proACTive

Number 227: September 2002

Renew with ALIA! | ANZTLA Conference | Database indexing workshops

Renew with ALIA!
For those who have forgotten to renew and for those still to join, there are now more reasons to become an ALIA member than ever before.

In an increasingly uncertain job market, with more contract and part-time or casual work, the need to be your own career development officer has never been greater. The ability to keep up-to-date with the trends and latest developments in the information sector and to have good networks in place is becoming more and more vital. In addition, having access to recent salary figures and work guidelines, competency standards, etc. is also vitally important when negotiating for the next job. Knowing what your skills are worth and being able to demonstrate this to employers puts you in a stronger position to negotiate a salary package.

Having a point of contact for industrial and other information is also valuable. E-mail and free internet access are also available to ACT members. Being an ALIA member provides all of these benefits. For example, comprehensive salary scales are available to members and, even though industrial advice may not be provided for an individual situation, youll be guided to the best sources of information and help. The copyright service has proved very popular with members. The CPD program provides a mechanism for ensuring you gain new information and skills and thus remain up-to-date. It also gives you a mechanism for demonstrating this to your existing (and potential) employer: and may assist you with salary increments, appraisals and promotions.

Through your membership you are helping to give ALIA greater influence in representing the library information sector particularly on some of the big issues facing libraries and society in general: copyright, censorship, privacy, equity of access to information, etcetera. So go ahead: renew your membership now: or join up if you havent already done so!

Helen Roberts
ACTive ALIA convenor

ANZTLA Conference
Fifty librarians met in Canberra in July for the 17th annual Australian and New Zealand Theological Library Association Conference. The conference theme was Building Theological Libraries, and speakers addressed this topic literally and metaphorically.

The Association represents around 85 libraries with a primary or significant interest in theology. The Canberra conference organisers (from St Marks National Theological Library, Australian Catholic University and the Canberra College of Theology) were able to present a program drawing on theologians, librarians, academic staff, booksellers and publishers.

Graeme Garrett, lecturer in theology at St Marks, inspired us by telling us that a theological library is to the church what memory is to the individual. Robyn Holmes (Curator of Music at the National Library) energised us when she spoke about the importance of music in our libraries, and Stuart Whelan (ACU) showed us what happens when you 'Build on an idea' to create information links in a specialist area (CathLink). We set off on one of the bleakest days this winter on a small pilgrimage from our home base at Blackfriars in Watson to the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, to St Marks, and then to the National Library, where Roxanne Missingham had assembled a stellar cast to demonstrate some recent developments in the Librarys service, as well as to provide good hospitality.

Sue Cox showed us how CSU builds its service to distance education students, Nina Waters from Trinity College in Melbourne demonstrated the extraordinary changes she has been able to make by outsourcing her library system and concentrating on service, and Patrick McArdle, lecturer in theology at ACU spoke about building the relationship between academic staff, library staff and students, through a curriculum embedded information literacy program.

Nancy Clarke led a panel and group discussion on building co-operation between theological libraries, and a number of short interest spots brought us up to date with developments in some of the libraries (and we learned how to transform a library by changing its doors, how to relocate a library, how to go about planning a new library, as well as some new developments in publishing, library technology and electronic services).

We think that for our delegates we provided rich and diverse fare, and the committee was stimulated and exhausted by the experience.

Nancy Clarke, for the small but dynamic team of Deveni Temu, Susan Phillips, Sue Youngman, Anne Morris Bannerman.

Database Indexing workshops
The ACT Region Branch of the Australian Society of Indexers will be offering a day of database indexing, comprising two half-day sessions: an introduction and overview of database indexing (for newcomers and experienced indexers who wish to review their skills), followed by an afternoon focusing on the use of a particular thesaurus: MeSH (medical subject headings) which is one of the worlds best examples of a hierarchical thesaurus: and its application for health-related indexing.

MeSH is used locally for both database indexing and some metadata projects, and the afternoon session will concentrate on MeSH itself: how to access it and find the right terms: rather than specific applications, although some of these will be used as examples in the workshop.

The workshop will be held on Saturday 7 September 2002, in Room 3005 of the Coombs Building at ANU and participants can enrol in either or both sessions. Costs will be $160.00 for the full day, $90.00 for a single session.

Sessions will be conducted by Lynn Farkas, Sandra Henderson and Prue Deacon and will include lots of hands-on practical work. For more information and a course registration form please contact Lynn Farkas ph 02 6286 4818 or lfarkas@pcug.org.au.

Sandra Henderson

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