Central Australia Regional Group

July-December 2001 report

The Central Australia group has had a productive initial six months. We meet socially and professionally and have a strong bond of support throughout the group.

Have we met our goals?

Communication and networking

This ALIA group is over 1000km from any other ALIA group. The problems of isolation are very real for those wishing to build on their professional skills and a strong network exists to support each other in other professional lives. Several members have been fortunate to attend specialist conferences and brought the benefits of these experiences back to the group.

Professional development

After requests for several years, we were able to conduct a cataloguing workshop in November of this year. This was run by Lisa Darby of NT Library and Information Service, Darwin. 16 delegates spent a very productive two days polishing their skills, and in many cases gaining new skills to take back to the workplace.

Mentoring

An increase in the number of libraries being managed by non professionals has lead some members having an increased role as mentors to assist with professional practices and to guide these non-professional members to avenues of further study. Next year will see a further increase in the number of local organisations (mainly schools) choosing to staff their libraries with unqualified personnel. (It is possible for school pupils [greater than 50 per cent] in Alice Springs to complete their primary, secondary and VET schooling without having access to a qualified teacher-librarian or librarian, except via the public library.)

Promotion of libraries:

A booth at the annual St Philip's College Careers night was well-visited and promotional material supplied by ALIA was distributed.

Issues to consider for the future

Lobbying

has become a new role of this group. In the light of staffing issues mentioned above, we are lobbying administrators and government officials to reinstate the requirement of Associate membership of ALIA as a formal requirement on their position selection criteria. The NT branch of ASLA are also promoting this cause.

Budget variance:

Due to high expense of bringing a presenter to Alice Springs, this PD activity did operate at a loss, as anticipated in our budget submission. Final invoices have not yet been received from the provider.

We are looking forward to another supportive and productive year in 2002

Diane Clifford
Convenor