ALIA NAC 2005 Launceston report

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

1. Roll of attendees

Helen Dunford, Nella Pickup, Tonya Jessup, Kerrie Blyth, Richard Pickup, Robyn McKenzie, Karen Waldon-Manning, Patricia Jane Wilson.

2. Selected representative to attend Canberra NAC

Mr Richard Pickup

3. Celebrating success

The major success in 2005 has been the endorsement of NARG (Northern Areas Regional Group). The revitalisation of members in the north presents new ways to go and a membership growth opportunity. Two well-attended events have already been held in the last few months.
The ALIA Tasmania mentoring program has also been highly valuable for those members from the north of the state who are participating.

4. ALIA stars program

Criteria are not clear - what are the ways of identifying stars?
The Tasmanian Department of Education, which includes the State Library of Tasmania, has Learning Together Awards. These awards present an opportunity for outsiders to be made aware of the achievements of dept of education and its staff, including the state library and its staff.
The meeting noted that ALIA stars should have an external audience. We are always patting each other on the back but it's people outside our industry who need to be made aware of our achievements. It is in this way that awards can be potentially used as an advocacy tool.
ALIA should recognise and award star status to projects, services and individuals. Awards should recognise creativity and resourcefulness, not necessarily achievements involving lots of money.
ALIA should revisit awards that have gone into abeyance such as the Library Manager of the Year Award and the Innovation Award. What happened to these awards and why did they cease?

5. Election of directors

It was the view of the meeting that as institutional members do not meet as a group to discuss issues there is no obvious benefit in keeping the institutional vote.
It was the further view of the meeting that institutional representatives do not canvass the opinions of the staff in their organisation before voting and therefore vote on personal preference.
Therefore the meeting resolved to support the amendment as proposed.

6. Workforce planning and education

Local workforce situation

Aging of the workforce is a major issue.
The workforce is static.
There are lots of part-time, casual and sessional jobs but no guarantee of permanency. Opportunities to engage with the wider profession without permanency are difficult.
There is too little emphasis on the importance of teacher-librarians. Teacher-librarians are not being replaced when they leave. There are many examples of teachers without qualifications running libraries.
New graduates are not interested in taking regional positions when they are available. Library workers in regional areas feel devalued as a result.
The possible impact of the Australian government's proposed industrial relations changes is causing uncertainty.
People are on the cusp of retiring. Young people coming through want to stay in Tasmania but it is too narrow a demographic and there are not enough avenues for them.
The physical nature of the work is demanding and there needs to be more flexible arrangements for older workers.
Management expertise needs to be developed. There are blockages because older workers are sitting at the top. When they leave younger workers will be needed to fill the positions but they do not currently have opportunities to develop management skills.
Career structures are flat and do not facilitate career progression or create incentives for staff. This is particularly noticeable in areas outside Hobart. By way of example, in the State Library of Tasmania, branch libraries and city libraries have had their staff pared back and the structures in these libraries are very flat. City Librarians are classified as Professional Level 3 positions and with only one exception (in Launceston Library which has a Professional Level 2 position) all other librarian positions are classified at Professional Level 1.
Richard Pickup suggested that the profession was creating a misleading impression about library workers salaries by asserting that the library profession is lowly paid.

Education

Some students may be struggling with the IT component in courses.
The Teacher-librarian stream in the grad dip info mgt course offered by UTAS needs to be better marketed, particularly to teachers without library qualifications who are already working in school libraries.
Distance education tends to attract older students but we need to attract younger people to the profession. Jane Jeppson noted that students undertaking the grad dip info mgt program on campus at UTAS were generally younger than those undertaking courses by distance education.
The profession needs to look for diversity in the educational backgrounds of new recruits. Post graduate study is preferred to undergraduate study.
It is hard to attract young people to courses because librarianship is hard to promote visually.
Not all front of house staff in libraries are adequately trained.

7. Research awards

The profession needs to develop a research base.
There is not enough competition for awards and scholarships.
A number of existing awards are not being used.
Workshops need to be run across the board for librarians and library technicians to advise how to go about conducting research (e.g. how to effectively apply for awards and scholarships, etc)
Employers need to be encouraged to support their staff to take up scholarships, etc.

8. Questions/issues

The meeting noted that members in regional areas appreciate opportunities to meet visiting ALIA figures and would like to have more regular visits.
The meeting also noted that many senior staff in organisations are no longer ALIA members. If more senior staff were members and lead by example this might encourage others to join.

The meeting closed at 2:00pm.

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