Communications and publishing

Adelaide 98: pathways to knowledge, proceedings of the 5th Biennial Conference proceedings (edited by Di Booker); the 10th edition of the Directory of special libraries in Australia (edited by Barbara Eames) and the Guidelines for Australian special libraries were new titles published.

Regular publications included the Australian Library Journal, four issues; the 1998 Handbook; the 1998 annual report and booklets on library and information courses in the year 2000, career development, staff development and the ALIA mentoring program.

The thematic approach for the twelve issues of inCite provided opportunities for sharing information and views on the new organisation, the effects of the goods and services tax on libraries, proposed regulation of digital copying, continuing professional development and a range of divisional activities and other topics.

In a joint promotion of Library Association Publishing (United Kingdom), ALIA and library supplier, James Bennett, ALIA members were able to obtain a thirty per cent discount on fourteen Library Association publications.

ALIAnet web-server activity
ALIAnet was given a new look across the website. New features included a regular copyright service and electronic straw-poll surveys of members' views. The ALIA Handbook was digitised and made available mid-year. Electronic proxy voting was developed for the annual general meeting and used extensively. A more powerful and faster search engine was built and installed.

ALIAnet mail-server activity
The volume of e-mail traffic through our mail server increased significantly (by a factor of ten), highlighting the importance of e-mail traffic in the day-to-day activities of the Association.

ALIAnet list-server activity
New e-lists in 1999 included aliaALW, aliaBIBLIA, aliaCYSS, aliaINFOLIT, aliaLOTSS, aliaPUBLIB, aliaQLD, aliaULIN, and as a significant benefit to members and the sector, aliaNEWs. aliaNEWs is published on ALIAnet in web-based form, and many of the forty-plus e-lists are now archived.

Copyright

The Association instigated a copyright service for members, offering advice tailored to individual members and situations, with answers to frequently asked questions, regular articles in inCite and items in aliaNEWs, and on ALIAnet. The service was builds on the previously-available ACLIS copyright bulletins.

The Association joined the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) and Australian Digital Alliance (ADA) and participated in advocating the position of libraries and information services in relation to the Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Bill, the Competition Review of Australia's Intellectual Property Framework, the Copyright Law Review Committee Reference to review and simplify the Copyright Act 1968, and the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs inquiry into copyright enforcement.

The ALIA Copyright committee provided policy advice to General Council.

Membership

The Association experienced a slight (2.4 per cent) decrease in total membership during 1999. The decline in membership occurred in the personal and voucher-only membership categories which both experienced a 3.6 per cent decline, and was offset by a 5.7 per cent growth in institutional members. Many of these were former ACLIS members who had received ALIA benefits and who now joined the Association for the first time or upgraded from voucher-only membership. A retention rate of 86.6 per cent for personal members, 97.3 per cent for full institutional and 88.6 per cent for voucher-only members contributed to the Association's overall 89.4 per cent retention rate for 1999.

There were over one hundred divisions operating within the Association in 1999, which demonstrates the diversity of interests of ALIA members. Throughout the year, sections and special interest groups offered a broad range of activities for members. Active sections include acquisitions, cataloguing, children and youth services, education for library and information services, health libraries, information science, library technicians, local studies, public libraries, reference and information services, school libraries, special libraries, TAFE and university, college and research libraries.

International activities

Freedom of expression, access to information and a focus on information-poor countries characterised the 1999 International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) conference. Its Bangkok venue promoted a strong and valuable Asian presence, particularly from Thailand and Malaysia. Fifty-seven Australian delegates attended, including the ALIA executive-director. Warren Horton, former National Library of Australia director-general and a former president of the Association received an IFLA honorary fellowship for his distinguished service to IFLA.

ALIA is helping to locate sister libraries for the White House Millennium Sister Library Project, which pairs school and public libraries from the United States of America and other countries to promote information services to youth.

Awards

A number of national awards were presented in 1999. Professor John Levett was awarded the HCL Anderson Award. The HCL Anderson Award recognises outstanding service to librarianship, the profession, ALIA or the theory or practice of librarianship and is the highest honour which the Association can confer upon a professional member. In recognition of their contributions to the profession, Alex Byrne and Helen Hayes were awarded Fellowships of the Association.

Susan McKnight and Janine Schmidt were jointly-awarded the ALIA Manager of the Year award. This award recognises exceptional skills in management within an Australian library and information service. The Library Technician of the Year award was awarded to Helen Pickers and the Dunn & Wilson Scholarship was awarded to Meredith Martinelli for her project Leading the way: transferring library technician skills beyond the library. The Study Grant award was presented to Alasdair Wardle for his project Public libraries in the USA: comparison of performance evaluation and key performance indicators in the USA and Australia.

The Redmond Barry and Ellinor Archer awards and the Metcalfe Medallion were not presented in 1999.

Australian Library Week

Australian Library Week 1999, Libraries: explore and discover, was celebrated with great enthusiasm around the country.

Warren Horton presented the annual ALW Oration to a large crowd of ALIA members, local and federal politicians and members of the general public, at Parliament House in Canberra. Peter McGauran, minister for the arts and the Centenary of Federation, introduced Warren Horton. In the Oration, Warren addressed the issue of internet censorship and the integral role of libraries in the supply of information.

ALIA National Office once again provided a diverse and colourful range of ALW merchandise for sale and distribution.

Around the country, library staff and ALIA divisions responded to the challenge to promote the 'explore and discover' aspects of their libraries. The 1999 theme allowed library staff imagination to run wild, and invited the public to become library explorers, attend launches, debates, hear guest authors and find hidden treasure on library shelves.

Media attention for Australian Library Week was focussed on a local level with the State Library of Tasmania achieving a record number of reports for their activities. A round-up of activities was reported in the July inCite.