July-December 2003

Six-monthly report to the ALIA Board of Directors

The group meets the following Objects of the Association
1, 2, 3, 5

Purpose of the group

ALIA Information Science (SA) provides a forum for presenting and demonstrating the application of emergent technologies to library and information agencies and the people who work in them through conducting innovative programs, providing demonstrations by practitioners and promoting discussion and debate.

The ALIA Information Science (SA) committee consists of Jenny Quilliam (convenor); Fiona Thomson (treasurer); Stephen Leahy (secretary); and Christine Cother, Margareta Nicholas, Nel Fredericks, and Karen Ayles as general committee members. Monthly committee meetings were held during this period in order to facilitate our activities.

Activities held by the Group

In July 2003 we held an evening event on the topic of XML. Three webmasters who work in libraries provided an excellent overview of the issues in XML for librarians. More than 40 members and others attended, and the feedback was very positive.

In August 2003 Information Science (SA) members participated in more 'behind the scenes' tours of the newly developed State Library as part of the 10th Asia Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians Conference.

October 2003 saw one of our committee members deliver a paper on the 'invisible web' at the ALIA SA regional conference in Mount Gambier. ALIA Information Science (SA) is committed to supporting the regional conference on social justice grounds for members and others living in rural and regional South Australia.

In November 2003 we held a very successful end of year evening event entitled InfoSci TLA XMS. 35 attendees participated in a fun quiz-style show where we tested our knowledge of the numerous three letter acronyms that tend to pepper information technology speak. The event was based on the excellent MetaMap which is available at http://mapageweb.umontreal.ca/turner/meta/english/metamap.html.

Group communications

ALIA Information Science (SA) communicated with its members at our events, by posting to our discussion list, and through various other e-mail addresses and lists.

Stephen Leahy
Secretary
ALIA Information Science (SA)

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