2006 annual report

Key activities held in 2006

2006 was a busy year for ALIA Top End (ALIATE) with a good balance of activities both social and professional. 70 members have subscribed to the ALIA Top End group.

PD events and activities

Visit by Alia President Dagmar Schmidmaier
The new Alia President visited the Top End 29-30 June. She gave two presentations, one in Palmerston attended by 15 guests and one in Darwin attended by 35 guests on Challenges, change and careers. She also meet with members and library staff at 5 workplaces (Darwin City Council Libraries, Palmerston City Library, Northern Territory Library, Charles Darwin Uni Library and the Health Library). A very successful cocktail party at Parliament House attended by 25 guests concluded her visit.
Liber8on: Education Forum
During August Liber8on ALIATE's first Education forum was held. With guest speakers from interstate as well as the NT, including Gilliam Hallam, 39 attended this very successful one day event. The forum sought to bring together all stakeholders to look at Library education and its future.
4th Alia Top End Symposium 'The Future: What's out there?'
October saw ALIA Top End's major event of the year: the 4th ALIA Top End Symposium. The symposium was held over two half days and attracted approximately 70 participants from the NT and interstate. Once again, it was a well-attended event with a great program and excellent feedback was received.

Membership recruitment:

Careers Expo
The ALIA Top End stall at the NT Careers Expo in August attracted a steady stream of visitors, and leaflets and brochures were handed out predominantly to year twelve students. Seventy-five people visited the stall and 112 information kits were handed out. This year the sub committee produced it's own generic brochure on the variety of types of libraries, roles of Librarians and the qualifications required. The feedback was that it was definitely worthwhile organising a stall at the Careers Expo next year.
New Graduates
At the Christmas function on 22 November Alia Top End presented certificates to 5 new NT library studies graduates. Certificates were posted out to a further 10 students who could not attend. This was seen as a way to encourage non members to join Alia.

Other:

National Advisory Congress
The Regional ALIA National Advisory Congress consultation was held on 16 August and generated a lot of interesting discussion. Ten members attended which was twice as many as last year
Linda Marchesani represented the Top End group at the National Advisory Congress meeting in Perth and did a presentation on Celebrating success which focussed on the visit by the Alia President Dagmar Schmidmaier.
Library and Information Week
Library and Information Week was held 21 - 27 May and deemed a success with features published in Northern Territory News, and the Darwin/Palmerston Sun. The ALIA banner displayed on the overpass on one of the major roads. A presentation by the Very Important Top End Libraries (VITeLS) group on 'My brilliant career?' was well attended and many presenters promoted the positive role ALIA has played in the development of their own careers.
Lobbying
The ALIA Top End group was asked to assist with lobbying (through a letter) for the improvement of teacher librarian positions within the NT.

Group communications

Communication with members was carried out predominantly via the e-list, the web page, the quarterly newsletter as well as monthly face-to-face meetings. Meetings were held at different venues each time and the host library usually provided a tour of their library. At other times there was a presentation or social.

Group meetings

22 February
Tour of the Supreme Court Library
Dinner at the Deck Bar

22 March
Tour of Darwin City Council's Nightcliff Library
Presentation on FISH in Darwin City Council Libraries by Sue Chilman
Group Meeting

26 April
NT Library - Disaster Recovery
Group Meeting

24 May
Tour of the new Palmerston City Library
Panel discussion for LIW: 'My Brilliant Career'. Panel members were Ruth Quinn, Ann Alderslade, Jo McGill, Sarah White

26 July
Presentation on Goethe Institute Study Tour by Marilyn Hawthorne
Group Meeting

25 August
Tour of new Parap Primary School Library
Group Meeting

27 September
Tour of ABC Library and Archives
Farewell for Ann Alderslade at the Trailer Boat Club

23 October Reports from the Alia Biennial Conference
Group Meeting

22 November
Presentation of Silver pins, plus presentation of certificates to recent graduates Dinner at Nirvana Restaurant.

Interface
There were four very informative issues of Interface: newsletter of ALIA Top End produced in: March, May, August and November. Jayshree Mamtora was Editor for 2006.
Website
The decision was made to increase our presence on the Alia website. Therefore many new categories were added to the ALIA Top End groups webpage including photographs of events, reports, presentations and papers from the education forum, Alia Top End Symposium, and minutes of meetings

Office bearers

Convenor: Linda Marchesani
Vice-Convenor: Sarah White
Secretary: Julie Adams
Treasurer: Leonie Whiting

The Office bearers meet on a monthly basis to progress business of the group separately from the Group meetings. This enabled the Group meetings to be limited to 1 hour (5 times throughout the year) and for additional time to be spent of professional development and networking activities.

Sue Chilman
Group Support Officer
November 2006

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