ALIA Far North Coast Group

Newsletter

May 2000

Previous meeting

Thursday 13 April 2000 Meeting & Dinner at Pioneer Tavern, Wollongbar. Minutes attached. Michael Wheeler, Sec. [Contact details were included]

Next general meeting

Wednesday 19 July 2000
All library personnel - librarians, library technicians, library students, & library assistants - are warmly invited to attend the next meeting of the ALIA Far North Coast Regional Group.

A reminder Meeting Notice will be sent out closer to the meeting date.

Time & Date: 5:30 for 6:00pm Wednesday 19 July 2000
Place: Library, Lismore Base Hospital [Contact details were included]

The Lismore Base Hospital Library is located in the Education Unit near the corner of Hunter and Uralba Streets, Lismore, between the LBH staff swimming pool and the Cancer Care Unit. The entrance to the Library is at the end of a small paved driveway signposted 'Education Unit'. If you get lost, go to the Admissions Desk in the foyer of the Hospital and ask them to ring the Library. [Contact details were included] RSVP: 12 July 2000 Michael Wheeler, Sec. [Contact details were included]

Message from the president

We are almost half way through this year and everyone is busy in their own special way. This year started with our survey on the future of the ALIA Far North Coast Group. With the help from the executive, Liney Furniss put in an enormous amount of her time and effort to conduct the survey in order to address the issues regarding ALIA membership and commitment from our members to attend meetings and functions. The results were not surprising, and were presented and discussed at the last meeting. It is a pity many of you were not there to face up the realities. We had 2 guest speakers.

The Executive has decided that the group will continue to meet this year (only 2 more meetings, one of which will be the AGM). A new Executive will be needed for 2001. Most of the members of the current Executive will have served a 2-year term and will not be seeking another term in office.

Therefore, I take this opportunity to inform you all (current and potential members) that if a new Executive cannot be formed, then the Group will have to fold or go into recess. On the other hand, if enough new people offer to be on the 2001 Executive, then they will have the responsibility for revitalising the Group or putting it into recess. Thanks, Narandera Anuj (President 1999-2000)

Inaugural national library technician's day Tuesday 16 May 2000

Celebrate with your colleagues! There will be a lunch at the Goonellabah RSL Sports Club, Oliver Avenue in the bistro at 12:30pm on Tuesday 16 May. Library assistants, librarians, library technicians, students, administration staff, volunteers anyone who loves libraries, buy yourself a bistro lunch to celebrate NLTD (National Library Technicians Day) and ALW (Australian Library Week). No RSVP necessary, just come along on the day.

NLTD badges may also be purchased for this day. They are available via the Lib. Tech. page on the ALIA website for $5 each. There is no year included so they may be worn for many future National Library Technician's Days! Please contact me if you like to know more about NLTD. Enjoy the Day!
Louise Somerville FNC Rep. ALIA NSW Lib Techs Section. [Contact details were included]

Library technician news

Stephen Coppins, Vice President of the ALIA NSW Library Technician's Section, and Katherine Raper visited our region last month. We were pleased that they found the time in their busy schedule to spend some time with us and, on the Group's behalf, I would like to thank them both.

On the afternoon of Thursday 13 April Stephen and I visited second year students of the Library Technician Course at Wollongbar TAFE. We discussed the benefits of being an ALIA member and provided a "face to a name" to the students so they would feel welcome to contact us with any queries/suggestions/issues that need addressing by the ALIA NSW LT Section or the ALIA body. At least 2 new members, possibly more, resulted from this visit and comments received were very encouraging.

Thursday evening Stephen and Katherine were guest speakers at our dinner meeting at the Wollongbar Tavern. We had a good turnout including representatives from university, special, public and school libraries as well as two LT students from the Wollongbar TAFE course.

Stephen spoke of the need for more rural events and the need for greater participation and feedback from the FNC library technicians. The NSW Library Technicians Section will be holding some workshops in Grafton in August, with different sessions over a weekend. It was decided to hold them in Grafton so that both the Mid-North Coast and Far North Coast Groups could attend - sort of a halfway mark. Stephen will send us confirmation of the details about these when they are available.

Katherine addressed the Group with a talk the many update courses available to qualified library technicians and has also given me literature about these. If you are interested in updating your current qualifications feel free to contact me to view these or contact Stephen Coppins [email address] Louise Somerville FNC Rep. ALIA NSW Lib Techs Section [Contact details were included]

'Thank you' from Stephen & Katherine

We would both like to thank Narendra and the FNC Regional Group Committee for allowing us both to speak at the last meeting at the Pioneer Hotel, Wollongbar.
It was great to meet new people and to catch up with Lainey Furness, who Stephen met at the last Library Technicians Conference in Fremantle.
We would particularly like to thank Louise Somerville for her hospitality (and that of the Richmond-Tweed Library Service staff at Lismore) and Lainey for helping arrange our visit and talk to the Group.
The feedback Stephen received from the FNC meeting, was of great benefit to the NSW Library Technicians Section committee and he looks forward to catching up with you all around August when the LT Section holds our two half-day workshops. Details about these workshops will be forwarded to the Group, when they are finalised. Once again, thank you to everyone who attended the meeting for showing an interest in what we both had to say (we hope you also enjoyed the library curses) and we wish all members of the ALIA Far North Coast Regional Group the best of success with your Groups activities.
Have a fantastic Library Technicians Day (16 May)!
Regards, Stephen Coppins (Vice Pres FNC ALIA NSW Lib Techs Section) & Katherine Raper
[Contact details were included]

Survey results:

Relevance & future of alia far north coast regional group

Approximately 430 survey sheets were distributed to libraries and library personnel, covering the region from Tweed Heads in the north, to Grafton in the south, and west to Bonalbo. Three members from the Coffs Harbour region also received the survey, as ALIA head office includes the Coffs Harbour postcode area within the Far North Coast Region. For the purposes of this survey, non-member library personnel who live and work further south of Grafton were not included, as distance would preclude people from active participation in the Group.

There was some duplication of coverage, as forms were sent to individuals who may have also been included in the blanket mail-outs to libraries. The Regional Group aimed to reach as many library personnel as possible with the survey, particularly those working in school libraries, as this group has significantly low membership locally.

70 forms were sent to current ALIA members; 210 to School libraries; 122 to other libraries, which included Southern Cross University (13), TAFE (22), Special (0 - covered by personal membership), and Public libraries (87); and 28 to Graduate (13) and student (15) Library Technicians who might not otherwise receive a survey form.
Of the 430 survey sheets were distributed 71 replies were received, 25 from current ALIA members and 37 from non-members. 17 replies from non-members indicated interest in ALIA membership (10 Yes 7 Maybe), 14 of which included contact details for the Group to follow up. 21 replies included comments.
19 replies were received from Schools, 13 from Southern Cross University, 3 from TAFE, 9 from Special libraries, 26 from Public libraries and 1 (Interested in all libraries).

Of the 19 replies from school libraries, 17 were from Teacher-Librarians, most of whom feel that their collegiate needs are met by their own special interest groups. 7 of the 17 Teacher-Librarians, 1 Library Technician, and 1 student LT, expressed interest in joining ALIA.

Whilst the overall return is disappointing - 71 returns out of 430 (16.5%), nearly half of the survey forms were sent to staff at school libraries - 210 with only 19 replies (9%), compared with 52 replies to the 220 sent to personnel from other types of libraries (23.6%)

Summary of survey questions

The results of the survey may assist the Executive to organise meetings which will be of interest to members, follow up on prospective membership, and take appropriate action regarding the future of the Group if attendance does not improve. 430 survey forms were distributed: 71 replies were received: 25 from current ALIA members and 36 from non-members (Q 3). 21 replies included comments which are attached (Q 11).

Non-membership (Questions 4, 5, 6, 9)
13 of the 36 non-members had been ALIA members in the past (Q 4). 17 of the 36 non-members indicated an interest in ALIA membership (Q 9) (10 Yes and 7 Maybe and 6 in attending meetings (Q 6). 14 of the 17 people interested in membership included their contact details for the Group to follow up.

Non-members reasons for not holding membership (Q 5) in descending order of importance are: Cost of membership (26), ALIA not relevant (15), did not think they were eligible to join (7), have coverage through institutional membership of their workplace (3)

Meeting attendance (Questions 6, 7, 8)
Less than half of the current members attend meetings of the Regional Group (10 of 25). Of those non-members who expressed interest in joining ALIA, only 6 of 17 indicated that they would attend Regional Group meetings.

The first five reasons given by both members and non-members for not attending meetings are:
Distance/cost of travel (24), family commitments (20), inconvenient location (16), no spare time (18), inconvenient time (11)
The five items of most interest which would encourage members and non-members to attend meetings are: Professional Development (30), training (27), workshops (23), guest speakers (22), change of location of meetings (13).

Future of the regional group (Question 10)
Although some non-members answered this question, the Executive believes that the response of the membership is the main one to be taken into account when making a decision about the future existence of the Group. More than half of the non-members (25 of 46) surveyed did not answer this question, and, based on some of their comments, it can be assumed that most non-members did not feel that it is appropriate for them to make this decision.

45 of 70 members did not respond to the survey at all, and of the 25 who did respond, 5 did not answer this question. It can probably be assumed that a non-response indicates agreement that the Group go into recess if meeting attendance does not improve. Of the 25 members who replied to the survey, 11 agreed that the Group should disband, 9 did not agree, and 5 did not answer the question.

If meeting attendance improves and the Regional Group continues to meet, the responses to Questions 7 and 8 may help present and future Executive office bearers to organise meetings which will be of interest to members.

[Survey designed, analysed and reported by Lainey Furness]