ALIA NAC 2005 Hobart report

Gillian Hallam, ALIA national president, and Jane Jeppson, ALIA local liaison officer Tasmania, in attendance.

1. Roll of attendees

Rebecca Evans, Gail Friesen, Roberta Blackwood-Beattie, Linda Luther, Julia Gross, Meredith Hepburn, Chris Horswill, Jane Coatman, Wendy Rimon, Pat Bomford, Jen Johnson, Terri Maher, Chris Seaman, Yvonne Williams

2. Selected representative to attend Canberra NAC

Ms Pat Bomford

Nominated by Jane Coatman

Seconded by Roberta Blackwood-Beattie

3. Celebrating success

The major success story for 2005 has been the outward focus on new members of the profession who are just starting out. This has been reflected in:

The ongoing development and growth in membership of the New Graduates group at the local level and ALIA Tasmania group's ongoing support for the students enrolled in the University of Tasmania's Grad Dip Info Mgt program.
A very successful quiz night organised by the New Graduates group during LIW 2005 which was attended by members from all ALIA groups.
A very successful 'employment opportunities' workshop delivered as part of ALIA Tasmania group's program of activities.
The ALIA Tasmania mentoring program, which had an increase in the number of participants this year. Formal evaluation of the program will be undertaken in December but anecdotally participants have found the program invaluable.
At the national level the National Library Technicians group held a successful national conference this year. The group has contributed articles to inCite on a regular basis, offered mentoring opportunities and supported new library technician graduates, as it's major initiatives this year.

4. ALIA stars program

The role and purpose of the stars program needs to be better shaped, articulated and promoted. Presently, there is no common understanding and agreement on what an ALIA star is because it is not defined.
If it is to be used as an advocacy tool then it needs to be clearly understood how it is to be used and what its audience is.
Inaugural stars include the most recent recipients of existing awards - does this mean that this is what the program is?
What is the process for nomination?
What criteria need to be satisfied?
What does it mean to be an ALIA star?
Is it an opportunity to recognise ordinary people in ordinary jobs achieving extraordinary things. If it is, then how is this an advocacy tool?
Should the Merit Award be reintroduced to recognise member contributions?
Should there be a national award, such as a library achiever award, with state finalists that recognise members' achievements?

5. Election of directors

The meeting agreed that there is a clear anomaly between directors who are elected by the general membership and directors who are elected by NPC delegates (16 at the last election). The meeting therefore agreed that it is no longer appropriate for NPC delegates to elect directors.
It was noted that there is a low vote from institutional members and that members may have multiple votes depending on how many different interest groups they represent. However, the meeting expressed concern that ALIA was becoming a 'personal thing' and the role of institutions in ALIA is diminishing.
The meeting agreed that there should be a place for institution nominated/institution elected directors in the model proposed.
The meeting noted that there is huge variation between C1 and C6 institutions and there was further discussion about whether weighting of votes for institutional members should be considered or whether it should be one vote per institution.
The meeting decided that there was too much to cover in one meeting and proposed that the proposed amendment be further amended as an interim measure as follows to allow more time for discussion:

13.3 a. iii four directors elected by members
13.3 a. iv one director elected by institutional members 13.5 b. Within six months of incorporation...elections shall be held for the positions of directors elected by members and institutional members.
13.6 b. The director to be elected by the institutional members will be elected in alternate years.

6. Workforce planning and education

The need for a cross sectoral understanding of workplace needs is vital.
ALIA needs to capture as much as possible what the issues are in order to have an informed base of knowledge to work from.
The nature of the workforce is changing - baby boomers are passing through and there is increased competition across all industries and professions to get people.
ALIA has to be lobbying for recruitment and retention of workers in the LIS sector.

Tasmanian situation

There are lots of baby boomers in the LIS sector. The situation is worse in the state government LIS sector compared with the state government general administrative sector.
It is now looking increasingly likely that retirement will happen later than previously thought.
Good people are needed at entry level to fill the gaps that will open up when the baby boomers start retiring but there aren't the jobs there now. The dilemma/challenge is how to create opportunities now so that there are people available to move in to positions quickly when they become vacant.
The biggest problem is at the professional librarian level. Librarians are older; library technicians tend to be younger.
State Library of Tasmania, state government and the University of Tasmania are the three main employment sources for library workers in Tasmania. Job diversity exists in these employing organisations but there is no diversity of employers.
Workplace structures are flat and there is no incentive and little opportunity to progress careers. There needs to be more flexibility in awards and in organisations.
Linda Luther, university librarian, informed the meeting about how she is developing the University of Tasmania Library as a learning organisation. Debbie Wright is currently managing a workforce-planning project in the University of Tasmania Library. A skills audit is being conducted and it is proposed to use existing staff to fill the gaps by developing their skills.
University library staff have undergone RCC. Leonie Atkins from the Institute of TAFE Tasmania managed the process and this has given staff a new lease of life. By creating an innovative learning environment and recognising skills through employment levels succession planning may well be a secondary outcome. The University of Tasmania has paid for RCC - this is important because learning organisations recognise that they must put in money and invest in existing staff.
Staged retirement, enabling new people to move into positions while the older ones are in the process of moving out, is a strategy being considered across the Tasmanian State Service. It is important that the people who are leaving provide mentoring and shadowing before they leave to enable knowledge to be passed on and this must be managed as a structured process.
Presently Tasmania is losing good people interstate because they want to work but can't stay here waiting for jobs to become available. New Graduates in particular are keen to be appointed to permanent positions - much of the work available is short-term contract or sessional work. It is difficult to engage with the wider profession if you don't have a permanent job.
The number of teacher-librarians in Tasmania has decreased significantly. In some schools teachers with no library qualifications are running libraries. In other schools library technicians or teacher-aides operate libraries. Funding for library staff is part of a principal's discretionary budget - i.e. a principal has the discretion to employ an art teacher, music teacher, teacher-librarian, etc.
There are no career opportunities for teacher-librarians as the department of education does not acknowledge or recognise teacher librarians.
There is a lack of leaders in our profession nationally and internationally. We need to groom potential leaders. We need to look at the sort of people we recruit. We need to consider the attributes/qualities to look for and then train. Selection criteria still emphasises 'what have you done and how can you show you have done it'. However, we are getting better at judging potential versus experience.
Training is an individual responsibility but there must be mechanisms put in place by employing organisations to facilitate training.
There needs to be greater use of traineeships/apprenticeships. It was noted that the State Library of Tasmania offers three-year traineeships for library technicians but very few are available.
New people will have choice - but will they come to libraries?
We need to encourage people to move out of libraries and into other information management roles and then move back in again.

Things ALIA can do:

Review ALIA work level guidelines.
Provide information about how organisations are managing traineeships - for librarians and library technicians.
Provide information about how apprenticeships are being used - particularly Certificate 1 and 2 - in the LIS sector and other industries.
Encourage proactive organisations to highlight the benefits and share what they are doing to develop organisational cultures that are working towards achieving positive employment outcomes for their staff.
If the Australian government's proposed industrial relations reforms go through ALIA must help people with employment agreements by providing advice about appropriate salaries, conditions, etc.

7. Research awards

The role and importance of research awards was highlighted. The development of a research culture where individuals and organisations share their research is vital to the success of our profession.
Employers must be encouraged to support research done in work time.

8. Questions/issues

Question 1

Rebecca Evans asked what had happened to the brainstorming at the 2004 NPC in Canberra about professional development and in particular the recommendation that ALIA should write to employers highlighting the achievement of members who had achieved CP status.

Gill Hallam advised that she did not know but stated that employers, if they are learning organisations, should acknowledge their employees' achievements. Also, individuals should be keeping their employers informed about what they are doing.

Question 2

Jane Coatman asked what had happened to the request that had come from the last two NPC Tasmanian regional meetings (and even further back) for ALIA to produce printed promotional material for careers events.

Gill Hallam advised that Quorum, in association with QUT, TAFE, Charles Sturt, Raeco and some other sponsors would be producing careers materials for a Careers Expo to be held in Brisbane soon. Quorum will be using its profits for this purpose.

Meeting closed at 7:30pm.

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