Public Library Funding, Organisation and Status

Abstract

There are three topics of fundamental and increasing importance for Australian state and public libraries: overall financial pro­ vision, financial responsibility formulas, and influence within state bureaucracies. All three are central to the long term planning of these services. Financial progression or regression Australia's state and public libraries are in a vulnerable position, financially and organ­ isationally. They are not well equipped to withstand a period of financial stringency; nor are they well placed to move ahead as strongly as they should if public funding is substan­ tially increased. It is salutary to go back to the many submis­ sions to the Committee of Inquiry into Public Libraries in 1975 and see the emphasis given at that time to financial needs and the appeals to Canberra to help Australian public libraries with both recurrent and capital grants. Since that time the financial squeeze on state and public libraries has increased. Most state libraries were recently involved in assisting their state Treasuries to research the case for maintaining or changing their state's share of income-tax allocations which will be revised for the 1981/82 year.