Delivering Government Services

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DeliveringGovernment Services
Oxford County LibraryService Canada

• Sam Coghlan
• Chief Librarian
• Oxford County Library
• Ontario

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Oxford County Library

• 1 town and 17 village libraries
• 50,000 people, 200,000 hectares
• CAP since 1996, HRDC also

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Service Canada

• The federal government, wanting to put a new
  face on government
• Run by Treasury Board Secretariat

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The Service Canada Approach
In-person centres
TelephoneService
Electronic Service

• Promoting citizen-centred service
• Integrating initiatives across the government
• Connecting with Canadians

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In-person centres

• Full service through existing government offices
• Full service through community networks
• Service clusters around specific needs

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Full service through community networks

• 7 community networks
• Oxford County Library HRDC Industry Canada
• 11 rural libraries
• 2 human resource centres
• 1 employment resource centre

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NO WRONG DOOR!
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We were a success!

• OCL awarded Ministers Award for Innovation by
  Ontario Minister of Culture
• LibraryNet Best Practices Award
• Library use increased 25
• Even TBS agreed ..

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TBS report said

• When compared to other sites they have
  achieved high results in many areas of the
  initiative, including client satisfaction, client
  usage, service improvement, management, and
  promotion
• Moreover, staff tend to go the extra mile, and
  in some networks have made this a standard of
  service

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• Locating access centres in libraries and
  community centres rather than government offices
  creates a more comfortable and relaxed
  environment for citizens that may feel some
  anxiety about the official business of
  government
• Locations staffed by librarians bring a certain
  professionalism to the access centre, as by the
  nature of their work, they are skilled in helping
  clients search for and find the information they
  need.

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• Many access centres in this model are CAP sites,
  and so already have public access terminals and
  Internet connection, and have been using the
  technology for some time. .. Service providers
  in these locations also have a knowledge and
  expertise about a variety of information and
  services available over the Internet

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So, why arent all libraries CAP sites doing
this now?!

• The report did identify some weaknesses to
  working with community networks (see p. 10)
• But it also found weaknesses with government
  offices (see p. 6)

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Strengthening our weaknesses

• Inconsistent coverage of communities
• Govt should work with all communities
• Help the weaker communities strengthen themselves
  (OCL used to be very weak)
• Consistency in service between networks
• Help the weaker communities strengthen themselves
  (OCL used to be very weak)

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Strengthening our weaknesses

• Difficult to apply current financial instruments
• Govt should learn how to work with communities,
  develop the instruments
• Difficult to enforce compliance
• Make compliance a condition of funding
• Itll be easier to enforce compliance with
  community agencies than with government offices

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Strengthening our weaknesses

• Complex to manage
• The benefits of government learning how to work
  with the inherent complexity of communities far
  outweigh the costs of doing so
• Different organizational structure
• Is that not a statement in itself? Government
  saying it cannot work with community because
  government has a different culture? Who should
  be changing?!

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Strengthening our weaknesses

• Balancing different sets of responsibilities
• Community groups understand that a contract
  brings responsibilities and they will have to add
  the federal governments expectations to the list
  of the many they already have to balance. We do
  it all the time.
• Requires time to implement
• So? Take the time. Itll be worth it.

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Strengthening our weaknesses

• Low traffic in some locations
• Traffic will increase with promotion and
  increased familiarity
• Volume of traffic should not be the key measure
  in itself, especially in rural and remote
  communities
• Inconsistent approach from network to network
• This is a strength. Service delivery will be
  tailored to local needs. Consistency will be
  ensured where it matters (signage, accessibility,
  official languages policy)

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Libraries are changing!!!
Connected to the world/Innovation
Centres/Research/ Business/ Health Life Long
LearningLearning
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Oxford County Library

• Lept ahead centuries in less than a decade

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Why cant government?

• Theyre trying .

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Lets do it together

• We are in the same community

Sam Coghlan Oxford County Library 130 Oxford
Street Ingersoll, ON N5C 2V5 sam_at_ocl.net