ALIA Board Blog

It was great to see so many enthusiastic, committed and articulate new librarians last week, at the New Librarians Symposium 4 in Melbourne. Nearly 300 of them.

NLS4 was upbeat and optimistic, and the major take-home message was that it is a great time for libraries and people who work in them. Especially if we are prepared to learn, adapt and change. New librarians are at the cenre of this.

People talk about the crisis in libraries because of the ageing of the workforce. I always say “It’s not actually a crisis for everyone, for some it is a marvellous opportunity.” An ageing profession is an opportunity for the young. I don’t believe in generational stereotyping - we are all in this together, and everyone has to learn, adapt and change - but the reality is that 34.5% of us won’t be around in ten years time (one of the speakers said), but most of the NLS attendees will.

It is a great time for libraries because the information environment has changed for the better. And, far from having been obsolesced, said Mark Pesce, a keynote speaker, there are new roles for people with library and information skills. “life coaches for the digital lifestyle”, he suggested, as long as we “get out of the libraries and into the streets.”
It is a great time because so many of the things libraries have dreamed of are now actually possible, and the conference had a strong element of new technology and new possibilities. It also had two total enthusiasts from Tilburg, Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer, who turned their camera on the audience, the real subjects of their presentation.

It is a great time, but there are dangers too. Mark Pesce said that librarians need to take ownership of the censorship issue, and he’s right - it is central to what libraries do. Open to all is what a library is, and must be, and for that reason  copyright is an important issue for us too. On the issues of access to information we are very credible: we have a trusted brand, admired values, and widespread respect.

It is a great time, Dr Sherman Young said, even for the book, which retains its importance for us all, although perhaps not necessarily in its physical form - not dead at all, he suggested, but perhaps sleeping, like Arthur and his knights, ready when we need them.

The conference was a tribute to a very enthusiastic and effective committee, led by Tania Barry, to support from ALIA national office, in particular Kamara Schlegel and Sue Hutley, and to sponsors and supporters. But of course it primarily owed its success to very articulate new librarians, well-chosen keynote speakers, and enthusiastic and committed new (and newish) librarians and library techs.

There is growing opposition to the plans of the Government to censor the internet. Almost twelve months ago, following a statement by the Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy, ALIA issued a press release. It was headed ALIA’s Ten questions on censorship for Senator Stephen Conroy. But we still don’t know the answers to ANY of the questions.

Senator Conroy said in a recent interview on Radio National’s The Media Report (30 October) that the government will first determine what kind of filtering or blocking of internet content is feasible, and then decide what will be blocked. He said “. . . a whole range of people have said, ‘Hey, lets expand this’, That’s a debate that we will come to. What we’re trying to establish at the moment, we’re no further than establishing at the moment, whether it’s technically feasible.” So we don’t know what the government plans to censor, and neither yet do they.

In the meantime, a number of organisations have taken up the issue. The No Clean Feed website and blog is organised by Electronic Frontiers Australia, which also covers internet censorship on its own site. Another site is the blog Somebody Think of the Children: discussing censorship and moral panic in Australia, and another very thorough personal site is Irene Graham’s long-established site. Australians Against Internet Censorship, a Facebook group, is planning a nationwide protest on 13 December. There is also a Getup! campaign on this issue, and 89,000 people have signed their petition. Getup! has an interactive widget you can embed on your web page or in your blog. So there is a lot of action.

ALIA is a player in this, and we have an online content site. Let me know what you think ALIA should be doing. This is an issue which is very important to us, because libraries have always taken a strong stand in opposition to censorship.

Contribute to the future of ALIA - Tell ALIA your thoughts and ideas

All ALIA members will have received an email providing them access to the ALIA member survey. Information gathered from this survey will enable the ALIA Board of Directors to make strategic decisions on services that support all members.

If you have not taken the survey yet - do it today!
There is a $500 prize incentive to take the survey.

If you did not receive the link and your password to the survey via email, please contact Robyn Ellard, Assistant Director: Member Services on 1800 020 071 or email robyn.ellard@alia.org.au.

 Cheers, Katy.

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is an average of six “steps” away from each person on Earth. I know on a global scale Australia’s population is relatively small, and within that population the library “world” is even more contained however it never ceases to amaze me how everyone within our networks somehow links to someone else. At the Biennial in Alice Springs (great conference, thank you to all involved) I was constantly discovering new connections and catching up with friends and colleagues from my past.

But what I find even more intriguing is the serendipity of discovering a library link in an unexpected time and place. Earlier this week I was in Brisbane for the Queensland Public Libraries Association Conference (another wonderful event). When checking out of my hotel room I lodged my baggage with the concierge, Raymond, whose customer service skills were outstanding. However, I must admit to being somewhat surprised when he asked me, with obvious interest (looking at the paperwork) if I worked for ALIA. “How do you know about ALIA?” I responded.  “My Mum’s a Librarian in the Northern Territory” he replied. There followed a conversation about libraries and their importance to communities.So well done Raymond’s Mum on spreading the word and raising such a delightful son!

Colleagues,  Bonjour from Quebec in Canada.  I am here with around 40 Australians at the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) 74^th World Library and Information Congress.  Approximately 3500 delegates from countries around the world are meeting at locations around the city.  Check out the (massive) programme here

The Aussies and Kiwi’s got together for a dinner last Saturday night to catchup and to talk about more ideas for IFLA2010.   In only two short years until we will be hosting the world’s library professionals in Brisbane (and at satellite events in other Australian cities, and New Zealand).

So what is an IFLA congress like ?  If you work with any colleagues who have been to an IFLA congress before, I encourage you to ask them !  It is a different experience to an Australian library conference.  In what ways ?  Well, here are just a few …  

Catering is different.  You need to work out how to get pretty much all of your meals (except for a couple of the main functions) and the convention centre has options for delegates, as well as the surrounding cafés etc  (some nice one’s here in Quebec)

Everything is on a big scale – there’s so many more people to get organised, and to move around a large space (so forget the high heels, comfortable shoes recommended)

There’s so many other meetings and functions to attend that are not on the actual program – sometimes you won’t see the same colleague for a whole week !

Many sessions have interpreters translating the sessions – for all those delegates who do not speak English

You need a good buddy / group of colleagues to guide you through the experience, to give you the best travel and congress tips and to introduce you to lots of other people  [look out for our IFLA tips in future editions of inCite and on the ALIA IFLA2010 website ]

There are some things though that no matter which library conference you go to, they are the same :

Librarians on the dancefloor (but here there are thousands of them!)

Plenty of greetings and hugs with old friends and colleagues meeting up again from all over the world

The sharing of experiences, good advice and insights, new ideas, opportunities being created, exciting projects, new products and services and amazingly inspiring stories of individuals and libraries !

Some of the other IFLA Experience descriptors  -   ceremonies* meetings * sessions *functions*exhibitors* shopping* travel* networking* international* 

It is always a memorable experience!  The IFLA2010 National Committee members are looking forward to the assistance from the Australian library community to ensure that Brisbane will be a successful and memorable congress too. 

It is a little while since we took home the take home messages (the Board met in Brisbane on 14 July), but they are now available on the ALIA website, here. Perhaps the most significant message is that there will be a public libraries summit, most likely in Canberra, in March 2009. ALIA has allocated a budget to the process, and has called for expressions of interest for the position of project officer - advertised here.

What is the Summit for? The goal is to clarify and advance the policy agenda for public libraries at all three levels of government, and raise the profile of public libraries nationally. In particular, a key goal of the whole process is to demonstrate the many ways in which public libraries contribute to a wide range of policy goals.

The Summit process will be led by Jan Richards, Vice President of ALIA and a prominent public librarian, and will be assisted by ALIA’s Public Libraries Advisory Committee and its chair, Vicki McDonald. We are looking for a wide range of contributions from people with a strong public library commitment. If you are interested in being involved, please get in touch with Sue Hutley and offer your assistance.

There are a lot more take home messages, too. About advisory committees, the membership survey scheduled for October, IFLA2010 in Brisbane, Health Libraries Australia, and the ALIA National Library and Information Technicians Conferences 2009 in Adelaide.

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/event/lifeline_stress_down/top_ten

Ok, I will admit it - I wore the slippers at work today !  and we were one of the top-ten fundraising teams.     Stress Down Day 2008 was lots of fun.  Thanks also to one of the staff who braved wearing PJ’s !    ALIA National Office is in the throws of a few big things at the moment, membership renewals using a new system being just one - so abit of morning tea light relief, a massage and a good cup of coffee was welcomed.  It’s been great to talk to so many members renewing over the phone.  Continue to call us to chat on 1800 020071 and to pay via credit card etc.                                      

Sue Hutley,  ALIA Executive Director

Wow, there’s lots of money for individuals or libraries with some of the ALIA Awards at the moment …..   this is our richest award so far in terms of dollar value - who will take out this great award ??  Only for those who apply !  …. get in touch with the ALIA IOG Committee for more information or visit the website :

WIN $10,000 – Nominations are open for ALIA’s IOG Excellence Award .  The IOG Excellence Award acknowledges excellence/innovation in performance by an information professional.  The 2007 award was won by Gold Coast City Library service for its implementation of an RFID system.  Are you working on a project that could be suitable to nominate for the 2009 award?   Would you like to be the recipient of the 2009 perpetual trophy?   Winners receive:   Full registration, for an individual, to a conference of their choice (within the parameters of the Information profession, and subject to ALIA IOG committee agreement) anywhere in the world - Travel ,  Accommodation or per-diem allowance

The total value of the award shall be up to $10,000 with all arrangements being undertaken by the awardee.   See all the details at http://www.alia.org.au/awards/merit/IOG.excellence/    Nominations close: 31 August 2008

How often do you wear your ALIA membership star to show your support of the Association that supports you and our industry? I suspect that for many of us the answer is “not often”. By contrast members of service clubs and other professions wear the symbols of their belonging with pride and actively use it as a conversation starter. So why are we so reticient to prompt people to ask what the star represents? As a profession we’re passionate about our industry and go to great lengths to promote it so why not adopt the same attitude with our Association?  It’s being a member of ALIA that puts you at the forefront of our profession.

 You might indeed ask what’s brought on this on. Two things:

• En route to the Post Office  last week I bumped  into my dear friend and former colleague Sean Brady from NSW DPI Libraries, looking, as usual, a picture of sartorial elegance  and sporting an ALIA tie! Except that it really was a “bump into”moment I would have suspected a set up, our Sean being not averse to keeping my feet firmly on the ground. As befits a newly elected VP I naturally grilled him on the wearing of it and he happily admitted to doing so quite often. Hurrah a man with pride in his connections. 
• Secondly it’s membership renewal time, and as the newest member of the Membership and Awards Standing Committee I am very aware of the centrality of you to the future of our organisation. If you need reasons to renew, or indeed join look at Sue’s recent blog post on 71 reasons. And if you need further incentive f you renew your ALIA membership by the 18 July 2008 and be in the draw to win one of 25 ALIA Packs.

 A cautionary tale regarding the perils of not wearing your ALIA  star. Last week returning home to Orange from an ALIA engement in Sydney my luggage went missing and with it my precious gold ALIA star, carefully packed in with my jewellery! What a quandry! Did I ‘fess up and admit to not wearing it 24/7 and ask for a new one? Could I raid the Library’s craft supplies and spray paint my red one one gold? Thankfully my bag was found safe and well a week later in Broken Hill and as I write my gold star is safely anchored to my jacket.

I look forward to catching up with some of you at the National Advisory Congress meetings over the next few weeks in Sydney, Canberra, and via teleconference… and here’s a thumbs up, if you’re wearing your ALIA star you’ll win a prize!

 Cheers

Jan

Given the number of phone calls and emails I’ve received it’s surprising how many of you were “out and about” between 10 and 11 this morning and able to listen to Radio National, either that or you’d picked up on the gossip doing the rounds that public libraries were to feature on The Book Show.

It was a great opportunity to focus on the importance of the public library network and to talk about our successes and the challenges that confront us. I was joined on air by Andrew Finegan - performer and librarian at Darwin City Council library and the Northern Territory Library; Jill Bartholemeusz - librarian at the Athenaeum subscription library in Melbourne; and Audrey Semons - member of the Friends of Great Lakes Library  group from NSW.  I was there wearing several hats including of course my ALIA Vice-Presidential one (”ALIA red” of course!).

I rather enjoy radio interviews as it’s such a personal medium, besides which you don’t have to fuss over bad hair. However I found being involved in a discussion with 3 other interviwees rather disconcerting as you were never sure who the next question was going to be directed to. I would have loved to have spoken about some of Andrew’s topics

During the course of the week The Book Show had asked listeners to contact them with thoughts on public libraries and why they are important and they were overwhelmed by the response. The majority view was that public libraries are an incredibly valuable community resource and they deserve better treatment from government. This is no surprise to any of us but great feedback, especially when aired on the national broadcaster. Arranging the interview was an example of the high level of cooperation that exists between peak library bodies in Australia.

 If you’d like to listen the interview is available as a podcast following the link below. Have a great weekend - it’s bitterly cold and raining here in Orange. I’m desperately hoping for snow!

Cheers

Jan  

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2262714.htm