proACTive

Number 238: September 2003

ACTive ALIA convenor's column

VIC ELLIOTT will speak to URLS ACT on Wednesday 24 September on 'An elusive quarry: information resource management in the academic library', in the McDonald Room, Menzies Library, Australian National University, at 12:30pm.

Vic Elliott is the new Director of Scholarly Information Services and University Librarian at the Australian National University. Vic is especially interested in developing modes of access to information resources which meet the real teaching, learning and research needs of the University community and in the development of staff to meet the challenge of working in a rapidly changing information environment. For the previous 5 years he was the University Librarian at the University of Tasmania and prior to that he was the University Librarian at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has also worked at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington and at Brunel University Library in the UK.

Vic is a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) and from 2000-2001 served as Chair of the CAUL Electronic Information Resources Committee (CEIRC). He has also worked with the AVCC as a member of its National Site Licence Negotiating Team and is currently involved in two DEST-funded projects, the Australian Academic and Research Library Network (AARLIN) and the Collaborative Online Learning and Information Services (COLIS) project. Within ALIA he is a member of the editorial board of Australian Academic and Research Libraries. He is also a former President of the New Zealand Library and Information Association (NZLIA).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols

The ACTive ALIA meeting in August was held at the AIATSIS Library, Acton Peninsula. We had a fascinating evening starting with an excellent video explaining the work of AIATSIS. Doreen Mellor, Director Development Public Programs National Library of Australia, spoke on 'Cross-cultural protocols: enjoying both difference and common ground'. Barbara Lewincamp, the AIATSIS Library Director, arranged a tour of the library to follow the talk. Unique features of the new library were pointed out, such as the special storage for items that can be seen only by men or only by women.

The Library has adopted the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protocols for libraries, archives and information services. They are at http://www.ntu.edu.au/library/protocol.html
These protocols are intended to guide libraries, archives and information services in appropriate ways, to:

interact with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the communities which the organisations serve, and
handle materials with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content.

The protocols address:

the recognition of the moral rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the owners of their knowledge;
other important issues arising from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content and perspectives in documentary materials, media and traditional cultural property;
issues in access to libraries, archives and information resources by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples;
encouragement for both the involvement and the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the governance and operation of libraries, archives and information services; and
appropriate representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures in libraries, archives and information services.

Visit from UK Librarians

Tom Featherstone, who is the Chair of the Retired Members Guild and was the Library Association President in 1991, is bringing a group of 22 retired librarians from the UK to visit Australia. They will spend a few days in Canberra (from 30 September to 3 October), and will visit the National Library, the National University library and the Parliamentary library.

ALIA will host an afternoon tea at ALIA House on Wednesday 1 October, with PEARLS, the retired librarians group in Canberra, after the tours. PEARLS members who would like to attend should ring Yvette Turner on ph 02 6215 8222 nearer the date to confirm the time.

Helen Roberts
convenor, ACTive ALIA

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