ALIA, with input from the Australian Public Library Alliance, has been monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on Australian public libraries since early March. This report summarises the feedback from 225 of the 400 library services (in total covering 1500 locations) nationally, including several joint use school community libraries.

This report provides a snapshot of the ways libraries have supported industry, health, education, communications and the arts at a national level during 2019, including celebrating the UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages and the Australian Year of the Public Domain.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) is a member of Professions Australia. Through this alliance, they are working to leverage the power of other industries to achieve their goal of robust and meaningful accreditation outcomes, supporting a strong library and information profession.

In September 2019, library leaders and other guests gathered at ALIA House in Canberra to debate stretch targets for the sector as part of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This discussion paper outlines a draft set of stretch targets as the foundation for discussion across the LIS sector in Australia.

This report has been created from the data collected and made available by the ABS. While ALIA's principle concern is the library and information sector, they have extended the report to cover the GLAMR (galleries, libraries, archives, museums and records) sector.