ALIA Board Blog

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

 You might have guessed from my last post that I’m in Melbourne, always a treat, especially when there’s the prospect of a days R&R (read shopping) on Saturday.  I’m here for the Australian Government’s Social Inclusion Conference , billed as an ‘opportunity to join a national conversation about effective and innovative social inclusion policy and practice’.

As we all know libraries, and by their very nature public libraries, are key contributors to social inclusion. So much so that ALIA formed our inaugural Public Libraries Summit in July 2009 around the topic with Senator the Hon Ursula Stephens, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and Parliamentary Secretary for the Voluntary Sector as our keynote speaker. In her address Senator Stephens talked about public libraries as ‘hubs of community life’, neutral spaces for learning, access to the internet and e-learning. She said, ‘They will remain a vital part of the future … a neutral third place, with the capacity to connect people with the outside world.’

Imagine then the delight of the  public library attendees at this weeks event (Karen, Sue, Anna and me) when in his keynote address  Professor Sir Michael Marmot visiting from  London spoke about the difference reading to children from birth makes in their future development and the importance of the local public library in this and other social inclusion initiatives. The facilitator assured us this wasn’t the last we’d hear about libraries! I can tell you there was real cause for air punching over morning tea and this continued when pioneer of the Hume Learning Village Concept, Frank McGuire managed (after several attempts) to get the microphone during question time.

As the day progressed the anticipated inclusion of libraries and how they can contribute to the government’s agenda didn’t eventuate, or at least not in any of the sessions I participated in and after conversations with colleagues who went to different streams I think the zero approach was pretty widespread.  Anna asked ‘why aren’t there any library speakers or case studies demonstrating what we do, everyone else seems to be represented?’  I had no answer.

Following afternoon tea Hon Julia Gillard MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Inclusion launched A Stronger Fairer Australia the Australian Government’s statement  setting out their plan for acheiving a vision of social inclusion. I can only applaud such a development and the obvious work that has gone into its development.

When I got back to the hotel I sat down with a glass of wine to read through the document and see where we fit into the jigsaw. After the direction of the day I guess I wasn’t surprised to find no mention of the word ‘library’, disappointed yes, but not surprised. Hey I’m realistic enough to be able to slot us into ‘other agencies’ and demonstrate by success how we slot in.

What I found much, much more distressing was the lack of recognition of the role of reading in the priority ‘Improving the Life Chances of Children at Greatest Risk of long Term Disadvantage’.  Yes, we can doubtless build it into some of the other initiatives which are included in this policy but when will our governments get it - literacy can be addressed from birth by the simple intervention of reading to your child. I’d be happy to be proved wrong, to have someone say to me ‘look, here it is on page …’ because after all it was my first read and I was getting fairly tetchy towards the end.

We’ll work through this and with our partners begin to align ourselves with this policy. But right now my response is ‘why does it always have to be so #$%&^ hard!’

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

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

Well, what a month at ALIA.       We of course received word from the IFLA Governing Board that IFLA2010 will now be in Goteborg, Sweden.  <see Jan’s post>   There were many and varied discussions on library e-lists   - questions understanding the complexity of the Congress arrangements and agreements <Graham’s post explains more> and how the GFC is affecting all budgets, tourism and government funding, (e.g  AustnUniLib examples  )  and just a general feeling of disappointment.  While the National Committee, ALIA Board and staff were also all disappointed too, we agree with the IFLA GB that it was a difficult, but necessary and financially sound decision to ensure the long-term viability of the International Association.   We still need to operate as businesses to survive - I was also fortunate to be with a group of Not-for-Profits this July, and we considered trying to rename the sector “Not-for-Loss” as our sustainability in the long term depends on good financial decisions in order to support the communities, groups or professions we serve.  ALIA submitted to the Productivity Commission’s Not-for-Profit review and we hope to engage further with this review.

ALIA heard the response too from members about ‘what next?’ for a 2010 event of some sort - and quickly established the ALIA2010 wiki which has seen some excellent comments and ideas and suggestions.  Other phone calls, teleconferences and emails have also gathered ideas which will be presented to the ALIA Board.   It is Board Meeting time again - and if you ever wonder what the agenda’s look like you can view them here  and get summaries of the meetings here on the website.

Then the 30,000 copies of The Little Book of Public Libraries arrived just before the Summit and filled the ALIA House Conference room before all the staff helped shipped them out to all those who have ordered.  Again, we received a variety of comments, but mostly people have appreciated the ‘different’ and bright cover and the subtle clear title on the cover.  You can also get tips on what to do with the little book and how to use it as a great Advocacy tool on the website. 

We met with the Public Libraries Associations in Parkes in late June to prepare and discuss the ALIA Public Libraries Summit.  Thank you to our State Associations for their financial contribution to the day and also their support, including facilitating discussion groups on the main topics.  Our thanks also to FOLA for their support.  The ALIA Public Libraries Advisory Committee (PLAC) have provided great advice and input over the year of planning for the summit.

Jan Richards, Summit leader, ALIA President and public librarian was able to bring her experience and passion to the day.  It was also the breadth of participants and enthusiasm from the invited guests that completed the day.  We have only just started the work and further conversations that will result out of the Summit - there’s lots to be followed up on. The major recommendations from the day will continue to be reported on the Summit website.

We hope that more public librarians consider nominating for the ALIA Board of Directors - check out our Boardroom Bound page and we are also running another BB session at the upcoming ALIA Library and Information Technicians Conference coming up soon from 15-18 September in Adelaide.

Jan Richards and I presented to the Select Standing Committee on the National Broadband Network at Parliament House on 20th July and the transcript will be available here.  The Senators opened their copy of The Little Book of Public Libraries with enthusiasm ( abit different to the examples of fibre cables and boxes with splitters shown around during the previous presentation at the Committee).

The Summit, Little Book, Ambassadors, Submissions, Senate presentations and related media interviews have all contributed to ALIA’s Advocacy for libraries this month.

Membership renewals are flooding in - thank you to all that have renewed so far.  You can use the online payment system or give us a call on 1800 020071 to arrange your payment.

Our Web2.0/socialmedia extended to twittering, especially during Summit Day #Summit09 and #ALIA2010, Facebooking, blogging and wiki-ing. 

Sue Hutley, Executive Director

The Public Libraries Summit tomorrow pulls together a number of different threads that we’ve been working on over the last few months.  There will be an important announcement about Public Library Standards; the first outing for the Little Book of Public Libraries, and the national launch of the Public Library Ambassadors campaign.  In advance of the latter, ALIA has assisted local library services with a few pilot projects and you can see the first ambassadors on our new Flickr site - www.flickr.com/photos/aliapubliclibraries.  We’re delighted to have such a good spread of personalities, across three states, but this is only the start.  Why not use the toolkit at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/committees/public.libraries/summit09/public.library.ambassadors.html to recruit your own library ambassador and start generating those news headlines for your library service?

Jan Richards

ALIA President

Well, only three days to go until the Public Libraries Summit and we have a fantastic line-up of guests, including top level representatives from state/territory and federal government departments.  We have reached our target of 50 politicians, advisers and senior members of the library world, and there are still a few more organisations who have yet to put a name to the ticket, but have said they are keen to reserve a place.

I have to say a big thank you to Senator Ursula Stephens’ office for all their help and advice in the run up to the event.  And we’re all looking forward to the Senator’s opening address.  As Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector, who better to set the scene for the day? 

Jan Fullerton and her team at the National Library have also been incredibly helpful; the submissions on a range of subjects from early literacy through to services for the aging population, have been invaluable in shaping the program and providing advance information for delegates, and of course everyone at ALIA House has been run off their feet in the last week, putting together Summit papers and handling all those last minute arrangements. 

So much effort, so much preparation, and such big hopes for the outcome of Thursday’s Summit.  Of course, we have grand, over-arching ideas, but at the very least, we want those politicians to walk out of that room having learnt something positive about public libraries, having considered how they might fit with their agenda, and having thought “we can work with these people”.  If we achieve that, we have been successful in starting up the kind of conversation we need to have with government at all levels - and that’s what this Summit is all about.

Fingers crossed

Jan Richards

ALIA President

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