ALIA Top End

January-June 2002 report

Six-monthly report to the Board of Directors

Membership of NT Library and Information Workers is currently 65 members, with some members yet to renew membership and tick the LIWNT box.

CPD Activities The main focus for CPD activities has been Mentoring. A Mentoring group has been established under the guidance of Ann Ritchie and Stelios Podias both of whom were involved in the establishment of similar groups in WA. The group currently consists of 8-10 people, mostly mentors, who have developed a program of information/training sessions for the remainder of this year, after which the program will be expanded to take on some mentorees.

Conferences. A number of members were funded to attend conferences before the funding guidelines were changed. Reports back to the group have indicated that individuals gained a lot from attendance

Support for isolated and remote members No requests have been received so far. The convenor is to write to each member in isolated locations to ascertain their needs.

Promotion of excellence in LIS in the NT
The ALIA NT Awards presentation was held on 17 May to launch Australian Library and Information Week, 20-26 May. The awards had been discussed and revamped earlier in the year and the two award winners were Julie Fawcett from ADRAIL who won the AliaNT Library and Information Workers Excellence Award and the NT Library who won the AliaNT Library and Information Workers Organisational Award. The Hon John Ah Kit, Minister for Arts and Museums presented the awards at a function well attended by members.

LIWNT again co-ordinated a number of activities during Library and Information Week, with a spread in the local community newspapers Darwin and Palmerston Suns.

Facilitation of communication and networking amongst members
The main methods of communication with members tend to be the e-list, the website, the occasional newsletter, and the monthly face to face meetings. It is hoped that via one or other of these methods, members are kept well aware of activities, although the executive would certainly like to see more electronic interaction and physical attendance at meetings.

Interface, the occasional newsletter of LIWNT, was produced in print form in April, with another edition planned for September. An electronic version of the newsletter is under consideration, but anecdotal feedback indicates a preference from our members for a printed version.

Meetings have been held monthly, but with erratic attendance. The first meeting of the year in a local coffee shop was very well attended, as was one held at the Defence Library, which is not normally accessible to the public. Attendance at the regular meetings has been fairly low, so the executive is looking at having themes to attract people.

Directory of Library and Information Services in the NT
Work is about to begin on the 2003 edition of the directory of library and information agencies in the NT. This is to be an on-line directory. This will cut down on costs associated with printing and distribution and hopefully be more practicable to the majority.

Other activities

• LISEKA
  Local discussion focussed on public perception of the profession and the competencies to be assessed in relation to all models. The discussion also focussed on models 2 and 3 which included concern about limited training opportunities in the NT (rural and remote areas), and who would be responsible for equitable assessment particularly in the assessment of remote practitioners.
• Course accreditation
  The convenor of LIWNT is a member of the Course Advisory Committee for the library courses delivered by the Northern Territory University. The CAC met recently to review the course documents in preparation for the re-accreditation process for this year.
• Training Packages
  Convenor attended a session on the revision of the national training packages held by CREATE Australia.
• ALIA Talk
  In response to feedback that the local ALIA does very little to support new graduates, the convenor gave a talk to the students enrolled in the first year of the Assoc Dip Library and Information Studies on the role and structure of ALIA.
• NTPS
  The convenor wrote to the Chief Minister of the NT Government as a result of concerns expressed re the positioning of the responsibility for libraries within NT government agencies in the new restructure of the NTPS. While the response was an assurance that this does not reflect the importance of libraries within the NT Government programs, it is an issue we will continue to monitor.
• Name Change
  The name of Library and Information Workers in the NT with the acronym LIWNT, does not roll off the tongue well, so a name change back to aliaNT or perhaps aliaTE (Top End) is being considered.

Ruth Quinn
Convenor LIWNT/ALIANT/ALIATE
19 August 2002