proACTive

Number 231: February 2003

Re-energising FLIN | Celebrate the life of Margaret Trask | Knowledge management

Re-energising the Federal Libraries Information Network
Twenty eight representatives from federal government libraries attended the FLIN AGM at the National Library on 10 December, 2002. The meeting accepted the strategic direction taken in 2002, and acknowledged the need for federal government libraries to collaborate and communicate more effectively. One of the most positive outcomes has been the numbers of our colleagues from federal government libraries who volunteered both during and after the AGM to nominate for the executive and/or the new Consortia and Training and Development taskforces. This is particularly heartening as in 2002 there was a small executive and no FLIN executive convenor.

For 2003 the FLIN executive has nine active members, with all positions filled. Tom Stoddart has nominated to be the FLIN convenor. Two new taskforces have been established to reflect the priorities of the FLIN membership. The Consortia Taskforce, convened by Karen Vitullo, has eight members. Nerida Hart has agreed to convene the Training and Development Taskforce. The first Consortia Taskforce meeting will be held on Friday 14 February.

At the AGM Karen Vitullo talked about FLIN's achievements in 2002, including representation of federal library interests in a number of forums (such as the Peak Bodies Forum, the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee and the Kinetica Advisory Committee), FLIN's submission to the inquiry into the role of libraries in an online environment; redevelopment of its website and the Consortia seminar held in May. A new model for FLIN would include fees for membership to cover the administrative tasks and allow the Executive to focus on strategic issues. (for a full account of FLIN activities see http://www.nla.gov.au/flin/).

Guest speaker, Roxanne Missingham, introduced the Metadata from Commonwealth Government Agencies Pilot Project, which is looking at best practice for harvesting metadata from federal government websites as a way of adding records for government publications to the National Bibliographic Database. Seven libraries will be participating in stage one of the pilot project.

Karen Vitullo

Celebrate the life of Margaret Trask
Did you know Margaret Trask? The Association is seeking recollections of how Margaret touched the lives of those in the library profession. As well as being deputy chancellor of UTS, Margaret was president of the Association in 1977 and was one of the most influential figures in the development of the profession in Australia. Stories will be collated and presented to Margaret's family. Look at http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2003/01-02/margaret.trask.html. An electronic copy will also be presented to the University of Technology, Sydney library.

Knowledge management
A bit unclear about what knowledge management actually means or where it's going? On Wednesday, 19 February, Trish Milne, who co-ordinates the fully online Master of KM at the University of Canberra, is going go give URLs members and other interested people a really good insight into 'Understanding and applying knowledge management: the role of the information professional'.

So come along on Wednesday, 19 February at 12.30 to the McDonald Room, Menzies Library, ANU, to hear Dr Trish Milne, Head of the School of Information Management and Tourism, University of Canberra. In 2001 Trish spent four months working with the British Telecom KM Research Team and with David Snowden from IBM Global Services. She has just come back from Online in the UK. She is currently doing research with DSTO using Snowden's story-telling method to identify gaps in the training of army commanders. All welcome to this event. Bring your lunch. Inquiries to Nancy Clarke URLs secretary, ph 02 6209 1117, n.clarke@signadou.acu.edu.au.

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