ALIA Board Blog

An important part of being an ALIA member is making a commitment to updating your skills and undertaking regular professional development.  We understand that not everyone can receive support from their employer for all of their PD.  Here are some really cost-effective options that you can take up right now (this week in fact!).  You must register to join these activities - click on the links provided.  Don’t forget to add all your activities to your PD Points as part of the ALIA PD Scheme. 

Get your Head Around It!  PD Teleconference with ALIAs PD and Careers Manager    Thursday 21 October 2.00pm AEDT   ALIA’s Judy Brooker, will facilitate a FREE 1 hour teleconference on professional development within the library and information sector, with a particular focus on the ALIA Professional Development Scheme.  The workshop will address the what, why and when (www) of professional development.

Manage a Budget  Online course developed by Sydney Institute, TAFE NSW. Monday 1 November - Friday 10 December.  Are you responsible for managing a budget? This course aims to provide the concepts, knowledge and skills required to take responsibility for the management of a budget where others may have developed the budget. Registrations close 21 October.

FOLIOz for 2011 ‘Management Skills for the More Experienced (ExFiles)’ Monday 21 February- Friday 1 April 2011 Online course. Consolidate and refresh your skills and knowledge to deliver effective front-line library services.

Improve your job applications with ‘Writing to Selection Criteria’   Online eCourse,  excellent  value only $75.00! Members only.  A must for NEW graduate librarians, teacher-librarians and library technicians. Especially designed for the library and information profession.

Learn! WebJunction online mini courses. WebJunction is a USA organisation initiated by OCLC and a project supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Part of its mission is to provide online courses on general and library specific topics for the library profession. There’s a great range of topics available, for example: Providing Excellent Customer Service in a Multi-Cultural Environment, Shelving with Dewey, Planning Story Times for Children, Basic Web-based Reference, Keep It Simple: Developing a Marketing Plan for Your Library, Harnessing the Internet and Merchandising That Works.  Quick, easy and fantastic value at $45! (Other organisations $55.00 AUD, non-members $65.00 AUD).

Got a PD Question?  Firstly, visit all the website information http://www.alia.org.au/pd  or email  pd@alia.org.au

Sue Hutley,  ALIA Executive Director

There are many libraries that don’t have have a twitter account.  I’d like to take the opportunity to encourage all libraries and library organisations to secure their twitter account brand, even if they don’t want to use it yet.   There are a number of cases of libraries having their core brand taken by an unknown twitterer, never to be retrieved.   It would be abit like your library URL being highjacked by an anonymous someone.  There are a few social media happenings in October so I urge you to put on your library ‘to do’ list for the month to secure your 2.0/social media ‘locations’ and at least park them safely for future use.

On a personal note, you might like to also think of doing the same with your own name, favourite nickname or future  personal.com URL purchase.  Securing your own personal brand is also part of the future of social media in society.

During 2010 there have been a number of social media / 2.0 challenges with Library Day in the Life,  Blog Every Day in June  and Pirate Hat Wednesday (more on these in inCite in future editions) being just a few.

October 1st will be #followalibrary day.  An international activity for libraries with a twitter account.  Many libraries are utilising twitter to engage with their users.  As one ALIA tweet follower and author has said “I love so many! How will I choose?? (which to follow)”.  Take the opportunity to see what libraries around the world are doing with their tweeting using the Directory part of the blog  http://followalibrary.blogspot.com/p/directory.html

Then we hope that you might get involved in the Top 10 Library Lists for 2010 challenge, http://top10for2010.wordpress.com/   to mark the date of 10/10/10.   It is still very much a work in progress, but as they say, you have to start somewhere ….

I look forward to seeing and hearing about the creative, useful and thought provoking lists that friends, colleagues and library supporters will develop over the next few weeks.

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

[youtube RZ61s_jUbfA]

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

Well - you read the parties’ responses on ALIA’s federal election page, you wrote to your candidates, you made your decision, you voted. But it’s not finished just yet… as we await the outcome of our Australian Federal Election.

So as we have some time to wait, just a quick recap - What was promised for libraries amidst all the other promises?

ALIA’s federal election advocacy has been an important part of our focus and work this year (a year-long exercise and started last year with our consultations with you at NAC meetings). This also continues our lobbying on the current and emerging issues identified at the ALIA Roundtable in May 2010.

What has been promised? There is unanimous support from all three major political parties for the continuation of the Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians . ALIA, with the help of you, our members, and the ALIA Schools Group and the ALIA/ASLA Policy Advisory Group made a substantial and valuable contribution to the Inquiry with a lengthy submission, letter of support and two public hearing appearances. ALIA’s School Libraries webpage brings together the issues and advocacy relating to school libraries and teacher librarians.

With regard to recognition of the role of public libraries in providing access to online government information, there is again unanimous agreement. The Coalition “appreciates that public libraries disseminate crucial government information. We want libraries to be at the cutting-edge of 21st century technology so they can continue to perform this vital task effectively”. And Federal Labor has recognised that “public libraries play a critical role in providing access to a range of services online, including e-government services and publications services and publications”.

http://www.alia.org.au/publiclibraries

The importance of reading and the role libraries play in promoting literacy has also been recognised by all three major political parties. This recognition is an excellent foundation for working with the federal government on the National Year of Reading in 2012.

We have had some very positive statements about libraries from the political parties.

The Coalition stated that it “believes libraries are a force for good in the Australian community. The information and resources they provide can change lives for the better…”.

The Greens recognise that “national libraries and collecting institutions are essential to our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world, and must be maintained and developed as the repositories of cultural heritage.”

ALIA has been working with the federal government for a number of years now on the issue of online content including cybersafety - our issues and advocacy page provides lots of interesting material.

ALIA’s commitment to a safe online experience is reflected in our recent submission to the Joint Select Committee on Cybersafety - and we will be monitoring the continuation of this inquiry.

The Coalition’s Protecting Australian Families Online policy mentioned the Safer Internet Group of which ALIA is a founding member. ALIA, and the Safer Internet Group, will continue to work with the government on a national coordinated approach that includes research, cybersafety education, effective policing of illegal content, and appropriate technology solutions in order to meet the challenges of online safety and security.

As we told you previously, Bill Shorten MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services announced during the election campaign that “An additional $1 million will be provided for digital playback devices and improved access to digital content in public libraries around the country to increase the accessibility of print material, such as books and newspapers, for people with vision and physical impairments and learning disabilities that have difficulty reading traditional printed materials. ” We will work with the federal government - with whoever is parliamentary secretary or with whatever party is in power - following the election to have this program implemented.

And while there is some sigh of relief that the 21st August is over - it’s now that WE STILL NEED YOU! It’s always important for us as part of a sustained effort to get your feedback about what you have done as a member to advocate for libraries during an election campaign. Please email us at advocacy@alia.org.au and let us know how you used our campaign kit or who you met with. When the final seats have been decided, should we follow up with a particular MP - especially if he or she is new? ALIA is happy to send an information pack to your MP - we will include amongst other things the Little book of Public Libraries and we will be creating new template letters for you to use to write to your new MP (or continuing one).

As part of the Australian library and information community, we also urge you to be help the National Library of Australia with its WANTED campaign!. The NLA wants to ensure that they collect federal election 2010 ephemera as comprehensively as possible. Australians are bombarded with campaign material during elections - flyers, how-to-vote cards, balloons, banners, posters, and the list goes on. But instead of throwing them away, help the National Library of Australia collect them! ALIA’s federal election page will be one of the websites that will be archived in Pandora.

So keep up-to-date through the extensive information and links at http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy or email your questions to advocacy@alia.org.au

Waiting, waiting (tapping fingers on desk) … checking ABC Elections App on iPhone … will #ausvotes news tell me anything new … download latest news on The Australian on my iPad …. Turn on the TV News … oh, Patience is a virtue I remind myself (it’s going to be days)

…..

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

It’s thankfully only a few days to the election and I have been reflecting on the last few weeks of campaign promises, squabbles about debates and town hall meetings, and the inevitable bidding war comprising various programs and payments intended to win our vote.

On Monday night, I heard the first mention of Arts Policy and it wasn’t from the mouth of a politician.  Perhaps I missed something in the all the interviews, debates and media reporting but I’ve heard absolutely nothing about the arts from those who want to lead our nation.  The first mention came from a male, 20 something who posed a question about support for the arts via an internet question to Tony Abbott during the ABC’s Q & A program on Monday evening.

Arts policy IS important to our profession – it’s most often the policy area at both the federal and state area that includes publicly accessible library services.  The National Library is the only federally funded publicly accessible library with the vital role of collecting, preserving and making accessible Australia’s documentary heritage.   

If you check the Arts policy for the three main parties, only one makes any reference to the importance of our national collecting institutions and has a policy of safeguarding and prioritising funding for them. 

One of the ALIAs election lobbying issues was support for the development of a national digitisation strategy to make available the rich and unique collections from

A national digitisation strategy, appropriately funded, is critical.  We know that in Europe and other parts of the world, hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in digitisation so that local stories can be told.  These materials are being used for research and repurposed through all sorts of creative endevours that we can’t even begin to imagine.

Without digitisation of our rich and unique collections where will the Australian voice on the internet come from?  Will our collections remain locked away in storage, only available to those who can travel to access them? 

Why is it politicians at all levels don’t see this as important to our identity as a nation?  Why did recent advertising around the NBN boast that Australian children would be able to access cultural collections from overseas?   Does this mean our our own stories and collections and inferior or not so important?

ALIA works to raise these and other important matters with our politicians, but we need more individual voices advocating for what we believe to be important.  The ALIA election advocacy material can be easily translated to a state and local government context to continue the lobbying – there is almost always an election somewhere.  Regardless of the outcome on Saturday and the lack of policy position from the major parties, remember the next federal election is only about 3 years away – so lets keep our voices strong.

Margaret Allen

Vice President    

Saturday 14th August 2010

There’s only two days left of the main part of the Congress. The library lovers campaign has been featured here http://www.librarylovers.se/english.html, including materials to buy at the Congress shop (a set of Library Lovers luggage even!)More meetings today. Our second MLAS meeting started the process of finalising projects against the strategic plan and the activities until next year at the WLIC http://www.ifla.org/ifla77 in San Juan. Congrats to the IFLA Governing Board and HQ staff who have survived another marathon WLIC and as their new membership officer, Tatiana said today at Officer’s Training - they have “dined, met and danced” with so many of the 3000+ delegates.

I have gone through the progam and have highlighted the Australian’s presenting papers and posters : (who have I missed? Sorry if I have)

Posters: Delivering the Goods: Health Librarianship by Distance in Rural Queensland, Australia. Presenter: Jane Orbell-Smith, Australia

Papers:

• Get the edge, get ahead: QUT Library’s approach to learning support Vicki Mcdonald, Queensland University of Technology
• Collecting online newspapers: the National Library ofAustralia experience with archiving the SydneyMorning Herald (smh.com.au) Pam Gatenby, Assistant Director General, National Library of Australia
• Researching the Information Commons (RIC) Kerry Smith, Associate Professor, Curtin University of Technology
• All change: job rotations as a workplace learning tool in the Flinders University Library Graduate Trainee Librarian Program Liz Walkley-Hall, Flinders University Library
• Communicating Marketing and Advocacy Research to Practice Gaby Haddow, Curtin University of Technology
• New paradigm, new educational requirements? Australian viewpoints on education for digital libraries Katherine Howard, Royal Society for the Blind
• Students on placement: building their e-portfolio from practical experience Primoz Juznic, Associate Professor, University of Ljubljana & Dr Bob Pymm, Charles Sturt University
• ePortfolios a plan for success: Australian new graduate experiences Corrinne Hills, DRUG ARM Australasia Library & Rebecca Randle and Joanne Beazley, Logan City Council Libraries
• Learning Library : connected community and innovation - Full paper not linked yet. Marion Morgan-Bindon. Library Services and Cultural Development, Gold Coast City Council, Australia
• Creating a national voice for Australian libraries Sue Hutley, Executive Director, Australian Library and Information Association

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

You can look through the IFLA Daily Mashup at http://paper.li/tag/ifla2010

13th August 2010
Today I spent some time at the trade exhibition talking to vendors and suppliers about ‘what’s new’.   There was quite a few scanning machine types for digitisation and copying options.  There is also a book cleaning machine. And a funky sound booth chair from Schulz Speyer.  And there are the usual trade supporters of LMS companies, journal publishers and electronic resources vendors. ALA and IFLA also has stands.

The posters were also accompanied by their authors at lunchtime today  - there are a lot of posters this year, including some from Australia, and it was good to speak to a few of the presenters and gather abit more info. 

I also attended the OCLC update, and we also thank OCLC for being one of the IFLA Congresses major sponsors.  OCLC Research (useful reports) and their Innovation Lab are creating many applications http://www.oclc.org/applicationgallery/   and trialing ‘cool tools for libraries’ as well as continuing to make the world’s library collections more accessible.  This year’s OCLC reception was also a very nice networking function held at the Gothenburg Museum of Art last night. 

This afternoon was the National Associations meeting of IFLA member associations.  Ellen Tise and Jennefer Nicolson spoke on the important role that national associations play in IFLA.  We support the work of IFLA in many ways, including local, country specific perspective and lobbying on certain topics such as copyright and freedom of access to information.  Winston Tabb, Chair of the Copyright and Legal Matters gave us an update on the library treaties currently being negotiated http://www.ifla.org/en/news/29 A number of Australians continue to contribute to the work of CLM and especially through the ALCC.

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the Management of Library Association’s session which has pretty much run the whole day. The main focus of the morning session was on advocacy, and it featured our own Sue Hutley as the major speaker. The other speakers were from Croatia, Lativa, Chile, UK,  and India - all speaking about advocacy but from their own perspective and within their own context.As you can imagine each country was at a different stage of development in terms of their social development. While we may complain in Australia that times are tough and money is hard to get, we are streets ahead of our colleagues in less developed countries in terms of library services, and the stage of development and sophistication of our professional associations. Nevertheless, many of the problems raised by each of the speakers are similar. One particular problem that had ressonance was the engagement with decision makers.  We seem to have done pretty well on this front in Australia given our engagement with government over the past 12 months or so. Given the way Sue was handing out her business card it was pleasing to see that some or our approaches could be adapted by colleagues in other countries. The afternoon session of the MLA stream focussed also focussed on but from the perspective of evidence based research. It certainly remined me that regardless of whether its a national issue being addressed by ALIA or a local issue in our own libraries we need qualitiative and quantitative evidence to support and substantiate our claims and issues.The weather in Gothenburg is warm, sunny, and on occasions wet. The locals certainly enjoy the sunshine but don’t seem too phased by the damp. At the moment the annual Gothenburg Cultural festival is on with free music and acts throughout the central city. Last night as I was returing from a catchup with colleagues at the IFLA nightspot - the basement of the central library, the streets were full people, old and young. It was raining and people were going about enjoying the music unphased by the elements!Now the Gothenberg Public Library was an interesting place. Its located close to one the main central squares near the concert hall and art gallery and its normal hours during the week are from 10am to midnght, yes midnight. As we entered the main door at about 9:30pm I thought people woud be in there sheltering from the rain. How wrong I was! (Well I think I was wrong) People were in there reading, playing computer games, and going about their normal library business.Graham Black, President

ifla2010slides-sueh.pdf  - Slides from the session today (I had a few requests for them) If this link does not work, please email me at sue.hutley@alia.org.au

Thursday 12th August 2010

This morning Henning Mankell opened the day of the conference with a lovely speech on the importance of the library role in combatting illiteracy, which is still a worldwide plague.  A good link between Sweden and Africa.   There are reports on his presentation at IFLA here.  One of his nice opening quotes was also  “Laugh at least once in a day! Otherwise the life is miserable”

I also gave a keynote presentation today at the joint MLAS+other sections session – the paper is here and the slides uploaded above.    The original paper was crafted with simultaneous translation in mind  (at IFLA, if you have translators you normally have to pretty much stick to the original paper).  Our session ended up not having any translation available, so I mixed it up just a little bit.  My slides were originally designed with multi-language viewers.   It was great to get the audience involved by getting them to do a Love2Read action for me.  Thanks everyone for getting involved.  Am still trying to upload videos to the Love2Read Facebook site over coming days.  Other videos are already on the site.   I know how much you all love to read.  The National Year of Reading 2010 website is http://www.love2read.org.au  

In my paper I spoke about a few of the ALIA Advocacy initiatives http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy and especially our Every Member an Advocate campaign, workshops and materials http://www.alia.org.au/education/pd/pd.services/every.member.advocate.html 

Two of the case studies I mentioned today are :  http://www.saferinternetgroup.org and http://www.alia.org.au/schoollibraries

Today’s joint session involved a number of IFLA sections in the areas of library associations, research, education, statistics etc  and the papers are here http://www.ifla.org/en/conferences-session-day/2010-08-12 

For me, one of my main IFLA2010 tasks is now over, so I’m off to get a quiet glass of Swedish pinot grigio to celebrate. 

Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director

P.S. An Australian delegate got a celebrity IFLA2010 experience today.     Leonard Cohen is performing in Gothenburg tonight and staying at the Congress hotel and on his way to his afternoon soundcheck he bumped into Regina Sutton, State Librarian from the State Library of NSW.  After getting to talking, Leonard mentioned to Regina that his sister is a librarian.   Always good to have some celebrity goss at conference