National Policy Congress 2003 - regional reports

Tasmania

1. Roll of nominated group representatives

ALIA Tasmania Jane Coatman
TALIATecs Rebecca Evans

The Tasmanian NPC Regional Meeting was conducted as a virtual meeting due to other ALIA activities having already been scheduled during the time period allocated for regional meetings. The Regional NPC documentation was emailed to all members of ALIA Tasmania and TALIATecs who were asked to provide comment. Responses were received from members via email and in person at the ALIA events held in July and August. These comments form the basis of the Tasmanian response.

2. Election of one delegate to attend Canberra NPC

Jane Coatman

3. Celebrating success

ALIA Tasmania
The ALIA Tasmania Group decided its main focus for 2003 would be to ensure the students of the Graduate Diploma in Information Management course, offered by the University of Tasmania for the first time this year, were welcomed and supported by ALIA members.

As an initial event ALIA Tasmania hosted a very successful welcome function for the students in April. All the students, staff of the School of Information Systems, the Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and other senior staff from the University of Tasmania and the State Library of Tasmania and many ALIA members attended. This provided the students with their first opportunity to network with members of the profession. The students all appreciated this opportunity and have continued to build upon it by continuing to attend subsequent ALIA events.

The heightened focus on the students coupled with a regular and varied program of events and activities in 2003 has lead to increased participation and attendance at ALIA Tasmania events this year. Between one quarter and one third of members are regularly attending activities, with a different mix of members each time. On current trends more than 50 per cent of members will have attended at least one ALIA Tasmania event in 2003.

TALIATecs
TALIATecs, always an active group, have had a well-earned rest in 2003 following their very successful hosting of the ALIA National Library Technicians Conference in Hobart in 2001. The group has held a small number of events this year with most members of TALIATecs preferring to pursue their interests and demonstrate their commitment to ALIA by participating in and attending the activities and events offered by ALIA Tasmania.

Look out for a re-energised TALIATecs in 2004!

4. Research exchange and partnership (REAP) initiative

Research topics
Preservation and on-going access to digital materials

Researchers
Unknown

Potential partners
National Library of Australia and software developers

Possible material for ALIA e-prints
In Tasmania research is undertaken at the local level by the major employing institutions in support of specific projects. It may be worth contacting the State Library of Tasmania and the University of Tasmania Library to see if any current or recent research projects have been undertaken which are suitable for inclusion.

5. Continuing professional development

a) What are the priorities?
Copyright - seminars need to be run on a regular basis to keep members up to date. Preservation of digital materials - a range of delivery modes might be possible. NB. Depending on the outcomes of the LISEKA project there may be a specific set of priorities identified if on-going continuing professional development is required for continued recognition as an Associate/Technician member. The priorities would then be driven by ALIA.

b) What are the gaps between courses offered by brokered partnerships, ALIA conferences and ALIA Group CPD activities?
i. We don't consider the majority of activities and events run by ALIA groups in Tasmania to be formal CPD activities. Rather, we provide and/or facilitate networking opportunities, information sharing sessions, showcasing of new services, visits to libraries and information services, guest speakers on particular topics, etc. We identify members' needs at the start of each year and develop a calendar of events that largely meets these needs by sourcing local knowledge and expertise. We also hold 'short notice' events where there is an opportunity to invite an interstate speaker (or if we're really lucky an international speaker) who is visiting Tasmania on other business to address an ALIA meeting. We do not provide formal training as we do not have the resources (financial and human) to do so. The only 'real' CPD activity we organise is our one-day statewide conference, which is held at eighteen-month intervals. The conference focuses on a central theme, which is decided by members. The conference involves a keynote speaker of national standing, panel sessions and a series of concurrent workshops.

ii. Very few training organisations visit Tasmania, as it isn't cost-effective for them to do so. When they do visit (or plan to visit) they often don't offer the type of training or cover subjects/topics that meets an identified need in Tasmania. For example, CAVAL recently offered a knowledge management workshop in Tasmania that was not well subscribed. CAVAL did not appear to know that ALIA Tasmania had held a very successful one-day conference on the topic of Knowledge Management only a year earlier that was well-supported and attended by library staff from around the state. Perhaps another knowledge management seminar wasn't what Tasmania needed.

iii. It may be possible for larger employing institutions that have identified specific staff training needs to organise training events and offset some of the costs by offering additional/excess places to staff in other institutions. By way of example, the Tasmanian Department of Education recently brought the Copyright Council to Tasmania to present a copyright seminar to Departmental staff, schools staff and State Library staff. To offset the cost the Department offered additional places to the wider Tasmanian library and information services sector on a fee-paying basis. This is a possible model that could be considered.

c) What types of workshops/seminars do members want to fill the above gaps?
Topics and methods of delivery will vary. The main criterion is for training to meet an identified need and to do that training organisations need to research and identify local needs, and run courses that meet identified local needs rather than run 'one size fits all' courses!

6. Issues of critical importance

It appears that ALIA membership has stablised but has not built up to pre-restructure levels. ALIA must continue to work to attract new, young members, lapsed members and those who have been working in the field for many years yet never joined. Succession planning continues to be a major issue for institutional members. More work needs to be done to promote careers in the library and information services sector to young people who are making their career choices. While the recent emphasis on new graduates through ALIA's New Generation initiative is an important step forward we need to put more emphasis on attracting young people to the profession in the first instance so that we have potential new, young members for ALIA's New Generation! Continuing national lobbying of government by ALIA to ensure the role of the library and information services sector is fully-understood. Continuing to highlight the importance of literacy and information literacy in the Australian community and the role of the library and information services sector in developing and supporting a literate and information literate Australian community.

7. ALIA: Towards 2010 consultation draft

A snapshot of ALIA
In the statement on lobbying, the need for ALIA to liaise closely with other groups (eg CASL, CAVAL) representing the interests of the library and information sector should be stated with the aim of providing a unified approach to lobbying.

Sharing the vision
Support and promotional materials need to be provided to local groups to give them strategies to follow to encourage members of the profession to join ALIA.

Skilling members for the future
In addition to identifying professional development pathways, which hopefully will result from LISEKA, the issue of attracting people to the library and information profession must be addressed. The current emphasis (necessary and commendable) appears to be on support for students who have already made the career choice, but those still to make that choice need to be targeted as well.

Promoting innovation
This may be effective if combined with existing means of recognition of innovation in the industry. The REAP project may assist in identifying areas of innovation and how ALIA membership is important in this information-sharing and knowledge development.

Communicating well
The strategies are appropriate and important.

8. Questions on notice

None.

Any other comments from the meeting?
Generally members appear to feel very removed from the whole NPC process and therefore NPC isn't capturing members' imaginations. ALIA may need to rethink the NPC process so that members feel engaged and motivated to contribute.