proACTive 243: June 2004

Convenor's column

Congratulations to Roxanne Missingham

Congratulations to Roxanne Missingham on her election as a director of ALIA. Roxanne Missingham is Assistant Director-General Resource Sharing at the National Library of Australia. She was elected as a director by the general membership (personal and institutional members). Roxanne has been tireless in her work for ALIA and the library and information sector in the ACT and is sure to be an outstanding director.

Library and Information Week 24-30 May

Down and loaded: the right information at the right time was the theme for Library and Information Week 2004. This theme was chosen to acknowledge and celebrate the innovative activities and services provided by library and information professionals, focusing on the delivery of information via the online environment. The week provides the opportunity to promote our professional services and skills to user communities and the public, to introduce new services, and to canvas issues of importance to the provision of library and information services in Australia.

Local Library and Information Week events

ACT Libraries have had a wide range of activities and have been getting wonderful publicity for Library and Information Week. Four colourful Canberra bookmarks were launched by Belle Alderman, Professor of Children's Literature at the University of Canberra.

These bookmarks profile and divulge snippets of the lives of prominent Canberrans. They feature Peter Leonard, who says he was influenced by the Famous Five books, Anthony Hill, who hasn't read the second and subsequent Harry Potter books, Omar bin Musa, who has happy childhood memories of the Garfield comics and Margaret Reid, who still listens to Parliament on the radio and is currently reading The March of Folly by Barbara W. Tuchman. Pick up a bookmark or four when you next visit your local library.

The ACT Library put on a slap-up afternoon tea at the Hyatt Hotel as a well-deserved thank you for its hard working volunteers. The Home Library service has successfully established a system of getting material to an expanding number of home bound recipients. The clients are profiled to determine their preferences and volunteers deliver items to them regularly. On 26 May 2004 the ACT Public Library Service and ACTive ALIA had a successful trivia night in Belconnen Library. The money raised was for East Timor to purchase library books and literacy materials.

Library Technicians

On 27 May ACT Library Technicians celebrated National Library Technicians Day with their traditional breakfast, this year at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

ACTive ALIA

ACTive ALIA is planning an August Midwinter dinner and prize giving in a recommended new location. Details will be available in our next issue.

Helen Roberts
Convenor, ACTive ALIA