PUBLIC-SECTOR REFORM IN AUSTRALIA AND ITS IMPACT ON LIBRARIES

The Australian public sector, like that in many other countries, has b een undergoing substantial reform for more than a decade. The changes, which have been introduced as ways of improving efficiency, effective ness and accountability, have affected all areas of government operati ons. The methods for achieving the improvements have involved substant ial change in respect of financial management, goal setting and evalua tion, structural change and human resource management policies. Occurr ing concurrently with change within the public sector, the Australian Commonwealth and various state governments have been pursuing substant ial change programs in other areas, such as industrial relations, whic h have had many similar aims to those of the government reform program s, a major one being the improvement of efficiency and effectiveness i n the workplace. Libraries have felt, and will continue to feel, the i mpacts of these reforms as new management requirements and methods are introduced. This paper briefly describes a number of aspects of the v arious reform programs highlighting their impacts to date and some of their likely future impacts on the librarian and the library workplace . (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited