Library Sectors
From the outside, the library and information profession may look like a homogenous group. Yet on the inside, libraries are classified by sector, based on the communities that they serve. These are public libraries, school libraries, tertiary libraries and special libraries. Special libraries can be further classified into sub-sets which include health, law, and government.
While all libraries share similar values, such as equitable access to information – a value that has underpinned libraries for millenia – each sector is presented differing challenges from the diverse needs of their communities.
Public Libraries
Public libraries are emerging as community hubs, embracing the opportunity to empower their neighbourhoods. In addition to their traditional activities, public libraries are becoming an even more valued community resource and meeting space, providing makerspaces, career and CV advice, training courses, literacy programmes for children, as well as becoming a repository for local history.
Public libraries continue to increase the support and services provided to increasingly diverse communities, while maintaining core services around access to information. While public libraries maintain their role as protector of equitable access to information, they continue to morph into vibrant community hubs by offering a diverse range of programmes (from coding to knitting!) to serve their increasingly diverse patron base.
As local government looks to provide value for money for ratepayers, library budgets in some areas are coming under threat; there is a strong requirement to deliver measurable value and a solid return on investment. The benefits of public libraries are largely quantifiable in that they help to educate a population, allowing New Zealanders to contribute positively as a member of society, however, ensuring that councils understand this economic benefit to their community is an ongoing challenge.
As the world becomes more digitised, ebook lending is seeing exponential growth – since 2011 annual eBook lending has grown from 17,000 loans to over 2.1 million loans per annum. This is in spite of the strict limitations still being placed on e-lending by publishers. The trend to more hybrid collections impacts on library spaces and the user’s experience. New library builds and library redesigns are consciously allocating less space to collections and including more community meeting spaces / other areas. Many public libraries are now content creators, especially through the digitisation of unique local history content. Crowd sourcing of data is becoming more common as the community is engaged in developing and updating content.
Public Libraries Summer Reading Programmes
Tertiary Libraries
Tertiary libraries are no longer stand alone entities: emerging as part of a community hub, offering multiple services to students in one destination. They currently serve 181,000 students and 14,436 academics and university staff, with nearly 3 million visits to their libraries every year and a total budget of over $120 million.
School Libraries
There is a lot of evidence showing that reading and writing ability is greater for children who attend a school with a dedicated school library resource, regardless of socio-economic level. School librarians are also hugely important when ensuring both digital and information literacy; and are in a unique position to know their community from a curriculum perspective, while providing the scope for exploration outside of that curriculum.
There is currently no mandate or guidelines from the government relating to the provision of school libraries in New Zealand. Unlike other areas of school governance, libraries are funded directly through individual schools Boards of Trustees from the operational grant. This includes payment of library staffing, unlike teaching staff who are paid directly from central government. Because of this, school libraries are competing for budgetary consideration alongside all other administration needs, including stationery and tearoom requirements and this also has the effect of creating tenuous job security for librarians and an ever-increasing uncertainty around purchasing resources to support teaching and learning of New Zealand students.
As noted, school library staff are paid on the support staff scale which does not acknowledge specialist training, or recognize the integral role that school librarians can play in supporting literacy. School library staff also do not have job security as their role is based on management budgeting and is the most vulnerable to funding cuts.
Many schools are still dependent on the goodwill of librarians working with reduced hours, budgets and rates of pay or untrained standing their way with little guidance or professionalism. This is a critical situation given that studies have repeatedly shown that students who are able to access a well-resourced school library run by a professional librarian are much more likely to be successful academically.
Special Libraries
Special libraries have a much greater reliance on technology to interact with their patrons, however, there is still an emphasis on personal relationship. Their key value is in their ability to filter a wide range of information and in the time saving value that they offer.
The increasing ease of access to information through the web, and other digital channels, is impacting special libraries more than any other sector with the “just google it” philosophy putting special libraries under threat. Despite this, special librarians are more important than ever with their expertise allowing them to filter the vast amount of information they offer, providing significant time savings to businesses looking for critical information quickly. A recent Australian study showed that special libraries return $5.43 for every dollar invested. Despite the ease of access to digital information the cost of research publications is increasing and putting pressure on special library budgets as they struggle to maintain access for their communities to key publications.
While all libraries share similar values, such as equitable access to information – a value that has underpinned libraries for millenia – each sector is presented differing challenges from the diverse needs of their communities.
Public Libraries
Public libraries are emerging as community hubs, embracing the opportunity to empower their neighbourhoods. In addition to their traditional activities, public libraries are becoming an even more valued community resource and meeting space, providing makerspaces, career and CV advice, training courses, literacy programmes for children, as well as becoming a repository for local history.
Public libraries continue to increase the support and services provided to increasingly diverse communities, while maintaining core services around access to information. While public libraries maintain their role as protector of equitable access to information, they continue to morph into vibrant community hubs by offering a diverse range of programmes (from coding to knitting!) to serve their increasingly diverse patron base.
As local government looks to provide value for money for ratepayers, library budgets in some areas are coming under threat; there is a strong requirement to deliver measurable value and a solid return on investment. The benefits of public libraries are largely quantifiable in that they help to educate a population, allowing New Zealanders to contribute positively as a member of society, however, ensuring that councils understand this economic benefit to their community is an ongoing challenge.
As the world becomes more digitised, ebook lending is seeing exponential growth – since 2011 annual eBook lending has grown from 17,000 loans to over 2.1 million loans per annum. This is in spite of the strict limitations still being placed on e-lending by publishers. The trend to more hybrid collections impacts on library spaces and the user’s experience. New library builds and library redesigns are consciously allocating less space to collections and including more community meeting spaces / other areas. Many public libraries are now content creators, especially through the digitisation of unique local history content. Crowd sourcing of data is becoming more common as the community is engaged in developing and updating content.
Public Libraries Summer Reading Programmes
Tertiary Libraries
Tertiary libraries are no longer stand alone entities: emerging as part of a community hub, offering multiple services to students in one destination. They currently serve 181,000 students and 14,436 academics and university staff, with nearly 3 million visits to their libraries every year and a total budget of over $120 million.
School Libraries
There is a lot of evidence showing that reading and writing ability is greater for children who attend a school with a dedicated school library resource, regardless of socio-economic level. School librarians are also hugely important when ensuring both digital and information literacy; and are in a unique position to know their community from a curriculum perspective, while providing the scope for exploration outside of that curriculum.
There is currently no mandate or guidelines from the government relating to the provision of school libraries in New Zealand. Unlike other areas of school governance, libraries are funded directly through individual schools Boards of Trustees from the operational grant. This includes payment of library staffing, unlike teaching staff who are paid directly from central government. Because of this, school libraries are competing for budgetary consideration alongside all other administration needs, including stationery and tearoom requirements and this also has the effect of creating tenuous job security for librarians and an ever-increasing uncertainty around purchasing resources to support teaching and learning of New Zealand students.
As noted, school library staff are paid on the support staff scale which does not acknowledge specialist training, or recognize the integral role that school librarians can play in supporting literacy. School library staff also do not have job security as their role is based on management budgeting and is the most vulnerable to funding cuts.
Many schools are still dependent on the goodwill of librarians working with reduced hours, budgets and rates of pay or untrained standing their way with little guidance or professionalism. This is a critical situation given that studies have repeatedly shown that students who are able to access a well-resourced school library run by a professional librarian are much more likely to be successful academically.
Special Libraries
Special libraries have a much greater reliance on technology to interact with their patrons, however, there is still an emphasis on personal relationship. Their key value is in their ability to filter a wide range of information and in the time saving value that they offer.
The increasing ease of access to information through the web, and other digital channels, is impacting special libraries more than any other sector with the “just google it” philosophy putting special libraries under threat. Despite this, special librarians are more important than ever with their expertise allowing them to filter the vast amount of information they offer, providing significant time savings to businesses looking for critical information quickly. A recent Australian study showed that special libraries return $5.43 for every dollar invested. Despite the ease of access to digital information the cost of research publications is increasing and putting pressure on special library budgets as they struggle to maintain access for their communities to key publications.