Kia ora tâtou
E ngâ mana, e ngâ reo
Rau rangatira mâ
Tçnâ koutou, tçnâ koutou
Kia ora tâtou katoa

Good morning everyone. It is a pleasure to be here today to take part in the first New Zealand Public Libraries Summit.

All those here today represent key players who have a role to play in charting the course for public libraries.

We must take this opportunity to ensure they not only remain viable, but continue to be a cornerstone for New Zealanders information accessing services.

Today I will be providing the Government’s perspective of the value of public libraries and their contribution to New Zealand.

The Government will be taking a very keen interest in the ideas generated and approaches proposed from this Summit.

Before I move on, I would just note that although unfortunately our keynote speaker the Honourable David Lammy, the UK’s Minister for Culture could not be here in person, it was great to hear his words through the marvels of modern technology.

A warm welcome to Mr Chris Batt, Chief Executive of the UK Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and also of course all of our other international guests.

It’s fantastic that you could make time to come and take part in this important gathering.

To set the scene, the Strategic Framework for Public Libraries, launched last year, set out a guide for the development of the public libraries sector over the next ten years.

It proposed areas for the sector’s development to achieve the vision of “Public libraries engaging, inspiring and informing citizens and helping to build strong communities”.

This Summit will explore local and national approaches to achieve this vision. Ultimately, we are here to determine what is needed to get “best value” from our public libraries.

Alignment Between National and Local Outcomes

The Government has developed three broad policy priorities to help build a better, more secure, future for all New Zealanders. These key priorities for 2006 to 2016 are:

• Economic Transformation;

• Families, Young and Old; and
• National Identity.

Local authorities for their part, are required to undertake a community outcomes process every six years. A recent analysis of the key themes identified in the community outcomes of long-term council community plans for the same period revealed that the most commonly mentioned themes were:

• the economy;

• the community;
• arts, culture and recreation; and
• urban and natural environments.

The similarities between the Government's priorities and the key themes identified in the community outcomes process are clear. And it’s not surprising.

While central government and local government have two distinct roles, they are both here to promote the wellbeing of communities – economic, social, cultural, and environmental.

Importance of Public Libraries – National Outcomes

Central government recognises the importance of public libraries in our society and the key contribution public libraries make and can, I believe, in future make in delivering on our national priorities.

As Minister Tizard has touched on, we want New Zealand to become, indeed – it is essential that New Zealand becomes a strong knowledge-based economy and are committed to our families, young and old, having the support and choices needed to be able to reach their full potential within that economy.

We are also passionate about New Zealanders being able to take pride in who and what we are, through experiencing and celebrating our arts and cultural diversity, and through our understanding of our history and heritage.

Public libraries play a key role in achieving all of these high level goals. At the most essential level, they provide access to information for citizens from all walks of life.

They also support education, recreation, literacy and lifelong learning for all citizens. Our public libraries have been an important part of the knowledge infrastructure of New Zealand.

Through the services they provide, they have helped to invest in an informed, skilled and innovative population, which can only improve New Zealand’s performance economically and socially.

There are of course many challenges and opportunities offered by the ever-increasing advances in technology and the digital world that we now live in.

A key role of public libraries is helping to bring information and communications technology closer to all New Zealanders - making it more accessible – in every sense.

For what its worth I remain, convinced that unique interactive experience of the reader and printed book will survive the digital onslaught – but equally the future relevance of Libraries as core local facilities will depend in significant part on how effectively they grapple with and embrace the digital media.

Launched in 2005, as Judith notes, the Government-led Digital Strategy provides a framework to bring the benefits of digital information and communications technology to all New Zealanders.

The Digital Strategy seeks to make New Zealand a world leader at using information and technology. This is a key to New Zealand realising its economic, social and cultural goals.

Public libraries have an important role to play in the Digital Strategy. They make key contributions to the three action areas of the Digital Strategy:

• unlocking, creating, and providing access to, digital content;

• developing people’s skills and confidence to use and participate in information and communications technology; and
• providing affordable means for people to connect to, and use, information and communications technology.

Importance of Public Libraries – Local Outcomes

Libraries are, of course, a long-standing and valued part of local government’s provision of services to communities. And they make an important contribution to communities’ social, economic and cultural wellbeing.

They provide a tremendous opportunity for interface with the community. They are, if you like, a lifeline of information and knowledge into local communities through the services and information they provide.

Under the Local Government Act, the community outcomes process requires each council to identify its priority community outcomes – or more precisely - what communities rate as their priorities for future services, facilities, amenities and standards.

This provides opportunities for communities to discuss what they most need or want for their wellbeing. This is an essential element of the new local government framework – communities playing a key role in shaping their councils’ decision-making.

The essential mechanism connecting community outcomes to council activities is the long-term council community plan.

The LTCCP, among other things, sets out how councils will contribute to achieving the outcomes identified by the community. This, of course, includes community outcomes relevant to public library services.

Councils make decisions on their investment in public libraries through their long-term council community plan, and annual plan, processes.

It cannot be underestimated how important it is for councils to undertake, and for communities to engage in, these consultation processes.

A high level of community involvement helps to ensure that councils continue to develop a clear picture of the needs and aspirations of their communities.

It also means that councils are armed with good information on which to base their decisions on public library investment. I would encourage councils to continue their great work on engaging their communities through these processes.

For a very long time, indeed as our guest speaker noted, for 150 years in fact, our libraries have been building and strengthening relationships with communities.

They provide information to communities, and support education and learning. They are repositories and disseminators for local history. They are also points of integration for councils and for central government information and services.

In this information revolution age, many of our libraries are breaking down barriers to people using information and communications technology and accessing valuable information.

To give an example, and as Minister Tizard touched on, the pilot phase of the People’s Network project will provide free access to the internet, email and word processing applications in selected libraries across the country. Library professionals will also be on-hand to provide valuable on-site assistance to users.

Regardless of the increasing virtual environment, public libraries provide a place where people can physically gather and access resources for all manner of purposes and also – critically engage with each other.

So, they also assist in the promotion and building of community participation and development. I would echo David Lammy's point we must not forget that a "motivated, inspired and engaged staff," are essential to this experience.

So, it is not surprising to find that in a 2003 survey of cultural activities and spending, visiting public libraries was the second most popular cultural activity of New Zealanders - 39 percent of the population visited a public library in a four-week reference period.

I am sure that the “free membership” provision for local residents under the Local Government Act plays some part in encouraging this level of public engagement, though libraries are continuing to be innovative in meeting the needs of their communities.

Public libraries also aid local democracy. They provide a place for councils to provide important information, such as key council consultation documents, to the community.

This helps put communities in touch with important information to allow them to guide their councils’ decision-making, and to be involved at key stages of local government planning.

The contribution of public libraries cannot be underestimated.

Closing

New Zealand public libraries have played and will continue to play a key role in contributing to economic, social and cultural goals, at both national and local levels.

It is our shared responsibility to help develop and invest in our libraries to ensure that they continue their invaluable role.

With the rapid changes in technology and the expectations of communities, libraries are doing a good job of adapting and evolving to ensure they remain relevant to, and of value in, an increasingly digital age.

It is I believe - vital that they continue to do so and that they do continue to be those seriously dangerous places that Judith talked about!

I look forward to the key findings of the Summit and to some inspiring points of action from which we can move forward.

Thank you and enjoy your time here.

Nô reira, tçnâ koutou,
tçnâ koutou
Kia ora tâtou katoa