Public libraries in Victoria, Australia: an overview of current ICT developments, challenges, and issues

This article explores the impact on public libraries in Victoria, Australia, as they become increasingly reliant upon information communications technology (ICT) to manage, access and deliver information services. Libraries Online and Rural Libraries Online have, since 1998, been developing Internet access in Victorian public libraries. Funded by State (Multimedia Victoria) and Australian Federal (Networking The Nation) and delivered by VICNET, a division of the State Library of Victoria, these projects have provided a library approach to e‐services which includes provision of bandwidth, infrastructure, ICT skills, and content. The specific projects such as satellite delivery of bandwidth, rural points of presence (POPs), Victoria’s Virtual Library, the Gulliver Consortium and the SWIFT Initiative are discussed. Aligned critically to the actual ICT models and implementations is the capacity of the 44 individual public library services to understand and meet the ongoing issues.