Convenor's column

proACTive moves to the electronic era

This issue of proACTive is an historic one. This is the last paper copy of proACTive. In the future the newsletter will only be available in electronic form. This will follow similar developments in other states such as ALIA West's Biblia and Queensland's Quill. Like those groups, ACTive ALIA will move to having a voluntary editorial team rather than a single editor.

For news about events and future issues of proACTive, don't miss out on receiving the electronic proACTive. Join our e-list now. aliaACTive is the ALIAnet e-list affiliated with this group. Go to http://lists.alia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/aliaACTive/ where you will find the 'subscription' form for the ACTive ALIA e-list. Complete it, click the 'subscribe' button, and you will be added to the ACTive ALIA list to receive news of forthcoming events, and future electronic issues of proACTive.

General information about ALIA e-lists is at http://www.alia.org.au/alianet/e-lists/. The list administrator is Sherry Quinn (please remove '.nospam' from address).

Some of you who receive the printed proACTive may not have e-mail addresses. I don't know whether this is going to be a big problem, so if you are in this category please let me know.

ACTive ALIA happy hour

The next ACTive ALIA happy hour will be held on Friday, 10 September 2004 at Hotel Kurrajong, National Circuit, Barton from 5:30pm. Meet your colleagues and catch up with old friends. Hope to see you there!

Peter Judge - THE editor of proACTive

It is important in this time of change to pay tribute to Peter Judge who has been editor of proACTive for almost ten years, since November 1994. He has largely made proACTive what it is - an interesting, timely and effective vehicle of communication for librarians and other information professionals in our Canberra region.

I have been aware of the excellence of Peter's editing skills in recent years, but I was not a committee member at the time Peter was selected as editor. I spoke to Sue Brudenall, a former president of the ACT Branch. She described him as a highly-respected information professional. He was always absolutely reliable and professional. Deadlines meant deadlines, and when he had to go away he always made arrangements for others to edit the newsletter. Sue said you could not have wished for a more professional attitude to producing the newsletter. Before editing proACTive he had been the managing editor of inCite from July 1990 to June 1994.

Peter has been a member of ALIA for thirty years. For 12 years he was officer-in-charge of the CSIRO's central library, information and publishing services. Since leaving the CSIRO in 1988 he has been freelancing as an editor and writer. He is a founder member and was president from 1996 to 1998 of the Canberra Society of Editors, whose website he designed and manages. In April 2002 the French Government honoured him by appointing him a Chevalier of the Nation Order of Merit, for services to France in promoting French science and scientific exchanges with Australia.

Helen Roberts
Convenor, ACTive ALIA

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