July-December 2001 report

Committee

The 2000 committee continued for 2001 in order to carry through the development of the new group from that of the former Special Interest Group. There will be elections for a new committee at the annual general meeting in November.

The Forum has focussed on having representation from most states and most library sectors. All committee members have worked extremely well together considering their locations. Overall this has been a highly productive and busy six months.

Committee members:

Prue Mercer, President - State Library of Victoria, Melbourne - national, state and territory library sector
Kris Johnstone, Secretary - Star of the Sea College, Melbourne - school library sector
Diana Harrison, Treasurer - RMIT University Library, Melbourne - TAFE and university sectors
Sharan Harvey - Brisbane City Council - public library sector
Di Booker - Adelaide Institute of TAFE - TAFE sector

Meetings have been held by teleconference on 11 July, 21 August, 12 September and 17 October.

A newsletter was sent to all members in September and a notice re the annual general meeting in early November.

The website has been updated several times as well. At this stage an editor has not been employed.

The Forum now has over 500 members almost double that estimated (300).

Information Literacy Conference and Annual General Meeting
The annual general meeting will be held on 30 November in Adelaide as part of the fifth national information literacy conference organised by the University of South Australia.

The president and secretary are being funded to attend the conference as proposed.

Continuing Professional Development
The group held an Online Forum using the ALIA INFOLIT electronic mail list. Judy Peacock, Queensland University of Technology, was invited to lead the debate on 'thriving with information literacy' in late August to early September. The forum generated lively discussion and was archived for reference. The use of the discussion list is a valuable way to communicate with a dispersed membership

On 24 October a successful free half-day workshop on the CAUL Information Literacy Standards was held at the ALIA TAFE conference in Brisbane.

Planning is underway for a further workshop on standards to be held the day before the VALA conference in Melbourne 5 February. About 50 attendees are expected.

Lobbying and Information Literacy Standards
As a follow up to the publication and launch of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) Information Literacy Standards at the February Round Table, members of the group have undertaken to work within the TAFE and State/public library sectors to advance the use of these standards. They were endorsed by the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL) in March who have since adapted them for publication in November. The standards have also been endorsed by TAFE libraries who are preparing their own version.

Statement on Information Literacy for All Australians
In October the committee revised its statement (endorsed in March) and put it into the new ALIA policy format. It was then re-endorsed by the ALIA Board of Directors.

Round Table/National Information Literacy Coalition Feasibility Project
The Special Interest Group (as it was) held a Round Table on 28 February 2001 in Melbourne, and subsequently advanced this to form a steering committee (chaired by the Forum president) with the National Library of Australia and the National Office of the Information Economy to assess the feasibility of a national coalition for advocacy in information literacy. $10 000.00 was allocated to the Forum to support this work along with project assistance from ALIA head office and this along with the equivalent from each of the other members of the steering committee has enabled the employment of consultants. The project is to explore the sustainability as well as relevance of a coalition, and a draft report has been received. It is anticipated that the final issues report from consultants ACER will be ready for distribution and discussion at the end of the year.

Prue Mercer
President, ALIA Information Literacy Forum

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