Achievements and actions in 2005 and 2006

Membership growth and member services

Over the past two years, to June 2006, the Association has had a slight decline in the total number of members of 0.6 per cent. A good membership retention rate of 88.5 per cent was achieved.

In the 2005-06 membership year 60 per cent of student members were retained in the student member category and a further 22 per cent of student members upgraded to other membership categories.

In 2005-06, 33 per cent of prospects took out membership.

New member services include:

• Member Advantage, launched at the 2006 AGM
  
  
• Online shop and online registration for events
  
  
• Resources and support for institutional members including the revised Interlibrary Resource Sharing Code launched May 2006, coverage of current issues such as internet access services and internet filtering, copyright, national access to broadband and access to government information.
  
  
• Information and advice on the new federal workplace relations legislation

ALIA's premier awards, group and regional awards and the ALIA stars program recognise outstanding achievement by members. ALIA has also established an Aurora scholarship and ATSILIRN bursary.

Groups

Group activities range from e-lists, professional and social networking and publication of newsletters through to short professional development activities, one-day workshops, and symposiums and major conferences.

The network of Local Liaison Officers has been strengthened and information and guidelines for group office bearers have been reviewed and streamlined. A group planning calendar has been set up and is available through the office-bearers' guide web page.

In 2005, a more grass roots model for the National Advisory Congress was adopted with an increased number of regional meetings. In 2006 Directors and the Executive Director have increased their regional visits, allowing them to meet with groups and members locally.

Education and workforce planning

Over the past two years:

• ALIA's education policy statements have been reviewed and updated
  
  
• Course recognition processes have been streamlined
  
  
• Education forums have engaged educators, employers and practitioners in debate on education and skills needs
  
  
• ALIA has published reports on trends in education and enrolments and the sector labour market
  
  
• LIS as a career has been promoted through the addition of promotional resources on the ALIA education web pages, library school visits by Local Liaison Officers and groups. Opportunities for working in partnership with government and other bodies have been investigated and the ALIA Quorum group participated in the Queensland Careers Fair 2006 as a pilot
  
  
• Education and workforce planning were discussion topics at the 2005 NAC regional meetings when issues raised included: access to LIS courses for those in regional areas; the importance courses maintaining a high quality and covering both core skills and specialist subjects; succession planning; challenges of recruiting qualified staff in regional areas; the trend towards employment of non-librarians; and ALIA's advocacy role in professional education and workforce planning.

Communication and publishing

Content and layout of inCite have been reviewed with a thematic focus for each issue and more use of graphics. Suggestions for inCite were discussed at the 2005 NAC national meeting and these suggestions are being taken into account in forward planning for inCite.

Work began on redesigning the ALIA website and extensive new and revised content was added on education and professional development, employment and industrial relations, advocacy, and policy statements and guidelines. This work will continue in 2007.

The Executive Director's blog was launched in February 2006.

'Celebrating success' when members share their stories of the successes of groups, individual members or library projects has been a popular and valuable feature of the NAC regional and national meetings for the past three years and this will continue.

Advocacy and promotion

ALIA's advocacy programs have addressed current issues for the sector such as internet access services and internet filtering, copyright, national access to broadband and access to government information.

The Survey of internet access in public libraries report, published in March 2006, is a comprehensive national study of how public library internet services are being managed, delivered and used.

Promotional campaigns have included Library and Information Week, National Simultaneous Storytime and ALIA's take-up of @ your library® at a national level.

The ALIA Stars program was established to promote the success stories of ALIA members within and beyond the sector. ALIA launched the ALIA Stars program during Library and Information Week 2005 with the announcement of the first ALIA Stars. The ALIA Stars program was discussed at the 2005 NAC regional meetings and the guidelines and criteria for ALIA Stars have been further developed, based on that discussion. In 2006, the ALIA Stars will be the winners of ALIA's premier and excellence awards.

Conferences, symposiums and professional development

Conferences and symposiums in 2005 included:

• Information online conference (February)
  
  
• Australian Committee on Cataloguing seminar (February)
  
  
• Forum on purchasing agreements and licensing (February)
  
  
• Digital amnesia: the challenges of government online seminar (April)
  
  
• NeXt national library technicians conference (September)
  
  
• International evidence-based librarianship conference (October)
  
  
• New directions in special librarianship symposium (November)

And in 2006:

• CLICK06 Biennial conference (September)
  
  
• Beyond the OPAC : future directions for web-based catalogues, Australian Committee on Cataloguing seminar (September)
  
  
• Library stars: best of the best, Public Libraries Reference Group forum (September)
  
  
• Research seminar (in partnership with RAILS) (September)
  
  
• New Librarians Symposium (NLS 3) (December)

ALIA's PD calendar and program in 2005 and 2006 included extensive group PD activities and events, PD workshops and agreements with training providers for member access to management and professional education and training.

Research

Approved Research Institute status for the ALIA Research Fund was granted.

The Twila Ann Janssen Herr Research Award for Disability Services was established and offered for the first time.