6 November 1998

At present, aliaNEWS is in gestation. The plan is to include all ALIA members with an e-mail address into this list, and for ALIA National Office and the ALIA General Council to use the list to broadcast messages with news and general information about ALIA events, happenings, discussion points, and anything else that may be of interest to members of ALIA. The list, aliaNEWS, is not a closed list open only to ALIA members, but rather a means to disseminate information cheaply and quickly to those with an interest in ALIA matters.

All renewing and new members of ALIA in 1999 and beyond will have their e-mail address automatically included in the aliaNEWS e-list subscriber database. This will swell the subscriber base from the current handful to well over 7000. Those members who wish to be removed from this list are instructed to check a box on the application form alongside the e-mail address entry. Of course, members are free to subscribe and unsubscribe at any time, and as often as they wish.

We are developing mechanisms for bringing relevant and timely news to subscribers, but we would like some feedback as the the content, frequency, and the length of messages. See below for more detail.

In this aliaNEWS broadcast...

Charter of Renewal

ALIA Handbook

What's new on ALIAnet?

What's coming soon on ALIAnet?

Feedback requested

Charter of Renewal
Following the extraordinary meeting in Adelaide, the Charter of Renewal was adopted. A message from Craig Anderson, ALIA president-elect, has been placed on ALIAnet describing the action that took place, and the resolutions that were carried. His message is on ALIAnet, and a link is indicated below.

ALIA Handbook
The 1997 Handbook is being printed this week. Copies should be available in ALIA National Office by mid-November. They may be just in time for the November General Council Meeting. Contact ALIA National Office if you would like a copy.

What's new on ALIAnet?
Charter of Renewal adopted. Read all about the outcomes of the Extraordinary Meeting held in Adelaide, and the background material. http://archive.alia.org.au/governance/review/

GC Online foreshadows an ALIA General Council meeting to be held on 19-20 November. Talk to your local general councillor about the issues that will be discussed at the next meeting. Agenda papers are appearing on ALIAnet now, and over the next few days. http://archive.alia.org.au/gc/online/

Work-level guidelines for librarians and library technicians 1998, defining the roles and tasks of library workers - an indication of prevailing standards. Available in full on ALIAnet, and in print from ALIA National Office. http://www.alia.org.au/employment/worklevel.guidelines/

The CAUL memoir, AARL's special retrospective edition in association with CAUL. http://archive.alia.org.au/sections/ucrls/aarl/

Orana, Journal of School and Children's Librarianship, and their August edition, has arrived. http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/

Cataloguing Australia is here too. A flurry of updates, bringing all of their 1997 editions and some of the 1998 editions online. Note that we will be moving the URL in the near future to the ALIA Cataloguer's section. http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/

What's coming soon on ALIAnet?
Check our main home page (http://alia.org.au) for links to our Online Australia Day activities. We are planning to add a series of user polls to survey the views of our visitors, focussing on library issues, of course. In the "to do" list is to add a good deal of the ALIA Handbook [recently-published], and we will also be updating our "Publications" page to reflect the recently-published and highly-successful ALIA Publishing catalogue.

Of course, there is still plenty to do on ALIAnet, with over 2,500 pages to spring-clean with the 'new-look'. Progressively, and well into the new year, we will be updating every single page to offer the new contextual navigation panel. Suggestions for improvement are, as always, very welcome.

Feedback requested
As mentioned earlier, aliaNEWS is still in its formative stages. We would like to know your thoughts on what you would like to see in this broadcast, and how much you would like to see, and how often.

Send your comments to Ivan Trundle, manager, communications and publishing (please remove the '.nospam' from address).

back

A a