The Knowledge Equation.
byPenny Carnaby
Macquarie University Library
Email:pcarnaby@library.mq.edu.au
Opinion
Text of an article appearing in New Zealand Education ReviewYou might think that it has been a great year for libraries. We're in an era of enlightenment about the need to cultivate New Zealand's knowledge industries. The government has introduced working parties on literacy, the new quality regime for tertiary education, and a new 'super' Ministry of Culture and Heritage. Last month senior ministers launched the government's new initiative to foster education, training, and research, promisingly named Bright Future. Other political parties have recognised the importance of encouraging the knowledge economy. The National Library of New Zealand's strategic plan attracted over 600 submissions from educators, researchers, librarians and others vitally interested in the nation's information infrastructure. The controversy surrounding the Library's future created an unprecedented public response.
So why is the Library and Information Association of NZ Aotearoa (LIANZA) concerned? Why are we taking a special interest in the coming elections by asking all political parties to state their position on issues which we think are vital to the effective delivery of the goals of a knowledge society?
LIANZA believes that all players in the education sector should be concerned as well. Jenny Chamberlain alerted us to the problem in her editorial (North & South, Oct. 1999) when she wrote: 'Why then does 'five steps to a knowledge economy' sound as likely to deliver as 'firm thighs in 14 days'? Why did the education groups pan it?' Don't get me wrong, I am very supportive of the general direction of many of these government initiatives in theory. Any efforts to improve our knowledge base and literacy are welcome. Yet the strategies outlined in the Bright Future initiative as they exist at the moment reveal a lack of depth and understanding of the complex nature of the issues involved. They are not quick-fix notions and they will fail if they are seen in this way. LIANZA is looking for policies that demonstrate a true grasp of the need to establish strong national information networks to support a knowledge economy. We need an up-to-date knowledge base in order to deliver a knowledge society. Nick Smith may be right when he said 'our future will be more about cultivating what is between our ears than in our paddocks' (Christchurch Press 30/8/99), but we hope he knows that we must sow the right seeds and do the ground work first. There is no evidence that this is the case in what we have seen in the Bright Future policy so far.
However, there is evidence that the knowledge base in New Zealand is deteriorating. If the knowledge economy demands we strengthen our research and produce more highly trained graduates then we may need to make some rapid resourcing decisions. For example, last year 1500 journals were cancelled from our universities as a result of reduced funding in the tetiary sector and a weak NZ dollar. These were not replaced by equivalent e-journals. This amounts to $1.4million of intellectual capital, which is now unavailable or costly to access. Add to these losses similar cancellations from the National Library, our Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Crown Research Institute collections, and the situation is very serious indeed. Beware of those who counter arguments about lack of access to information with 'it's now all on the Internet'. It isn't. Any professional researcher will tell you that there are still inadequacies about the authenticity, accessibility and archiving of much of this electronic information. We are rapidly becoming a country that is knowledge-broke rather than knowledge-rich.
There are losses elsewhere. For some time, tertiary and research libraries and the National Library have been alarmed at the diminishing access to New Zealand's scientific information. The move to more competitive, market-driven research contracts has compromised the ease of public access to this scientific information. While the need to protect the commercial sensitivity of such research is understood, the potential impact of this has economic, as well as educational, implications. The Trustees of the National Library have recently commissioned a research project on access to scientific information in New Zealand. The results of this research may signal alarm bells for us all.
Literacy is another example where the Government signaled good initiatives this year. LIANZA supported the Ministry of Education's Literacy Task Force and some of the initiatives it described (although I noted that the word 'library' was never mentioned). In our submission we asked for a broad definition of literacy to be considered. The significant contribution made by libraries to improve the literacy skills of New Zealanders in a range of stunning projects and programmes delivered by many public libraries, schools and tertiary institutions was largely ignored by the Literacy Task Force. We saw little acknowledgement of the National Library's services to schools and information support for the school curriculum.
Why is it that 100,000 Christchurch people flocked to a small branch library at New Brighton within the first 5 weeks of opening? Why is it that this small library is likely to outstrip attendance figures achieved by the city's museum (500,000 people per year) and art gallery (250,000 people per year)? Surely this goes to prove the relevance to the community, that knowledge services, including literacy programmes are in demand from New Zealanders. Other public libraries around the country have seen increasing membership and attendance in literacy programmes, and have made strong links with children and young adults.
There is a 'new' literacy, which has now become the focus of libraries in this information hungry society. We now talk of the needs for a society that is information literate, where individuals have the skills to access, retrieve and analyse information effectively, to present ideas and develop critical thought. Information skills are identified as fundamental skills in the schools core curriculum. There is no doubt that a knowledge society is also a society which is information literate.
So what are the key issues in this election in relation to realising a knowledge society? From LIANZA's perspective we can learn from Australian and UK solutions. The Australian Government has placed their National Library in a reporting role to the Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and Arts, which appears to better reflect the breath of understanding of the role of a national library. Here, our National Library has recently been moved into a new Ministry of Heritage and Culture away from the Ministry of Education. This move will require a very broad definition of culture to include its educational, research, information-networking role.
Integration of the influential role that the network of all New Zealand libraries plays in providing knowledge services that support the educational, economic, social and political lives of New Zealanders is crucial to the realisation of a knowledge society. They are an important part of the knowledge equation.
These realities and the tremendous public response to the National Library's strategic plan signal important messages to our future government. The public argued for a much stronger National Library where collections were expanded, heritage preserved and curriculum support services to schools were maintained and extended. We would encourage the education sector to do the same across the board for library services.
LIANZA is looking for evidence of and commitment to a visionary plan for libraries, a way to strengthen the knowledge infrastructure, particularly in our research, tertiary and school libraries. In the UK, a radical transformation in the character and importance of their public libraries is taking place to build a new library network which will 'do more to broaden and encourage communication technology skills among the population than any other measure the government could introduce' (Matthew Evans, Building the New Library Network, Nov. 1998). We would like to see that sort of strategy developed and implemented here to help New Zealand meet the challenges of the global information society.
Whatever the outcome of this election, LIANZA will welcome consultations on all knowledge management matters to help New Zealanders achieve whatever steps and giant leaps are needed to become a true knowledge society. It is such a critical issue for us all. Let's start the next century as a nation known as being knowledge and ideas rich, with a population who are information literate and confident in their ability to access the information they need.
Penny Carnaby is National President of LIANZA (Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa).