ALIA Children's and Youth Services (Qld)
Annual general meeting
Tuesday 17 December 2002, PLD in West End. Commenced at 10:30am after Christmas cake and champagne.
Present:
Denise O'Connor, Patricia Miller, Helen Kershaw, Andreano Sorpassa, Margy Heuschule, Laney Robinson, Jenny Stubbs, Carol Moore, Helen Lacy, Tony Wauchope, Wendy Batho, Linda McMahon, Natalie Moses, Noleen Fleming, Dajo Finlayson, Margaret Kittson, Anne Spelman, Loris Phair
Apologies:
Joy Webster, Maureen O'Shea, Jane Jones, Jennifer Hall, Tanya Stanley
- Previous AGM minutes:
Minutes from the 2001 AGM were tabled and read. Denise O'Connor moved to accept the minutes as a true and accurate record, seconded by Tony Wauchope; carried.
- Treasurer's report:
Treasurer, Marg Kittson, distributed her report and explained the new ALIA accounting and program bidding system. The notional 'loss' of $604.62 is implicitly underwritten by the national body.
- 2003 office-bearer's election:
Committee positions were declared vacant and nominations called for office-bearers for 2003. Anne Spelman was nominated for convenor by Denise O'Connor, seconded by Patricia Miller; carried. Margaret Kittson was nominated for treasurer by Anne Spelman, seconded by Laney Robinson; carried. Loris Phair was nominated as secretary by Patricia Miller, seconded by Denise O'Connor; carried. Congratulations Anne, Margaret and Loris.
- Previous meeting minutes:
Minutes from the 2001 AGM were tabled and read. Denise O'Connor moved to accept the minutes as a true and accurate record, seconded by Tony Wauchope; carried.
- Dromkeen Librarian's Award 2002:
Congratulations were offered to Jenny Stubbs who has recently been awarded the Dromkeen Librarian's Medal.
This award is given to acknowledge outstanding commitment to the promotion of children's literature and Jenny's work in supporting 15 small school libraries, her contribution to the Queensland CBC and the driving force behind the Ipswich Children's Literature Festival are well documented. Jenny was presented with her award by John Marsden at the Dromkeen homestead at Riddell's Creek on 6 December. Well done Jenny, it is richly deserved!
- Essential Connections seminar report and future directions:
Anne Spelman, CYS convenor, spoke about the very successful 2002 seminar Essential Connections. The report from the seminar has been featured in a number of professional journals, including Incite, and has started a process that will enhance co-operation across the sectors. Anne has been approached by Paula Kelly, of the Yarra-Carlton region, to help her reprise the seminar for library practitioners in Victoria with Alan Bundy again as a guest speaker.
Paula Kelly has asked Anne to co-present at the upcoming CBC/ASLA conference in Hobart 2003. To this end Anne has asked for input on local examples of co-operation and formal links forged between TL's and public librarians, as Queensland seems to be trail-blazing in this area.
- Future Directions:
Members felt the seminar opened up many opportunities to work collaboratively across library sectors and people are keen to capitalise on the professional learning that occurred. Some ideas to take further, perhaps in stand alone afternoon sessions, included:
- Public libraries would like to know more about curriculum directions - maybe Access Ed would be prepared to speak at a meeting about this and the resources available to public and private schools and home schoolers.
- The research process, the 'Big 6' etc, terminology and learning processes need to be explored and a common usage coined. Margy spoke about an interesting program being run by Canberra-based public librarians and this could be investigated further for CYS to look at.
- The creators of ILPO, (Information Literacy Planning Overview), Jenny Ryan and Steph Capra, could be invited to speak about the framework they have formulated and successful school-based practitioners may share expertise. Moreton Bay College primary school for example.
Some half-day sessions may therefore be developed on topics such as ILPO and information literacy, customer care, outreach and networking between sector librarians between January-June 2003. Feedback to Anne on these and other potential topics from CYS members absent from the meeting would be much appreciated.
- Education Queensland and 'Lifelong Learning'
Anne told the meeting of an approach from Education Queensland to be part of a focus group looking at co-operation between the sectors to promote lifelong learning strategies. Other participants of the focus group include Brisbane City Council, School Libraries Association of Queensland, Access Ed., State Library of Queensland and Teacher-librarians. The resulting article will be published in Education Views shortly.
- 2003 CYS seminar
Discussion moved to strategic planning for next year's seminar.
Venue: A venue away from Public Library Services was considered a good idea and Dajo Finlayson offered to be host at Moreton Bay College at Redlands. Thank you Dajo.
Date: The last Friday of the mid-year school holidays was deemed successful for the last two seminars and will be adopted again - Friday 11 July.
9.1 Seminar content:
Many ideas were raised, including:
- Patricia Miller requested 'How-to' on seeking funding, sponsorships and grants. An awareness of what is available and to which groups. For example the Unicorn Project for schools and the Australia Council. The potential for schools and public libraries to 'buddy-up'. Identifying, finding representatives and presenting the information was seen as very useful.
- Marketing, display and promotion are of perennial interest to all and Margaret Kittson raised the issue of advocacy for librarians with their 'higher authorities'.
- Communication and collaboration between schools and public libraries, maybe as regional clusters. Working together to maximise author visits, Summer Reading programs, public library introductions and sign-ups and data-base orientations are areas of joint effort and benefit. Ways to encourage and facilitate these opportunities are actively needed and sought. Linda McMahon and Tony Wauchope from BCC, are working on outreach programs and they welcome TL contact and the chance to access parents and students on invitation.
- Laney suggested that CYS consider engaging a University to undertake research about the educational and literacy value of Summer Reading Programs, given that there is little research that has been done within the Queensland/Australian context. This will aid our ability to gain funding for such programs. A Colorado study was mentioned as important professional reading about the value of holiday reading programs.
- Anne saw that the next step from the ideas workshopped in the 'Essential Connections' seminar could be the development of a 'manifesto' or a set of principles that libraries could use to facilitate cross-sectoral co-operation. It was acknowledged by all present that many worthy and innovative projects in Queensland have been driven by individual, dedicated library professionals. However, without a formal framework from which to hang such projects, the Queensland library community risks not fully realising the potential of these initiatives with our clients and stakeholders. As individuals move around organisations and undertake different roles, the knowledge and inspiration that gave good ideas form and momentum can all too easily be lost. To overcome this fragility, Anne floated the development of a Manifesto or set of principles that underpin successful cross-sectoral communication and co-operation. Ideally, these principles would be adopted and actioned by key stakeholders (QPLA, SLAQ, SLQ, CYS, CBC, BCC, UQ, Bond Uni, UQ Cyberschool, Education Queensland, etc). These principles would be developed from best practice examples and librarians' experiences and would provide a framework for developing collaborative practices and programs that continue to enhance and build upon existing library services for young people.
- Potential speakers: If we wish to continue the theme of co-operation and collaboration to create lifelong learners, it was suggested that Janine Schmidt, university librarian at UQ, could be approached to be a keynote speaker. Noleen Fleming contributed positively regarding the suitability of Janine Schmidt as a speaker worth inviting to speak on a specific topic. Noleen advised the meeting that UQ Cyberschool was working on a new user-education program for implementation during first semester next year and this may prove an excellent springboard for an address or discussion.
9.2 Potential programs for the one-day seminar 11 July 2003:
Two potential programs for the 1-day seminar on 11 July were developed from the above discussions. It was agreed by all that CYSALIA members vote on which program they preferred.
Seminar program 1:
- Marketing, see 9.1-b above
- Advocacy
- Grants, see 9.1-a above
Seminar program 2:
- Guest Speaker eg, Janelle Schmidt, see 9.1-f above
- Workshop - develop 'Manifesto', see 9.1-e above
- Networking - practical examples, integration of various services, advocacy, see 7 above
9.3 Comments on the proposed programs:
- The suggestions are at the embryonic stage. If people can have other ideas, please let Anne know
- The group agreed that Program 1 represented a knowledge gap for most teacher and public librarians. As such we perhaps do not have the necessary expertise to create our own content and will need to identify appropriate speakers within budget, particularly marketing.
- Resource-sharing session: Members were invited to table anything of professional interest.
Meeting declared closed at 12:20pm.
Best wishes for the festive season to all our members.
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