CPD column

A very successful professional reading group meeting was held on April 17 to discuss Ian McCallum's paper: "Returning to Ithaca to get on with the mission: Defining value in terms of our contribution to our customers and our profession." There was a wide ranging discussion of issues such as the declining membership of ALIA, strategies for increasing the visibility of your library, hush puppies and the tipping point (readers of the alia2002issues list will understand this), library statistics and a comparison of WA to the rest of Australia, and all within 1.5 hours.

Library and Information Week is almost upon us and there is the usual plethora of events. The calendar is available at: http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy/alw/2002/activities/wa.html. Among the "must attend" events are the launch of LIW where you will find out who is the Special Librarian of the Year, the Library Technicians breakfast, and the celebration dinner for our new Fellow, Kerry Smith. Public libraries are offering a range of activities including talks by authors, a Feng Shui workshop, internet training, simultaneous storytime, a writing forum, and a wood turning demonstration.

There are several major and minor events for the rest of this year, beginning with the group AGMs held in June and July.

There will be more professional reading group meetings (June, August, October), Phil Teece's visit, the Libraries Looking Out seminar in September, copyright seminars, CAVAL workshops in November, and a November CPD seminar. Some of these events are listed in this month's issue of Diary Dates, and others will be advertised in later issues of Biblia, inCite, and on the usual e-lists.

As the AGMs are less than two months away, groups will be calling for nominations soon. Involvement in committees does count towards your CPD hours and is a great way to network so now is the time to start thinking about which committee to join. WA Forum, the CPD Committee, WALTG, KISWA, and no doubt other active groups in WA will be looking for members to serve during the 2002/03 year and nominations need to be received in time for the AGMs in June/July. Contact details of committee members are easily accessible through Vital Link and they will be more than happy to consider your nomination.

Camille Peters
CPD co-ordinator

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