From: Stephanie McDonald [library@mountisa.qld.gov.au]
Sent: Wednesday, 14 August 2002 9:41 AM
To: ecita.sen@aph.gov.au
Subject: Role of Libraries in the online environment

		Electronic resources are of course a gold mine of
information. Unfortuneately from a small public library perspective many
quality subscription based resources are very expensive and out of
reach. One such example that comes to mind is Australian Standards. More
and more people are becoming interested in AS and are approaching the
library for access (which we do not have). The public library
subscription to AS would be a wonderful resource to have access to but
is somewhere around the $8000 mark and would use up the entire reference
budget (and more) for this financial year. 

		State Library of Queensland is in the process of working
out Queensland wide deals with suppliers and small public libraries
certainly appreciate this. This sort of help needs to continue and maybe
spread to a Federal level. 

		Free resources such as Queensland legislation reprints
are a fantastic tool which saves much space on reference shelves. I am a
little wary that free Internet databases will mean the public are
bypassing libraries as they are able to access information at home. If
demand for reference/informational materials decreases -dwindling
funding will continue to dwindle. Situations such as eLIB (Australian
Bureau of Statistics) are great as people can still access a wide range
material from home but other material must be viewed from a
participating library. 

		With projects such as OPAL and Rural Connect the
majority of Queensland libraries now have the infrastructure to support
an online environment. The public library certainly needs to take on the
role of educating and assisting the public in accessing Internet. We
should also take on the role of promoting quality resources as the
Internet is chaotic and full of deadends if you are not familiar with
it.

		Stephanie McDonald
		Team Leader - Library Services
		Mount Isa City Council Library
		Phone 07 47444266
		Email library@mountisa.qld.gov.au