The ALIA National Advisory Congress 2005

ALIA NAC 2005 Adelaide report

1. Roll of attendees

Philip Keane, Silvia Muscardin, Robyn Ellard, Bev McDonagh, Sarah Townsend, Carol Newton-Smith, Benita Anderson, Hayley Gamble, Jennifer Osborne, Kate Sinclair, Senni Jeremy, Thomas Snook, Angela Jones, Helen Kwaka, Ursula Henderson, Heidi Savilla, Helen Attar, Janetta Mascilongo, Lee Welch, Kylie Jarrett

2. Selected representative to attend Canberra NAC

Kate Sinclair

3. Celebrating success

2nd ALIA New Librarians' Symposium

Librarians are passionate, energetic, technology-savvy, politically and socially minded. We are a mix of men and women. Some are students, some are parents, some both. Some of us aim to be managers, some are happy remaining professionals, becoming experts on the frontline. Over 250 of us met, mingled and shared experiences at the new librarians' symposium 2 (NLS2) in Adelaide on 3-4 December.

In looking 'beyond the stereotype', we heard from a range of speakers and peers.

The State Library of South Australia's new leader, Alan Smith, spoke to us about career development. Look two jobs ahead, network for mutual benefit, and get a reputation for being a doer. Sounded like good advice to start with. During the first day we also heard from life coaches and coachees, working through some of the challenges in meeting goals in our personal and professional lives. Not to mention creating some goals in the first place!

We heard from librarians from around the country and the world. Many delegates I spoke to found it reassuring to hear that they were not alone in the types of hurdles they face. We can be 'invisible librarians' at times, and we need to tell people what we do. There are ways we can make an impact on our organisations, despite our relative inexperience. There are others trying to cross the digital divide and deal with different social concerns of the users of their library. Some of us are frustrated by generation gaps between staff; ways of understanding and improving those relationships were discussed.

NLS2 delegates were dared to push the boundaries of their working lives. We heard from librarians who had been on job exchanges, international volunteer programs or moved into vendor consulting. Retail and library consultant John Stanley provided an experience in itself, espousing the ways that libraries can provide an experience for users, not just a service. From redecoration to personal touches in customer service - your imagination is your only limitation.

Parties, tours, games and prizes kept our energy levels up, and even the briefest chat with a new face would bring interesting questions and shared stories. I met delegates from Canberra, the Riverland, New Zealand, Perth, Queensland and many places in between. I was inspired, enthused, entertained and informed. And I enjoyed a sleep-in the next day!

Many speakers and delegates alike praised convenor Kate Sinclair and the fantastic organising committee for their achievement, and I would like to echo those sentiments. Congratulations on NLS2, you delivered what you promised, and more!

ALIA SA big night out

ALIA SA's 'big night out' was a gathering of library workers from across various sectors. Sponsored by Dynix, with special thanks to Margareta Nicholas, the sixty or so attendees first heard from Paul Wilkins, Deputy University Librarian at University of Adelaide who introduced retired university librarian at the University of SA, Dr Alan Bundy. We heard from the lively new Uni SA director of library services, Helen Livingston, who has only recently arrived in Adelaide. ALIA SA also officially welcomed Alan Smith, who took the reins of the State Library of SA last year.

ALIA national president, Gill Hallam, introduced the inaugural winner of the Metcalfe Award. This is a new award, to recognise a library professional in their first five years of practice. The award was given to Kate Sinclair - a worthy recipient of this peer nominated award. 'To be given an award for something you do because you enjoy it and are passionate about it is a bonus', Kate said in accepting the Metcalfe Award. She thanked Flinders University for being such a supportive workplace to enable her to work to her potential.

ALIA SA quiz night

There's an uncanny link between quiz nights and librarianship. And it's not just the fact that the inaugural ALIA SA library and information week quiz night was held the other week.

The reference connection
A quiz night is just like a stint on the reference desk. But with the added benefit of alcohol! This simile works better if the person at the reference desk is a generation 'x'er and Google is unavailable (ie: no reference materials).

The food connection
Library morning teas, vendor talks, copyright seminars. It's all about the food. The quiz night is no exception. As noted by Caryn Butler 'tables groaned under the weight of wine, cheese, lollies, nibbles and other treats. Indeed, certain tables took their themes that step further and brought themed food.'

The productive team membership connection
There's nothing more bonding than arguing whether the Sydney Harbour Bridge was officially opened in 1931 or 1933 and then, of course, discovering that it was 1932. Darn you, curse of the one-year-off-for-the-entire-night!

Spooky quiz night / library connection aside, the inaugural ALIA SA quiz night was a resounding success. In a tightly fought battle for library supremacy, the 'Boolean operators' came out on top with 117 points, with 'Ethel Merman eight' on 114.5 points just ousting 'Licorice allsorts' on 113.5 points for second place.

The wooden spoon went to the 'Marion marvels' on 84.5 points. Congratulations to Peter Flatman, quiz night host extraordinaire, Civica and all the sponsors, and the ALIA SA quiz night organisers for putting on a fantastic event!

ARCoM disaster management seminar

On 27 July 2005, ARCoM hosted an afternoon seminar on disaster management at the Barr Smith Library in Adelaide. After the flood: Disaster management in action focussed on the recent flood and recovery experience of the Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide. The flood occurred on 11 March 2005 when a fire main was damaged during construction works at the North Terrace campus, resulting in the closure of the library for three days and limited access thereafter. 200 000 litres of water covered an area of 1200 square metres, affecting over 100 000 items and damaging 10 000 books, while 40 tonne of mud collected in the plant room and 3000 volumes were so damaged that they required professional treatment.

The seminar attracted around 34 library and information professionals from different sectors of the library community, who all found the session an excellent source of information and advice. An optional tour provided attendees with an opportunity to view the flood-affected areas prior to the presentations.

Purchasing, publishing and printing - trade and library developments, acquisitions seminar

New ways of purchasing, publishing and printing: trade and library developments, was a collaborative seminar hosted by Acquisitions National and ASSIG on Monday. 5 September at Parliament House, Sydney. The day seminar was held as a satellite event to the neXt National Library Technician Conference held in Sydney later in the same week.

An enthusiastic group of delegates came from as far a field as Perth and Brisbane representing a broad cross section of libraries in addition to representatives from several industry educators.

The keynote address given by Jerelynn Brown, assistant state librarian, collection management services and Mitchell Librarian, at the State Library of NSW was challenging and enlightening, culminating with a list of the top nine attributes she considered were required for an acquisitions librarian in the 21st century. Her talk inspired a lively debate that continued well into morning tea.

The rest of the program included issues relating to the provision of information in the electronic environment either from the publishers perspective, e-books and their management, developments in the commercial binding arena from John Westwood of Apollo-Moon Bookbinders to an enlightening presentation from Col Choat how he established Project Gutenberg Australia and the role volunteers have played in assisting the progress of free e-books to Project Gutenberg Australia.

InfoSci - Online Offline

ALIA Information Science held its popular and informative Online Offline event on 16 February at the University of Adelaide, Barr Smith Library. The purpose of the event was to provide feedback on the Information Online Conference 2005 for those who had been unable to attend. The speakers covered a range of interests, with Ann Luzeckyj and Pat Scott discussing in depth, various sessions that they'd attended, Margareta Nicholas providing the vendor's perspective and Eleanor Whelan giving us the overall wrap and necessary gossip. The event was well received by all who attended.

ArCOM Seminar reporting back on the ACCOG seminar

6 April saw ARCOM holding a feedback session for the Australian Committee on Cataloguing seminar, What's in a name? The role of authorities in the 21st century. ARCOM's selection of speakers was excellent, and they all provided good summaries of the presentations at the seminar. While authority work always sounds tedious there are some really interesting developments world wide that should help make it easier for people to find out more about people, whether looking for a favourite author, looking for biographical information or if cataloguing a book. Attendees found hearing the positive and informative feedback from delegates a fantastic way to discover the latest in cataloguing developments.

Specials SA seminar on moving libraries

Anyone who has had the pleasure of relocating all or part of a library collection has some stories to tell. The ALIA SA Special Libraries Group believed that there were valuable lessons to be learned from the experiences of our colleagues and so co-ordinated a moving libraries seminar on the evening of Monday 6 June 2005.

Juliet Marconi of the South Australian Department of Health and Jenni Jeremy of the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library were the guest speakers, offering words of wisdom and advice to 25 information professionals, with Anna Tripodi from Raeco International reminding attendees of the supports that a vendor can provide during a relocation exercise. The feedback received on this evening was very positive, especially as some attendees were scheduled to move part or all of their collection within the next year and had the opportunity to plan (and panic!) with knowledge gained from those who had been there before!

InterALIA - continued success of the ALIA SA monthly publication

InterALIA is ALIA SA's online newsletter which provides a forum for SA's ALIA members to share programmes, advertise events and report on activities. Published once a month (except in January) since August 2003 on ALIA's website, it's appeared exclusively in electronic format. Since that time the newsletter has been a consistent, reliable, informative and entertaining part of ALIA SA's activities. It includes regular columns, feature articles and event reports. 2005 has seen the introduction of a roster system to spread the workload of contributors, which has helped the editors keep their energy and enthusiasm alive.

4. ALIA stars program

The meeting discussed how to identify local stars:

• e-mail an ALIA Director to tell them about great people in your area
• set up a yearly Library Achiever of the Year Award, to encourage celebration and identification of local achievement

Methods for promoting stars:

• promote the stars programme to employers
• Promote stars via inCite ; mailouts ; cross-sectoral events like the big night out
• Contact the employer of the high achievers (by letter not e-mail)
• Part of the award should include a letter to the star's employer

Ways to use stars as advocacy tools:

• Press/media release from ALIA to states concerned. It was noted that this approach needs a topical or locally relevant 'hook' to sell it to the media

Ways to use stars as membership tools:

• A 'stars session' to LIS schools. Stars go out and talk to New Grads
• InterALIA - special issue focused on stars
• Success stories from the stars at LIS and TAFE schools

5. Election of directors

• Carol presented the meeting with the proposal to change the election model for the ALIA Board of Directors.
• Meeting delegates were provided with documentation explaining the proposed change and advised that electronic proxy votes on the model will be accepted before the November BOD meeting.

6. Workforce planning and education

There was general discussion about a range of issues in this area:

Library labour market
What opportunities, difficulties, factors influencing it in your area? Library jobs - how available are jobs in your local area, what levels, hours, etc?

• There seems to be more job ads on e-lists and other forums than there were a few years ago. However this might be a result of increasingly strong local networks and e-lists rather than an increase in available jobs.
• There's a trend in local public libraries towards employing non-librarians as managers, or as customer service officers.
• Librarians are not perceived to have strong customer service skills?
• Impact - non-librarians will respond differently to issues like censorship, information literacy, etc.
• Less jobs for librarians leads to librarians filling library tech roles ; library techs have less jobs to apply for and fill library assistant roles - succession planning issues.
• There seems to be a lack of flexibility in many jobs offered, across all levels. There aren't many part-time positions and those that exist are short-term, contract or casual.
• Not many part-time, permanent options for those with young children or other family commitments.

Succession planning - what strategies are in place in your organisation?

• In SA, there are varying levels of succession planning within organisations. Flinders University has a graduate traineeship; some level of succession planning is in the works at the two other university libraries. There is slow movement in that direction in health libraries.
• Mentoring has a role to play.
• What can ALIA do? Research into the aging of workforce.

Education
Courses on offer - do they have sufficient breadth for sustainability of profession issues. Where courses have closed - what is the impact on your area of face-to-face courses v distance education - options.

Student destinations after graduating - are they entering the profession or working elsewhere.

• There are two major courses in SA - the Unisa Graduate Diploma and the TAFE Library Technician qualification.
• Unisa did offer an undergraduate course but that is being phased out, with no new students received this year.
• Generally agreed that while the Unisa course has had problems in the past, recent graduates thought that the course had improved. Theory is good but could benefit from the practical approach.
• There needs to be a change of philosophy in LIS, with more mentoring at the university level.
• The technicans course has always had good feedback, although there is now a concern that TAFE has dropped the fieldwork component of the course.
• There is not a lot of room for students to develop a specialisation, especially in resource management areas (acquisitions, cataloguing).

Will there be sufficient people working in LIS to fill jobs as people leave workforce?

• There are currently enough people, but what experience and skills do their replacements have?

Careers - how can we most effectively promote LIS work?

• Important to promote outside the profession.
• PLAIN stand at the Royal Adelaide Show has been very successful in raising the profile of public libraries.
• The @ your library campaign.
• Use personal stories of successful library leaders.
• Training courses for librarians in promotion, marketing, working with the media, techniques to market to corporate clients.
• Develop LIW with a single slogan that doesn't change each year.

7. Questions

Due to time constraints, Carol suggested that any questions or local issues could be e-mailed directly to her or any of the other directors, or given to Kate Sinclair to take to the Canberra NAC in November.

8. Evaluation

The evaluation forms were sent to national office.

9. Any other comments from the meeting?

Due to time constraints, the PD PowerPoint was not presented, instead an article has been written by Robyn Ellard and was published in October issue of InterALIA - SA's online newsletter.