Greater digital, social focus for Invercargill Public Library

The Invercargill Public Library will soon feel less like a book repository with occasional activities, and more a place for developing digital literacy and research skills along with social connection.

That is the upshot of an updated library policy endorsed by the Invercargill City Council’s community wellbeing committee on Tuesday.

The impact of technology and the increasing divide between rich and poor meant libraries were more important than ever, to provide equitable access to information technology and community spaces, and to ensure literacy in all its forms was accessible for all, the council’s manager of business transition (venues and events) Richard McWha​ said in a report.

It would be a continuing, evolutionary process but among the earliest changes would be digital activities previously in the background becoming more prominent.

READ MORE:
* Lament of a Papers Past tragic
* When the joyful and the challenging entwine
* Libraries try to increase diversity in workforce
* New research reveals digital divide disadvantages poor teens

The library could target some programmes and services at identified groups who were not current users of library services “to restore equity of provision”.

This required the library to cross the digital divide, to enable access through the provision of technology, technological support and free wi-fi.

As for lending services, these could be broadened to include items other than books, creating “a library of things’’.

People used to go to a library to find information from books in the knowledge they would be 99% accurate, McWha said.

Now, however, there was no shortage of information online and what people were seeking was the ability to interpret it through a critical lens, to distinguish what was real from what was not.

Asked if this meant library staff would be fact checking for them, he said: “We are not, nor ever should be, the information police.”

But the staff would be able to help with not just accessing information, but to provide tools for critical thinking.

Cr Alex Crackett said for most people, certainly the younger generations, their first source of information was already the smartphone in their pocket, and the library needed to react to the fact that they weren’t turning to books as a source of truth.

Cr Tom Campbell fully supported the new strategy. “But I hope (the library) will still have quiet spaces where people can go and read books.”

McWha told councillors that people would also continue to come to the library not only for learning and literacy, but for social connection.

For some people it could be a stable, warm refuge to be visited on a daily basis and that in itself was an important social function.

“A place of quiet rest is as valuable as anything else,’’ he said.

Two councillors with library backgrounds, Lesley Soper and mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook each noted the groundbreaking work that the library’s former longtime children’s librarian Elizabeth Miller had done to broaden its use for the city’s children.

The planned changes would continue to involve consultation with groups of stakeholders – those who helped the council understand what the community needed and wanted – and partners, who would help deliver it.