Peak Bodies Forum
The Peak Bodies Forum is convened by the National Library to share information about matters affecting all library sectors and to discuss strategies for collaborative action. The group met in early May and discussions focussed on five key areas.
Improving Library Infrastructure allowed for the sharing of information about progress on matters such as the National Licensing Proposal (now ERA), the ALIA – Public Libraries Australia partnership, Library and Information Week, and the Collections Council of Australia.
Expanding the Resource Base provided an opportunity to discuss a range of projects opening up resources to library users. The newspaper digitisation project, which aims to put major out-of-copyright Australian newspapers online, is one of these projects, but the meeting also heard about Libraries Australia developments, People Australia, Music Australia’s agreement with Destra to provide links to contemporary music, the cultural sector’s OpenSearch federated search project, and an initiative in the health field to improve access to clinical resources.
The Regulation and Copyright part of the agenda looked at Internet filtering, with staff from the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts joining the meeting to provide additional information on the Government’s proposal for the distribution of filtering software. It was made clear that the use of such software is intended to be optional, and the major focus is on assisting parents to understand the issues and implement the software on home PCs. The Forum also discussed the 2006 controversy over the banning of two books, and ALIA agreed to coordinate a library sector response to a discussion paper recently released by the Attorney-General’s Department.
ALIA spoke about its plans for a library education summit in a discussion on Workforce Planning issues. It is apparent that many library sectors are facing issues relating to recruitment, retirement, succession planning and professional development.
A discussion of New Directions alerted some delegates to the impending implementation of Resource Description and Access (RDA) to replace AACR2. Deirdre Kiorgaard, Director of Bibliographic Standards at the NLA and chair of the Joint Steering Committee, gave the meeting a brief introduction to what this will mean for libraries. (For more information on RDA, see the Australian Committee on Cataloguing’s page at http://www.nla.gov.au/lis/stndrds/grps/acoc/rda.html.)
Finally, the forum members discussed the operation of the meeting, agreeing it is a useful strategy and information-sharing opportunity. It was confirmed that the group will meet annually, and CSIRO will be invited to send a representative to future meetings. Papers and the minutes from the meeting will be made available from the forum’s website at http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/peakbod/index.html.
Library peak bodies represented at the forum were:
- Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia
- TAFE Libraries Australia
- Health Libraries Australia
- Public Libraries Australia
- Australian Library and Information Association
- Council of Australian University Librarians
- National and State Libraries Australasia
- Australian Government Libraries Information Network
- Australian School Library Association
- Australian Law Librarians Association
- library educators (there is no formal group for educators).
In addition, the Honourable George Brandis, SC, the Minister for Arts and Sport, joined the meeting prior to the lunch break for a short but useful discussion on the role of the group, and met many of the members over lunch.
Sandra Henderson
Executive Support Branch



