opportunities. Leeds uses this element of the website together with a broad skills based

program to work with the public (as groups and individually) to build IT skills as well

as to get people involved in designing the site to make it truly relevant.

In Germany, bibweb is an example of an online training course for library staff.

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The

Bertelsmann Foundation has co operated with ekz.bibliotheksservice GmbH (Reutlin 

gen) to develop the project  bibweb   Internet Training for Public Libraries 

(http://www.bibweb.de). Bibweb is a distance learning course via the Internet that helps

library staff to acquire skills in handling the Internet. The objective is to increase the

number of public libraries with Internet service offerings for citizens. Via  bibweb, 

employees of public libraries can get further Internet training online, enabling them to

pass on the acquired knowledge to library visitors in customer consultation sessions or

through innovative electronic services.

Practical issues 

Leadership

The key to successful leadership is to have a vision and be able to achieve that vision.

The library directors that are cited in our case studies show leadership and vision, and

are characterised by:

  a willingness to engage fully in the corporate agenda,

  a capacity to think  outside the box ,

  a vision of the library's role in the community,

  a belief and investment in the skills of staff,

  an open and supportive culture,

  consultative engagement with the community, 

  team players.

Libraries need not feel too concerned about who is leading the e government agenda.

The important thing is for libraries to be seen as key players, offering valuable resources

to achieve the aims of the organisation. It is about strategically positioning libraries and

leveraging the very positive image that libraries enjoy as important players in the online

environment. Public libraries have gained more publicity from the Internet than from

anything else. Only when Internet access became an issue in the community were

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