National Policy Congress 2003 - regional reports

Western Australia

1. Roll of nominated group representatives

ALIAWest Camille Peters
WALT Jean Broomhall, Jane Edinger
WA Mentoring Jenny Golding
Board of Directors Deanne Barrett
ARL Jodi Headlam
WA Mentoring Carol Newton-Smith, Barbara Boulton
Vice-president Imogen Garner
National Library Technicians Lothar Retzlaff
Health Libraries Australia Cheryl Hamill
ALIAWest Jeanette Hill
Local Liaison Officer Kay Poustie

2. Election of one delegate to attend Canberra NPC

Carol Newton Smith

3. Celebrating success

WA Mentoring Group
Pub Mentoring is an informal learning group where participants learn from each other. The group operates in clusters and is totally inclusive, attracting attendees from the ranks of students, managers, technicians and records managers. The idea of Pub Mentoring is that the group arranges to meet at a different hotel each time, which makes it accessible to people from different areas of the metropolitan area. It is cost-free for those on a budget because you can choose whether you drink or not and requires no commitment ahead of time because there is no catering or organising of the venue required. Each session has been a great success and each attracts a greater number of participants.

Academic and Research Libraries WA
Student Awards: As part of this Group's commitment to offering opportunities to support and promote research and professional development, it sponsors Student Awards. This encourages excellence in student achievement and student involvement in the profession. Recent graduates of Curtin, Edith Cowan University and TAFE library and information studies schools presented research papers to a meeting of the ARLWA group. The prizes are sponsored by DA Books and Blackwells. The students then feel welcome in the Group and often continue coming to other activities that the Group presents through the year where they are able to hear a number of interesting speakers on diverse topics.

National Library Technicians Group
EmployLT: This program was initially created to provide a nationally co-ordinated service where employment vacancies for Library Technicians were posted on the aliaLIBTEC e-list. Comparative results of eight months of operation in 2002 and six months in 2003, show a rising number of postings. The scope of the service was also expanded to include postings of jobs outside of libraries that would be suitable for those with Library Technician qualifications. Feedback on the service has been sought and all feedback has been most positive. Figures showing the growth in the service are as follows - (listings) Dec 2002: 490, Apr 2003: 563, May 2003: 586, Jun 2003: 589, Jul 2003: 599. The growth in members accessing the service and postings on the service has necessitated the creation of official procedures and the standardisation of listings and guidelines for subscribers. Feedback has also been received from people to say that they are monitoring lists for salaries, job descriptions, position titles etc.

WA Library Technicians
South West Forum - Libraries Looking Out: This program was run in Bunbury in 2002 and received great support from all sectors of the profession. An excellent program of speakers was offered and the Conference was opened by Minister for Arts and Culture Hon Sheila McHale. A range of topics from story-telling, local history and public libraries in Western Australia was offered and 65 participants had a great time getting to know each other, increasing their professional knowledge and sharing time with their country colleagues. After the weekend several delegates commented that they felt inspired and refreshed again. A CD of the proceedings is available for those who want to purchase it. Next year, the program will be offered in Northam, East of Perth and WALTs are hoping for another great weekend and inspiring program.

ALIAWest
Formation of this Group from the old WA Forum and KISWA. ALIAWest has been formed from the WA Forum and KISWA - two groups which were diminishing. The merger of the two groups has resulted in a new group which is now moving forward to greater things. The Group is operated by a small committee and one of the benefits is that there are no longer conflicting events being offered to the professionals in Perth. It was agreed to keep the best of both groups and move forward to bigger and better events and professional activities. Participants voted to hear the WALTS Down South Weekend and National Library Technicians Group EmployLT at the National Policy Congress.

4. Research exchange and partnership (REAP) initiative

Research topics
A work in progress section so that people can see what is being done. Honours theses and Masters research - people to make these available by submitting them. Lecturers to encourage this. Including a retrospective list. Prize for the best project submitted each month? Needs a data bank of instruments so that people can find out about instruments to use in projects including Servequal, value tool kit etc. ANZ Institute of information literacy thinking of doing something like this.

5. Continuing professional development

What are the priorities?
We shouldn't overlook the opportunity to partner with overseas organisations using the internet. Would providers of CPD who are advertising on e-lists please put which cities in message line. Inevitable, you have to get right to the bottom of the page to find out that the course will not be run in Perth! Providers are not asking for expressions of interest from members before deciding not to run in WA. Recognise the cost for people to come to Perth - but need to have good response to get people here. Need an audit of needs - then identify what can be provided either face-to-face or electronically. We can also target trainers for special needs - may be also able to deliver through other organisations. Need to run a discussion on needs. Get TAFE, Curtin and ECU to provide courses and to assist them to promote their courses. Would be happy to pay for one lecture with students to update skills that may now be out-of-date. Need to be able to refresh skills. Balancing work and home life. Need a course on conflict resolution. Developing career plans. Send out a survey. Get suggestions from all the groups and then send out the survey electronically. Pass good courses info on to Georgina. It would be good to have a list of course providers, courses, video and capture the information on ALIA website in members-only section. Useful to have a framework of outcomes and associated learning resources (e.g. books/web sites/videos/courses) available on ALIA website. David Novak on research recently spoke here, he was excellent. Often can't get people who are speaking at conferences to come to Perth because the organisers want people to go to the conference.

Issues of critical importance

Lack of value for money as a personal member, particularly in WA. ALIA profile - have to push yourself to be a member. Lobbying for national electronic environments - for example Canada where there is nationally-paid access to databases across the country. Have hospitals, national, state etc. on the grid and need to lobby for united access. An e-mail from a participant the following day reads: This is what is sent to members on a weekly basis:

Need to open up dialogue with peers: eg records managers, archivists. Need a peak body. Scattered approach to information management as a profession. (Deanne discussed actions being taken.) Medical Records sections have empathy with health librarians. Health information management. Would be a selling point for members. Collaboration. More national collaboration. Difficult to find out what's happening. Need to be able to get links. ALIA website to to put sectors together instead of alphabetically. $200 too much for new graduates. $150 for first years. People won't pay full price until they can earn money. Can they structure the fees in a different way other than by wages. Value of joining as a personal member vs corporate member needs to be defined and sold to people. Different markets and need to market aggressively to both. Needs to be spelled out in a marketing document as to why join both organisation and self. Send a survey out with membership renewals as to what people want out of ALIA. Phil Teece a really valuable role. Need to sell his services more. More support for members in rural communities eg. On web, teleconference. Ageing profile of the workforce and the crunch that will come when we have a shortage of professionals. Need funding of training positions in educational Institutions. LIS schools being reduced.

7. ALIA: Towards 2010 consultation draft

Content and presentation
Paper work this year really good.

Objects
Nil comment.

Core values
Nil comment.

Our Association
Nil comment.

Snapshot
Liked the snapshot of ALIA.

Sharing the vision
Nil comment

Skilling members for the future
Students our future statement was very good. Emphasis on CPD and skilling rather than informing employers on importance of CPD and the difference between ALIA members and others. No emphasis or encouragement to be a member of ALIA. A discussion ensued on what the Institute of CPA does and their requirement for mandatory CPD. It was pointed out that members rejected mandatory CPD and that the status of those who have completed the CPD program will rise when a number of people have completed the program.

Promoting innovation
Nil comment.

Communicating well
Nil comment.

General
Very good, really clear, good action items. Want something about community service - what can we do for our neighbours eg East Timor, Indonesia, Asia etc. Could fit in with Communicating Well part of document.

8. Questions on notice

Need for a liaison person in ALIA National Office who is the point of contact in ALIA national office. (Response: This is what Georgina does) Comments from participants that Georgina does a great job.

What happened to CPD on personal renewal form? ( Response: this is a 3-year program and it's changing)

Treasurer wants to know about new format of receipts etc. (ARL) Ask her to speak to Georgina. Probably GST. (Response: Plans to produce a manual and present a session at NPC. Comment: Will there be a workshop in Perth?)

Any other comments from the meeting?
New website - good. Local liaison officer - great.