ALIA Board Blog

Is it really the last day of the month?  Where did it go?   With so little blogging action from the ALIA Board (sorry about that) what else has been happening….  or just a few things anyway …. 

It was a big week at ALIA Information Online in Sydney.  It is our largest conference and was again well organised and all went smoothly.  Thanks to everyone involved : committee, speakers, chairs of sessions, volunteers, trade exhibitors, delegates, workshop presenters, and others.

Minister Conroy certainly gave an interesting opening speech.  During January we have been finalising our next Public Library Internet Survey which will be release in February.  Jane Hardy at National Office, Board members and Advisory Committee members are also gathering comments to put together into the ALIA submission (together with other library organisations) towards the Digital Economy Future Directions Paper.

The staff who attended from ALIA National Office also enjoyed the week in Sydney at Online and were glad to meet and talk with so many members - although all of us seemed to have sore feet for days after arriving home.

ALIA’s nominations for the Board of Directors closed in January, and Vice-president for 2009-10 (President 2010-11) was elected directly, due to there only being one nomination.  Congratulations to Graham Black from CQUniversity.   Five members have nominated for the two available Director positions.   ALIA will move to online/web voting for the first time in 2009.  Look out for your email with voting instructions in March.

The Board also had a special planning day on the Sunday prior to ALIA Information Online to focus on future directions.  The 2009 Goals are included in your Jan/Feb inCite. The 2008 member survey results will also be made available to ALIA members in the coming weeks.  Look out for them on the website.

I will be interested to see how many of our keen members get behind our new Recruit-a-member Campaign, launched in January.  How much of a discount would you like on your renewal next year ?  or it might be free - if you can assist 20 members to join us.  What creative methods will be used, I wonder ??

The ALIA Public Libraries Summit arrangements are really starting to take shape.  Every public library in Australia is asked to get involved in the Public Libraries Ambassador program – use the opportunity to identify at least one local to become a great advocate for your library.

IFLA2010 Satellite event proposals are being formulated with libraries linked-in with IFLA Sections starting to think about arrangements in locations around the country, and in NZ.  These application forms are completed by IFLA Section Chairs and presented to the IFLA Professional Committee in March 2009.

Education representatives from ACS, ALIA, RMAA and ASA met at ALIA House to discuss common issues and developments relating to course recognition.   Another meeting is arranged for later in the year.   Consultation began on revising our core skills and knowledge, and ALIA Course Recognition processes and procedures via a wiki.

Dianne Walton-Sonda (ALIA Education Manager) and Dr Gillian Hallam are starting to make arrangements to visit 14 TAFE/RTO’s as part of Library Technician Course Recognition in the next few months.  This is the first time that site visits have been undertaken in many years.  Our thanks in advance to all those LT Educators busily preparing documentation and getting ready to host the panel.

Our ALIA volunteers in the Groups have put in their plans for 2009 (which are just about to arrive on my desk for final approval).  I hope that lots of members get involved in the local group activities this year!

I could keep going…. and going … but that’s all for tonight.   There’s always lots to do  - please join us.

Best wishes for the coming months of 2009.

Sue Hutley

ALIA Executive Director

They’re back! The Librarians you quite possibly just loved to hate are stirring again at the ABC with series 2 now in development. The ABC is keeping ALIA posted on progress and the production team will be in touch with libraries who helped out with the first series. Filming is expected to commence towards the end of the year. Watch this space for more information as we keep our eye on the denizens of the Middleton Interactive Learning Centre…   (that would be LIBRARY) !!                                                       Sue Hutley, Executive Director

I’ve just arrived home after 3 days in Canberra being “inducted” as a board member. I’m certainly feeling the effects of information overload! Let’s hope a reasonable percentage of what I heard has been absorbed and I don’t drive the National Office staff crazy with too many idiotic questions.
It was great to meet with fellow board members, some of whom were previously only “virtual” acquaintances, and to catch up with ACT based colleagues  at the AGM on Tuesday night. A huge thanks to Roxanne who stepped down as President on Tuesday night for all she’s achieved over the past 4 years during her terms as board member/Vice President/President.

Our new President, Derek, and I spent Monday together working through a range of issues with National Office Staff and we’re repeating the process in a couple of weeks to make sure we’re on the same page. I thought it was hugely typical of the “smallness” of the library community that a dear friend from my Wollongong Days now works with Derek at Swinburne and emailed him while we were in Canberra. It was even more of a “kismet” moment when I opened the May Incite when I returned home and there was an article by her! Hi Clare. On the topic of Incite  do also read the article in the May edition by Central West Libraries’ Jasmine Vidler (I’m probably breaking some rule by promoting my own library - oh well!).

I’m now having a couple of days off to try and tame the garden before winter sets in, and to recharge my batteries for Library and Information Week. You all do such wonderful things to celebrate this time but make sure you share your successes and send stories and pictures to ALIA. I’d also suggest you take time to congratulate yourselves on the fabulous job you do - perhaps a morning tea or a glass of bubbles after work. Whatever you decide on, enjoy.

Cheers

Jan Richards

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

Long weekends (and time to think) often results in good ideas coming to mind.  Why not put your thoughts into something towards your professional development and those of your colleagues.  Your ideas, research or reports on the great work you or your library service has been doing are the start of your abstract for conferences.

Two ALIA conferences have their abstract submissions due soon after Easter.  Check out the ALIA Information Online 2009 Conference - Abstracts due 28th March 2008,  and the ALIA New Librarians Symposium 4 - Abstracts due 4th April 2008.

So while sitting munching a pile of chocolate easter eggs or your easter visit to church or just your time by the beach or pool, I hope that your brilliant idea for a conference abstract comes to you. 

You might also be thinking of writing a journal article (this might go before or after your conference abstract and paper) and some first timers tips  are useful.  ALIA’s flagship publication, the Australian Library Journal, would like to receive your manuscript.

So get cracking on those short abstracts, or finishing off those longer journal articles over the break.  The Conference Convenors and Editors are looking forward to receiving the results.

Happy Easter.     Sue Hutley,  ALIA Executive Director

Over the weekend our ALIA IT Staff transferred over to the new refreshed ALIA website templates. Check it out at http://www.alia.org.au   These pages now fit with our ALIA Branding Guidelines.   Groups and Conference committees have been joining us to reinforce the ALIA brand on documents, websites and anything under the ALIA banner.  The ALIA star is our recognisable symbol and an important part of our organisation.

The ALIA website contains more than 100,000+ pages  and so the final transformation will take a little while.  If you see things that can be improved on the website please email our ITHelpDesk .   We are also hoping to change the scrolling images on the top banner of the website over time to include more Australian library photos,  so keep visiting over the next few months to see further enhancements.

There is a new section in inCite - “Your Association at work”
This is a new feature for inCite in 2008 informing members about some of the major work that is undertaken by ALIA each month for the benefit of members and the wider LIS community. It also includes items on what is going on at ALIA national office.

Members can read it in their print copies of inCite on p.47 or online.

Update :  14 December 2007.  Our online Christmas Card this year - is now needing some tweaking. The link will be back on the front page of the ALIA website next week.

Dear ALIA colleagues

The ALIA Board will have its next regular meeting on Monday 10th December. The Board has been experimenting and rather than just have four face to face meetings each year we now also have teleconferences roughly six weekly. Hopefully this will enable us to be responsible to issues that the Board needs to consider.  The agenda for the December meeting is quite long – some of the important agenda items are:

 Balanced Scorecard report, 2007 Quarter 3

 2008 planning

 National Advisory Congress 2007 report and 2008 model

 Financial reports and Draft 2008 budget

 Course recognition visits and budget

 NLS4 draft budget

 Membership database tender

 Membership survey

 Policy statements review and status

 Research and Publishing Standing Committee report

 Conferences Standing Committee report and:
  ALIA Information Online 2009
  National Simultaneous Storytime
  ACOC Seminar report
  IFLA 2010

If there are issues that you are interested in and want to follow up on we’ll have a summary of the board meeting on the Board web page in a week or so after the meeting at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/board/reports/.  Your Board members are always keen for comments about issues which are on our agenda and issues you believe should be on our agenda – contact details for Board members are online at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/board/

Regards

Roxanne

Dear Colleagues

The final 2007 ALIA National Advisory Congress (NAC) meeting was held last night.  This year’s approach to the NAC gave a sharp focus on the issues of highest importance to ALIA members - employment and education.  The teleconference was a new approach and everyone participated, sharing views from each group meeting on the key issues and making excellent suggestions for ALIA’s planning for 2008 and beyond.

I’d like to thank those who attended the teleconference Nathalie Smith, Alice Springs; Ruth Marsh, Townsville; Jo Keleher, Rockhampton; Christopher Griffiths, Wagga / Riverina; Gemma Siemensma, Ballarat; Rebecca Parker, Melbourne; Sally Murdoch, Hobart; Benita Wheeler, Adelaide; Kimberley Hargrave, Gawler / Barossa Valley; Andrew Osborne, Brisbane; Alyson Dalby, Sydney; Andrew Finegan, Darwin; Alissa Sputore, Perth; Bradley O’Brien, Library Technicians; Helena Zorbec, Canberra; Tania Barry, Regional & Rural meeting, Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director; Robyn Ellard, ALIA National Office; Derek Whitehead, Vice President and Damien Lodge, Director).

A report on NAC will be provided online through http://www.alia.org.au/governance/nac/2007/

Next years NAC meeting will be held in conjunction with the ALIA Biennial conference. I encourage you all to participate in the process and contribute your thoughts!

regards

 Roxanne