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Role of GLINN

 THE VALUE AND ROLE OF INFORMATION SERVICES
PROVIDED BY NSW GOVERNMENT AGENCY LIBRARIES

Committee  Background  Constitution 
 Information Professionals  Corporate Intelligence  
Information Networks  Specialised Collections 
The Future of Libraries

 

Committee

Background

The NSW Government uses information for its core businesses to facilitate program administration, policy development and implementation, and public sector management. Government agency libraries contribute vital information to government officers who develop and evaluate these policies and programs.

Government Libraries and Information Network in New South Wales (GLINN), was established in 1982 as the Government Special Libraries Group.

GLINN has brought together government agency information professionals and fostered:

• contribution to public sector management through professional expertise and subject specialisation
• understanding the importance of special libraries in government agencies
• recognition of their unique subject collections and their valuable contributions to Australia's Distributed National Collection
• professional networking and regular meetings on topics of interest to all members
• sharing of services by networking, thus reducing administration and costs
• liaison with the State Library of NSW in developing information policy for NSW
• a directory of GLINN member services available on the Internet

GLINN can offer professional advice to government agencies in the provision of information services to clients.

GLINN provides a formal avenue for state agency libraries to co-operate on a wide range of issues, achieving efficiencies such as lower costs and timeliness, and a whole of government approach to information services.

Information Professionals

Information professionals:

• through their networks, are at the leading edge of information delivery
• are able to provide subject specific information, tailored to their clients, giving agencies timely access to up to the minute information resources
• have the in-depth knowledge of the organisation and its programs, combined with knowledge of external information resources, to provide extensive subject expertise, enabling information professionals to match external information to specific client needs
• analyse clients' information needs, filtering extraneous material, providing specific and timely information
• provide training to clients, so they may take advantage of information delivery through the latest technologies, directly to the clients work station
• provide professional advice to their agency on information management and information issues such as copyright

Information professionals contribute significantly to the corporate intelligence of their agencies. Their professional view of the organisation gives them an expert knowledge of its functions and key business. Library professionals are sources of knowledge on:

• the information resources of their agencies
• the information needs of agency employees
• the information needs of agency clients
• the market for information products in agency subject areas

and as such often provide the first point of contact for internal and external clients.

A government agency library collection is part of the corporate memory of the organisation. The preservation of collections matched with the information professional's expertise provides a valuable resource for research. Unique collections of published and unpublished government information are made available through agency libraries, thus providing access to the heritage of New South Wales.

GLINN supports the implementation of standard information technologies across government agencies. We believe that electronic networking between agencies will enhance:

• access to the latest technology
• sharing of information between agencies
• access to library collections
• public access to government information

The increase in information available to government agencies through the use of these networks will see agency information professionals utilising their specialist subject knowledge to filter information so that only relevant information reaches the client. Professional skills in seeking and retrieving information will be highly sought.

Specialised Collections

Government agency libraries:

• collect comprehensively within subject specific areas
• allow centralised access to subject specific collections, thus reducing duplication agency wide
• may be repositories for unique agency materials, which may not be published for general distribution. As part of their collection policies, some government agency libraries collect in-house material. This may be available to external clients at the discretion of the agency.
• Collect special materials, eg maps, videos, which may not be available through inter-library loan and will therefore be inaccessible to the organisation, unless acquired and maintained by the library
• using the specialised resources in their collections, may provide information services to external clients such as the general public, industry or research bodies

The Future of Libraries

Rapid developments in information technology are making it possible for users of information to access greater quantities of data on any particular subject. The NSW Government Sector, as both a producer and consumer of information, will experience an increasing need for the services of information professionals to manage this 'information revolution'.

Although much of the information held in government agency library collections is expected to remain in books and journals, many people see the future in the 'virtual library' which has little or no physical collection, but acquires all its information and provides all its services electronically. In this scenario, information professionals will not only continue their role of selecting and organising information sources and making them accessible to users (perhaps by means of customised home pages on the Internet) but will also have a vital role in training information users to use the electronic sources effectively. It is more efficient to use information professionals, with their specialist knowledge of how information is stored, indexed and retrieved, to do complex or urgent searches.

The library profession is at the leading edge of the development of information products. Many of the products now available to the end user, such as online databases, dial up access to other organisations, and bulletin boards, have been used by information professionals for many years. Information professionals have been the designers and promoters of these products. As expert users of these systems, information professionals are ideally placed to assist their organisations with the development of their own information products.

Government information professionals are expanding their current roles of identifying, collecting, indexing and making available the publications of their agencies to cover the production of electronic information. They are facing the challenge of setting policies and procedures for choosing, producing, updating, finding, copying, charging for, and archiving electronic information in ways that are consistent with the requirements of privacy, security, freedom of information, copyright and guarantees of service.

GLINN members have a longstanding commitment to networking formally and informally with other libraries. Agency libraries are positioned to take an integral role in improving the expanding government information network.

Published by the Government Library and Information Network of NSW, Sydney, 1996.

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