It is common knowledge in Association circles (and beyond) that journalists start with statistics and then look for the story behind them.

What I want to focus on today is our ability as an Association, and to some extent as a sector to deal with that.

One of the main activities of Associations is as a source of information about the constituency it represents.

Our Association has a number of parties to which it has responsibility in this regard:

• to Governments and policy bodies
• to its members
• to the community

The key to getting the message across is the motive to listen -- and this comes back to the journalism approach of starting with the stats then moving to the story behind. it is much easier to catch attention with a snappy stat than a well-argued and presented position. however, it is essential to have the stats right -- well right enough not to get in the way of a good story -- and to have the substance behind the stats.

It is about establishing credibility.

It is about working from a sound research and data collection base -- facts not anecdotes or one off blockbusters.

It is about having policies which have been developed and endorsed by the sector for the sector.

It is about a strong representational base -- what is our base? -- our current membership, the library and information sector and the over 10 million Australians who use our library and information services? I suggest that we should be looking downstream to include all of those.

And that would of course influence what we determine to be the scope of our information resources and the stories we want to tell from those resources.

We have lots of stats. we have lots of really valuable research reports. What we are not doing is managing that information well to get the most benefit. I can't help thinking of the cobbler's shoeless children. And it makes our job a lot harder not having easily accessible valid information about our sector.

We are not as well-prepared as we should be to take advantage of opportunism -- an important component of lobbying and advocacy.

We do too much re-inventing of the wheel. We loose sight of seminal work.

We shouldn't forget the nuances, the serendipitous connections, the corporate goss.

But we are doing something about all that -- as a priority. Last year the chair of this session undertook a project for ALIA to do a first cut at identifying available library industry statistics for Australia. It included looking at stats collection in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, United States and the UN; and also by category of library.

I won't go into detail here on each of those. I would though like to pull out some of the key deficiencies found:

• No central collection and/or repository of current statistics on the sector which is easily and publicly available
• Differences or even inconsistencies in the categories of statistics collected within sectors and across sectors
• Few standard definitions of specific operations across and within sectors -- for example what does 'used a library' mean these days
• No nationally agreed performance measures
• Few substantial statistical sequences covering ten years or more
• And because of changes in organisational reporting stats are not necessarily reported or available

Now it may well be that this is not really a problem but I think we do need to think more as a sector about how we wish to present or profile the sector through statistics and research. Every library and information service keeps statistics about themselves for their own purposes. And those stats would be mostly quantitative. In taking a sectoral or national approach we should come up with ways that these can be obtained without placing too much of a burden on participants -- 'a day in the life of...' diary may be one way of doing that. And we need to marry the local needs with the national profile.

To give a very simple example: a campaign slogan for reinforcing the value of the library to the community (and ergo sustaining or increasing funding):

The stats:
In 1998-9 Federal State, Territory and local governments spent a total of $756.2 million on libraries and archives¹ -- these were the National, State and public libraries -- not libraries in schools, universities or hospitals.

Public or local government libraries received $412.1 million directly from local government.

The resident population in Australia in December 1998 was 18 848 016.²

To manipulate these into catchy stats: The spending on these libraries, which serve the broad needs of the whole community, therefore represents just over $40 a head or less than $1 a week per person.

The campaign evolves: "How good is that, you get all this for less than $1 a week. How good could it be for $2 a week."

But, we still need to have the story behind it, and that story should be qualitative as well as quantitative.

A European Commission workshop on the collection, analysis and use of library statistics in Luxembourg in December 1997, focused on the need for a statistical basis capable of producing indicators that describe the quality of services. They found:

"The inherent difficulties in generating consistent and comprehensive statistical information about libraries at the international level were recognised... However, there was agreement that the effort is justified because such data is necessary to inform policy debate. It is a generally accepted fact, that the frameworks and processes which exist in each country for the collation of such statistics often service a wider scope than the library service. ie. that information is collated for different purposes. Therefore, it was the general conclusion of the workshop that the responsibility for developing and promoting the use of consistent definitions in the assembly and exchange of library statistics lies with the profession..." (European Commission, 1997). ³

Participants at the European forum agreed that

"much of the data comprising the existing and available statistical collections about libraries describe the extent of library services rather than their achievements. Data which was easy to collect refers to available stock and other accountable information such as the number of staff. Producing more information about the quality of the service depends upon developing consistent definitions, and on expending more effort in collecting such information". (European Commission, 199http://www.alia.org.au/alia.org.au/speeches/alia2000.html#4">⁴

A number of ALIA activities are underway.

National office is now working on developing an ongoing statistical and research information resource or database which will assist the Association in:

• obtaining valid, informative and reliable data
• monitoring and documenting trends and changes over time
• being prepared to take up opportunities as they arise
• informing policies and data developed by and for the sector
• providing a reference resource to members (and fee based service to non members)
• advocating more effectively on behalf of members and the sector in general
• identifying gaps in important information/statistical or research areas

This is a huge project for a small organisation like ALIA. We are not going to collect everything but we do want to know what is where and how it can be accessed.

Earlier this year ALIA and other industry Associations met with the stats working group of the Cultural Ministers Council about statistical and research needs in the cultural sector. Our push was that the needs should be decided in consultation with the sector, something which has not been happening systematically. in addition to the stats series undertaken by the ABS the CMC has commissioned a number of surveys for 2000-2001, including an inventory of statistical data held by State Arts Ministers, The Australia Council and Peak Industry Associations.

Just on the Australia Council -- they have done some interesting research on reading, library use and book buying habits; the findings reinforce much of the data from recent library use focussed research. the Federal Government's Book Industry Assistance Plan program being administered by the Australia Council should provide some further very useful quantitative and qualitative work on attitudes to reading, literacy and book borrowing and buying use patterns.

I would like to conclude with some comments on looking downstream. I don't believe that it is enough for us to be focussing on our sector. We need to look 'out' to the society and community of which we are a part. Social trends and economic indicators, are critically important to us as they characterise the environment in which we operate and to which we should relate. McKay Reports, generational characteristics (next genners, over 50s,) work and leisure trends, income spending, income differentiation, access to information, changing values, our sector's contribution to the GDP -- these are all important to us as an Association. Understanding these indicators is essential for our sector to position itself strategically in the wider society. Planning and policy (and funding) are not just driven by sectoral concern, they are driven, as our Prime Minister so often says "in response to community concern", by economic and social determinants, and by political opportunism.

Our current state is not a shortage of stats or shortage of endeavours. It is now about managing the right information for the right reasons. We need co-operation, agreement, and participation to achieve the maximum mutual benefit.

To buy our fat pig we need market intelligence, and we need to market that intelligence intelligently.

References

1 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Cultural funding: Australia 1998-99 ABS 4183.0 released on 3 August 2000
2 Idem.
3 European Commission, Directorate General 1997, From Quantity to Quality: Collection, analysis and use of statistics for libraries. A European workshop for suppliers and users of library statistics, Luxembourg, 9-10 December 1997. Telematics for Libraries. http://www.npk.gov.pl/cordis/www.cordis.lu/libraries/en/statwks.html (downloaded 18 October 2000)
4 Idem.

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