The ALIA National Policy Congress 2004

Report of the South East Queensland Regional NPC Meeting

2 September 2004

Roll

Ben Paskins, Joy Goldsmith, Sue Hutley, Ann Horn, Margaret Blumson, Sharon Uthmann, Robyn Lather, Anthony Schnyder, Carolyn Young, Denise Cadman, Simone Friend

Election of one delegate to attend Canberra NPC

Simone Friend

Celebrating success

• ALIA 2004 Biennial Conference (September 2004) - This has inevitably been a major focus for ALIA members in the region throughout the planning phase. People involved in organising it are looking forward to returning to involvement at a local level.
• New Librarians 1.5 conference (December 2003).
• ALIA Quorum - New Year's party with Ivan from National Office demonstrating the new ALIA website.
• Library and Information Week (May 2004) - Library Achiever Award, Library Technician's Award, Library Techncians' Dinner and Trivia Night.
• Janine Schmidt - ALIA Fellowship
• Gillian Hallam - election to vice-president of ALIA
• ALIA CAM - two successful events
• CYSS (children and youth services) have developed a new pamphlet
• OPALs have maintained a regular programme with 6-7 meetings a year
• New Graduates - a number of people have become involved in the past year. A new branch has just begun in Townsville.
• QUT ALIA Queensland Student Mentoring Program

Enhancing the involvement and engagement of members in ALIA

Strengths of groups

• It was felt that so much of this had been discussed at the review meeting earlier in the year, with mostly the same participants. The meeting supported the findings presented in the report.
• At the local level, while some groups had ebbed, there was general support for the activities run by groups, with a regular program of events that were well-attended (see above).

Effectiveness of groups compared with other Association structures and activities

• Some degree of competition from other library and information science organisations, eg Australian School Libraries Association, Australian Law Library Group, Public Library Association, and potentially the new Australasian chapter of SLA.
• There is competition for activities - i.e. strong demand for staff development, but larger institutions run programs in-house.
• Support for the concept of Local Liaison Officer - the role could easily be developed further, but problems of appointing the 'right' person with the right amount of time to dedicate to the role.

Succession planning and encouraging involvement

• Questions were raised about the use of the phrase 'widespread perception' of active involvement being low. It was argued that it is a widespread reality - the same people are involved in a number of things across ALIA while the large numbers are not involved at the committee level. However, the issue pervades all aspects of contribution to the community and volunteering in general.
• As employees, people want to be formally recognised for their contribution to ALIA. It was felt that, with the group structure, institutions aren't as willing to tap their staff on shoulders to take up committee positions. Probably based on historical experience, it sounds better if you are a member of an ALIA 'committee', rather than a 'group'. Need to promote the role of ALIA groups within employer organisations.
• Mechanisms for continuity were important: if more than one person leaves a position within a group, there is often little support for the new person who is learning about the position.
• There are a few people who still hang to their positions within some groups, but without bringing any energy to the group, frustrating the aspirations of some younger members.
• Local liaison officer - here too there is a need for continuity, so it is important that National Office works on a new LLO for Queensland - significant time lapse for recruitment.
• Some concerns about the range of tasks, from administrative basics to lobbying/meeting/greeting politicians. A person who has the skills and experience to lobby may not also be happy doing administrative tasks
• Support for a contact point with a real person who people can phone up and find out about the library scene in this region.
• If the high end of lobbying is an issue, would it be better to employ a professional lobbyist, rather than the jack-of-all-trades approach?
• Still some lingering concerns about the financial issues of one central group account, rather than individual group accounts. Some members still see it as a disincentive to organising events, and experience frustration with the complex angles of seeking seed funding for events. Need further PR work to overcome these legacy issues.

ALIA 2005-2006 draft plan

Sharing the vision

• Initiatives
• Lobbying and advocacy was seen as a core role of national office by the meeting: requires expertise to do it well.
• Concerned about the ability of people in the regions undertaking effective lobbying. Levels of professionalism and understanding the process are essential.
• There could be conflicting interests if the lobbyist rerpesents two different organisations, eg a university and ALIA
• Essential to have one key source of reliable, valid and current data on the industry and on employment issues.
• Measures of success
• How is ALIA going to increase credibility within and beyond the sector? Who will be the responsible parties: members themselves, local liaison officer-?
• Measures of success need to be measurable. Each initiative requires at least one method of measuring outcomes.
• Needs much more work put into this aspect of the Plan.

Skilling members for the future

• Initiatives
• Dialogue between educators, employers and practitioners viewed as important
• Developing a co-ordinated national CPD program
• How would this be run? Who would run it? Would it tour around the country? Logistical issues associated with this?
• Local co-ordination of CPD can be demanding on groups (and the same people within the groups)
• The national co-ordination of CPD risks becoming static and stale - needs to be dynamic and responsive to members' needs
• ALIA National Office could feasibly co-ordinate the outsourcing of a national CPD programme once the program outline has been agreed upon by the groups
• Timely to co-ordinate the mentoring programs to have a cohesive set of resources for guidance and advice
• Need for more strategic thinking for the ALIA CPD membership program - too much reliance on assuming members know the ins and outs of it. Again, local liaison officers as part of their role, plus Georgina to visit, to have regular events in area. Needs to be on a regular basis.
• CPD certificates need to be easily obtained - streamline the process.

Promoting library and information science as a career

• Initiatives
• Concern about the lack of positions after graduation
• Working with employers to encourage them to value graduates' potential rather than absolute experience
• Marketing it to get the 'right people' into the profession: creative, proactive, high-achieving people to manage the challenges of the profession. The people who generally have difficulty in getting jobs after graduation often fail to present high levels of graduate attributes, beyond the discipline knowledge.
• The public library sector does not seem able to offer the creative, proactive graduates the relevant employment opportunities
• ALIA needs to be present at the right decision points - ie most library and information science courses are post grad, so should be marketed at graduates, rather than school-leavers.
• Career fairs - educational institutions need to promote their library and information science courses, but also ALIA needs to promote the profession as a whole. Once again - who - Local Liaison Officers, new grads, local members?
• How to manage the public perception that librarians do not need university education; you just have to like books to work in a library?.
• Fieldwork programs - how rich are the experiences of the students? Especially in the public library sector.
• Measures of success - Who? How? When?

Promoting innovation

• Initiatives
• REAP programme - seems a good idea on paper but it has no focus or physical reality. Where is the research being done, why isn't it being written up?
• Encourage partnerships between library and information science schools and industry, to have students join projects and write them up as part of their course requirements
• How much consortial purchasing does ALIA do? Mention was made of the CIPS consortium which is mainly for special libraries
• Ideas presented - 'training and support for acquisition of online resources' - not fully understood.
• General support for the Stars program
• Measures of success
• Implementation: links to REAP - all rather vague
• Who will manage the Stars program? Local Liaison? National Office?

Communicating well