FEATURED ITEMS

• Should Councils charge for library loans? - ALIA President Jan Richards
• ALIA defends freedom of access to information - ALIA Executive Director Sue Hutley
• National vision and framework for public libraries

• Public libraries at ALIA Access 2010 - still time to be part of the big event
• Summer Reading Club and Library Lovers Day round up
• Our new Board

• inCite themes 2010 - contributions welcomed
• Library and Information Week 2010
• National Simultaneous Storytime
• ALIA training and PD courses

• Wheeler Centre now open
• NT Book of the Year
• First editions free to download
• Services for the homeless study

• SWITCH 2009 Public Libraries NSW conference papers
• VALA 2010

FEATURED ITEMS

Should Councils charge for library loans? - ALIA President Jan Richards

The news that Tauranga City Council has proposed charges for adult book loans has prompted a strong reaction from the library world. LIANZA has released an official statement opposing the move and there have been less formal reactions of horror from other quarters.

In these days of economic strife, it's my view that we have to be realistic and much as we'd love to offer all our services free of charge, there have to be some modest charges for things like photocopying and printing. That said, people have a fundamental right to borrow books from public libraries without having to worry about the cost.

Cash is tight - but that's all the more reason why library book book borrowing should be free.

Reply to Jan jan.richards@alia.org.au.

ALIA defends freedom of access to information - ALIA Executive Director Sue Hutley

ALIA is one of the founding members of the Safer Internet Group, along with Google, Yahoo! and the Inspire Foundation, and we have had several trips to Parliament House to meet with Federal MPs, Ministers and advisers in the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, over the last few weeks.

These culminated with us delivering a paper to the DBCDE confirming our set of three core principles in response to the Government's proposed introduction of ISP-level internet filtering. They are:

Education: Properly funding a national comprehensive cyber-safety education program for children and parents on how to avoid inappropriate material and stay safe online. If any element of online safety is to be mandatory, it should be education.

Policing: Significantly increasing and funding the level of oversight by the government and federal police focused on the locations, such peer-to-peer, where child sexual abuse materials are disseminated.

Technical Measures: If the government and the broader political system are determined to implement technical measures as part of online safety efforts, then we believe Australia can learn from the approaches adopted in peer countries, particularly in Europe. The strong consensus internationally is for ISPs, police and government to work together in partnership targeting a clearly defined and narrow band of child sexual abuse material.
http://www.alia.org.au/internetfiltering/

See also the ALIA submission on internet filtering
http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/submissions/mandatory.filtering.html

And Board blog
http://www.alia.org.au/blog/

National vision and framework for public libraries

The deadline for comments on the national vision and framework for public libraries (prompted by the discussions at ALIA's Public Library Summit in July 2009) has now passed.

More than 20 thoughtful and thought-provoking responses were received. All were generally supportive of the idea of a national vision and framework, and there was a consensus about this acting as a strategic direction document; guiding the development of Australian public libraries and being relevant to all tiers of government. The next stage, in collaboration with partners, is to refine the vision, develop the framework and form the basis for a timetable of activities.

http://www.alia.org.au/governance/committees/public.libraries/summit09/vision.and.national.framework.sept09-rev.pdf

ALIA NEWS

Public libraries at ALIA Access 2010 - still time to be part of the big event

The official closing date for submissions for ALIA Access 2010 (1-3 September, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre) has passed, but we're still looking for case studies to feature in the Public Libraries: A Surprise On Every Page! event. We are building up a bank of stories that we can use when presenting the case to local, State and Federal Government. More news soon on the website.

STOP PRESS: special early bird conference registration - member rate of $795!
http://conferences.alia.org.au/access2010/program.html

For more information in the meantime about how you could be one of our 2010 "Library Stars", contact Sue McKerracher sue.mckerracher@alia.org.au.

Summer Reading Club and Library Lovers Day round-up

Well, that's it for another year … The Summer Reading Club ended on 12 February and Library Lovers Day ran from Sunday 14 February, through into the following week. Both were great opportunities to show the public (and the politicians) what a great job public libraries do.

Special thanks to Mylee Joseph, from the State Library of NSW, who put so much hard work in the Summer Reading Club, and to Public Libraries Australia (PLA) for co-sponsoring Library Lovers Day event with ALIA.
http://www.summerreadingclub.org.au     http://www.librarylovers.org.au/

Don't forget to go to our wiki to post your Summer Reading Club comments and stories.
http://www.alia.org.au/src/wiki/pmwiki.php

Our new Board

The line-up from May 2010 comprises Margaret Allen, State Library of WA; John Bayliss, Macquarie Regional Library Service; Andrew Hocken, Baker & Taylor, and Julie Rae, Vision Australia.
http://www.alia.org.au/governance/elections/2010/board/candidates.html

ALIA REMINDERS

inCite themes 2010: contributions welcomed

The Future of Reading is the main topic for the March issue of inCite. After that:

We welcome your contributions. Check out the full schedule on the website.
http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/incite/deadlines.html

Library and Information Week 2010 - theme announced!

Libraries - access all areas! is the theme for the week, from 24-30 May in 2010. What are you planning? We'd like to hear about it.
Send a quick note to events@alia.org.au.
http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/liw/

National Simultaneous Storytime

We are delighted to announce that the 2010 National Simultaneous Storytime book is Little White Dogs Can't Jump, written by Bruce Whatley and Rosie Smith, published by HarperCollins Publishers ISBN: 9780207198830 (hbk)
http://www.alia.org.au/storytime/

What's happening in 2010 in ALIA training and PD?

ALIA is offering two new Professional Development opportunities in March.

Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw has developed a teleconference course for ALIA specifically designed for Librarians and Library Technicians to build public speaking skills http://www.alia.org.au/education/pd/pd.services/irena.html Build your confidence! Register NOW! First course starts Monday March 22 10.00am.

Adam Le Good is offering a range of courses for ALIA in 2010 in Canberra, Brisbane, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne:
'Managing Challenging Clients'
'Fundamentals of Supervision'
'Leading Others through Change'

These face to face courses are a 'must do' opportunity at a very reasonable cost of $375, especially for ALIA members,$450 for Partner Associations and $500 for non members. Lunch, morning and afternoon tea included. Don't miss out! Register today! http://www.alia.org.au/education/pd/pd.services/adam.html

For more information please Contact the ALIA Professional Development and Careers Manager (please remove '.nospam' from address) or phone 1800 020 071.

OTHER NEWS

Wheeler Centre now open

Australia's first Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas officially opened to the public this month, with several of its early events already sold out. The Centre is situated in Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, and is also home to various literary organisations, including the Victorian Writers' Centre and the Melbourne Writers Festival (and there really isn't an apostrophe in the title!).
www.wheelercentre.com

NT Book of the Year

Every Secret Thing, by Marie Munkara has been named Northern Territory Book of the Year.

First editions free to download

The British Library is to make 65,000 classic works of fiction available free to download as e-books, after Microsoft has spent three years scanning them.
www.bl.uk

Services for the homeless study

The University of Tennessee in Knoxville is carrying out a survey into public library services for homeless people, especially around their use of the internet. To participate in the survey, go to http://survey.utk.edu/mrIWeb/mrIWeb.dll?I.Project=HOMELESSANDPUBLI&i. For more information, contact Julie Winkelstein at jwinkels@utk.edu

CONFERENCE PAPERS

SWITCH 2009

Public Libraries NSW Conference and Exhibition, Sydney, November 2009
http://www.plmnsw.org.au/web/Default.aspx?PageID=1095&SiteID=46

VALA 2010

VALA 2010, Melbourne, February 2010
http://www.vala.org.au/component/content/article/39-vala2010/252-vala2010-papers-available

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