The State Library, Perth Cultural Centre

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Have you been in to the State Library lately? I have and it’s a wasteland. On the floors there were no signs of working staff (one fire emergency and we’re all up in smoke), no clients (where do the TAFE students go to study these days?), and, more alarmingly, practically no books (collections have become unfashionable in all the better bibliotheques, we’re terribly e- and Kindle these days). Alright, so libraries are undergoing massive change. But abandonment?? Just 10 years ago and in my long time working there, it was a thriving cultural hub. I’d recommend demolishing it, but there’d be no second hand wrought iron staircases to salvage, no solid jarrah bookcases; just rubble, only panels of MDF and carpet underlay. It begs the question, what, if anything, is the State Library doing?

I’ve had a look on the website. There’s little statistical evidence of anything much. So, public funding gets us what? Well, literacy apparently. And that’s a good thing for those who need it. We’re tending to the needy. I applaud this. But a cultural body needs to feed the needs of all layers of civic appetite , so what is the plan for the State Library, presumably the state’s premier library? What leadership role is it taking?

The silence is deafening. But in my time …

We never got to develop or execute our dream, but under the leadership of the visionary State Librarian Lynn Allen, and the careful stewardship of Claire Forte, the State Reference Library was working on a plan of EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT (more on that some other time) that acknowledged the distinction between knowledge and information and provided services which aligned with these two powerhouse objectives of our literate society.

Information was the easy one; answers to questions. Prepackaged facts. Tangible, concrete, sometimes complex, but invariably intellectually digestible. We imagined information shops where expert staff could value-add by providing packages of information,for free if less than 30 minutes work, or fee-based if more.

Knowledge was the hard one, until one day the wise Barbara sighed, shook her knowledgeable head  and said “with knowledge, the seeker earns the knowledge”. Well, brass bands brayed, fireworks cascaded down, and the ASX soared to unimaginable and dizzying new heights. We dreamed of knowledge banks where specialist staff guided researchers through a maze of rich resources allowing them to make decisions as to which might best meet their needs. And these banks were subject-based (law, or business, music, or genealogy) – we would work with the community to establish which subjects would form our banks as clearly we couldn’t provide banks (and bankers) in all knowledge bases.

It was so exciting, intellectually. It seemed like the perfect paradigm. And then Lynn Allen moved on, Claire took her place upstairs, on a temporary basis, I reluctantly moved into Claire’s chair, and a new Labor Government insisted on a Modes of Employment policy which robbed us of the casual workforce which was the backbone of our extended opening hours roster, and all hell broke loose while I did my best to implement the policy using existing resources (plus a bit more, by converting the casual staff positions into fewer part-time employees). We haemmoraghed internally while we fretted over conditions of service, and the opportunity for imaginative structural reform turned into sand and slithered between our grasping fingers.

But that was ten years ago. And now the State Library proudly parades in the Emperors New Clothes; there are brightly coloured children’s murals on the mezzanine floor, funky lounge chairs on the ground floor where people check their gmail, eat and chat, and glistening new computer kiosks. But these latter only offer the old services, rebadged (and without the benefit of possible staff mediation. I ordered an item from the Stack (electronically, of course) but gave up when it hadn’t arrived after the promised 45 minutes). And at the Loans Desk, stood behind a beleaguered client who asked if the Library had the orchestral parts to a Beethoven piano concerto only to be advised “nup, just a …. miniature score?” Which was wrong because I knew it did and where it was/used to be. And, anway, where was the follow-up “Shall I arrange for an inter-library loan from another institution?” Just as I was about to intervene, a former colleague grabbed my ear, but not before I heard “I can’t believe the State Library can’t help me. It used to be so good. Is there a lady called Allison I can talk to? [sorry, retired] She used to help me.”

Bulldoze it. But take a digital image first, for heritage sake. And secure the digital with remote servers in Bindoon. Or Kakadu. Or Vanuatu or somewhere else cheap. Maybe sell the land in Northbridge; or mine it!