proACTive

Number 251: August 2005

[ ALIA ACTive/AGLIN information sharing session | LEP Excellence Award | Would you like coffee or chardonnay with that? | Forthcoming local events ]

ALIA ACTive/AGLIN information sharing session no 4, 29 June 2005

Mary Teague

David Williams, team leader, information management, DEWR

David Williams started the session off with Once upon a time, in an agency far far away... but for many of us the topic of information management (IM) in an Australian government agency isn't so far away.

David's presentation covered early challenges for IM at DEWR and concluded with where to from here. In between he covered a galaxy of information including an IM capability maturity evaluation including six capability areas and five maturity levels, as-is, to-be maturity levels analysis.

He outlined DEWR's IM vision, models and enterprise and information architecture, culminating in outlining the difference between the two and included critical success factors.

The presentation concluded with challenges, risks, governance, review and consultation and what worked, what happened and where to from here.

Paul Trezise CIO, Geoscience Australia

An information management roadmap for Geoscience Australia: Vision meets reality

Paul covered some similar content to David and although neither had discussed his presentation with the other it was interesting and surprising that they covered similar information and identified similar challenges and issues including enterprise architecture (EA).

Paul's presentation was a topical title for Geoscience Australia. Paul gave an illuminating background on GA, its information management vision, its information assets including some 600Tb of data and what GA did about information management including creating a chief information officer position.

The presentation covered key issues in information management for GA including recognising information is a key business asset which is to be generated and managed for the long term, assured to a quality that matches stakeholder requirements, easily discoverable, readily and flexibly accessible and designed to be interoperable with other resources.

The road covered four areas - people, processes, technology and performance, and outlined key initiatives undertaken at GA including enterprise architecture, the EA capability model in GA, what GA has achieved in the two years since it released its first version of its IM strategic plan, challenges and lessons learned.

A lot to take in, some of it music to the audience's ears, some new information, but for all an informative session about two very different organisations with two very different areas of responsibilities and two very different cultures.

LEP Excellence Award, launched on 24 May 2005

The ABS + libraries = a winning formula!

Pat Stracey

Libraries are widely recognised as a popular source of information for Australians. They are, in fact, the second most frequently visited cultural institution*. It is no surprise, then, that the ABS Library Extension Program (LEP), a partnership between the ABS and over 500 Australian libraries, has proven to be a very successful way to provide community access to ABS statistics.

Introducing the LEP Excellence Award...
The ABS values the work of LEP member libraries to promote awareness, understanding and use of ABS information to their communities. And we'd like to thank you! The inaugural LEP Excellence Award, launched by the Australian Statistician, Dennis Trewin, during Library and Information Week in Canberra, aims to recognise and reward the efforts of our library partners.

The launch event was hailed as a big success, with great networking opportunities for representatives from a wide cross-section of the library community in the ACT and region. There were guests from ALIA, the national library, the ACT Public Library Service, parliamentary library, government libraries and university and TAFE libraries.

If you organised something to raise your users' awareness of ABS information between 1 January 2004 and 31 June 2005, you could be in the running to win the inaugural award! The prize: a trophy and $1500 worth of ABS products and services of your choice.

Visit the LEP pages on the ABS web site for more information about this exciting new award. Go to http://www.abs.gov.au/, then in the top menu select 'services we provide', then 'library extension program'.

The winner will be announced in September 2005.

*Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2002, Attendance at selected cultural venues and events, Australia, Cat. no. 4114.0.

(L-R) Kim Farley-Larmour, national manager, ABS LEP; Karen Vitullo, director, ABS library and extension services; Dennis Trewin, Australian Statistician; Jennefer Nicholson, executive director, ALIA; Roxanne Missingham, assistant director-general, resource sharing division, National Library of Australia; Pat Stracey, ABS ACT LEP co-ordinator

Would you like coffee or chardonnay with that?

Geraldine Barkworth

You can't drag a horse to water... and make them drink.

But can you drag a librarian to professional development and make them drink?

Well, yes maybe if there was great coffee or a good chardonnay perhaps, but that's moving away from the point.

Professional development helps determine the quality and direction of your life. Your career has a symbiotic relationship with your personal life. What happens in one impacts the other. Good professional development takes a holistic approach.

'There's no profession without succession.' How many times do we have to hear that before it sinks in? Would you prefer to operate at 50 per cent capacity or would you like the opportunity to build on who you are and who you can be? Choosing a path of career and personal development can do that for you.

Resistance
Far from being futile, resistance to professional development is downright short sighted. It is anti change and anti growth. It's not about jumping on board just to be the same as everyone else. It's about carving out your own path of what's right for you and your future. It requires discernment.

Occasionally, managers or staff resist attending professional development opportunities. Learning about any fears or preconceived ideas that a staff member or your manager may hold, helps to create a level playing field of understanding. It doesn't guarantee agreement of your proposal, but it does prepare the ground for mutual understanding and respect and that's the basis for great communication. And with great communication, the world opens up to new possibilities.

Dragging staff
Sometimes staff resist career development opportunities offered by their manager. A little extra time spent exploring their objections may lead to the best result for everyone. Once I had a staff member who steadfastly refused to attend PD events, saying it was 'just her day job'. After spending a little more time with her, I learnt she had an abusive husband who belittled her work. She had to get dinner on the table by 6:00pm. In future, I arranged for her to attend relevant PD which allowed her home by 5:00pm. One small allowance on my part enabled her to participate in PD and build her confidence and skills. See if any of these other scenarios have a kernel of truth for you:

Resistance from staff	Fear / belief	Possible solutions for managers
'I'm too busy.'	'I'll get further behind.' or 'Busyness makes me important.' May feel pressured, stressed about staying on top of things or looking good.	Assess their workload realistically. Make any needed adjustments. Build self esteem.
'I'm not interested.'	'Why should I bother?' 'No one cares about me.' May feel unstimulated and unappreciated.	Find out what interests them. Look for suitable courses or get them to research.
'I know everything.'	'I don't want to be seen as incompetent.' 'I'm better than everyone else and I don't want to learn otherwise.'	Identify what they don't know. Avoid competitions. Look for advanced courses. Build a deeper level of self esteem.
'This is just my day job.'	'My real life is outside of work.' 'I'm only doing this for the money.'	Identify specific knowledge gaps or personal interests. Link PD to performance evaluation and therefore, income.
'I don't want to do it.'	'No one tells me what to do.' 'I'm frightened I might fail; not look good.'	Explore and provide options. Find out what they do want and what would help most with their work. Accept their final decision.

Dragging managers
Sometimes information managers refuse career development opportunities for their staff. Extra time spent exploring their objections may lead to a better result for everyone. I once had a manager that deflected my PD request with, 'Well it sounds like a good idea, but I don't have time to think about it. How come you've got time to think about it?' I did some research, put some facts and figures together showing the projected positive impact for the whole library. It took one page and 20 minutes to write. I offered to do a morning tea presentation of what I learnt from the workshop. The manager appreciated I saved her time, liked the results based proposal (she passed it on to her manager and used in a quarterly report) and got me a cheque.

Resistance from managers	Fear / belief	Possible solutions for staff
'No money'.	Want to be perceived as competent financial manager; have other priorities over PD; fear of funding cuts and restructure.	Find out how much is available. What are the priorities and future directions? Create fair system; ie 1 course per person per year. Or, find new employer who values PD.
'PD is a waste of time.'	Quantity (numbers) is better than quality (depth). Fear that PD is just wasted social opportunity. May dislike PD personally.	Create proposal outlining specific needs, results and benefits of identified PD. Quantify resources ($, time, staff) and projected value outcome.
'Too busy to think about it.'	Feeling pressured to perform, caught up in quantity not quality cycle. May need to feel busier and more important than everyone else.	Do the legwork and make it easy for them. Create proposal with projected outcomes and benefits. Demonstrate teamwork and benefits of complimentary roles.
'Not sure if it's right for you.'	Is there something better? Is it better suited for another staff member? Can I trust your judgement?	Do the legwork and measure pros and cons of different courses. Give them facts, figures, projected outcomes.
'Now's not a good time.'	I have to juggle priorities and pressures the staff aren't aware of and it's inappropriate for me to share this sensitive information.	Explore a little if you can. Be supportive. Accept the manager is capable of making the best judgement call at this time. If you can't accept it; decide on your own future.

Drink deep of whatever professional development you chose. Why be dragged, when you can run open armed to all those inspiring and energising opportunities out there. Don't sell yourself short; explore the juicy possibilities life has in store for you.

Geraldine Barkworth (please remove '.nospam' from address), principal, Bold Women Big Ideas, used to work in libraries and many Canberra librarians may know her from the period in which she managed Library Locums (now The One Umbrella) about eight years ago. Geraldine now helps overachieving library professionals succeed without the struggle. She publishes a bimonthly e-zine, Great expectations for library professionals, and facilitates a teleconference program called How to be a relaxed overachiever. Ph 02-6685 1917.

Forthcoming local events

Please check the events notices on the ALIA website for up-to-date details. Changes and new events will also be publicised in the ACTive ALIA e-list.

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