CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT: NATIONAL STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES FOR AUSTRALIA'S PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

There has been significant progress by individual Australian states in developing criteria for the delivery and improvement of their public library services. Queensland has a suite of standards and guidelines, with a rolling cycle of updates. New South Wales takes an evidence based approach, using data from its annual survey of public library activities to set targets for a select group of measures (standards), supported by guidelines for service delivery in key areas. The Queensland and NSW guidelines are informed by the work of the other, and by work elsewhere. In Victoria a framework and toolkit for self assessment and peer review has been developed to assist public libraries in meeting their service obligations and objectives. The Australian Library and Information Association (Alia) and the public library associations have a simple set of national standards and guidelines based on prior work. 'Beyond a quality service: strengthening the social fabric; standards and guidelines for Australian public libraries' was launched in April 2011. This paper reviews the national standards initiative and explains how the standards and guidelines might be applied to evaluating and continuously improving library services. It also comments on the characteristics of the evidence base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]