Wieviele Infoexpert*innen braucht ein Fernsehsender?

Der australische Fernsehsender ABC plant, 58 Stellen für Bibliothekar*innen und Archivar*innen zu streichen - etliche Arbeiten sollen die Journalist*innen selber übernehmen. Warum das keine gute Idee ist, beschreibt Lisa M. Given in ihrem Artikel "The ABC's plan to axe its librarians will damage its journalism. Here's why" (The conversation, 9. Juni 2022):

"Relying on untrained journalists to do the work of qualified information professionals – asking them to archive their own materials and apply metadata – means valuable material will be mislabelled, or not labelled at all. . (...) Without complete, easily findable records, journalists can't tell the whole story; their ability to quickly retrieve historic source material, to complete background work and conduct fact-checking, will be eroded, as will their ability to tell Australia's stories with integrity".

Die Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) und die Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) haben dazu am 9. Juni 2022 eine gemeinsame Stellungnahme abgegeben:

"The skills and knowledge of the ABC's librarians and archivists are not needed any less now that more of the collection has been digitised. The ability to both retrieve existing material (whether digitised or not), and add new material and metadata so that content is properly preserved for future use, is fundamental to the ongoing work of the ABC.
The ABC's archival collections are a collection of national significance, and their value and use goes well beyond just supporting the day to day work of the ABC. The continued collection and maintenance of these collections by skilled professionals is essential if the Australian community is to benefit from the collection into the future, and to ensure that we don't lose irreplaceable content".

Die Gewerkschaft Community and Public Sector Union betitelt ihre Stellungnahme vom 9. Juni 2022 "ABC axing archive jobs on International Archives Day":

"While the rest of the world is celebrating the contribution of archivists, the ABC is axing 75 jobs. (...) The last time the ABC took a knife to its library services in 2019, it promised there would no more loss of specialist work, yet here we are. ABC staff are at the frontline of digitisation and the early uptake of technology. They always have been, but not at the expense of dumbing down content or quality like this change could see".

Das offizielle "ABC Archives Proposal for Change" vom 8. Juni 2022 begründet die Streichungen und teilweise Umwandlungen mit der Digitalisierung:

"These proposed changes are the result of the extensive digitisation of the ABC Archive collection and the introduction of new tools and systems which enables different, more efficient work practices".

In der folgenden Stellungnahme des Geschäftsführers David Anderson vom 10. Juni heißt es:

"I can assure all Australians that the proposed changes would not in any way affect the quality of the Archives' content, now or into the future. The proposed changes to the management of the ABC Archives and news library would include introducing several new technological platforms to ensure accessibility. We are confident the proposed changes would not compromise the Archives team's ability to provide appropriate services to content makers. Following the proposed changes, the ABC's archives and library services would employ around 70 people".

Hinweis auf die Geschichte von Peter Doherty auf Twitter. Weitere Berichte im Guardian ("ABC to abolish 58 librarian and archivist jobs with journalists to do archival work") und The Mandarin ("ABC managing director defends archival staff redundancies").