National Library of Australia Strategic Directions for 2006–08
In January 2006, the National Library of Australia published a new directions statement. The statement articulates the strategies the Library will pursue over the next three years to achieve its goal of improving public access to information through the provision of easy-to-use, unmediated online services.
The new statement builds on the Library’s goal of enabling all Australians to find and get the information they need to help them with their research, study, work, business or leisure activities. There will be a strong emphasis on improving the options presented to users for getting copies of the resources they find through Libraries Australia and other online services.
Partnerships with organisations that can help the Library broaden access to online resources and help the Library develop its Australian collections will continue. A recent example is the very successful partnership between the Library and Yahoo that has resulted in access to contemporary photographic images in the Flickr service for users searching PictureAustralia.
User communities will also benefit with a new focus on involvement through a wide range of online activities. A feature will be the provision of online spaces for communities of interest to contribute to the development of the Library’s collections and to share information and discuss issues based on their use of our collections.
Directions for 2006–2008 acknowledges that the Library needs to become more visible in the information seeking world and describes the ways in which we will accomplish this.
Jasmine Cameron
Assistant Director-General,
Office of the Executive and Coordination Support