Toward Making Libraries Leaders in the Local Information Economy

A paper by Jim Stanley
Director, Community IT Development, Nova Scotia Technology and Science Secretariat
Presented to the Library Boards Association of Nova Scotia meeting
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
April 1998

• Introduction
• Key Factors Affecting Local Economic Development
• Making Local Economic Development Work
• Linking Local Economic Development to the Knowledge Economy

Faced with a rapid pace of change, how can we help transform our communities and our organizations to meet the challenges of developing local information economies and more sustainable lifestyles yet still maintain our primary focus and our organizational vision?

This is a large challenge for all of us but a particular challenge for libraries and other information providers faced not only with the exponential increase of information in the world but also by the technology transformation that has introduced new tools to deliver information and services to communities and their citizens.

The perspective that I bring is rooted in my ten years of experience of restructuring the local economic development process in Nova Scotia and, more recently, with my new role at the Technology and Science Secretariat, in building Information Technology (IT) capacity for our communities.

In this paper, I have outlined a development framework that, I believe, will help to build understanding of the development process at the community level and to lay the foundation for creating workable partnerships that help make libraries leaders in the local information economy.

B. Key Factors Affecting Local Economic Development

The first step is to understand some of the key factors affecting the development of the local economy. Let's start with the principal economic drivers that operate in the economies of Nova Scotia communities. These local development drivers include:

• creating a strong entrepreneurial base and business culture in communities;
• recognizing exports as a primary economic driver at the local level;
• recognizing the important, but secondary, role that the retail and local service sector plays in generating wealth in the community;
• fostering a culture and climate that supports economic empowerment, and nurturing a learning culture; and
• enhancing the knowledge, communication and information content of community processes.

In my experience, in addition, four major change processes are affecting development at the local level in a fundamental and even profound way. These processes are:

1. The Rural/Urban split: Over the past century there has been a sustained, long term shift in the economic "dynamic" from the rural to the urban centers. This holds true within rural counties as well with the shift from small communities to larger towns. In Canada the urban/rural population split is now approximately 80/20 (as compared to a 20/80 split of a century ago) whereas in Nova Scotia the split is closer to 50/50. Nova Scotia is still a comparatively rural province.

This is a particularly important factor when looking at the role that Information Technology (IT) can play in rural population shift stabilization. Although these technologies hold great promise for rural communities it must still be remembered that urban areas have already built considerable momentum in IT. To do this it will be essential to increase rural Nova Scotians' awareness of the opportunities and possibilities offered by the information economy - a key role that libraries can play. One must also build Nova Scotians' skills and confidence in their own ability to seize these opportunities. The level of educational attainment in rural vs urban areas is also a key influencer. As populations age, more senior members are likely to seek refuge in small towns and rural communities. That tendency provides opportunities for small towns and rural areas and for libraries as well.

2. The Resource/Service Shift: There has been a basic shift in job creation in the economy and it demonstrates a strong trend toward service sector growth and a resource sector decline. The Nova Scotia service sector is larger than the Canadian average (83% and 74% of GDP respectively), while our resource sector is smaller (5% and 7% respectively). Set in a historical context, the shift in employment is quite dramatic, as the following table attests:

	1911	1951	1997
Service	22%	42%	70%
Resource	55%	30%	8%
Secondary	23%	28%	22%

This service sector growth has also been concentrated in the urban centers thus further reinforcing the rural to urban population shift. Increasingly, being competitive in a service sector dominated economy demands increased levels of literacy, numeracy and technical knowledge with computers and telecommunications. Libraries have an important role in developing citizenry with these capacities.

3. The Emerging "Information Economies": The information and knowledge content in business, community and personal processes is increasing rapidly. This is manifest in a virtual explosion of new business opportunities in the computer software, cultural industries, biotechnology, engineering and specialized consulting industries. In Nova Scotia, for example, software industry revenues have more than doubled between 1993 and 1995 and over 500 new jobs were created.

The emergence of the information economy has also forced traditional business and public sector organizations to increase the knowledge content of their products, services and internal processes. It has created new opportunities for work, for education and for electronic information sharing. For example, projections show that the volume of financial electronic transactions will grow from $.25US trillion in 1994 to $1.5US trillion by the year 2000. This clearly reflects the business and government commitment to deliver information and services electronically.

There has been a telecommunications transformation with the installation, by Maritime Telephone and Telegraph (MT&T), of digital switches and rural long distance rate enhancements for all of Nova Scotia over the past several years. Here again, public libraries in Nova Scotia have been community leaders in paving the way for these technological transformations, where, for example, all libraries now have access to the Internet.

4. Globalization: Shifts to the "global marketplace" means that our business competitors, and our markets, are not just local but international - this is an immense challenge and opportunity to Canadians and Nova Scotians alike. The knowledge-based economy is driving globalization -- providing the information and knowledge infrastructure to redefine how we do business. To illustrate, overnight delivery of a document from New York to Tokyo using the Internet is 720 times faster and 275 times cheaper than other telecommunications modes.

In terms of computer "connectedness", Canada tops G-7 countries in home computer, cable and telephone penetration -- all key factors in promoting technological and business development in the global marketplace. Nova Scotia, however, lags behind the Canadian average in the percentage of households with computers (26.9% and 36% respectively) and in the percentage with Internet connectivity at 10.2% and 13% respectively. IT usage in the workplace figures for the Atlantic region also fall behind the Canadian average on use of personal computers, wireless communication, intranet and e-mail. It is encouraging to note however that Internet use is equal to the Canadian average and the use of multi-media/computer based training exceeds the Canadian average, at 9% and 7% respectively. Nova Scotia also leads all other provinces in the percentage of firms buying and selling products over the Internet -- 26% of firms in Nova Scotia followed closely by Ontario at 25.6%.

In summary, what this all means is that the major change processes affecting local development are complex and far-reaching. What is needed is a more comprehensive, multi-partnered approach to effectively deal with these issues -- a shift to partnership building in support of new entrepreneur and business development activity, human capacity building and in our economic relationships at the local community level. Libraries need to expand their role to be full partners in these local economic development processes.

Let's step back and examine how the local economic development process works and the traditional role that business, government and the community have tended to play in that process. The traditional roles are based upon an outdated "industrial model" where resource exploitation and manufacturing were the "engines for growth" in the local economy:

• Business: creating enterprises, making investments and taking risks;
• Government: supporting the business climate, building infrastructure and providing subsidies; and
• Communities: providing quality of life, services and a context for economic growth.

Most often these roles were exercised in relative isolation from each other. Fundamental changes are needed to re-structure this old "industrial model" to reflect the need for new partnerships, new processes and new models for cooperation and collaboration in building the knowledge economy in our communities.

Over the past ten years in Nova Scotia there has been a shift to a more comprehensive approach to promoting economic development and to the formation of a new partnership model for local development. The following figure illustrates the dynamic interaction of the three major partner groups in this new model for local economic development.

This model challenges the traditional partners to move away from the old industrial model, based largely on self-interested competitive advantage, to take a collaborative, or partnership approach to local economic development. That new partnership approach demonstrates the following characteristics:

• It is community-based;
• It is strategic in focus;
• It is partnered and leveraged for successful project development; and
• It is based on the principle of shared leadership and shared responsibility.

In Nova Scotia we have set up a network of Regional Development Agencies (RDA's for short) to provide the management support and administrative glue to make the new local economic development process work. This has meant an initial operational investment of more that $30 million between the years 1994 and 2000, an investment by the federal, provincial and municipal governments working in partnership to provide the synergy to get the process going. We have already seen evidence that the partnership model works -- it's a complex management challenge but it really does work for communities that do it well and it is still evolving!

D. Linking Local Economic Development to the Knowledge Economy

In the knowledge economy we know that new industry sectors flourish when products and services have a high knowledge, research or information content. We also see gains when traditional sectors adopt the new information technology tools. The federal government commitment to help build a knowledge economy is strong, as evidenced in:

• the federal government's "Connectedness Agenda" ;
• the $205 million in the federal 1998-1999 budget investment over three years in building the knowledge economy; and
• the fact that building the knowledge-based economy is the number one priority of Industry Canada.

The Nova Scotia Information Economy Initiative recently announced (May 29, 1998) is also a strong provincial commitment to build the Nova Scotia knowledge economy as evidenced by its intent to lead the $62 million Initiative.

Let's look at what sectors are growing and what ones are not. Who gets the jobs and who does not. According to a very recently released (May 26, 1998) report by NovaKnowledge entitled "Knowledge Economy Report Card", the top growth occupations in Nova Scotia (projections from 1996-2000) were gas and chemical process operators; electronics assemblers and testers; and computer engineers.

The fastest declining were underground mining; mine laborers, telecom installers and repairers and telecom line and cable workers.

The NovaKnowledge Report Card also examines total Nova Scotia employment by education level -- with striking results:

• 35,600 net jobs were created for workers with a Post Secondary Education
• 32,500 net jobs were eliminated for workers without a Post Secondary Education.

This chart of Total Employment, Nova Scotia By Education Level, 1991-1996 gives full details.

The Industry Canada report "Connecting Canadians: An Agenda for the Knowledge Economy and Society", March 5, 1998, further reinforces the fact that less skilled workers will have increasing difficulty in finding work in the knowledge-based economy. The following two charts illustrate the importance of making the transition to the knowledge economy.

Clearly all partners at the community level have a major challenge to help build a skilled labour force and citizenry that can manage the local development process transition toward the benefits of the knowledge economy. In my experience there are six essential requirements to bring about that transition:

1. Promoting Education - promoting and creating a life-long learning culture within the community;

2. Enhancing IT Training - specialized skills and progressive IT skills development processes in communities;

3. Strengthening local knowledge economy infrastructure - this translates into building new partnerships involving schools, libraries, universities to ensure that Nova Scotians gain greater and more equal access to the IT "toolkit". Equity is not the case at present, as the following table attests.

4. Providing Public Access to the Internet - the vision for the Nova Scotia Community Access Committee is that all Nova Scotians, regardless of geographic location, will have affordable access, regardless of income level, to electronic information services which are community based and community driven;

5. Planning for Progress - processes and plans at the community level to strengthen this knowledge economy and its infrastructure; and

6. Creating Community Linkages - linkages to the local community development process, including shared initiatives.

Libraries are critical partners in the role that they can play in strengthening the local information economy and in empowering communities to build new social and economic capacity to strengthen their quality of life.

The recent General Population Survey in Nova Scotia on the role that libraries play revealed that libraries are highly valued (77% indicating that libraries are essential to community life) and respondents (survey sample of 1,200) clearly identified libraries as places of learning and educational support for all ages, as well as serving as discovery centers for young children.

Libraries have always been places of learning in the community and they must continue their role as the electronic doorway to information in the digital age. Libraries must perform a multi-faceted role in the local economy acting as:

1. Information organizers and providers - a major conduit for "taming the Internet" and for providing the information safety net for the information disadvantaged - information equity and universal access are the objective;
2. Literacy/learning centers - libraries offer educational resources and tools for recent immigrants, refugees and those who do not have access to receive services at schools or in other tutorial based programs;
3. Business information purveyors - libraries can serve as referral agents where business centers exist and they can be the providers for business information and services in more rural or remote sites;
4. Community information purveyors - libraries are key agencies in providing improved access to community information and consumer health information to enable people to assume greater responsibility for their own health care;
5. Innovators in the use of IT - through involvement in the Community Access Program (CAP) libraries help connect isolated rural communities to global opportunities via the Internet and the world wide web and help ease apprehensions about the age of "cyber technology";
6. Trainers - librarians are professionals trained to help people locate and analyze information resources - they have a clear role to play in teaching network literacy, effective search strategies and in how to evaluate the usefulness and quality of the information accessed; and
7. Partners/Leaders in local information economy/society - leaders in planning, project execution and in evaluating project outcomes - their relevance, success and effectiveness in building a stronger economic base.

As I indicated earlier, new partnerships must be built to strengthen the knowledge economy infrastructure at the local level. What is the value of partnering and partnerships? Partnerships are a way to lever scarce resources and to create synergy. Let's look at a few Nova Scotia examples of partnerships:

Expanding Community Access -Schools and Libraries partnering in locations such as River John, a small village nestled along the Northumberland Strait known for its beaches and sunsets - remote but now over 25% of the community are registered to use the CAP site - to use all facets of the Internet, scan images, do design work, HTML authoring etc. River John has its own community web site and is working on a digitization project to tell the history of Nova Scotian 19th century sailing vessels. This is but one example - there are many more in the Nova Scotia CAP network.

Network Development amongst CAP sites - This is happening in the Cape Breton Island Region of Nova Scotia - a CAP network called SENCEN is being developed to share ideas, support and training throughout rural Cape Breton.

Outlets for Electronic Government Information and Services - Libraries are a major distribution channel for government documents and the provision of "government on-line" is a challenge in both cooperation and service delivery capability.

Multi-Partner Collaborations - The innovative Western Region Health Information Project involves Libraries/Colleges and Community Nets and Health Boards/Libraries and Community Nets cooperating to provide citizens with valued health information resources.

In short, there has been tremendous progress in a time of serious constraints on libraries. Their progress is to be both commended and recognized by lending further support to the partnership process.

In closing, I want to get back to the fundamentals of leadership and to raise a challenge to libraries in taking a leadership role in helping to build strong local knowledge-based economies. I want to offer a comment around the concept of leadership and it is, I believe, a fundamental one - leadership is taken - it is not bestowed. I encourage Nova Scotia libraries to take their well earned and rightful leadership role in the local information economy development process.

What do I see as the future role that libraries can play? I see libraries taking a strong role in supporting regional information economy Initiatives, for example, supporting the 6 CAP Region Working Groups and the Youth initiative, as well as providing continued support for local initiatives, applications development training, in support of CAP and SMART Rural Communities development projects.

I can also look into the future and see all 75 Nova Scotia libraries set up as CAP sites by the year 2000 ... and even if all sites are not possible, I do see a future where we, working together, can build on the foundations that are already in place for the new information economy. I am convinced that we will make it happen in Nova Scotia. All we need is the collective will to do it!