ALIA Board Blog

Hello Everybody,

Well, today is my last day as President of ALIA. Its a pretty big day. We kick off with a meeting of the ‘old’ Board with the ‘new’ Board members in attendance followed by the AGM. If you’re living in Canberra and haven’t RSVP’d for the AGM its not too late. The more members we have attending the better.

For those of you unable to attend the AGM a copy of my speech is below. Its been both a pleasure and an honour to be President, and its even been a bit of fun!

Here’s my speech.

2010 was a year of significant achievement for ALIA, but unfortunately it was a year when we once again ran at an operating loss.  I would like to briefly outline some of those achievements, provide some guidance about our financial performance, and outline the measures this Board has set in place to address our financial situation.

Our achievements.
Firstly and most importantly ALIA membership grew by 4% in 2010. This performance bucked national and international professional association recruitment trends. My thanks to all our new and ongoing members for their support.

2010 was ALIA’s year of advocacy. This was in direct response to lobbying and advocacy issues raised in the 2008 survey of members as well responses from members in the 2009 National Advisory Congress. Our lobbying and advocacy initiatives and activities included:
• Every Member an Advocate workshops
• Federal Election Campaign information
• Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians
• Internet filtering
• being a founding partner of the Safer Internet Group
• Book Industry Strategy Group

In addition to these ALIA also worked closely with other founding partners and supporters to plan for 2012 the National Year of Reading.

Guidelines for Australian Special Libraries were revised, and the National Vision and Framework for Public Libraries was finalised.

On the education front, ALIA hosted the first ever Library and Information Sector Higher Educators forum, and ALIA published Library Technician Education in Australia: State of the Nation.
In response to the Victorian bushfires and unknowingly in preparation for the climatic events that affected NSW, Queensland and Victoria in late 2010 and early 2011 the resource kit, The ALIA Guide to Disaster Planning, Response and Recovery for Libraries was produced.

2010 was the year ALIA could have been hosting IFLA. In its stead ALIA hosted the tremendously successful ALIA Access Conference in Brisbane.

And 2010 saw ALIA present its highest award, the HCL Anderson Award, to Jan Fullerton, the retiring Director-General of the National Library of Australia.

Our financial performance.
The 2010 financial statements show that ALIA delivered a deficit of $551,281. This is the third time in  four years that ALIA has run an operating deficit. The deficits for the other two years were of a similar magnitude. ALIA is not an organisation with unlimited reserves so it is critical that this trend is reversed.  I would like to provide some guidance on the 2010 results and the plans the Board of 2010/11 has set in train for the future.

2010 saw a number of factors come into play simultaneously, a perfect storm if you like.
1. The impact of the Global Financial Crisis. The GFC had a two fold impact on ALIA’s finances. Firstly, it reduced the value of ALIA managed fund investments, and secondly it reduced the value of income received from these investments. By way of example the difference in return from our investments between 2009 and 2010 was approximately $175,000.
2. Loss of key personnel. Unfortunately, ALIA’s Finance Director left the organisation at a critical time. Due to the circumstances at the time ALIA was left with no alternative but to call in contractors to assist managing and reporting the Association’s finances.
3. Financial management system. Some years ago ALIA invested in an Enterprise Resource Management System used by a number of not-for-profit organisations. While this system has proven to be effective for managing membership, it proved not to be as effective as a financial management system. After some rigorous processing and report testing a decision was made to revert to MYOB. The testing and conversion of the finance data occurred during the period when contractors were assisting ALIA. Budgeting under these conditions was also problematic. The costs of contractors to assist with managing the Association’s finances and convert the data from one system to the other exceeded the normal salary costs attributable to the then Finance Director.

Addressing our financial performance.
The Board of Directors has a fiduciary responsibility to members of ALIA to ensure ALIA is well managed and remains solvent. While ALIA is in a sound financial situation, the Board of Directors has taken steps to ensure the trend of operating losses is reversed. These include:
• Running a balanced, business unit focussed, budget for 2011
• Hiring a Chief Financial Controller with experience in a not-for-profit membership based organisation
• Hiring a Chief Operating Officer who’s primary responsibility is the efficient operations of National Office
• Reviewing expenditure and better managing assets
• Reviewing investments and implementing an investments policy that aims to ensure ALIA invests in secure, low risk investments while at the same time maximising returns
• Effectively managing cash flows
• Obtaining additional financial support from partner associations to assist us with our broad industry based advocacy and lobbying work, eg NYR
• Investigating additional revenue streams

ALIA is of course a membership driven organisation. While the Board has taken the measures outlined above, it is equally important for our membership to continue to grow or stabilise at worst. Any significant decline in membership will necessitate further action by future Boards. Equally, ALIA is subject to the vagaries of national and international economies and markets, so it is important for future Boards to review these measures in light of the current financial situation.

As I close my report I would like to thank all our members for their support, involvement, and engagement. I’d like to thank Sue  and her dedicated team here at National Office for all their hard, and often unrecognised, work and support.

Finally, I would like to thank my fellow Board members for their investment of time and energy in ensuring ALIA is well governed. I wish retiring Board members Gillian Hallam and Kate Sinclair all the best in their post-ALIA Board endeavours. I thank Andrew Hocken for his contribution to the Board. To the continuing and new  Board members Margaret Allen, Vanessa Little, John Bayliss, Julie Rae, Joseph Cullen and Kathryn Cass, I wish you well in what will be another challenging but exciting year for the ALIA.

Graham Black, President (for one last day)

I am sitting staring at a yacht skimming across the blue waters of Gothenburg, well I assume it is Gothenburg as it is just a photo on the wall of my hotel room in front of the desk that I am sitting at. 

The weather has been warm but overcast and the threat of rain looms at all times.  Like my colleagues from the ALIA board, I have had a busy week.  It started in Oslo at a joint pre conference satellite from the IFLA sections, Libraries Serving Persons with Special Needs (LSN), the Literacy and Reading section and the section I chair, Libraries serving persons with print disabilities (LPD).  Over the two days I heard many talks on the delivery of services to people with dementia, blind and dyslexic. But the main one that stood out for me was the report from the BUS-biblioteket which is a hospital library for children and young people. It is situated at the Queen Silvia hospital for children and young people in Gothenburg, which is the largest children and youth hospital of northern Europe. The library was awarded the prize ’Library of the year’ 2009-2010, which is appointed by DIK – the Swedish librarian´s trade union.  The activities and events they offer for the patients and visitors of the hospital are truly amazing, inspiring and impressive.

 Now in Gothenburg I have spent many hours in meetings, discussions on copyright especially limitations and exceptions.  Information meetings about recent  WIPO and standing committee discussions on the treaty for cross border lending of copyright material for the print disabled, the development of a manifesto for libraries serving persons with print disabilities, the Global Accessible Library and the Trusted Intermediary project, plus our own section committee meeting.  

Graham has advised that we were entertained by the ABBA cover group at the opening of the conference, who from a distance did look remarkably like ABBA back in the 80s.  Now I was not one of the many who got up an danced, ABBA is fine in small doses or through movies like muriels wedding but the rest of the audience did appreciate the chance to move their arms and hips.  

Over 3,000 delegates have converged on Gothenburg at the same time that the cultural festival is underway so you can imagine what a lively and exciting place it is to be.  Last night was the opening of the trade exhibition and the usual vendors were present, w that was interesting is the precence of family search, the church of the latter day saints geneaology software, this is the first time I have seen this group at a library conference. I wonder if Ancestry.com is taking their market share.   Ironically opposite their stand is the Ron L Hubbard booth, rows of books by the charismatic and infamous author are available for viewing, one wonders if this is a recruitment drive for the church of scientology or the selling of Ron’s books, probably both. 

This morning the key speaker, Henning Mankell, a renowned Swedish crime writer, occasional children’s author and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most iconic creation ,Inspector Kurt Wallander now made into a television drama and has recently aired in Australia spoke on literacy and dignity and the importance of improving literacy levels across the world and how important libraries are to this cause.

Join the Australian National year of reading 2012     http://www.love2read.org.au/

Julie Rae

Board member

As the meeting was short and sweet , the ‘take home’ messages will be equally short and sweet!

The Board held a teleconference meeting on Monday 12 July. The main topics of discussion and major outcomes were:

Approval of the New Generation Advisory Committee Terms of Reference
An update on the ALIA Access Conference which is shaping up to being very well attended
Preliminary discussion on the 2011 budget and planning for 2011.
Board processes
National Year of Reading 2012
Advisory Committee reports

We will be having a face to face Board meeting on Monday 30th August in Brisbane just prior to the ALIA Access 2010 Conference. Most of the Board members will be attending the Conference so please take this opportunity to meet the Board members and talk about ALIA.

Graham Black
President

Many of our members know our current Board of Directors - you can see their photos and biographies here.  We have received quite a few positive comments about our ‘Future of Reading’ edition of  inCite (have you read it?)  so I thought I would ask what some of our Board members are reading at the moment - here are their snippets …..

PHILLIP KEANE  — I have just finished rereading ‘A Year in Provence‘ by Peter Mayle.  It was prompted by some of my family having various trips to France last year and this year.  It was a delight to read it again, partly imagining the author as played by John Thaw in the TV series.  I’ve just started reading ‘An Infinity of Things : how Sir Henry Wellcome collected the world‘.  Wellcome was famous as the cofounder of the Burroughs Wellcome & Co., now part of GlaxoSmithKline.  He was perhaps more famous for the Wellcome Trust, now one of the largest private biomedical charities. I’m finding it fascinating how this man collected over a million artefacts for his Museum of Man, some parts of which took over 40 years after his death to put in order, though much of his collections were dispersed to various museums after his death.  There seem to be many parallels with the life of David Scott Mitchell and his passion to own everything he could pertaining to Australia, Antarctica and the Pacific.  His collection was bequested to the State Library NSW as the basis of the Mitchell Library.

MICHELLE BRENNAND –     The three books I have ‘on the go’ are :  The Mighty Toddler,  the latest Harvard Business Review , and Sense and Sensibility   -  pretty much reflecting the three components of my life – mother, manager and me.

HELEN PARTRIDGE    — At the moment I am enjoying Book 3 in the Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.  I can never just read one book at a time, so I am also reading Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead. This is my fun reading.   My work reading is Learning to be Professionals by Gloria Dall’Alba.

KATE SINCLAIR   — Working in an academic library, we have just plunged into the chaos of first semester, so most of my reading is done at the end of the day, on the couch with a nice glass of wine! Here’s just a selection from my bedside table & RSS Reader…

• Bite-Sized Marketing: realistic solutions for the overworked librarian Don’t you just love that title? This is a fantastic little book and the best thing about it is that it can be read in “bite-sized” chunks.  It has a great chapter on  using Web 2.0 tools to make your marketing life easier…and also a whole section on the importance of “telling a good story” when advocating for your library resources & services.  It’s full of practical tips and examples of easy, simple marketing ideas that work. My favourite quote: “Marketing goes beyond trying to get people to use your library; it is a concerted effort to articulate your value.  It is that plain and simple.”
• Text Patterns Alan Jacobs is an English professor who blogs at The New Atlantis about technologies, reading, writing, research & everything in between.  I can always open up a new post here and find something to contemplate, question or reassess.  Lately he’s been talking about ebooks (isn’t everyone!), the Google Books settlement, Chatroulette, Google Buzz and what an email application actually is:  “It’s three things, it seems to me: it’s a text editor, it’s a database, and it’s a file manager. The problem is that there is no email client that fulfils all these functions really well.”  Fascinating stuff!
• Smitten Kitchen This is one of my favourite food blogs, great for those days when you aspire to be a domestic goddess (or just when you are on the couch with a glass of wine & a toasted cheese sandwich)!  Deb cooks in a tiny NY kitchen and serves up her simple take on fancy recipes with passion, humour, and some amazing food photography.  (And even better for those of us who care about such things, she has a great recipe index and search engine).

GILLIAN HALLAM  –  I am working on a literature review at the moment, so I have read and read and read – on topics like current directions in government administration, trends in government libraries in Australia and internationally, issues in contemporary special libraries, and the skills and competencies of special librarians.  Beyond that, I am reading all the abstracts for the IFLA-ALISE-EUCLID satellite meeting in Boras, Sweden, and am blind reviewing a paper on ePortfolio research in the UK and Europe.  I am reading widely to identify case studies about good practice in library associations around the world as part of the work I am doing for IFLA…  and in my spare time I am analysing the data coming in from the neXus3 study…There is a novel by the bed “The Children’s Book” by Antonia S Byatt , but am not making fast progress there.  Finally, I get to flick through The Australian – but I think ‘read’ might be an ambitious term there.

JAN RICHARDS  — I’m currently reading:   Alice I have been by Melanie Benjamin. This novel blends together fact and fiction to tell the story of the real Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell. It’s a book which is guaranteed to make you re-examine this much loved children’s book and the mythology surrounding its creator. Publishers Weekly describes it as ‘bookclub gold‘ and I can only but agree. When you’ve finished Alice I have been I’d suggest you read (or re-read) Still she haunts me  by Katie Rophie - and then perhaps make a visit to the movies to see the new Disney version of Alice starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.

(and me) SUE HUTLEY –   As per my Directline in inCite,  I have now finished ‘Lunch in Paris‘ and I am now aiming to cook some of the recipes from the book.

All the board members are also reading ALIA Board Papers this weekend - as we have a meeting in Canberra tomorrow.  We will also be welcoming our incoming board members as observers this week to the meeting, to begin their ALIA Board induction.

I hope you enjoy reading whatever is on your list this weekend !

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

January sees the start of the ALIA financial year and by the end of the month our auditors have arrived to do the analysis of the previous year’s accounts.  Our Annual Report financials in 2008 were clearly affected by the GFC.   At the end of the first full ALIA financial year after the financial squashing our investments received, we are starting to bounce back slowly.  ALIA House continues to be a major (but aging) asset with the next 3-year-annual re-valuation to be reflected in the 2009 figures.   Salaries and staff movements continue to be our major expense, as would be expected in an organisation where providing professional services and facilitating the many groups, committees, events, campaigns and activities to members is our priority.  A restructure of ALIA National Office management staffing began in December 2009 and will continue though the first half of 2010.  Positions will be advertised during coming months. 

The Board of Directors election nominations closed on 13^th January 2010 and the unusual situation of having the same number of nominations for available positions occurred.  This means that the Association is not required to conduct an election this year.  A number of members considered nominating this year (and discussed their intentions with our current board members) but indicated that it was just not quite the right time for them either personally or professionally.  A director position not only comes with significant responsibilities (ASIC and AICD give good summaries) but also a great time commitment.  To enable greater effectiveness for board processes, the ALIA Board has implemented a few changes how the company’s board started out in the early 2000’s in regards to meetings and board decisions.  The board meets more frequently than in the past – with teleconference meetings (as official board meetings) in between the face-to-face meetings often held in Canberra or other capitals (as I write this I am on the plane to a board planning meeting in Brisbane, the closest location for three of our current board members).   We also have 6 Standing Committees of the Board, which a board member chairs. The focus of these SC’s is high level discussion, research, reports and recommendations also using key expert member input, for that board member Chair to bring to board meetings.  It allows a board member to focus on one or two area of strategic importance for the Association – while at the same time getting the summaries and overall picture by hearing from other board members and the Executive Director.  Our congratulations to Margaret, John, Andrew and Julie and we look forward to working with you all and getting ready for your official terms from May2010 to May2012. We also acknowledge their employers and staff and families who will be supporting them in their role as a board member (it really is a combined effort).

Other members expressed their interest in nominating this year, but after further information realised that they may need more background in finance or governance, or just learning more about the wide scope of work of the Association to become a more productive board member so that they might get the best out of their 2-year term on the board.  The ALIA Boardroom Bound program will continue and you can sign up for a board buddy.  Some potential board members have considered nominating for an ALIA Advisory Committee in the meantime.  We need quite a few more members to assist with these committees – nominations are being called again in the March edition of inCite, so keep a look out for that.

Advocacy will be a great focus for us at ALIA in 2010.  Over the past few weeks it has centred on the ISP filtering proposals and RC Classification and the ACMA blacklist.  Your case studies so far on examples of how library-related enquiries and research work can be inhibited by ISP filtering have been very useful for our submission – please continue to send your comments and responses to advocacy@alia.org.au by 10^th February so that we can finalise the submission by the due date.

Following on from the ALIA Public Libraries Summit we are also continuing on with the discussion around the social inclusion contribution that libraries make to society.  It’s sometimes interesting to see who reads blog posts – including comment from the Social Inclusion Minister these past few days (thanks Ursula for taking the time).  We are very much looking forward to working with DEEWR, the Social Inclusion Board and Senator Stephens’ office on continuing to place libraries at the centre of our community contributions in this area.  Her comments on literacy and reading and the national agenda comes at a time when our third ALIA Summer Reading Club is coming to an end and the announcement of the book for National Simultaneous Storytime for 2010 is made.  ALIA members should feel proud of the contribution that these national reading campaigns contribute to the nation’s literacy agenda – and they are great fun too.  We hope you have enjoyed ‘Reading on the Wild Side’ and are now placing your order for ‘Little White Dogs Can’t Jump’ and putting the date of 26 May 2010 into the diary to organise a reading session in your library – no matter what type it might be.  The importance of reading and literacy, and how literate citizens improve our society, can be highlighted by library staff everywhere.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

If I asked you what was the first day of the week would you reply Sunday or Monday? The reason for my question lies in this week’s ‘big’ project, my involvement in A Day in the Life of a Library Worker. The commencement day for this week long expose of what I get up to as President of ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) is Monday, which I guess is fair enough as it’s the beginning of the working week. 

Call me old fashioned but I have always thought of Sunday as the 1st day of the week and it was only just before Christmas when in my ‘real’ job I was working with our graphic designers on a calendar to celebrate 150 years of local government here in Orange, NSW, Australia that the concept that it could be otherwise hit home. Opinion is mixed with Wikipedia recording it can be either depending on religion or location. As a chronic procrastinator I like this answer as  it gives me 2 days which I can describe as ‘the start of the week’ when avoiding deadlines.

So what deadlines do I have this week (and more truthfully, what am I procrastinating about)? The lovely Kate, editor of ALIA’s monthly magazine inCite is on my case about my introduction for the 2009 Annual Report with my Frontline column for the March edition not far behind. That girl can nag in the nicest possible way :-)!

The latter is easy peasy as the theme for the March edition if inCite is reading, something I’m passionate about from a professional and personal point of view. ALIA is excited to be working with our partners towards a National Year of Reading in 2012, something we’ve wanted to do for some time. We’ll be announcing details soon. As for the Annual Report that should be a piece of cake but all the great things we did last year far outnumber the  word limit I’ve been allocated (I admit it, I’m hopeless at Twitter!). 

One of the challenges of being the head of any professional association is the juggling act of ‘real’ vs ‘honorary’ job. In the real (read paid) job my estimates for the 2010/2011 financial year are due. In the changing environment in which we work looking ahead for even 12 months can be a challenge with emerging technologies and new products jostling for attention. There’s also the chance of golden opportunities which need to be embraced when they arise. This requires a flexible approach and an informed and skilled workforce - attributes which can be developed through engagement with initiatives such as ALIA’s PD scheme. Which reminds me (and you) to include ALIA membership as a ‘must’ in the budget.

I can put it off no longer, the dreaded Excel spreadsheet calls!  Cheers.

Jan

Jan Richards, ALIA President.

librarydayinthelife

 The team behind my earlier performance were particularly keen on a re-run; believe me we created a monster during that exercise when a borrowed video recorder and a whiteboard on wheels masquerading as an autocue created a sense of ‘Cecil B DeMille’ amongst my colleagues. Luckily fate in the form of the pre-Christmas rush put such silliness to rest and my on-line Yuletide presence is limited to this blog.  

We all have “must read” blogs in our lives. One of mine (apart from this one!) is written by Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession. Last week she captured my mood when she wrote:

I always find this time of year very reflective.  The calendar mind map is always interesting as the year stretches out ahead and then, as if by magic, it is so many pages turned.  I can’t help but stop and sit for a minute and review all the wonder of the past year.   

2009 has been a huge year for ALIA. I will remember it as the year in which we:

• Integrated the results of the member survey into our planning and as a result focused on your # 1 priority, lobbying and advocacy, at the National Advisory Congress

• Weathered the global financial crisis

• Contributed to the discussion on issues affecting our industry; the National Broadband Network, Parallel Importation and internet filtering (to name a few)

• Enhanced the range of PD opportunities including access to online resources and current awareness services

• Worked with fire devastated Victorian communities in the Rebuilding with Books project

• Hosted the first Australian Public Libraries Summit which has led to the development of a Vision and National Framework for the sector

• Delivered Library and Information Week, Summer Reading Club and National Simultaneous Storytime

• Collaborated with other library and information associations

• Held a stand out Library Technician’s Conference in Adelaide

• Worked with LIS educators to accredit courses

• Supported IFLA in their decision to relocate the 2010 Congress to Gothenburg

• Embraced Library 2.0 technologies

And they’re just the things I was able to come up with on a hot December afternoon following a lunch time of shopping.

None of this would have been possible without our:

• fabulous ALIA National Office staff

• Local Liaison Officers

• dedicated Board of Directors

• committed volunteers

• and you our loyal members.

To you all a huge thank you.

As we count down the final days of 2009 I would like to send you all my very warmest wishes for the festive season. It has been a great pleasure to meet, work and reconnect with many of you during the year and I look forward to more of the same in 2010.

Jan

Jan Richards, ALIA President

The following has been announced on the ALIA Website and the ALIA e-lists this morning.

Board of Directors Election results for 2008 :
Congratulations to Jan Richards who has been elected Vice-president / President-elect.

Congratulations to Michelle Brennand and Helen Partridge who have been elected as Directors by the membership at large.

Congratulations to Philip Keane who have been elected as Director elected by institutional members.

[Michelle, Helen and Philip will all now undertake their second term as ALIA Directors]

Thank you to Kevin Dudeney, Brenda McConchie, Gail Schmidt and Kate Sinclair for nominating and we hope that they will continue their valuable contributions to ALIA.

All the exact details and numbered results of the election will be published in the May edition of inCite.

To find out more about your ALIA Board take a look through the profiles and links at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/elections/2008/

Sue Hutley, Executive Director

ALIA has an elective leadership and governance structure, but is constituted as a company. This makes it a little more complex as an organisation than your average local soccer club (although maybe not - I know nothing about local sporting clubs). ALIA is keen to foster participation by its members.

This is an important issue for all voluntary organisations, and this posting is to encourage people to be involved. You can start off by having a look at our new program to demystify board membership, help people to decide to contest an election, and get involved in the process. The new Boardroom Bound program is located right here. It tells you what being a member of a company board means.

Next May there will be four positions on the Board up for election - two directors elected by members, one director elected by institutional members, and a vice present (president elect). Nominations will be called fairly soon, so start thinking about it now. In fact, its not too early to start thinking about 2009, either.

The Australian Law Reform Commission has recently completed its deliberations on changes to Australian privacy legislation. The Australian had a news article on the report on Wednesday (September 12), headed “Ruddock pans privacy push.” I must say, although it is not something I always say, that I strongly agree with the Attorney General, at least on the face of it.

The report is of such a size that it almost precludes the involvement of anyone in the process other than privacy professionals, whoever they are. The Executive Summary alone is 34 pages. There are 301 recommendations, ranging from highly technical legislative change, to simple measures (like abolishing the fee for a silent telephone number), to quite far-reaching changes (such as creating a new statutory right to sue people who publish private information). An example given is “when filmmakers captured everyday situations involving people in public spaces.” Responses to the report are sought, and are due by 7 December.

There are clear implications here for the strong commitment that libraries have towards the free flow of information, and the Press Council has already expressed its scepticism about the proposed new right. This seems to be an issue on which Australian library interests will want to get together. How will we balance our strong commitment to the free flow of information with emerging ideas of a right to privacy? Let us know what you think. Feel free to volunteer, too.