proACTive 245: July 2004

Convenor's column

ACTive ALIA's midwinter dinner and prize giving

Come and celebrate with your colleagues and new members of the profession on Friday 20 August 2004 at the Canberra Club, West Row Civic (we will have our own separate room for this function). Parking nearby is easy at the large Magistrates Court car park. The meal will cost $30.00 for a 3-course Buffet, with hot nibbles, a choice of three main courses, and desserts. The pre-dinner drinks will be sponsored by Kinetica, Australia's Library Network. People will pay for their own drinks from the bar after that. Your RSVP should go to Sherrey Quinn (please remove '.nospam' from address) preferably by e-mail, enquiries to ph 02 6257 9177.

ALIA ACT New Graduates Group

You may have seen the article in the last issue of proACTive, calling for volunteers to help set up this group. Well, in response to this article an ALIA New Graduates Group is being formed in the ACT. Andrew-Rayner and Natasha Simons, who both work at the NLA, have volunteered to co-ordinate the group. Andrew moved from Perth earlier this year to start work at the National Library as a participant of its graduate recruitment program. Natasha, also a recent graduate, worked at Griffith University Library in Brisbane before joining the NLA's Kinetica team. We hope and expect that the ACT group will follow the successes of ALIA New Graduates Groups in other states by organising functions and events which foster a new graduates support network in the ACT region.

If you would like to be involved, please e-mail Andrew Rayner or Natasha Simons (please remove '.nospam' from addresses).

Copyright in the free trade agreement

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has handed down its report on the free trade agreement, it is available for download from www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jsct/usafta/report/fullreport.pdf [1.4MB].

If you look on page 240 at the recommendations on copyright (16 to 18) they do appear to reflect the concerns of libraries and universities. Hope to see you at our Happy Hour drinks in July, and the Midwinter dinner in August.

Helen Roberts
Convenor, ACTive ALIA