ALIA Academic and Research Libraries (WA) [arlwa]

July-December 2003

Six-monthly report to the ALIA Board of Directors

Purpose and program of the group for the past six months

ARL student awards

The ARL group was keen to keep the ARL Student Awards because the awards play a key role in fulfilling the objectives of our group. The awards always generate a lot of interest from new information professionals, and they provide a forum for interested individuals to learn about research taking place in library schools. We had three awards for the Best Research Papers courtesy of DA Direct, and one award for the Best Practicum Project in an Academic or Research Library, courtesy of Blackwell's. We decided that ECU, Curtin University and TAFE would each have an award for the Best Research Paper, and that the Best Practicum Project Award would rotate on a yearly basis amongst the three institutions offering library qualifications. The winners were:

• Julie Jalawadi (Edith Cowan University) who wrote on OPACs and their evolvement in the Web environment;
• Michael Klimek (TAFE) who wrote on using a Database to store local community information;
• Belinda Tiffen (Curtin University of Technology) who wrote a paper titled "Co-operative Collection Development in the Digital Age";
• Paige Luff (Curtin University of Technology) who completed her practicum project at Murdoch University on Special Collections.

The event received a turnout of approximately 30 people, and we received positive feedback from everyone involved.

Virtual reference initiatives

Our second event for 2003 was Virtual Reference Initiatives. We received a very large turnout for this event (approximately 50 people), probably because many libraries have been investigating the implementation of virtual reference services. We had three presentations for this event.

AskNow

Gabrielle Reynolds from the State Library of WA spoke about implementing the AskNow online reference service run by NLA and State Libraries consortia group.

Online librarian: real time/real talk

Murdoch University Library has collaborated with Macquarie University Library to produce an innovative online reference service. This service uses Microsoft's NetMeeting to enable real time conversations via voice-over IP (VoIP) between reference librarians and library clients. Janet Fletcher and Philippa Hair from Macquarie University Library, and Jean McKay from Murdoch University Library spoke about the developmental and implementation phases of the project; the experiences using VoIP and future directions;

'Ten reasons why virtual reference sucks' by Ian Lee

Murdoch University Library's Psychology Reference Librarian and one of Murdoch University's Online Librarians, is currently researching virtual reference as part of his Master in Information Management at Curtin University. Ian's project is called 'Do Virtual Reference Librarians Dream of Digital Reference Questions' and he shared some of his findings in a presentation titled 'Ten Reasons Why Virtual Reference Sucks'.

Research treasures: a new look at special collections

For the third event for 2003, the committee decided to have a look at a 'non-technology' aspect of librarianship. We decided to have a look at the theme of special collections. Feedback was excellent for this event, with many attendees informing us that they found the speakers to be very interesting. We received a turnout of approximately 30 people.

• Julie Blyth from The University of Western Australia spoke about her experience working in university colleges in Oxford, and her interest in rare books;
• Kylie Smith from the State Library of WA spoke about MusicAustralia, a music digitisation project; and
• Grant Stone from Murdoch University spoke about the Clements Collection in politics.

Managing E-resources: are we still in control?

The fourth event for 2004 was the most difficult to plan. We had two ideas for events which fell through at the last minute. These ideas are being kept in mind for 2004. Again, our fourth event was very successful, we had a turnout of approximately 30 people.

Scott Nicholls - 'Experiencing the big deal: the story so far'
Scott's Nicholls from the University of Western Australia will present his paper which looks at the pros and cons of publishers' deals with E-journals.

Ritva Matero
Ritva Matero from the University of Western Australia will speak about consortium purchasing in the context of CAUL (Council of Australian University Libraries).

Annual General Meeting

Our Annual General Meeting was held on 26 November at the Brass Monkey Hotel, Northbridge. The group reported on its activities during 2004 and discussed the idea of an e-mail list. Our members agreed with the idea of a mailing list, although one of our members suggested that the wain mailing list is enough, and maybe it isn't necessary to create a new mailing list. We would have to have strict guidelines on the usage of the list.

Purpose and program for the next six months

Our student award event will be the first event for 2004. The library schools are yet to advise us of the winners so planning will not take place until 2004.

Our second and third events will most probably be Tara Brabazon from Murdoch University presenting a paper about her book 'Digital Hemlock', and the application of ethics to librarianship as another event.

The committee will have a change of office-bearers for 2004. Julia Gross has stepped down as Convenor, and Paige Luff has stepped down as Secretary. Current committee members will take over the office-bearer positions, and both Julia and Paige will continue to be committee members. Gaye Sweeney will be Convenor and Jodi Headlam will be Secretary. ALIA has been advised about the change of office-bearers.

Group Communication

The ARL committee keeps in regular contact by e-mail, and schedules meetings when required at the State Library of WA coffee shop. Topics of discussion at our committee meetings have included planning for the 2004 Student Awards, the State Wide Marketing/@ your library Campaign which is currently in implementation stages in Western Australia, the recent changes to the ALIA website and the ways our group can utilise the Web space, and our e-mail discussion list (this has been hosted by the University of Western Australia, but we are investigating whether ALIA can offer us a mailing list). We have included publicity in Incite where possible, but we aren't usually left with enough time to publicise our events in inCite.

Jodi Headlam (ARL committee member) has offered to help the group investigate the members only website. We would like to include documentation of our events, the student award winners papers, publicity for our events, and our six and twelve months reports.