoted literacy and independent education through `community profit libraries'. In the UK the background to the Public Libraries Bill was the call for opportunities to be freely available to working people, to go beyond the subscription based libraries of the mechanics' institutes, the first of which opened in Glasgow in 1823. A major reason for the Public Libraries Bill was the establishment of similar institutes in other European countries, notably Belgium. There was a concern that the UK would fall behind in the skills of its workers. That bill became law in 1850 and enabled councils to add one penny in the pound to rates to pay for public libraries. Those who paid rates--the wealthier--paid for the education and enlightenment of poorer citizens. Although there was a slow take up of this provision because councils and ratepayers resented it, the 19th century in both the UK and US saw the development of free local libraries, libraries which during the 20th century evolved from being primarily learning agencies for the working classes, to the multifaceted places they are today. …

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