ALIA Asia Pacific Special Interest Group

January-June 2002 report

Six-monthly report to the ALIA Board of Directors

Let me list some of the recent events associated with APSIG. Members have been requesting a focus for our activities. Well, by default rather than being planned, this seems to be happening.

In May, Judy Blood, a founding member of the Friends of the UNTL (Universidade Nasional Timor Lorosae) Library, spoke to Canberra based APSIG members and asked for their assistance to establish library services for this new library. A seminar has been organised by APSIG and will be held at the NLA, 4:30pm-6:00pm Wednesday 7 August 2002. Chair: Jennefer Nicholson, introduction: Professor Jim Fox, director, RSPAS, ANU, Speakers: Alex Byrne, librarian UTS and Judy Blood. There will be time for an open discussion. A website for Friends of UNTL has been established.

At the June meeting of the ALIA Board of Directors, the new guidelines for assistance to libraries in the region was approved. These guidelines, which were developed by APSIG and the ALIA International Relations Committee have been 18 months in the making! So it is great to see this matter finalised.

June also saw a visit to Australia by Christophe Augius, chief librarian, New-Caledonia's Territorial Library (Bibliothèque Bernheim). During his time here, Christophe visited a number of libraries in Canberra and elsewhere. He also spoke to Jennefer Nicholson, executive director, ALIA, Canberra based APSIG committee members and Marie Murphy about the establishment of a library association in New Caledonia.

Another matter of keen interest to Christophe and for libraries in our region, is a new open source library system that has been developed. Christophe's article describing the Koha system is included in this issue. Christophe stated that the format of the database is very user friendly and he has a high regard for it.

APSIG's latest development is a new discussion list which has been established ALIAnet. Initially the APSIG committee had concerns about a specialised list through ALIAnet, as the copyright for all messages initiated on this list is held by ALIA. We have therefore continued to use lists such as Asialib, however, it appears that we are not reaching all our members. Deveni Temu, library manager, St Marks Theological Library, Canberra, ph 02 6273 1572. Full details for subscribing to 'aliaAPSIG Forum' discussion list are detailed in this newsletter.

Events in Canberra have also included a visit to Canberra by Linda Crowl, publisher, Institute of Pacific Studies, Fiji; and our Traveller's Tales in May.

With such an eventful few months, let us all continue the momentum and work together for the benefit of us all throughout the region. I look forward to reading and responding to any comments or suggestions you send to aliaAPSIG forum.

Jeanette Regan
Convenor, APSIG