ALIA Special Libraries (SA)

January-June 2003

Six-monthly report to the ALIA Board of Directors

Special Libraries South Australia is committed to discussing and disseminating information on issues affecting those working in and associated with special libraries in South Australia.

It offers a forum for professional and personnel development, networking opportunities, promotion, and exchange of ideas and solutions through its active program. It raises members awareness of new initiatives, offers support to those with an interest in special libraries and represents members nationally and internationally by providing appropriate comments on issues affecting them.

The committee consisted of:

Kate Sinclair, convenor

Lucy Brown, treasurer

Kristel Petrou, secretary

Caryl Armstrong, Health Libraries SA representative

Jackie Williams, SA Library Technicians representative

Marie Francis, committee member

Sue McArthur, committee member

Geraldine Wardle, committee member

Blan MacDonagh, committee member

Georgia Livissianos, committee member

Rachel Teesdale-Smith, committee member

At the end of June 2003, the group had 165 members.

The committee meets every month to discuss local issues and plan events.

E-list

In January 2003 we migrated our e-list to ALIAnet. The e-list has previously simply been a list of addresses established by the group secretary, and all communication was therefore forwarded through her. We believed that ALIAnet would offer a more direct means of exchanging information and would also reduce the pressure on one person to deal with incorrect addresses and bouncebacks. The newly-named aliaSASPEC list has now been active for almost six months, and has 150 subscribers.

Events

The group has held a variety of activities in the period January-June 2003. We were conscious of concentrating our group efforts in the first half of the year, due to the Specials Health and Law Conference being held in Adelaide in August. The activities held were:

• 3 February 2003 Tour of the Parliamentary Library of South Australia
  We joined Parliamentary Librarian Howard Coxon for an exploration of the library's past and future (and the chance to spot our local Honorable Member in the reading room).
  Attendance: 15
  Income: $33.00
  Profit: $16.60
• 26 February 2003 Knowledge Management: Buzzword or Brainwave?
  A joint presentation with ALIA Health Libraries. Juliet Marconi, manager, library and information services, Dept of Human Services and Heather Layton, manager, DSTO Research Library spoke about their experiences of KM in theory and practice.
  Attendance: 40
  Income: $120.00
  Profit: $53.85
• 20 March 2003 Casual and Contract: A new way to work?
  A panel session on casual/contract work - how, what and why?
  Attendance: 20
  Income: $59.00
  Profit: $1.15
• 10 April 2003 Free tour of Artlab
  We celebrated International Special Librarian's Day with a tour of the conservation centre Artlab, then lunched nearby at The Chapel Café.
  Attendance: 25
  Income: Free
  Profit: $0.00
• 24 June 2003 Electronic Journals: the QEH experience
  We invited Sue Rockliff, senior librarian, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, for a discussion of e-journals in the special library environment.
  Attendance: 20
  Income: $60.00
  Profit: $41.40

Social events

We planned a number of purely social events in January-June 2003, in order to encourage informal networking throughout the SA Specials community. We staggered breakfast, lunch and evening functions where members paid for their own meal and had an opportunity to socialise. Some events were better attended than others, but the format gave members a chance to get to know each other better. We tried to cater for as many as possible by varying the times and days accordingly.

• 5 February 2003 Breakfast at Café Venere
• 6 March 2003 Lunch at The Ritz
• 4 April 2003 Drinks at General Havelock
• 5 May 2003 Breakfast at Kappy's Café
• 11 June 2003 Lunch at Eros Kafe

10th Asia Pacific Special Health and Law Librarians Conference

Group members have been heavily involved with the 10th Asia Pacific Special Health and Law Librarians Conference to be held in Adelaide, South Australia in August 2003. There are Special Libraries SA members on the organising committee and all the sub-committees. All planning for this conference has been in conjunction with the ALIA SA Health Libraries Group and the Australian Law Librarians Group (SA Division).

Committee members volunteer their time to operate the group.

Kate Sinclair
Special Libraries SA
16 July 2003