ALIA West

August 2006

It's almost showtime!

Want warm weather, clean city, great views to a beautiful river, some of the best beaches in the world and amazing wildflowers? Perth offers you a unique experience in Australia, so come along and experience some of the best in food, wine, entertainment and natural attractions.

Of course, what would a conference be without lots of opportunities for networking and socialising? The welcome drinks will be a great occasion to catch up with old friends, make new ones and enjoy fantastic WA food and wine. The first-timer's breakfast will help you to ease into the swing of things if this is your first conference - get in quick to reserve a place. Meet ALIA representatives at the ALIA Happy Hour. Dance the night away to a live band at the Spanish-themed conference dinner. There are some great prizes to be won and lots of opportunities to chat each day over coffees and lunches.

An exciting program with a diverse range of interesting and thought provoking speakers is planned. Well over a hundred abstracts were received, but we were only able to accommodate fifty-one of them in the program. In order to ensure that all proposals were treated equally, the Conference Program Committee set up a sub-group to assess the abstracts.

Following a process agreed by the Program Committee, all abstracts were read anonymously (double-blind) by at least two reviewers and scored against an evaluation template for clarity and coherence of expression, originality, interest and relevance to the conference, and the cogency of their conclusions. In addition, those abstracts which were identified as research focused rather than addressing questions of professional practice were assessed in terms of their aims and methodology, and their clarity in the presentation of results.

Abstracts which received high marks from two reviewers were automatically included. Those where the two reviewers' marks were significantly different were subject to a further review process and discussion among the group. Papers were assigned to the available slots in strict order of the marks received, though when choosing between abstracts which had received similar marks consideration was also given to the general area of the library and information profession to which they belonged - in this way an attempt was made to balance the interests of the special library, public library, academic library, and school library sectors.

The process as a whole provoked a good deal of lively discussion and decisions were not made lightly. Inevitably some people will have been disappointed - and as each abstract was considered strictly on its merits some people have ended up presenting two papers while others have unfortunately missed out. Nevertheless, while the abstract review process can always be refined, the work of the assessment sub-group has been central to ensuring a varied, substantial and inspiring program for the conference.

A range of library tours and satellite events have also been planned. Western Australian libraries are on show with great bus tours available before and after the conference. Alternatively choose a guided walk around the CBD and see a range of Perth's innovative libraries. Why not arrive early or stay a little later after the conference and attend a workshop or seminar. Several satellite events have been arranged to coincide with the conference. Full details are available on the website and bookings are essential to avoid disappointment.

See you all at the conference!