Communiqué from LIAC following the meeting of 13-14 July 2006
LIAC’s position statement on Mātauranga Māori was confirmed and posted on its website. An explanatory video clip is planned to accompany it and to enrich the meaning contained in the textual statement.
LIAC looks forward to immersing itself in its responsibilities to Mātauranga Māori at a hui to be held in October, in a marae setting. At that time new Commissioners will be welcomed on to LIAC and retiring Commissioners will be released.
At the two day July meeting LIAC received briefings on:
- the draft New Zealand Digital Content Strategy (NZDCS);
LIAC was pleased to receive the Discussion Paper and hopes that the concept of NZ Online will not be lost in the NZDCS
- the E-government Strategy from Laurence Miller, Deputy Commissioner for ICT at the State Services Commission;
LIAC welcomes the broad approach of not just transforming delivery of government services to citizens, but transforming the way citizens engage with government
- the National Digital Heritage Archive (NDHA) – a solution for the preservation of digital heritage and a key initiative of the Government’s Digital Strategy;
LIAC was interested to hear about the governance structures in place for monitoring this significant project and congratulates the NDHA team for their groundbreaking work
- the concept of One Library Card;
LIAC suggests that the core issues are related to the range of services that one card might provide access to, rather than the mechanisms for issuing cards. When these services have been defined and agreed, then matters of cost sharing, authentication, rationalisation of policies etc, can be addressed
- digital broadcasting in New Zealand from Jo Tyndall, Director of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s Digital Broadcasting Strategy;
LIAC believes that the move to digital broadcasting will lead to a need for aggregation, organisation and access to broadcasting content along the lines of the management of other digital content, as proposed in the NZ Online concept.
In this context LIAC affirmed that libraries play a crucial role with respect to Aotearoa New Zealand’s digital content. The Commission’s key messages are:
- libraries are aggregators of content, respecting creators’ rights;
- libraries are organisers of content for discovery, when and where required; and
- libraries are access spaces for creating, sharing and disseminating content.
Ainslie Dewe
Chair, LIAC
20 July 2006