ALIA West

July 2005

ALIA West AGM

The AliaWest AGM will be held on Tuesday 12 July 2005, 5:30pm at the rear of the Grapeskin Wine Bar in Northbridge.

As always, we would love some new blood to come onto the committee. Positions available are the convenor's position for which there is one nominee at the moment - Nadine Gibbons who is at the Dept of Defence Library at Leeuwin Barracks, and the secretary's position - no nominees as yet. There are other jobs that can be taken over completely or shared between members. Being a committee member is a great experience and you will be contributing to the profession and your library peers. Membership of ALIA is desirable but not compulsory.

There are certain duties the committee attends to in particular arranging the Library Week launch which usually includes announcing the winner of the Sharr Medal. We also are involved with the Early Excellence Award. ALIA West also produces Biblia, a monthly newsletter with is designed to provide an information and networking vehicle to the Western Australian library community. An icebreaker is held at the beginning of the year on site at a library, and we have encouraged library staff working in geographical regions to get together for lunch and to chat. Successful lunches have been held in Fremantle and West Perth, and I think others have also held them, or are planning them too.

The committee/camora or whatever it can be called, currently meets formally every month on the second Tuesday of the month. We have been taking over a table or two at the Grapeskin Wine Bar - next-door to the Brass Monkey in Northbridge. The meetings start at 5:30pm and usually last an hour.

The current committee has been a mixture of librarians and library technicians, and they have been working in a range of areas, mining, TAFE, state government, federal government, schools, as well as contract workers. I am sure I have missed someone, for which I apologise.

About the nominees.

Nadine Gibbons. BA in History and Linguistics and Grad Dip in Library and Information Studies at Curtin. Currently I work in the Department of Defence Library at Leeuwin Barracks, a medium sized specialist library servicing about half of the WA members of Dept of Defence.

I have commenced my PhD in library studies at Curtin University. I am looking at public library services to ethnic minorities. I am a current member of the AliaWest committee and am also on the Tours and Satellite committee for Click 06 conference here in WA.

Nadine Gibbons