Advocacy
The ALIA Every Member an Advocate national roadshow kicked off last week with workshops held in Darwin. Northern Territorians gathered at the Charles Darwin University library to hear Sue McKerracher present ALIA’s recommended approach to advocacy and lobbying and workshoped with participants on their local issues and individual library needs. The reason for the Every Member an Advocate workshops is that we all need to advocate on behalf of our own libraries and the profession. At a national level, ALIA lobbies the federal government on a number of issues, working with the DEEWR (School Libraries, VET & PPP), Social Inclusion (Public Libraries), DBCDE (Broadband and Cybersafety), FAHCSIA (Access and Disability) and DEWHA (Libraries, the arts and literacy) and Innovation (BISG) on specific issues and programs or involved in Inquiries or Groups reporting to government. http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy
Last week was also the launch of the Safer Internet Group’s website http://www.saferinternetgroup.org
ALIA is also there to lobby on behalf of libraries where a local team is unable to do so because of the constraints of their position. There have again been recent reports of many restructures and industrial relations issues in public libraries around Australia. Members are encouraged to contact us by email with your initial request for assistance regarding such matters or phone the MembersLine 1800 020071.
The workshops show just how easy it can be for everyone to become an effective advocate, without having to step too far outside their own comfort zone. It’s such an important skill to have, we have made the advocacy workshops free for ALIA members, Please make the time and be a part of these events when they are held in your state or territory. The feedback from the Darwin workshops has been positive with 26 people sharpening their advocacy skill-set - now there’s just a few more thousand to go!
Dates and locations for the workshops are on the ALIA PD calendar – visit http://www.alia.org.au/education/pd/pd.services/training.calendar.html
Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director