The ALIA National Advisory Congress 2006

Adelaide regional meeting report

14 August 2006
Ira Raymond Room, Barr Smith Library

Welcome

Philip Keane
Overview of the evening

Selection of SA representative for NAC

Christine Cother

Attendance

15 people attended.

Celebrating success ALIA Stories

• South Australia Library Achiever of the Year Award
  The inaugural South Australian Library Achiever of the Year, was awarded to Jennie Hanisch, at the Treasures Wall of the State Library of South Australia in July 2006. The award aims to:
  encourage recognition of a person working in any sector of the library and information profession in South Australia
  provide an opportunity to promote innovation and excellence within the library and information profession
  increase the profile of the profession
  The award is supported by sponsorship, from Raeco and has been secured for the next two years. The successful presentation evening was held during the visit to Adelaide by the Board of director's meeting in July.
  
  Jennie is the Manager, Library Services at the Women's and Children's Hospital and was nominated in her capacity as the Chair of the South Australian Health Services Libraries Consortium, for the development of successful collaborative ventures or partnerships in library and information services and her demonstrated dedication to advancement of libraries.
• Joint event Info-Sci and Law Librarians Let's join in - communicates and technology
  Over 50 people attended the joint event held by ALIA Information Science and the Australian Law Librarian's Group (SA) was generously sponsored by Lexis Nexis. The evening involved presentations from a group of diverse range of people from the library and information sector, focusing on communication and emerging technologies. From blogs, Wiki's, RSS, on-line gaming and social tagging.
• Patronage of Alan Smith of the ALIA-SA
  Alan Smith, Director of the State Library of South Australia is the patron of ALIA SA. As patron, Alan is working closely with ALIA SA to make the most of opportunities for advocacy and promotion of the profession and the sector in South Australia. The ALIA SA committee has been reviewing operations and programs over several months and the proposal to ask Alan to take the role of patron arose from these discussions.
  
  ALIA SA felt a patron could help the Association in South Australia to identify and contribute more effectively in areas such as advocacy, and would also provide members with an insight into effective leadership.
• Managing e-journals
  ALIA- SA Specials 'Bridge over troubled waters: improving communications between Special Libraries and IT Specialists.
  
  Featured a panel of 3 speakers on developing relationships with the library and IT professionals within the business organization.
• Partnership between with the State Library of South Australia, and ALIA-SA.
  Offered up to $10,000 within the financial year. Raise, and increase the profile of ALIA within SA. Details are being finalised. Providing an example to the other State Librarians by Sue Hutley to demonstrate their support for ALIA.
• Appointment of South Australian Local Liaison Officer, Fiona Butcher.
  SA welcomed Fiona Butcher who commenced her role as Local Liaison Officer for the state.
• Re-invigorating of the ALIA-SA Mentoring programme.
  Launch of the one-on-one mentoring program by the ALIA SA Mentoring Group, occurred in July 2006. The 12 month long program consists of 14 one-on-one pairs of mentors and mentorees. Those who are participating in the program expressed interest in this form of professional development by completing a questionnaire in late 2005/early 2006. The intention is to undertake a mini review of the program in November this year, along with a dinner for those participating in the program.

Questions raised regarding sustainability

• More promotion of the association
• Ask the membership type of activities that they would like to see, to support themselves personally and professionally (survey!)
• Partnership with the Office for information economy - make it relevant to both the individuals and something for parent organizations
• Employers being more involved, channel input into the process views on what they want to see from ALIA. This leads to sponsorship and relevance to employers and individuals.
• More support needs to be provided by ALIA to the local groups on the ground. More than 5 hours a week.

Local SA Issues

• General discussion about ALIA:
• Communication - generally happy with it. Perhaps a pertinent subject line would entice messages to be read.
• Need to remove the members only section
• Better reflection of the organization membership should not be required to gain access.
• Expectation that you will be involved within academic environment
• Brand the things that you do.
• While lobbying may occur - it is unknown through the members.
• Special Libraries:
• Membership base - difficult to communicate with, due to being individuals in special libraries.

Governance & Management

Philip went over the possible proposed changes in the documentation provided. There was a general discussion of different options.

• Voting enables ALIA to go out and present the candidates and promote.
• Any implications for SA? - Need to ensure balance for smaller states, and not dominated by the Eastern States.
• The people going for election should be required to interact with the members more frequently. Information needs to be provide to all members. Suggestions to enable this to occur were answering questions on e-lists or on an on-line blog during election time (as done by ALA). The only information provided to the membership about candidates is through a short paragraph on a flyer/voting form - more information needs to be communicated!
• President elected separately and be committed and acknowledged through the election process
• Important to communicate the Board's role in governance and financial health of the association
• Blog is great! Sue reporting back in for formal way and her approachability
• Less formal approach to budget would be appreciated. How many people need all the information printed in InCite. Perhaps should highlight key points, and whole documentation available on the website.
• More ALIA operations on the top floor of ALIA house and rent the bottom
• Executive director two visits and board all together in SA - great for the members to see - would like to ensure it happened every year.

ALIA Membership growth

• Events should be what people want to attend. Down to local groups.
• Currently the local liaison officer is looking at why people don't renew their membership.
• ALIA membership not supportive of maternity leave (should be able to hold ALIA membership for period of one year).
• Another category of membership should be available for those people who are not in work.
• Groups should be directly informed when new members join ALIA. Within their state and automatically added to the e-list.
• For groups more data on membership profile, needs to be captured through enrolment form (currently not done)
• To be more effective in assisting members to grow their membership base, ALIA needs to improve their Admin role to be more effective

Is there value as a member?

• Don't want commercial relationships, (don't send it via e-mail - not interest)
• Networking through being on e-list
• Information is worthwhile - but needs to be easier to access from the website
• Need to support organization - only organisation we have. But there should be more than that reason to join.
• Not industrial
• Should be pushing the industry standard through

Role of ALIA in accreditation

• Standard
• Certification
• Lobbying
• Has acknowledgement of other course downgraded educational ignorance - what is ALIA's role in this

What attracts members

• CPD events
• Continuos PD
• Demonstrable job at the end of the course
• Cut down on written PD - should be available on-line

Groups

• Improving the website
• Attachments should be allowed on e-lists
• Not using the e-lists effectively
• Joining - you should be put on the local list when you join ALIA. When you do join an e-list you shouldn't need to agree to it again. Not a two step process.

How to assist groups at the local level:

• Incite deadlines too far ahead from publication, means that the groups rely heavily on e-lists with event promotion.
• RSS feeds
• Assist group office bearers in their roles through:
• Availability of documentation and templates
• Branding should be carried across at state level and standardised for events at all levels
• Invest in people going on committees provide training and development networks across the country (supporting volunteers and developing their skills - more incentive for people to be involved).
• Annual training day for office bearers on a National basis
• Acknowledge people who volunteers - invest in the future of the profession

Archiving

• Group space to lodge material on the ALIA website
• Digital repository
• Social technology

Education

• Succession planning
• Stats on libraries closing down
• Where are the trends in the library industry
• Participating in research project which will bring together data on the different sectors.
• Relationships with the bigger institutions attempt in employers to talk to library school. Little engagement in schools.
• Not enough links with practitioners. Problem not relating to the sectors currently re-jigging course - UNISA. Technician course takes too long. Need to ask the members relate to how to get what people want in the course.