Just short of a year ago, while addressing a conference bringing together all stakeholders in the domain of libraries entitled Maltese Libraries – What Future?, I referred to our times as the golden age of libraries.
Conscious of the weak points that local libraries have and which need to be addressed, I stressed that as long as the basics of the library profession are being practised and, consequently, libraries remain relevant to their communities, this is the time that librarians have at their disposal tools through which they can be creative and mould new services with their clients.
Professional librarians have the opportunity to use a variety of methodologies in their mission to link information sources to the right information consumers.
Traditionally, the library was the repository of books waiting for users to indulge in their contents, but the changing needs of societies and the rapid advances in technology are shaping a different operational model. Upon its appointment in 2012, the Malta Libraries’ senior management team focused on strategies that will gradually transform the libraries under their care to meet such changes.
One of the founding pillars of the profession is that of identifying suitable information sources. In its acquisitions policy, Malta Libraries recently shifted from the macro Maltese society approach to a micro community one. This is due to the differing realties of the libraries involved, whereby the central public library has a clientele that is representative of Maltese society while the satellite libraries provide services to a specific homogeneous community.
These realities are reflected in the acquisition lists collated through various survey tools and received centrally for inclusion. Once such information sources are acquired, these are made accessible to the public through their inclusion in the library catalogue.
A general misconception that prevails is that a publication is processed by being listed in an inventory. The creation of a library catalogue is based on a science which describes a publication according to internationally-endorsed standards. Such a record is retrievable through the creation of the right access points or tags through the use of controlled vocabularies that reflect a whole corpus of academic research in the area of psychology, specifically information-seeking behaviour.
Malta Libraries addressed this issue through an internal reform exercise by centralising this core professional activity and investing in further training of its professional librarians. Through the creation of a professional catalogue of itsholdings, Malta Libraries is empowering its users by providing a resource discovery tool rather than being dependant on staff’s memory on an ad hoc basis.
The principle of matching information sources to the right audience discussed above intrinsically necessitates the librarian to go beyond the immediate confines of a library building. It is impossible and ineffective to duplicate efforts carried out by other government entities and NGOs by incorporating such material within the library’s holdings. Malta Libraries’ strategy is to network with such institutions and social groups and offer the library resources in terms of space and community for the former who wish to reach out to a public or even build an audience.
Consequently, Malta Libraries is maximising public funds entrusted to it by focusing on issues and public segments that are out of coverage while simultaneously retaining the principle of facilitating the process of bringing together an information source and its consumer.
If used proactively within the community, the library space lies at the very core of citizenship. Fostering reading habits and assisting the formal education sector through the provision of reading material and additional educational programmes will aid in the creation of an instructed workforce that will be required tomorrow.
Libraries can do a lot in changing public opinion and trends
However, this is only part of the equation. Active community citizenship today means having a sense of belonging in that particular community through participation in events, discussions and social groups forming the community. For this reason, Malta Libraries value stakeholder relationships such as with local government because, through such synergies, the final result is added value to society.
On the other hand, the public library creates its own events to commemorate or celebrate occasions and as part of ongoing programmes. All these efforts, in which our public library participates, contribute to create information democracy in the country.
On the same lines, in the coming months, Malta Libraries will be participating in the creation of digital communities. It has invested heavily in the upgrade of its library management system which, at the time of writing, is undergoing testing through the lengthy process of data migration.
This new software will allow for better library management through the use of inbuilt tools and will also result in an array of new user services such as descriptive enrichments like publication images and reviews, social network plug-ins and the introduction of e-books. With the provision of digital media, the public library will be providing its services to another segment of the population that, to date, has only been a potential user.
The public library incorporates a unit entitled Special Needs Section within its structure. The services offered through this section are mainly focused on audio books being distributed through postal mail to visually-impaired users. Malta Libraries is restructuring the service to have an Inclusion Coordination Unit that will focus on the procedures in force and the media and services available. The remit of this unit will be to commence by converting these local audio books from analogue to digital. Additionally, it would also convert such material to other media, like Braille.
However, the unit’s core remit will be to ensure that materials and services are provided to include any needs rather than segregating users according to their needs.
Running on parallel rails to the public library is the National Library whose primary aim is to preserve all the Melitensia publications and make them accessible to future generations. To date, the focus has always been storage of these publications and restoration when required.
However, Malta Libraries is trying to adopt a different approach because, as everyone is aware, prevention is better than cure. We are redesigning the building in terms of use and workflows so that the primary focus will be preservation. This means creating a healthy storage environment with the right checks and balances while, at the same time, maximising the use of surrogates mainly through digitisation to keep originals in their stable storage environments.
Naturally, such as in all major projects, the implementation of this strategy will be staggered, with the initial step taken being the implementation of digitisation practices. This will be visible to the public shortly when a dedicated portal will be launched.
The main arguments revolving around the National Library have to do with preservation and access. In its own right, this is a noble cause because individuals and institutions benefit from this service. The classic example is the reconstruction of the Times of Malta archives from the National Library holdings after the former’s destruction.
However, moving away from preservation issues and the core of academics that visit the National Library on a regular basis, the library has been proactive on various fronts including: creating awareness on the importance of cultural heritage to a young generation; holding exhibitions and other events such as public lectures on themes that are either in discussion or highlight a historical event and lobbying for the development of a Maltese cultural heritage portal.
This portal is intended to bring together individuals and institutions that are custodians of cultural heritage material by providing metadata of such artefacts in one resource discovery tool.
Libraries are generally perceived as buildings holding books whereby silence is the order of the day or, otherwise, a user will be ushered out by a stern-looking officer, usually seated behind a tall desk. This perception also dictates that book loans are the yardstick with which to measure effectiveness while upright spines on library shelves indicate professionalism.
Study areas and/or times are provided; libraries are meeting places whereby discussions and information dissemination activities flourish. This hustle and bustle environment at the moment cannot be maintained during all opening hours, even though positive feedback has been received in this regard.
Unfortunately, even upon invitation, the media is highly reluctant to disseminate this new aspect that our libraries are adopting. More often than not, library-related events remain unattended by the press and it’s up to Malta Libraries to use its limited resources, such as the social media, to market its services and promote its activities. It is also quite common that only issues that Malta Libraries still requires to address that are deemed newsworthy.
In this age of information, libraries can do a lot in changing public opinion and trends. Strategies are being designed and implemented for such to occur, though there will always be more that can be done. However, libraries’ efforts are not maximised if other stakeholders do not step in and assist in changing the public perception from ‘the library’ to ‘our library’.
Oliver Mamo is National Librarian and CEO of Malta Libraries.