Page 981 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 2018
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of our libraries is literacy and learning for life, and that is why the ACT government delivers this essential service to our community.
There are still some members of our community who need a little more help than others, and this is where a library is for everyone. It is a place that can ensure all Canberrans can access information, learning and technology and it enables everyone to feel part of the community in which they live. Libraries have always been about lifelong learning and self-education, from the time when the predecessors of public libraries in Australia, the mechanics institutes, taught industrial workers to read and write. Libraries have been the source of information and informal learning for all.
Traditionally libraries have held books from which all of this literacy and learning was accessed. But libraries in the ACT have not remained only a “books in, books out” service. Our libraries have adapted to the changing world we live in and now provide learning opportunities through books, digital and online resources, lifelong learning programs, access to technology, social activities and community meeting spaces.
We have nine public libraries in the ACT. The ACT government also provides the very important ACT Heritage Library, which collects, preserves and makes accessible to the community the stories and documentary history of Canberra and Canberrans. Our public library branches are in most cases located with or adjacent to shopping and other community activities. We also celebrate the many other libraries in the ACT, particularly, as noted, in our educational institutions, here in the ACT Assembly, the parliamentary library, and many others housed within organisations which have national representation here in the ACT.
Unlike many other jurisdictions that have one large, central library and small branch libraries dotted around an area, the ACT has large branches in the major town centres, providing large collections, lots of computers and technology and good floor space for learning programs and community activity. Our libraries are generally located in or near shopping precincts, such as at Woden, Dickson, Kippax, Civic, Kingston and Gungahlin, or where other community activities occur, such as at Belconnen, so that busy library members can tie their library visit in with other activities. Three of our public libraries—Tuggeranong, Erindale and Gungahlin—are collocated with senior colleges, which introduces students to the vast opportunities available through public library use.
In the last financial year the library made over 2.5 million loans and had around two million visits. Not everyone who visits our libraries does so to borrow a book. They come to use the library’s spaces to access wi-fi, meet friends, browse and read newspapers, attend a learning program or a meeting. In the ACT we have one of the highest levels of membership in Australia, with 65 per cent of Canberrans registered as library members. The national standard, as set by the Australian Library and Information Association, is 51 per cent.
Our libraries currently offer a collection of about 610,000 items, including hard copy books, e-books and e-audio, hard copy and digital magazines, CDs and audio books. The use of the library’s electronic resources has grown by 20 per cent over the past
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