Using Evidence in Practice
Conducting State-Wide Research to Inform Practice in New South Wales
Public Libraries
Ellen Forsyth
Consultant, Public Library Services
State Library of New South Wales
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Email: ellen.forsyth@sl.nsw.gov.au
Cameron Morley
Manager, Public Library Services
State Library of New South Wales
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Email: cameron.morley@sl.nsw.gov.au
Kate O’Grady
Consultant, Public Library Services
State Library of New South Wales
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Email: kate.ogrady@sl.nsw.gov.au
Received: 13 Aug. 2015 Accepted:
18 Sept. 2015
2015 Forsyth,
Morley, and O’Grady. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms
of the Creative Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0
International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
Setting
The State Library of New South Wales (NSW) is one of eight state and territory
libraries within Australia. Each of these libraries plays an important role
within its jurisdiction, enabling people to access rich collections and
connecting them to information and to each other. The libraries are legislated
to collect published materials and preserve cultural heritage, ensuring that
both are available in the future. Additionally, the state libraries all play
key roles with the network of public libraries within their states.
The State Library of NSW provides
specialist advice and support to local councils providing public library
services to the people of NSW across 367 locations. A dedicated team within the
State Library administers state government funding to councils, provides
leadership on matters affecting public libraries, and identifies and researches
industry-wide issues. Much of the relationship between NSW public libraries and
the State Library of NSW is governed by legislation, specifically the Library
Act 1939 and the Library Regulation 2010. This paper focuses on the specific
role of researching industry-wide issues.
Problem
The State Library of NSW established the Public Library Network Research
Committee in 2002. The committee was established to oversee the research
program, to ensure that the Public Library Network had input into identifying
research projects, to recommend projects, and to ensure research
implementation. The key factor addressed by the committee and used in
identifying potential projects is the lack of research, in specific areas,
about public libraries within NSW.
The following are examples of recent research
projects:
·
NSW
Public Libraries Local Studies Audit: This project looks at local studies
collections and services with an aim to develop best practice guidelines for
collection development, managing collections, providing access and service
delivery, and collaborating to develop a state-wide strategy for local history
collections.
·
Mobile
Library and Outreach Service Models: The goal of this project is to identify
the current range and scope of NSW public library mobile and outreach service
models and to explore the strengths, weaknesses, benefits, and opportunities of
different outreach models used within NSW public libraries with the aim of
developing good practice guidelines.
·
Regional
Library Models Project: This project aims to ascertain the types of
arrangements that are currently in place between councils for regional or
cooperative library services across NSW and to explore other possibilities for
management models.
·
Guidelines
for E-Collections in NSW Public Libraries: The focus for this project is to identify e-collection usage patterns by format
(e-books, e-audio, e-magazines), identify factors that affect usage of
e-collections, and identify current e-reader or tablet usage patterns across
NSW public libraries. The project outcomes include good practice guidelines for
e-collection development, display, access, and collection evaluation.
Evidence
Each project in the program has its own set of requirements. The methods for
managing and delivering on the project were designed to be specific to each
project. This may be a partnership with another organization, use of an
external contractor, in-house research, or a combination of these methods. The
research committee identified evidence for each project through stakeholder
knowledge of issues of importance to the NSW public library network where
information was lacking, out of date, or not specific to the NSW public library
network.
Prior to the start of the Mobile Library
and Outreach Services project, State Library staff had identified a lack of comprehensive
relevant literature on mobile and outreach services for Australian and
specifically NSW public libraries. There were few relevant documents available
and none that comprehensively covered both mobile and outreach services. The
project group undertook a literature review to assess the information available
and gather relevant information to inform the project outcomes. It became clear
that a NSW specific publication, looking more broadly at outreach services as
well as mobile library services, was required. The group collected evidence
from public library stakeholders through an online survey to all library
managers with visits and interviews to provide detailed information for 10 case
study libraries on their range of outreach services.
The Regional Library Models project looks
at council agreements and arrangements in the delivery of library services. The
need for this project arose after a 2011 change to Section 12 of the Library
Act enabled councils to propose alternate models for regional library
management, and the change failed to lead to any applications from councils.
The premise was that councils may be unsure of the type of arrangements they
could enter into. The project group needed evidence to prove or disprove this
premise and research to present possibilities for future management models.
The State Library engaged the Centre for
Local Government (CLG) at the University of Technology Sydney to undertake
research to explore and recommend regional management models for NSW public libraries.
A literature review was undertaken to look at current arrangements in NSW
public libraries and explore models throughout Australia and internationally.
CLG conducted in-depth interviews (11 in
total) with a representative selection of staff from the State Library and
relevant staff associated with regional and cooperative library models from
across NSW. CLG distributed an online survey to all library managers across
NSW. The survey received 58 responses from 45 libraries, including 24 from
stand-alone libraries, 31 from libraries involved in some form of sharing
arrangement, 14 based on a regional library model, 13 based on a cooperative
library model, and four based on other types of models.
Evidence collected in the Local Studies
Audit showed that the combined collection of local studies material across the
state is at least 2.9 million items and over 21,329 metres. For the libraries
that hold these materials, almost 50% have no records on Trove (a national
database of digitized library material), with less than 16% of local studies
collections being fully searchable on Trove. Over 40% of the councils surveyed
have no digitization program, and there is very limited born digital content
being collected.
The audit identified the following issues:
- Some local studies collection material is
digitized but not always online with clear and accurate rights statements.
- Little born digital content is added to local
studies collections, meaning limited recent material is collected.
- Few collections have had significance
assessments.
- Inadequate collecting occurs for languages other
than English and about multicultural and Indigenous communities.
- In a small number of areas, there is no local
studies collecting taking place.
- Some collections have many boxes or shelves of
material stored with no detailed descriptions of content and in some
instances little knowledge of content, which may mean that some of the
uncatalogued material does not deserve the storage space it is using.
The E-collections Project focused on 13
NSW public libraries with high use of e-resources by clients. Library staff
were interviewed about the performance of their e-collections. These libraries
all had turnover rates above the state-wide median of 3.46 loans per annum for
these collections based on the 2012–13 data.
For the libraries with higher turnover
rates:
- collections are actively developed and tailored,
- e-collections are visible on the library website
homepage,
- the titles are accessible in the catalogue
(except in two instances),
- staff are trained in how to use and download
e-books and e-audio,
- staff actively promote e-books in the library,
and in many there are signs to highlight the availability of e-books, and
- training is provided to clients in how to use and
download e-books and e-audio.
Key factors emerged as a result of the
project. Compulsory training for staff and optional training for the public
appears to have a positive effect on use. This ensures that all staff realize
that assisting the public with e-resources is part of their responsibility.
Providing library clients with introductory sessions on e-readers and tablets
that includes assistance with the use of their own devices appears to encourage
use of library e-collections.
In all of these situations, the evidence
was compelling because it came directly from those providing the services the
research committee was exploring. The beauty of the research program is that
the State Library has ease of access to the public library stakeholders.
Implementation
The Local Studies Audit has resulted in
the State Library facilitating a course for NSW public library staff in digital
repository management and in an increased focus on advocating the importance of
standards and policy at the local level. The Mobile Library and Outreach
Service project has delivered a report with case studies and guidelines for
mobile and outreach services. As of September 2015, the Regional Library Models
project is entering its final phase, which will see the development of
recommended regional and cooperative models. The E-Collections Project has
identified key practices that libraries can implement to increase the use of
these collections.
Outcome
With many of these projects, the outcomes
are far reaching and may not be able to be implemented immediately due to
external factors. However, the reports and recommendations are made available
for NSW Councils via the State Library of NSW website so that the information
is easily accessible when required.
Reflection
The approach of using evidence to inform
practice delivers long-term benefits to NSW public libraries and provides
access to research that no individual library could otherwise afford. There is
no shortage of research needs, and because the projects provide practical
outcomes, the State Library has access to a large pool of willing participants
from public libraries. There is a tension between this enthusiasm and receiving
sufficient responses from the subjects. The projects require a diverse
state-wide view to develop evidence based models of relevance to all public
libraries. Another challenge for the State Library is encouraging uniform
take-up of project recommendations by councils.
These projects deliver a state-wide
overview that enables big picture planning. The research projects and groups
provide a valuable community of interest, delivering positive and usable
outcomes, and will be a key factor in a successful future for NSW public
libraries.
References
National Library of Australia. Trove. Retrieved from http://trove.nla.gov.au/
New South Wales Government. Library Act 1939. Retrieved from http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/viewtop/inforce/act+40+1939+FIRST+0+N/
New South Wales Government. Library Regulation 2010. Retrieved from http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/view/inforce/subordleg+445+2010+cd+0+N
State Library of New South Wales. (2015). Retrieved
from http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/