There have been substantial changes in the labour market over the past few years and survey results indicate 60% of staff will leave public library service over the next decade. While this creates opportunities for library staff, limited training budgets and a focus on compliance and specific library skills training have led to a gap in the formal…

The author describes the aptly-named "Better Beginnings" early childhood literacy project. Conducted by the State Library of Western Australia, sponsored by the WA State Government and Rio Tinto Limited, and closely monitored by Edith Cowan University, "Better Beginnings" has been successful from the outset, with proven…

The Library of Birmingham (LoB) is a 193 million British pounds project designed to provide a new space for lifelong learning and knowledge growth, a physical and virtual portal for Birmingham's citizens to the wider world. In cooperation with a range of private, public, and third-sector bodies, as well as individual citizens, the library, due to…

The nature of learning in a public library is relevant to what place e-learning and social networking technologies might have there. That a public library aims to provide something for everyone is also important. Alice Springs Public Library (ASPL) is a place of learning; it is also a crowded and composite space. The use ASPL could make of the…

Co-author of the popular titles "Booktalking Bonanza" and "The Early Literacy Kit", Betsy Diamant-Cohen brings together 18 examples of successful outreach partnerships that children's librarians and administrators can adapt to their own situations. Contributors from the U.S and Canada explain how they partnered with schools,…

This article uses Wellington City Libraries as the basis for a case study of a future-focused, reorganized staffing structure in a public library network. It covers the change from why, how, departure from a building-based hierarchical structure, new staff and line responsibilities, union involvement, implications for staff training to culture and…

Through assistive technology, individualized support, and community-based activities, the Inclusive Libraries Initiative is increasing the capacity of rural libraries in Northeast Alberta to attract and serve patrons with disabilities, particularly developmental disabilities. Local public libraries are important natural supports for adults with…

This document examines the launch of the Smart Cape Access Project in Cape Town, South Africa. In a city where more than 80 percent of the citizens do not have access to computers and fewer still can access the Internet, public officials set out to build a "smart city," where "informed people could connect to the world and to each other by the…

This document includes the text of presentations given at the First Binational Conference on Libraries in California and Baja California, as well as minutes from four roundtables held at the conference. Following a prologue and a brief background on the conference, the following presentations are included: (1) "State Support for Public…

Place, as a metaphor, can be experienced in different ways, existing or created. If created, space can be Foucault's "placeless place", a utopia. A place that exists, however, can be a heterotopic space. A heterotopia is what we as individuals interpret it to be: it can be a space for reconstituting the self, rewriting the scripts of…

The historical and contemporary involvement of the public library in non-traditional education is presented with the focus on adult basic education. Although most of the programs cited are in the United States, frequent references are made to international applications as described in United Nations reports and foreign case studies. Information…

This document includes papers on public libraries which were presented at the 1985 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) conference. The first paper, "International Guidelines for Public Libraries," is the report of an IFLA working group and it includes guidelines in six areas: public library services; media of…

Two papers on mobile libraries were presented at the 1983 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) conference. In "The Development, Tasks, and Organization of Mobile Libraries in West Germany," Horst Buschendorf describes the history of mobile libraries in West Germany since 1926 and notes that there are currently 150 such…

This document includes papers on libraries serving the general public which were presented at the 1986 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) conference. The first paper, "Annual Reports of Sections and Round Tables of the Division of Libraries Serving the General Public" includes the following annual reports for fiscal year…

This document contains two papers on library services in prisons which were presented at the 1985 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) conference. In the paper, "Library Service in Prisons/Correctional Institutions," Phyllis I. Dalton (United States) proposes that the IFLA Section on Libraries Serving Disadvantaged…