ALIA Board Blog

Well,  we have been doing abit of twittering  - please be patient - we are still getting the hang of it,  but the ALIA Staff and Board are communicating with a few tweets when we can at  http://twitter.com/alianational 

The other big thing from last week is that you can now place your orders for The Little Book of Public Libraries - an initiative in conjunction with the ALIA Public Libraries Summit.  We already have around 20,000 copies being printed for libraries and library associations, but to make sure you get your batch, please place your order ASAP  - more information and sample pages at http://www.alia.org.au/summit09/    Make sure you have one for every decision maker in your local community.

Have a great week - no matter where you are in Australian libraries !

Sue Hutley, Executive Director

National Simultaneous Storytime 2009 was a once again a great success with over 960 locations across Australia joining in on the simultaneous reading of Pete the Sheep at 11am on Wednesday 27^th May.

National Simultaneous Storytime is run each year as part of the Library and Information Week activities and highlights the importance of reading and literacy and encourages a love of books in young Australians. With the help of its funding partner, Copyright Agency Limited (CAL)’s Cultural Fund, NSS this year was a even bigger than last year with ALIA selling over 40,000 Pete the Sheep stickers!

We have already had a number locations contacting us to say how much fun they had (also see note from Jan Richards below) and how the children loved Pete the Sheep as the Storytime book. The story, which about Pete is who is an amazing sheep that does things a little differently to his woolly cousins, definitely lends itself to some creative storytime ideas (especially with cotton wool!). Yass Regional Library had a visit from three real live sheep and three boardie-collie dogs to the thrill of the local children, Cleve Area School Library organised to have a live sheep shearing for students in conjunction to their storytime activities and Scarborough State School Library organised for their LOTE teacher to translate and read the story in Japanese (did you know that a sheep say mee mee in Japanese rather than baa baa?!).

The staff at ALIA National Office always look forward to National Simultaneous Storytime as a chance to do away with the computer and phone for a short while and satisfy their inner child with some colouring-in and animal mask making. A number of staff members got into the mood by donning their Akubra’s and Ugg boots (dressing up as shearers) especially for the storytime.

Myself and ALIA’s Events Manager, Kamara Schlegel, made the short trip across the NSW border to Braidwood Library where Jackie French, author of Pete the Sheep, read her book for National Simultaneous Storytime. Jackie had the 40 children in attendance captivated for the entire reading, some audience participation was needed and before we knew it we were baa-ing and woof-ing along with the rest of Australia!   It was a great day and thanks to all the libraries, child-care centres, schools and work places for getting involved.                                        Sue Hutley, Executive Director

National Simultaneous Storytime day is drawing to a close. I’ve had some great feedback from libraries across  Australia and many of your emails have made me smile. Perhaps none more than the one from Dell Price at Central Murray Regional Library at Deniliquin in regional NSW.

She writes that a new and enthusiastic Children’s Services staff member thought it would be a great idea to have the “real thing”. Consequently some lambs were delivered to the Library and installed in a pen outside.  2 seconds later the lambs escaped with library staff (mostly townies) in hot pursuit. Not liking their new surroundings the lambs once again took off.  Dell recounts “by this time the children were all arriving with not a staff member in the library to be seen - we were all chasing these *****lambs.” Finally they were recaptured and after a search of the library’s resources a barricade was erected to keep them in.

Not surprisingly NSS started at 11.20 and was accompanied by whispers of a lamb BBQ for lunch! Dell’s advice for others planning activities with animals - wear flat shoes!

Hope your day was as much fun.

Cheers

Jan Richards

ALIA President

This week in Canberra we celebrated the launch of Information Awareness Month at the National Archives of Australia  - and who better to celebrate with than with politicians, the Canberra tradition !  

Senator Faulkner gave an interesting speech at the launch that was also attended by Senator Lundy, outlining the FOI Review.   To quote from the speech -  “ The draft Information Commissioner Bill 2009 and Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Bill 2009, have been released for public consultation. They will deliver the first substantial overhaul of the federal Freedom of Information regime since the Act’s inception in 1982.   The legislation will also implement a new Commonwealth Government publication scheme. This publication scheme will require agencies to actively consider the types of information they have which can and should be made available to the public. It will not only encourage, but mandate, agencies to publish what they can lawfully publish – forcing a change of attitude for agencies to think about what they should be publishing rather than what they are obliged to. ”

 Submissions are due this coming week and ALIA has asked other key library peak bodies to join them in a combined submission for this review.  Chair of the ALIA Government Publications Advisory Committee, Roxanne Missingham is leading this submission.  You thoughts and comments as ALIA members are still welcome.  Send them to jane.hardy@alia.org.au by Tuesday 12th May. 

ALIA is pleased to join with many other information-related Associations in Information Awareness Month.  Take a look at the website for events near you during the month.

What have you been viewing, reading and listening to this month ?   Here are a just a few on my list for the month of April :

Catching up again on some very interesting TV episodes of Q&A and InSight – with Minister Conroy … and reading the papers and reports from the Cyber-safety Working Group meeting I attended.   Listening again to the ABC Radio Ideas Festival episode in Queensland with lots of familiar ‘library’ voices from around the country.   I am catching up on some professional reading through our new ALIA LIS Journal package. Full-text articles that I have missed having access to (back to a little bit of librarian heaven).  

This month we advertised the part-time contract position of ALIA Disaster Recovery Project Manager and applications have now closed, which I am now going through.   I am also reading the updates from Jane Grace, currently acting in this position – and she’s doing a great job.  Check out the BACwiki linked from the ALIA Disaster Recovery webpage.   Related meeting documents include starting to finalise the Blue Shield Australia Operational Guidelines and Forward Plan  and MayDay material.

More reading – with the call for submission documents for the Not-for-Profit review and the FOI Legislations review. Hoping that some of our members and colleagues from other Library Associations in Australia will assist us with good quality joint submissions. Speaking of submissions, there are some really interesting one’s that we have received for the ALIA Public Libraries Summit – with the new date being announced as 16 July 2009. Take a look!     There’s also the recent Canberra Times article written by ALIA Government Publications Advisory Committee Chair, Roxanne Missingham.   Guess I should add up these reading points for my ALIA PD Scheme documentation, and see what other things are included in the latest PD postings and the new Institutional member newsletter LIS Management in Focus .  I have been attempting some Web2.0 professional development reading too,  on Twitter in particular.  Thanks to my friends who have suggested some good videos and websites for me to ‘get ready’. 

I looked through the websites and picked out some ALIA & IFLA information and transformed them into Trivia Questions that we all did after-dinner at the 2009 ALIES Conference in beautiful Mt Macedon at the EMA Training Centre. I had forgotten how ‘particular’ librarians are with trivia questions and answers, and will refine the questions much better if I do that again, but it was lots of fun :-)        I’ve been looking through a lot of Association websites recently - especially the 52 or so  library associations and organisations in Australia.   Jan Richards (incoming ALIA President) and I will be contacting all of the Executives of all of these Associations and Organisations in the coming weeks.

Some of the other reports crossing my mouseclicks include the PWC CEO’s Report for 2009 - with the phrase “We’re all in this [the GFC] together” ringing true.

And lastly, my ipod music - what I really can’t do without.  Top 10 to Classical downloaded this month … a good mix to listen to.

I hope that you too have had some interesting reading, viewing and music that has helped you along this month.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

During 2008 we started planning for online voting for Board elections  - and in 2009 we have arranged it all for ALIA members.

As at today - 2nd April -  only  461   members have voted online.   All votes are due 5pm on Thursday 9th April 2009.

Around 1000 of our members completed the 2008 Member survey and 83% indicated that they would vote if online voting was available.   Well, it’s available, and it’s  SO easy.

Take a look at the Candidates  http://www.alia.org.au/governance/elections/2009/

 and also the Frequently Asked Questions on how to vote

 http://membership.alia.org.au/lib/pdf/governance/election/internet.voting.FAQ.ALIA.pdf

All enquiries can be directed to the Australian Election Company by phoning the AEC Helpdesk telephone number 1800 224 420

After each Board meeting, we issue take home messages, the the last meeting, on 13 March, was no exception. There were 11 messages.

1 It is clear that online voting has been a hit with members, so we naturally congratulated ourselves on that. The ultimate proof will be when the poll is declared on 16 April, of course.

2 Sue Hutley and I met with Victorian public librarians and others at the State Library of Victoria on 20th February 2009 to dfiscuss how best we could provide support for bushfire-affected areas. The outcome was the appointment of Jane Grace, currently at Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service, as Acting ALIA Disaster Recovery Support Manager.

3 Planning for the 2009 ALIA Public Libraries Summit has been moving along, but it became clear that the timing was not favourable to the event because too many other things were happening at that time - the budget preparations, the Queensland state election, and more. So the Summit will be held in July 2009, on a date still to be confirmed with
Senator Ursula Stephens. Submissions close at the end of March.

4 We continue to work with public library organisations, and Jan Richards (Vice President) and Sue Hutley recently met withPublic Libraries Australia representatives to further the memorandum of understanding betweenthe two organisations.

5 The Library Technician Course Recognition visits are progressing as the ALIA team winds its way around the country. Our thanks go to Gillian Hallam, Dianne Walton-Sonda and the many local library technician educators who have taken part in the panels. By October we hope to have completed the task of visiting and talking to all library technician courses around Australia.

6 ALIA works closely with ASLA (Australian School Library Association). and the revised ALIA-ASLA Joint Policy Statements were approved. Our thanks to the ALIA-ASLA Policy Advisory Group (which coordinates our joint activities) and and others who contributed to reviewing these key policy documents.

7 The Board continues to focus on the results of the 2008 Member Survey results. We held a full day planning session on 12 March, and the main focus of this was the results of the member survey. We aim to translate these into member-focused programs, and in this course of action we are led by the Membership and Awards Standing Committee, chaired by Board member Katy Watson.

8 The Global Financial Crisis has impacted substantially on ALIA financials. Budgets were again reviewed at the Board meetings on 12-13 March, and will be monitored closely by the Board.

9 The ALIA Board established two new Advisory Committees: the ALIA TAFE Libraries Advisory Committee and ALIA Special Libraries Advisory Committee. The two new committees form part of a strategy to build a structure within ALIA which will provide effective representation to the varied library sectors.

10 In 2009 the National Advisory Congress will be held again in decentralised style. The theme for the NAC consultation with members will focus on Lobbying and Advocacy - an outcome of the member survey, which ranked this third amongst member priorities. We want to find out what you want us to do, and what you mean by lobbying adn advocacy.

11 The Board considered the informal resolution made at theDreaming08 Biennial Conference last September relating to Indigenous heritage issues and decided to consult further with peak bodes suchas the Collections Council, ATSILIRN and NSLA in order to advance indigenous issues in libraries and other cultural institutions. The 2008 conference focus in its presentations on indigenous issues was the largest such focus within ALIUA, and it is important to continue the momentum.

It was a busy meeting for the Board. If you have any ideas to make the next one (May 19-20) even busier, send me your thoughts and ideas.

ALIA has been represented on the National Living Libraries Strategy Project Steering Committee and working with other reps on the committee over the past couple of years to further and assist with the Living Libraries Australia Strategy which has been a project funded by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and supported by Lismore City Council.     Does your library have a ‘living library’  ??  See the list of libraries and other organisations involved here.  It’s not just public libraries that conduct living libraries  - University, school and TAFE libraries are also involved.

Future developments include the production of a promotional CD about Living Libraries and living books.  There are already great resources available at the website to help your library start a living library project.

In 2009 the ALIA Education and Professional Development Standing Committee is leading a course recognition review which will include

1. ALIA Core skills and knowledge: Review the 8 major ALIA core skills and knowledge.

2. Terminology: Changing from course recognition to accreditation terminology.

3. Course recognition questionnaire: Content review.

4. A 5 year course recognition model: Changing from the current 7 year model to a 5 year model.

5. Course length: Reviewing the inconsistencies on the length of the graduate diploma course. Some courses offer full time course load that takes approximately 18 months to complete others offer 12 months.  

Employers, graduates and educators are now also asked to make comment.   Feedback specifically on the five topics above can also be emailed to Dianne Walton-Sonda, ALIA Education Manager, dianne.walton-sonda@alia.org.au by the 30 April 2009.

Educators are also encouraged to forward the wiki onto key stakeholders, including course advisory committees, for their input: 

LIS HE wiki  URL: http://www.alia.org.au/education/highereducation/wiki

Username:  LISHE            Password:  lishe2009            Edit password:  liseducators

 Jane Grace has started as Acting ALIA DRPM.  Please get in contact with her with donation enquiries, suggestions and offers of support.  For the background about the position please read the blog post here.

ALIA Disaster Recovery Project Manager

The ALIA DRPM aims to develop a well coordinated, integrated and effective service system for all libraries and integrated services to provide materials and support to communities affected by natural disasters. In the immediate case we are looking at Victoria and the bushfire know as Black Saturday, and further development will lead to the support of Queensland and the flood affected areas.

The ALIA DRPM will work towards achieving :

• The provision of greater access to services and facilities
• Coordinated approach locally, whole state and nationally

Contact

For further information or inquires please call or email:

Jane Grace (Acting ALIA Disaster Recovery Project Manager)

Phone: 03 9401 0718

Email jgrace@yprl.vic.gov.au