ALIA Board Blog

Today was a day of project and partnership discussions.  Sue McKerracher, our National Year of Reading project manager (and all-round amazing woman) visited us at ALIA House for meetings to further along NYR2012.   Speaking of ALIA House - it has been our home for more than 20 years now.  We have four other corporate tenants and it contributes to our income each year.  Part of the job of the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer is the maintenance of our building, being ALIA’s most significant asset.  So some days I count Real Estate Manager and tenant management as part of my job description.

Many ALIA Members would know Sue M, as she conducted our Every Member an Advocate workshops around the country in 2010 and supported our Public Libraries Advisory Committee last year as well.  There are also other excellent advocacy tools available on the ALIA website.  Let us know what you think of them by emailing comments to advocacy@alia.org.au

We also met with the Canberra Centenary team today, to discuss project ideas for us to work together on for the National Year of Reading.  Their big year will be 2013, and we hope to partner on a number of projects in the lead up to that year.  Also,  I learnt about a new thing today - what a Diaspora is all about (it’s not a term that I have come across).  Check out http://www.canberradiaspora.com.au/ If Canberra has been a part of your life, you will be asked to contribute your story.

The National Year of Reading is for everyone - all libraries are encouraged to get involved - and we also have some significant partners on board.  If you haven’t yet learnt how to do the “Love to Read” symbol - try it out at your next staff meeting ! To see the videos go to the NYR Facebook page.

I also spoke to and emailed quite a number of other Australian Library Associations colleagues today.  Talking about how we can work together, reduce duplication and get meaningful projects off the ground.  Also discussions with our sectoral Advisory Committees, including the TAFE Libraries Advisory Committee who are planning some great resources and research this year for that sector.

There are many large projects that we run simultaneously at ALIA with the contribution and teamwork of  ALIA Staff, the Board, our contractors (like our Professional Conference Organising company), sponsors and vendors, and our many wonderful volunteer members.    Just a few include our Conferences, Campaigns and other special grant programs (with one past example being Human Libraries Australia of which funding has concluded).

My evening finished at home with the new ratbag cat bringing a cute mouse into the house to play with.  At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what library day job you have, you still only exist to serve the cat of the household :-)  You have to have some perspective!

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

I am finally writing a post about my last day of IFLA2010, as it turned out to be a sad day with the news of the death of Bob McKee, Chief Executive of CILIP reaching a few of us that day.  The closing ceremony in Gothenburg with Abba singing “Thank you for the music” and photos of Bob enjoying the conference were part of that farewell, prior to the official announcement a few days later.

We all have library colleagues that make a difference in our lives, and whose passing give us cause to stop and remind ourselves of the gift of life.  Bob influenced so many people within different communities - the library community and the political community are just two.  The September IFLA Presidential Newsletter and links to other comments really do capture the essence of Bob’s character.  I, like many others at IFLA2010, enjoyed hearing about his plans for retirement, world travel and his ongoing IFLA contributions, including the IFLA Building Strong Library Associations programme. 

In his last blog post Bob mentions the ALIA National Year of Reading 2012 campaign - Love2Read.  Bob and many of my Management of Library Associations section colleagues helped me with a set of videos during the conference.  It’s Bob’s funeral today and I mark the occasion   - with the videos from 12 August 2010, a reminder that ‘Life is too short’ and a glass of good Australian red wine (because Bob always celebrated with a glass of something).

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

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LITERACY

It’s International Literacy Day today, and a good time to remind everyone about a startling Australian statistic :  That around half of the Australian population still struggles with literacy skills  -  more here http://love2read.org.au/library/files/Flyer280510generic.pdf 

For many of us who are lucky enough to have had a quality education and lots of opportunities, and are completely connected with reading, books, literature and online material, the statistic quoted above seems unreal (”That can’t be true” comes to mind).   But it is, and it’s affecting our communities and our quality of life.  That’s why Australian Library Associations and Libraries are going to be leading the National Year of Reading in 2012.  There will be thousands of events, initiatives and activities organised during the year and we also seek the support of the Australian Government to make significant improvements to our national literacy statistics.

DIGITAL LITERACY & 5 minutes on the NBN

In my previous blog post I was waiting for an election outcome …. took abit longer than we thought to find out who would form the government, but at least we can get on with it all now.  Last night after the eventual election result was announced I needed a cab ride to my Sydney hotel after meetings, and the taxi driver had the political talkback on the radio.  I was engrosed in my iPhone and #ausvotes twitter news still as we started chatting about the result and things in general.  A colleague once commented to me that he believed that cab drivers are the true political ‘wick’ of the nation  (ask a Cab Driver who will win an election, and they will probably be right)  My cabbie then asked me “So why do we need this NBN thing??” “Why is it so important?” he comments.  Ironic, I thought, seeing as I was sitting there utilising such technology.  Trying to explain the NBN in 5 minutes to a layperson who is not ‘internet connected’ was my challenge.  There had been a great analogy made during the day for the NBN and national infrastructure - ” What if the Hume Highway had never been built? Where would we be? ” and I tried in a number of quick and simple ways to describe how the NBN will work.

In his 7 September announcement Tony Windsor noted that Broadband was possibly one of the most critical issues  - for regional Australians “to engage with the infrastructure of this century”. 

Rob Oakeshott mentioned education and the NBN in his (lengthy) in the ”eyes of my children” decision.  Digital literacy will be a critical skill for all Australians to be able to truly engage with the NBN.   We hope that Mr Oakeshott will continue to learn from his involvement with, and the submissions and hearings of the House of Representatives Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians about just one part of the future of creating Australian Digital Citizens, and increasing regional education opportunities.  All sectors of the Australian library community are also already delivering services and skill development in these areas.

ALIA’s NBN comments are found at  http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/broadband.html 

So I challenge you to try out an elevator pitch to a cabbie about why the NBN is important from your perspective.  Perhaps that’s why our Independents commented on it in their speeches yesterday - lots of people talking about it in the taxi cabs of Australia.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

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