Report of Victorian Regional NPC Meeting

7 September 2004

Roll

Brad O'Brien, Tania Barry, Kerrie, Kelly, Clare Bristow, Patricia Murray, Louise Segafredo, Jan Coghill, Jenny Fafeita, Veronica Delafosse, Moyra McAllister, Alison O'Connor, Barb Horn, Ian McGregor

Election of one delegate to attend Canberra NPC

Tania Barry

Celebrating success

Victoria Library Technicians: This is a very active group who never fail to organise many successful events each year. In 2004 they reported their most popular event was the 'Hot off the presses' tour. The 60 participants spent a day looking at all aspects of publishing, from production of materials through to acquisitions, ordering catalogue preparations and end processing. Tours of the Raeco facility were included along with a presentation from DA Information Services. The event attracted many existing and long-term members of the profession as well as students.

New Graduate Librarians: This national group is proud of establishing an electronic presence in 2004. Their focus has been on information sharing via their e-list and the development of the new graduate pages on the ALIA website. The plan is to develop this section of the website to provide information on career management and development with the particular need of mew members of the profession in mind. New Graduates also reported on the success of the new graduates Symposium 1.5 and plans for the continuation of the symposium.

ALIA Vic: ALIA Vic was formed to provide a cross-sectorial group that could represent members at all levels. The committee has established a strong presence in 2004 and is developing procedures for future events. A key function for 2004 was the Past, Present and Future evening at which Moyra McCallister was awarded an ALIA Fellowship and the rich contribution of Warren Horton to Australian libraries was celebrated. Held at the Australia Post Gallery, the evening gave members from senior levels to new students the opportunity to mingle and network. ALIA Vic is also planning to take on the role of establishing group mentoring sessions in Victoria and are currently planning a Christmas celebration.

Enhancing the involvement and engagement of members in ALIA

Strengths of groups

Groups were unanimously seen as the strongest function of ALIA. This was seen as being the result of the way Groups are able to be needs driven and hence responsive to member requests and needs.

Effectiveness of groups compared with other Association structures and activities
The success of the Groups is seen as greater than other Association activities because it is more visible and understandable to members. National Office functions and rolls remain a mystery to most members whereas the events held by Groups are a tangible and measurable benefit of ALIA membership. Members often do not see the value of work done at a national level however appreciate the work undertaken by Groups on a local level. However, it was conceded that the success of the groups depends greatly on the strength and motivation of the committee members. The success of the committee and Group can often hinge on the involvement of a very few highly motivated individuals. It was feared that the Groups are still unable to meet the needs of regional members nor have an inclusive hold on virtual members. There is a need to be able to provide services for members electronically who could not attend evening meetings or events in Melbourne. A lengthy discussion was held on the need for Groups to get inactive members to participate in virtual events and forums. It was acknowledge that a large percentage of the membership do not use the e-lists currently provided and that contacting them face-to-face or by print means (other than through inCite) was prohibitively expensive. The meeting agreed that the work best undertaken by the LLO is to act as a co-ordinator for all Groups within the state and to disperse information about the various Group activities. It was requested that the LLO produce a monthly of fortnightly electronic bulletin outlining the key activities of all local ALIA Groups and other relevant professional organisations (such as VALA). Activities best undertaken by ALIA National Office include lobbying, advocacy, education and the national Budget Summary. Unanimously the meeting agreed they had little understanding of the roles and activities of ALIA National Office. Work best undertaken by Groups is the provision of CPD activities.

Succession planning and encouraging involvement

Likely new members for committees and roles of responsibility need to be approached by existing committee members and mentored through the process of assisting with projects. Asking members to become involved in small ways such as contributing to a newsletter or website could increase their awareness and confidence.
Health Libraries Inc reported they have a system of portfolios that works well for recruiting new members to organising committees. The main committee is divided up into several subject portfolios consisting of one leader and several assisting members. This gives the opportunity for less experienced members to join a portfolio team.
The key to ensuring strong membership of Groups is support by senior management who lead by example and are seen as active members themselves. ALIA needs to concentrate on getting senior managers and employers to see the value of having staff whom are active ALIA members.
It was suggested that an awards be created for organisations who support their staff in attending ALIA activities so that they can be seen as 'Employers of Choice'.
ALIA National Office should create a document for distribution to employers outlining to benefits of supporting their staff who are active ALIA members.

ALIA 2005-2006 draft plan

Sharing the vision
Initiatives: Researching changing demographics and trends in employment was seen as a key initiative. Members hear a lot of anecdotal information about how the workforce is ageing and that there will be a shortage of skilled information workers but want more hard data in this area. Members need to know exactly where the new jobs will be and what skills they will require.

Success measures: Not discussed.

Skilling members for the future
Initiatives: The lack of support for ALIA by the staff at the various library schools was noted as a major concern. In Victoria there seems to be little promotion within the schools of the value of ALIA nor its role for the profession. Free membership for teachers/lecturers in information studies was suggested as a method to engage them more in ALIA activities.

Success measures: Not discussed.

Promoting innovation
Initiatives: The meeting felt it did not know anything about the 'ALIA Stars' initiative and needed more clarification on the area. It was felt that there needs to be a way to mentor new players through the process of paper presentation and writing as it is seen as too daunting for most new members to produce and present material. Possibilities could include ALIA holding workshops on this subject or senior members of ALIA offering to mentor a person through their paper and giving them an opportunity to present to a smaller group prior to conference presentations. ALIA should also encourage members to publish in areas outside of librarianship.

Communicating well
Initiatives: We still don't know what goes on at ALIA National Office. More reports on the day-to-day activities of staff are required and more snapshots of the good things that are being achieved at a national level.

Success measures: Not discussed.

Professional practice

Digital preservation of information. How to ensure that there is continuation of access overtime. Especially for e-journals where a previous edition might be deleted once a new edition is created. What are the copyright implications for ensuring continued access?
Consortia and licensing. How best to work together for better provision of documents and best use of resources.
Improving research skills in areas such as customer surveys and performance indicators.
How can we ensure that substantial information addressing issues of professional practice arising from ALIA symposiums and the work and priorities of ALIA self-nominated and advisory groups is better captured and disseminated?
The website is seen as the best method of disseminating information however it was unanimously seen as difficult to navigate with the frequent need to insert membership details as confusing, especially the recurring personal information screen.
There needs to be better access to conference papers on the site with conference organisers ensuring they obtain full papers from presenters not just PowerPoint presentations.
Students and practitioners should be encouraged to submit papers to the website and awarded CPD points for doing so.

How can ALIA groups help to:
Identify areas of professional practice where resources and published information are lacking? Undertake and/or propose approaches for addressing the gaps? When Groups submit their annual plan of events they should also be asked to submit an outline of areas where they feel more information is required.

Group communications with members and non-members of ALIA
How can we encourage groups to make better use of the ALIA website in order to communicate their purpose and activities to members and non-members of ALIA? Make it easier to use! Access to group activities needs to be cleaner. There should be a link straight through from information about the Group to what activities they are proposing in the future. Members also reported problems the reliability of requesting labels and promotional material though the site. Although requests appear to be successful some days later it becomes apparent they were not received. Updates have similar problems.

With the wide number of options available for groups to communicate with members and non-members should group newsletters be made freely available to non-members of ALIA? Group newsletters were seen as a valuable resource to members and therefore should not be made available to non-members. It was suggested that a table of contents be made published on the non-member section of the website so that non-members are able to see what they are missing out on and entice them to join.

Questions on notice

None.

Any other comments from the meeting?

There was a request for ALIA to consider subscribing to electronic databases that would enable members to maintain their professional reading in the subject area, as many libraries do not subscribe to the professional literature.

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