employLT - facilitating employment in Australia

The last few years has seen the use of online communication methods, such as e-mail, grow at an exponential rate. In libraries, this has given rise to new e-mail lists that have enabled the communication of shared interests. Along with this knowledge sharing, the industry has seen the development of methodologies facilitating the sharing of informational items of interest relevant to the profession. Of note has been the use of lists for advertising and disseminating job vacancies. This has occurred in a random way across many lists that represent varied library interests.

Whilst serving a term as president of the ALIA Western Australian Library Technicians, and later as National convenor of the ALIA National Group, I undertook the responsibility for posting any job vacancies related to the employment of library technicians within Western Australia.

It was logical that the organised representatives of our profession should do this, thus the formalisation of job postings for library technicians and other library staff became a reality. Consequently, in co-operation with the National Library Technician body of ALIA, the position of National employment co-ordinator was established. This involved searching for suitable vacancies from as many lists as possible and re-posting them on the library technician's list, LIBTEC.

The employment co-ordinator's mission is to document, disseminate, and creatively develop the position, to authenticate postings on LIBTEC relating to positions vacant, to encourage employment postings on LIBTEC as a positive social value and to participate in regional and national dialogue in an effort to achieve these objectives. Listings can originate from a range of sources including library technician sections, other e-lists, individuals or employers. The National employment co-ordinator thus provides a contact point for employment postings for Australia and New Zealand. The concept has been given the name employLT.

In order to continue the success of the endeavour, employLT expanded its services, thus requiring the involvement and contribution of three people. The position of employment co-ordinator was handed to Matthew Griffiths from New South Wales and a new position of administrative research was established to investigate other types of employment that would suit library technician qualifications and/or experience. This has been taken up by Tania Barry in Victoria. At this time I acted in an advisory capacity while serving as National convenor for the ALIA Library Technician's section.

The benefits that occur are:

reduction of duplication;
lists other than LIBTEC are monitored;
employers are made aware that postings can be made direct to those involved in the library field, rather than just general library lists;
LIBTEC becomes a known central posting for positions from all areas of the library and information industry;
LIBTEC attracts membership both to the list (LIBTEC) and ALIA;
LIBTEC continues to foster a 'national' cohesion of technicians and library and information staff

The LIBTEC mission is to represent the voice of library technicians in Australia serving as a forum for the exchange of information, discussion and learning across Australia and internationally, twenty four-hours a day. As well as this, it fosters an active participation in discussions about library industry policies and procedures and issues benefiting library technicians and other library workers. The format for discussion is diverse, with emphasis on the co-operative exchange of ideas across the broad spectrum of the library industry.

It was hoped that employers and the library industry would embrace this innovative concept and allow employLT to facilitate the posting of employment vacancies. This has been realised beyond expectations. In the first four weeks of beginning in October 2001, employLT posted nine vacancies on the LIBTEC list. Compare this with the calendar year of 2003, which has seen employLT put out 642 job vacancies to members, with July alone having 90 positions found and posted.

In early March 2003 feedback on employment issues was asked for, and one of the prevalent suggestions was that the scope of employLT be expanded to include vacancies outside of libraries which may suit library technician qualifications. To facilitate this, the role of the National administrative research assistant was created, with the aim of assisting the National convenor, researching alternative positions for library technicians and taking on the role of the National employment co-ordinator in his absence. These alternative position postings were to be trialed for two months and then the service evaluated.

During the two month trial period (and also on its completion) various requests were made for feedback in order to properly evaluate this program. The resulting responses were all positive, which has encouraged the employLT portfolio to continue providing the service. Further evidence suggests that employLT has become a sought after add-on to the Libtec list. Since employLT began the number of subscribers to the list has increased by over one hundred where previously numbers had been stable for many years.

This growth in membership necessitated the creation of official procedures for employLT in order to facilitate the standardisation of postings and provide subscribers with guidelines for the service.

In an area that makes up a major proportion of the library work force, it makes sense to post vacancies where they will be most effective.

Lothar Retzlaff

Number of postings by state 2001 to 2003

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