ALIA Board Blog

Congratulations to our Sydney colleagues on a fabulous story in  the November issue of The (Sydney) magazine (pp48-52),  issued with today’s Sydney Morning Herald. The title is: “Shhh! Read all about it” with the subheading: “Don’t believe everything you read about libraries being close to extinction”. Writer Barry Divola profiles 5 individuals who represent  today’s libraries:

Kiersten Fisburn, Manager of Culture and Libraries for City of Sydney talks us through that  hip  temple of books that is the new Surry Hills Library and Community Centre (one of my current favourites). Kiersten says “Libraries should be more than just about books on shelves … they should serve their local area, make people feel welcome and be a place where you can borrow an armful of books and feel as if you’ve had a shopping experience without spending a cent”.

ABC radio and television journalist, Steve Cannane, paints a picture of undertaking research in the iconic Mitchell Library at the State Library of NSW. Naturally he talks about the treasures of this great institution but he also talks about the inclusiveness of its clientele; “so many people around you are working, from high school students to people doing their family histories, to other writers and journalists”.

Kat Mayo, an IT consultant confesses that her romance reading habit initially drew her to Ultimo Library “I knew I was spending too much”! Visits to the Library have since become family affairs with Kat ensuring that her children and husband have their own library cards so that her borrowing quota isn’t taken up by their interests. Way to go.

“In my last year of school I thought ‘I buy books, I read books, I love books. I’ll become a Librarian. It was that simple”. Those are the words of Alan Tasker, Field Librarian at the State Library of NSW. It’s Alan’s job to source and assess the archives, records and collections of people who wish to donate to the library or as Alan says “they pay me to visit people”. Seems to me we need to get Alan out to Careers expos.

The final vignette is of Richard Barclay, Manly Library’s Mobile Librarian. While most mobile’s are prime movers Richard drives a golf cart and operates the  Manly Library Afloat services which offers loans to commuters making the journey from Manly to the Sydney CBD. The service operates from 7.15am to 9.15am Monday to Friday and last year he issued 3,000 books with the number steadily increasing. Richard remarks in Summer every second person tells him he has the best job in the world (and I think I might agree) but more tellingly people also say “just seeing you here every morning reminds me that I need to read more”.

If you can get hold of it do “read all about it”. I was given a tip off that it was going to be in today’s Magazine last night by a Sydney colleague during the National Advisory Congress teleconference and as the publication dosen’t make it to newsagents in Orange I had to bribe a friend in transit through Sydney to bring it home today on the “first available flight”.  Obviously she appreciates the value of libraries and arrived just after 2pm proffering the requested glossy.

Cheers

 Jan

Jan Richards

ALIA President

Are you a staff member in a library?  Ask your library manager if your library will be included in this important survey.  To date only a few libraries from each sector have registered.  We need you to contribute ! 

THE PROJECT
ALIA and NSLA (National and State Libraries Australasia) are supporting a national research project to examine the workforce planning and staff development policies and practices in Australian libraries.

• This project, neXus 2, builds on the initial neXus research project that was conducted in 2006, which captured data about the individuals who work in the LIS sector here in Australia - ie demographic, educational and career data about the workforce.  More than 2,300 LIS workers participated in that project.  The final report of the neXus study, which reviews the data by State and by sector, is available to download from the ALIA website (http://www.alia.org.au/employment/workforce/”. 
• neXus2 aims to help the LIS sector better understand the diverse issues that impact on the recruitment and retention and the training and development of library staff.  The study focuses on the institutional perspectives, rather than the individual.  This means we seek the active participation of library management, to be able to obtain data at the organisational level.  We anticipate ONE response submitted by each organisation that participates, with the institutional data compiled by a representative of the senior management team or human resources/staff development personnel.
  

Importantly, the project is aligned with similar international studies, allowing us to compare and contrast LIS workforce policy and practice across the different countries. The project has the support of a range of industry bodies, not only ALIA and NSLA, but also: LATN, WAGUL, QULOC, PLA, TAFE Libraries Australia , HLA, ALLA, AGLIN .
 

YOUR INVOLVEMENT
We invite you to complete the neXus2 survey, or to pass the email onto the relevant person in your organisation. We are managing this survey in several ways:

Respondents are asked to request a Survey Identification Code as the first step.  This will allow us to manage the different parts of the survey and correctly link each submission to the relevant institution.  The survey questionnaires are online - we do require you to complete the online survey to ensure we manage the collection of data efficiently.  We have divided the survey into 4 parts, so that you can complete the survey at different times (NB the Survey Identification Code is the glue to hold it all together!) . We have provided printable copies of the 4 parts of the survey.  You will need to print off the these documents and work offline to collect and collate the data.  These serve as work sheets that you can refer to as you complete the survey online.  Please try to use this project as an opportunity for discussion and reflection on professional issues within your own organisation.  We encourage you to work with your senior management colleagues to explore some of the questions - the qualitative information you collectively provide in response to some of the questions will be invaluable to the profession at large.

• The cut off date for the survey is Friday, 4 April 2008.  
• Research ethics and publications: All information collected from individual institutions will be handled in the strictest confidence, in accordance with the requirements of the ethical handling of research data. The research findings will be presented in a report to be distributed to ALIA and NSLA, and also reviewed and discussed at professional forums and in the professional literature, locally, nationally and internationally.  We aim to compare the data by library sector and by State/Territory. Please note that no individual institution will be identified in any of the published materials.
  

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO DO:

STEP 1: Register for your Security Identification Code: link to http://datagecko.com/nexus/index.php?sid=14
** Please ensure there is only one respondent for your organisation.
** Please allow 48 hours before receipt of the code.
** Please make a note of your Security Identification Code and keep it in a safe place!

STEP 2: Using your Security Identification Code, access the neXus2 survey website: http://datagecko.com/nexus/index.php?sid=1 
 
STEP 3:  Print off the four parts of the survey (note: the printable copies can all be downloaded from the Introduction to the survey).

STEP 4: Allocate some time to collect the required data and to then complete the online survey.
** Reminder: this can all be done in progressive stages. You do have the opportunity to save the survey and return to it later.
** Reminder: you will need your Security Identification Code to access the different parts of the online survey!
** Reminder: the cut off date for the survey is Friday 4 April 2008.

STEP 5: Treat yourself to something special as recognition of the contribution you have made!

STEP 6: Watch out for the reports and dissemination of the research findings!

Please do not hesitate to contact Gillian Hallam on email: g.hallam@qut.edu.au or mob: 0402 159 818) for further enquiries about this  project.