ALIA Board Blog

Before October slips off the calendar I best do a few notes on the month that was…..  

[and Happy Thanksgiving (to our Canucks), Pink Ribbon Day and Halloween as it’s the end of the month - and Congrats to a couple of the ALIA staff who got Married this month]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the 2009 National Advisory Congress meetings, and the Board and staff who made all the arrangements.  Take a look at the reports on Your Thoughts about ALIA and Lobbying and Advocacy.  http://www.alia.org.au/governance/nac/2009/

The Gov2.0 #gov2.0 twittering has also been interesting this month and this mashup competition also looks good  http://data.australia.gov.au/  - will a librarian team win ? 

The applications closed this month for the 2010 Aurora Institute - check out the new Foundation website at http://www.aurorafoundation.org.au/ 

Developing the next generation of library leaders is something that ALIA supports and the ALIA Aurora Scholarship may be offered again to a successful ALIA Member and Aurora applicant for the 2010 Institute.

ALIA has many (many) Awards and Scholarships http://www.alia.org.au/awards  and the Membership and Awards Standing Committee has been discussing and reviewing these.   Speaking of committees, we have had alot of members joining and retiring from Advisory Committees.  Did you know that we have Advisory Committee guidelines now?  Take a look here:-  http://www.alia.org.au/governance/committees/   The new Library Technician Advisory Committee will be forming soon as well.

This month a hand-picked print edition of a Harvard Business Review arrived in a package in the mail (thanks Dad) and it was nice to read a print copy of a journal  - it is still one of the things I miss about not being in an actual library - being able to browse the latest titles and journals on display.  I also started the latest Dan Brown novel.  I often wonder what is on the bedside bookshelf of other library-types (?) The latest print publication from IFLA also came in the mail - with lots of Aussie authors (Congratulations on your articles about Regenerating the Profession).     The future of reading has also been a topic of conversation this month.  At ALIA we have had some discussions about a Year of Reading for Australia in coming years - a proposal out of the ALIA Public Libraries Summit.  ALIA has produced a consultation paper on the draft National vision and framework for public libraries and we are seeking feedback from Summit delegates and all ALIA members by 11 December 2009.

ALIA also hosted the Public Library Associations Meeting in Townsville prior to the PLA/QPLA Conference.  The project has now started to produce National Standards for Public Libraries - with Libraries Alive being the consultants assisting with the project - and with a completion timeframe in the first half of 2010.  More information will be posted on this project on the ALIA and Summit websites.

A number of the ALIA Board and Staff members attended the informative CAVAL People in the Information Profession conference.  There were many comments about ALIA’s role in education, collaboration with educators and practitioners, careers and course recognition.   Take a look through the Course Recognition pages (yes, ALIA is the only Association to do CR out of the 50-or-so Australian Library Associations and organisations)    and the new ALIA Career Connect information launched this month. http://www.alia.org.au/careerconnect/ 

Course recognition visits and reports will be one of the major memories of October 2009 - the number of reports written, proofed, redrafted, corrected, recrafted and then sent, followed up, discussed, commented on and replies made will continue throughout the next months.   Our thanks for the patience of all of the LIS Educators for some of the waiting periods this year.   The LT Educators’ Annual Meeting weekend, held in Canberra on 23rd and 24th October was a great success with around 40 educators meeting to discuss the site visits that were conducted during 2009, to deliver best practice examples and to share two days of professional development. 

Rebuilding with Books has also been a huge project this year.  Thanks to Jane Grace and Sue McKerracher as ALIA Disaster Recovery Project Managers during 2009.  http://www.alia.org.au/disasterrecovery - great photos and stories on this site.

We finished the month with sad news of the passing of Kay Poustie, a treasured and revered member of ALIA and a great contributor to the Association and the Profession.  Links here :    http://aliaretirees.blogspot.com/    http://www.alia.org.au/awards/fellowships/1997a.html   I have already received many sincere and thoughtful condolence messages from members, and these will be collated for the Poustie Family and the ALIA community.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

Last week it was a delight to attend the Australian School Library Association’s (ASLA) Conference in Perth. ASLA and ALIA are close  partners  and under our joint Memorandum of Understanding the President of each Association is the guest of the other at our respective biennial conferences. During the Conference ASLA President Rob Moore and I signed the updated Terms of Reference for the ALIA/ASLA Policy Advisory Group in front of witnesses, who included members of the PAG (another acronym to add to my ALIA thesaurus). A huge thanks to the ALIA and ASLA representatives on this Group, several of whom I met while I was in Perth. Through their dedication and the  open communication between the Executive Officers of both Associations (Sue Hutley, ALIA and Karen Bonnano, ASLA) we have firm foundations for the future.

Congratulations to the ASLA Conference organising committee for an exciting program on the theme of “Engage, Explore, Celebrate”. If you get the opportunity I would encourage you to attend a session or a conference outside your sectoral interests. It’s a great way of reigniting your thinking and an excellent reminder of how the jigsaw pieces all fit together. From my “real job” perspective it’s been a wake up call to re-engage in a more formal way with the school librarians in our community for the benefit of all.

I also caught up with the West Australian Aurorans and former ALIA President Imogen Garner over dinner while I was in Perth. It was a very lively table with everyone talking at once. Thanks to Jill Benn for arranging it despite her jet lag. As usual I posed the “did Aurora make a difference?” question and the universal answer was yes (I was one young man’s mentor at Aurora so what else could he say!). Applications for the 2010 Aurora Institute close on 16 October 2009 so if you’re thinking of applying get your skates on.

Public holiday here in NSW and the last day of my long (6 week) break from work. I think a day of gardening, dog walking and friends is in store.

Cheers

Jan

Jan Richards, ALIA President

The Aurora Scholarship has been announced on the ALIA website.

The Aurora Institute aims to assist future leaders in the library and associated cultural and information industry to maximise leadership skills and potential. 
ALIA member Clare Glanville provided an overview of her Aurora experience in inCite May 2005.

 The 11th Aurora Leadership Institute will be held at Thredbo from 14-19 Feb 2008. Applications are open from 4 September-22 October 2007. Application guidelines are available via the Aurora website.

To help meet associated costs, funds of up to $4 000 are available via the ALIA Aurora Scholarship each year to support attendance by an ALIA member at the Aurora Leadership Institute. The purpose of the scholarship is to enable an ALIA member to attend the Institute where this would otherwise be difficult due to the financial commitment required. The scholarship is open to personal financial members of ALIA who meet criteria outlined on the ALIA website.

Have you considered applying for the Aurora Institute ALIA scholarship?