Report of the Board of Directors meeting 23 July 2004

The directors met in Canberra on Friday 23 July. Jan Fullerton, director-general of the National Library joined the Board for lunch.

Awards

The Board resolved to confer Fellowship on Janine Schmidt.

The Board received the report of the selection panel for the Library Technician of the Year. There was a strong field and the Board supported the panel's decision that this year two members, Lothar Retzlaff and Beth Clary, are worthy recipients of the award.

National Policy Congress (NPC)

Further to the article in the July inCite, the Board has made some changes to the 2004 NPC. At this meeting the Board considered the recommendations of the report on the groups audit on member engagement, the formats for previous NPCs and options for future directions, and had a wide-ranging discussion on how to identify practice issues of importance to members. The Board resolved that even though planning was well underway it was timely to make a few changes to this year's NPC to incorporate suggestions from the Groups audit.

Personal members and the nominated institutional member attending the NPC will now have the right to vote at the regional meeting. Group delegates continue to have the right to vote. The agenda will now include an item for identifying priorities for areas of professional practice that the Association could focus on in providing CPD, publications, forums or other relevant activities. Members - in particular rural, regional and remote members - are encouraged to make submissions on the NPC agenda items and these submissions will be taken into consideration for the national meeting in November. From 2005 members will be encouraged to submit items for consideration as part of the NPC agenda.

Conferences

Progress reports were received from the New Librarians' Symposium 2, ALIA 2004 Challenging Ideas, ALIA Information Online 2005, and neXt 2005 convenors.

The Board endorsed the proposal and draft budget for the ACOC Seminar 2005 to be held on Monday 31 January in Sydney prior to Online 2005. The topic will be authority control.

The Board has endorsed in principle the ALIA 2006 biennial conference to be held in Perth from the 19-22 September in the new Perth Convention Exhibition Centre.

Groups

The Board met via teleconference with Kay Hogan and Jan Titcombe from the ALIA Information Online Group to discuss the strategic direction of the Group, including the ALIA Information Online conference, and a possible service level agreement. The Board has asked the executive director to work with the Group to implement this.

Two new groups are endorsed - ALIA Local Studies Victoria and ALIA Media Information and Communication Technologies Group. The Board is particularly pleased that both these groups had chosen to move their existing operations to within the ALIA groups framework.

The ALIA Health Libraries Australia Group, on behalf of ALIA, is supporting the joint bid by the University of Queensland and Bond University libraries for the International Congress of Medical Librarianship 2009. If the bid is successful the HLA executive will assist in the development of the Congress program.

The ALIA Darling Downs Regional Group was dissolved. The ALIA Career Management Group was dissolved as its work is being picked up by the ALIA New Graduates Group and ALIA Victoria.

Reading Rulz!

The Board agreed to support the proposed Reading Rulz! summer reading program for public libraries throughout Australia over the 2004 summer holidays.

Approved Research Institute status

In noting that the Association's application for Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status as an Approved Research Institute (ARI) has received initial refusal by the Department of Education, Science and Training, the Board resolved that further information be prepared and submitted in response to the matters of concern raised by the Department.

2003-2004 Initiatives

Initiative D: the Board signed off the partnership agreement with Information Edge Pty Ltd for two Moving up the value chain workshops to be held before the end of 2004.

Initiative G: the Board signed off lobbying and advocacy activities during the period from the previous meeting. Copies of submissions are available on the ALIA advocacy website.

Initiative L: the Board signed off the second ALIA Forum on Purchasing Agreements and Licensing; the Health Libraries Australia proposal for a national health information network; and supported representation from Health Libraries Australia on a national peak body for health information.

The Board received progress reports on Initiatives A, C, E, I and K (New Generation Policy and Advisory Group priorities).

Course recognition

Charles Sturt University - for seven years from 1 January 2004 - Master of Applied Science (Library and Information Management); the Graduate Diploma of Applied Science (Library and Information Management); the Hong Kong Programs for these two courses;

University of Tasmania - for seven years from 1 January 2003 - the Graduate Diploma of Information Management;

Queensland University of Technology (Kelvin Grove) - an extension of three years from 1 January 2004 for the Graduate Diploma in Education (Teacher-Librarianship);

Queensland University of Technology (Gardens Point) - an extension of two years from 1 January 2005 for the Graduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies; the Bachelor of Information Technology (Information Systems) - Library Studies Stream;

The course extensions are to provide for course changes and reviews.

Publishing

The chair fo the Publishing and Editorial Reference Group, John Levett, addressed the Board about the furture direction and management of ALIA's publishing activities.

Institute for Aboriginal Development (IAD) Press - the Association has written to the Australia Council, in support of the IAD Press application for triennial funding from 2005 to 2007, recognising the important role the Press plays in Indigenous publishing.

Board development and evaluation

Following consideration of several evaluation models Carol Newton-Smith, Roxanne Missingham and the executive director agreed to develop an evaluation tool for the Board for the November meeting.