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Bradley Hinton

Submission: 

Much of the work of the APS is knowledge-work. Especially in policy areas, knowledge and the application of knowledge to real problems is fundamental to a successful operational government. As such, the APS needs to solidify its knowledge base and to enhance access to authoritative information and experiences.

Despite the importance of this knowledge work, many departmental libraries have been closed and professional librarians made redundant. Where a library has been retained, often with a smaller collection, there is insufficient professional staff to fully utilise the information and provide research to departmental staff. Departmental staff find themselves both undertaking their functional tasks and sorting through endless Google searches to try and find the authoritative information they need for quality work. Libraries provide authoritative information beyond the overwhelming, and simple, Google results. This is critical in an information world filled with fake news. Professional librarians not only provide authoritative information, but they undertake research with their specialist skills to provide custom information to departmental staff. Curated research and information is now a significant efficiency for departmental staff who now have the time to actually do the work they are hired to do. Moreover, librarians and the multitude of authoritative online and physical resources enhance the human capital of departments in providing an evidence base for decision-making, policy, and best practice.

In addition, records management (admittedly not the most glamorous of professions) is also an undervalued and under-resourced component of APS departmental work. Records management not only is required for audit and governance (both important for legislative and governance responsibilities), but also because this information can be used for authoritative evidence base for decision-making and quality work throughout a government department.

Not having APS staff in an organisation do the same thing at the same time; not knowing what the right and left hand are doing so to speak, and having APS staff waste time through inefficient practices that could have been avoided with proper record keeping, are just some obvious problems that good records management and adequate resources can solve. Not only that, with proper resourcing, records management can be an active driver of knowledge generation within a department which again increases the quality and efficiency of decision-making, policy work, and service to the Australian community.

I urge this review to consider the importance of knowledge and information to the efficient and effective operation of all APS work through increased resourcing of government libraries and records management functions. As such, this review should recognise and support information work carried out by professional librarians and records managers to enhance these operational efficiencies and enhance quality APS outcomes. Government libraries and records management are APS assets that make a positive difference and should be fully supported.