ALIA Board Blog

If I asked you what was the first day of the week would you reply Sunday or Monday? The reason for my question lies in this week’s ‘big’ project, my involvement in A Day in the Life of a Library Worker. The commencement day for this week long expose of what I get up to as President of ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) is Monday, which I guess is fair enough as it’s the beginning of the working week. 

Call me old fashioned but I have always thought of Sunday as the 1st day of the week and it was only just before Christmas when in my ‘real’ job I was working with our graphic designers on a calendar to celebrate 150 years of local government here in Orange, NSW, Australia that the concept that it could be otherwise hit home. Opinion is mixed with Wikipedia recording it can be either depending on religion or location. As a chronic procrastinator I like this answer as  it gives me 2 days which I can describe as ‘the start of the week’ when avoiding deadlines.

So what deadlines do I have this week (and more truthfully, what am I procrastinating about)? The lovely Kate, editor of ALIA’s monthly magazine inCite is on my case about my introduction for the 2009 Annual Report with my Frontline column for the March edition not far behind. That girl can nag in the nicest possible way :-)!

The latter is easy peasy as the theme for the March edition if inCite is reading, something I’m passionate about from a professional and personal point of view. ALIA is excited to be working with our partners towards a National Year of Reading in 2012, something we’ve wanted to do for some time. We’ll be announcing details soon. As for the Annual Report that should be a piece of cake but all the great things we did last year far outnumber the  word limit I’ve been allocated (I admit it, I’m hopeless at Twitter!). 

One of the challenges of being the head of any professional association is the juggling act of ‘real’ vs ‘honorary’ job. In the real (read paid) job my estimates for the 2010/2011 financial year are due. In the changing environment in which we work looking ahead for even 12 months can be a challenge with emerging technologies and new products jostling for attention. There’s also the chance of golden opportunities which need to be embraced when they arise. This requires a flexible approach and an informed and skilled workforce - attributes which can be developed through engagement with initiatives such as ALIA’s PD scheme. Which reminds me (and you) to include ALIA membership as a ‘must’ in the budget.

I can put it off no longer, the dreaded Excel spreadsheet calls!  Cheers.

Jan

Jan Richards, ALIA President.

librarydayinthelife

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 9:48 am and is filed under Blogging, Web 2.0, Library technicians, Librarians, Board director, ALIA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.