National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 59| October 2002


Council of Australian State Libraries
New Priorities for 2003–2005

The Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) has recently reviewed its strategic objectives and developed a new three-year plan for 2003–2005.

CASL is the peak body representing the National, State and Territory libraries and is chaired by Ms Frances Awcock, State Librarian and CEO at the State Library of Victoria. The State Librarians/CEOs from each library meet three times per year and communicate frequently via email, promoting a wide range of collaborative initiatives amongst members and with libraries from many sectors. CASL also represents libraries to government and other bodies outside the library industry.

A number of Working Groups and Project Groups have been established to manage joint projects and to report back to CASL on a range of issues including the relationship between libraries and the education sector, standardising performance measures, consortium purchasing of online databases, coordinated public programs, reference issues and more.

The new three-year plan sets out the key priorities for CASL and strategies to achieve these priorities. These are:

1.  Promote and advance the provision, awareness and use of library and information services
     Strategies:

2.  Strengthen the national information infrastructure through cross-sectoral collaboration
     Strategies:

3.  Collaborate with the public library network to improve services to the community
     Strategies:

4.  Formulate common plans, policies and programs for library services
     Strategies:

5.  Represent the interests of libraries in matters of public interest
     Strategies:

As part of the review that led to the new Key Priorities for 2003–2005, CASL looked at what had been achieved by CASL Libraries in the last 3 years. Some of the figures that stood out were :

CASL’s major projects for the next few months include:

There is also ongoing work in many areas including the maintenance of the Australian Pictorial Thesaurus.

Information about CASL can be found at www.casl.org.au or by emailing casl@slv.vic.gov.au.

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