Branch reports

Australian Capital Territory

The ACT Branch of ALIA had a very successful year with a wide range of activities not only from the branch itself but many of the interest groups as well. We had a lively participation in Australian Library Week, including a breakfast, Special Libraries Section drinks, and the ALW Oration delivered by the about-to-retire National Library of Australia director-general, Warren Horton, on the subject of internet censorship, which attracted wide publicity. A wonderful joint event with the ACT Library and Information Services involved a reception and a debate on 'The Book Y2K OK?' chaired by the ACT minister for urban services, Brendan Smith. Participants included an academic publisher, a research scientist, ALIA members and the minister himself. The library technicians had a dinner to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Sixty students, librarians and library technicians attended a midwinter dinner in August at the University of Canberra. The branch also held a reception for Jan Fullerton, the sixth, and first female, director-general of the National Library of Australia. Other activities included a plan for a mentoring program in the ACT and a one-day conference on 'The digital library' held in November at the National Library of Australia. A more comprehensive report is available at http://archive.alia.org.au/branches/act/proactive/200/past.president.html.

New South Wales

Branch Council devoted much energy to the ALIA renewal process, actively encouraging sections and divisions to contribute to the debate. To support renewal, we hosted the ALIA annual general meeting in August. NSW Branch members bid successfully for the 2002 ALIA Biennial Conference. New South Wales state librarian Dagmar Schmidmaier chairs the conference organising committee. We held a very successful function to farewell the retiring National Library of Australia director-general, Warren Horton, held at the State Library where Warren began his career in librarianship, and which was attended by 120 people. Our gift to Warren for his contribution to our profession was a caricature of himself by a local artist. Julie Young, Caroline Cherrett, Craig Grimison and Jo-anne Fuller were responsible for a witty slide presentation of memorable moments in Warren's life.

The Branch organised two free, well-attended seminars to promote ALIA membership, 'The library and information labour market: the real value', presented by Phil Teece from ALIA National Office, and 'There's no government like no government: with a global system like the internet, who gets control and what does it mean for us?' presented by Karen Coyle, from the University of California Library Automation Unit. NSW Branch thanks the seminars' sponsors, Zenith Management Services and EBSCO Information Services. Our Merit Awards, presented in NSW Parliament House, were given to Carolyne Cohn (Acquisitions), Susan Campbell (CYSS), Linda Mulheron (Health Libraries), Gary Jones (Hunter Regional Group), Toni Daymond (Library Technicians), Niki Kallenberger (Schools) and Glenda Pryor (TAFE). Branch presented an Institutional Merit Award to EBSCO Information Services for their consistent support of the profession, ALIA and NSW Branch in particular.

Northern Territory

1999 was a productive and busy year for ALIA in the Northern Territory. Because of the involvement and efforts of so many people, we had a wide range of activities and have also tried to involve other places in the territory: Katherine, Nhulunbuy and Humpty Doo. The Centralian group had their usual compliment of activities and some of these were in tandem with guest speakers and presenters arranged for the Top End group. Members were financially supported to attend the Library Technicians Conference in Perth and the Specials Conference in Hobart.

The Australian Library Week Award winners this year were Freida Evans, Lorraine Vass and Robin Hempel. The territory minister for corporate and information services, Daryl Manzie, presented the awards at a function at the Civic Centre in Darwin.

ALIA president Craig Anderson visited both Alice Springs and Darwin in April. He spoke about metadata, and also attended the dinner saluting two members - Colleen Pyne for her Order of Australia Award, and Alex Byrne for his ALIA Fellowship.

Other events included: a series of speeches in Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Humpty Doo and Darwin by New South Wales author Bev Harper in June; a testimonial dinner for Lorraine Vass in appreciation for all she has done for our profession; and talks on family literacy by Heather Fisher and the 'Lost generations' by Vicki Hoult. Vicki Wilson presented workshops on teamwork and other team concepts. A workshop on one-person libraries was presented by Judith Seiss, who also writes regular newsletters for sole practitioners. Special guest, Phil Teece, from ALIA National Office spoke at the branch annual general meeting about industrial relations issues affecting members.

ALIA NT Branch presented the prize for the most outstanding student in the Associate Diploma of Library and Information Practice to Liisa Webster. Theresa Jude and the president of the Technicians groups spoke to Northern Territory University students about ALIA issues. Library-trainee packages have been produced, with the involvement of CREATE NT.

Queensland

Members voted in a ballot to split the Queensland Branch: to create a Northern Queensland Branch and a Southern Queensland Branch. This proposal received strong support, and a report was prepared for General Council's October meeting.

Both the Public Libraries Section and RAISS have been revitalised, and both are enjoying good support, with enthusiastic committees and a good program of events. Local History and the Children's and Youth Services Sections are also emerging. Queensland Branch was very keen to ensure institutional representation, and three new positions on Branch were created to incorporate school, public and academic libraries. Some very successful professional development events have been held, including an electronic licensing seminar which was presented in Brisbane and Cairns by Victorian colleagues; a breakfast featuring psychologist Ian Plowman; and a reception for new graduates. There was also a session on ethics and a seminar about the Digital Agenda Bill. Our newsletter, Quill, continues its highly-successful run, and is being published ten times this year. It is a very important vehicle for communicating with members.

We are very proud to have two ALIA award winners: Library Technician of the Year Helen Pickers, and joint Library Manager of the Year Janine Schmidt. Helen received her award in Perth at the Library Technician's Conference, and Janine's presentation was held late November.

South Australia

Activities and achievements include the development of a branch plan for 1999, reviewed in June. The major event for 1999 was the state conference, Internet intoxication: excess, access and the whole damn thing! held at Clare in one of South Australia's major wine regions. Jennefer Nicholson, ALIA executive director, gave the opening address on 'Internet content regulation'. The fifteen other speakers represented most library sectors, including students.

The Branch newsletter, InterAlia, published ten print issues, and in June began publishing an online version on ALIAnet. At the same time, distribution of the print issues throughout the state has been enhanced by the use of three different courier systems which interlink workplaces for nearly 200 members. The newsletter has been a success story this year, thanks to the editorship of Janine Tan assisted by Tania Pugh. The Branch web presence is continually being developed and enhanced on ALIAnet by an energetic group.

The Branch held forums after meetings on mentoring; collaboration between school librarians; public libraries; South Australian law librarians; and TAFE libraries. These talks were very informative and useful for the Branch, but they were not well-attended by the general membership. The Branch's very successful South Australian mentoring group was established in December 1998 with, on average, 17 participants. The group is self-funded and self-organised by committees of three to five members. ALIA membership is a prerequisite.

A State Education Committee met and discussed education and training issues with representatives of the library school at the University of South Australia and the technicians' course at the Adelaide Institute of TAFE, resulting in a better understanding of education and training issues and needs.

Tasmania

A major event in a busy year was the planning and hosting of the 8th Asia Pacific Specials, Health and Law Librarians' Conference from
22 to 26August. The Branch held information sessions for volunteers and is very grateful for the assistance of members who contributed to the success of the conference and its friendly, welcoming atmosphere. The ALIA National TAFE section biennial conference TAFE libraries: adding value was also hosted in Hobart in mid-July.

The Branch presented two successful seminars, Making electronic resources accessible and Client training: information skills from school to lifelong learning, under the collective title 'Sectors working together'. The seminars enabled library workers in public, special, academic and school libraries to come together and share their expertise. Over fifty people attended each seminar. The Branch will continue this crosssectoral approach to CPD activities in 2000.

The Branch is hosting the 11th National ALIA Library Technicians Conference in August 2001 and the organising committee has decided on the theme (An information odyssey), logo and venue (The Hotel Grand Chancellor). With the help of Mures, the professional conference organiser, the committee prepared promotional material for our conference to take to the 10th Library Technicians Conference in Perth and we are grateful to the Perth committee for allowing us to set up the display and receive feedback.

We celebrated the awarding of ALIA's prestigious HCL Anderson Award to John Levett, guest of honour at our annual Christmas dinner.

Victoria

Under Sue McKnight's leadership, the Branch introduced a new structure of committees and meetings. Full Branch Council meetings were held every two months, with committees and executive meetings held in the 'off month'. The three committees were: Future directions, CPD, and Workplace issues and communication. The Future Directions committee considered the renewal process and ways to lead the organisation forward. A report on the future structure of ALIA was commissioned from Professor Edward Lim for consideration by Branch. The Communications committee dealt among other issues with membership renewal. The CPD committee organised a seminar, Taking charge of your career, which included the ALIA career development kit, and a careers workshop. The Mentoring Group worked throughout the year.

Branch Council invited speakers to address the Council and members. The speakers were: Craig Anderson, ALIA president, outlining the process of renewal and the future role of ALIA; Professor Don Schauder, member of the Library Board of Victoria and chair of the Victorian Libraries Networking Committee, speaking on the role of the networking committee and its current priorities; Ross Gibbs, director and keeper of public records and Justine Heazlewood outlining the work currently undertaken by the Public Records Office and giving and overview of the Victorian Electronic Records Strategy; the November meeting was addressed by Steve O'Connor, chief executive of CAVAL.

Kerri Pleydell organised an extremely successful Australian Library Week in Victoria. About 120 people attended the showing of the movie, Desk set, at the Sun Theatre, Yarraville. Helen Hayes, University of Melbourne librarian, was presented with her ALIA Fellowship award and the ALIA Awards for Innovation in Victoria were presented.

Warren Horton addressed a VicLIS forum on his time as National Library of Australia directorgeneral, before a farewell dinner. Sue McKnight joined a panel speaking on 'Censorship: does it make sense in a digital age?' The meeting was jointly-sponsored by Electronic Frontiers Australia, Communications Law Centre and ALIA Vic Branch. This led to a joint VALA (Victorian Association for Library Automation)/ALIA meeting dealing with the technical aspects of internet filtering and censorship. In October, 100 people attended another joint meeting, with the Victorian Library Network Committee, on 'Marketing libraries'.

Western Australia

The Branch started a year that promised much change within the Association, by mapping out our own path to change. We held a very productive series of workshops, resulting in a marketing plan and a strategic plan (available at http://archive.alia.org.au/branches/wa/). Many of Branch's subsequent activities have been the result of these plans.

Australian Library Week was the focus of great activity in Western Australia. The Branch co-ordinated activities and hosted an ALW social event for the Western Australian library community. Library Week also saw the launch of the 2000 Librarians in focus calendar.

The Branch's publication Biblia was republished and the technology in the local office upgraded, thanks to a very generous grant from ACLIS, Western Australia.

Our Continuing Professional Development Section recently held a successful event at which various conference papers presented recently by Western Australians were 're-run' to give those who had not attended the conferences the opportunity to hear them.

ALIA WA Branch has invested a great deal of time and effort in lobbying against the proposed State Government Library, Culture and the Arts Bill. At the end of 1999 the Bill was still before Parliament. The Branch plans a continuing dynamic program for ALIA members in 2000.