ALIA Top End

July-December 2002 report

Six-monthly report to the Board of Directors

At the end of 2002, membership of ALIA Top End is 58 members. A significant thing to note is our change of name from Library and Information Workers of the NT to ALIA Top End.

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
• CPD Plan. Members have been surveyed via the e-list for ideas about a CPD program for next year.
• Presentations by local members have been very successful this year. We had a presentation from Pippa Webb on Overseas Indigenous Digital Library Projects, and Jayshree Mamtora spoke of her experiences working in London and the South Pacific as a librarian. We also received a demonstration of the new 'Live Reference' service at the Northern Territory Library which is participating in the National Library of Australia's AskNow national service.
• We held a dinner with the PLNT group (Public Libraries in the NT), in September with a presentation: Introduction to PANDORA by Paul Koerbin of the National Library of Australia.We have plans next year to have joint meetings or functions with the local branch of the Australian School Libraries Association, and the Childrens Book Council.

Support for isolated and remote members
Convenor has written to each member in isolated locations to ascertain their needs. Only one response so far. One of the group's recommendations to the ALIA Strategic Directions document was to investigate ways of enabling internet access for members in isolated and remote areas. ALIA Top End members were pleased to see the emphasis that support for this often forgotten group received at the National Policy Congress.

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. As the Association provides an award for an outstanding graduating student nominated by each university and TAFE education program for library and information studies, it was decided that ALIA Top End would no longer provide a student award.

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 December. An electronic version of the newsletter is under consideration for next year.
• 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. Meetings have also been held at the Palmerston Campus Library of Northern Territory University, the Northern Territory Library, and Kormilda High School Library.
• A very successful end-of-year dinner was held at the end of November, with Lothar Retzlaff, National convenor of LibTechs, being the guest speaker. Lothar entertained an audience of about 25 with the theme 'Victim of Vision' and addressed the particular issue of the divide in our profession between Library Technicians and Librarians.

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.
• Convenor attended National Policy Congress on behalf of ALIA Top End and the Central Australian Regional Group.
• Expressions of interest from members has been called to replace the current convenor and Secretary of ALIA Top End as the incumbents have agreed it's time for a change.

Ruth Quinn
Convenor
ALIA Top End
29 November 2002