ALIA Children's and Youth Services

Nicola McGeown is an enthusiastic member of the Brisbane City Council Libraries team. Her passions include Children’s / YA literacy, programs and advocacy.

She created the 'Picture Book' book club to celebrate the awesomeness of picture books and facilitates a twitter chat each month. The monthly picture book celebrations feature a guest author or illustrator. The club and all the info can be found on Twitter and Instagram @picturebookbc.

Nicola is the convenor of the ALIA Children’s and Youth Services Group and the proud recipient of the 2017 Queensland Library Achiever of the Year Award. This was awarded for her dedication to promoting and advocating for children’s literacy. She was also awarded a ceremonial silver pin from ALIA in 2022 to commemorate her contributions to ALIA over the past 5 years.

Say hello to Nicola on twitter at @Ms_NicolaMarie and @mybookburrow.

A post graduate qualified librarian Claire performed all professional activities at Gosford Public Library until 2018. As a Sister City Liaison officer for Gosford Council Claire has continued a long friendship and professional relationship presenting library programs for children and adults in Edogawa Tokyo since 2010. 

She is an active member of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, the Australian Library Association CYSS, and as a member of the IFLA Children and Young Adult Section committee she has been a Coordinator of the World Through Picture Books Programme 3rd edition an online catalogue that contains selected titles from 57 countries.

As an active member of IBBY Australia’s national executive, Claire promotes the aims of this international organisation. She chairs the IBBY Australia’s Ena Noël Award, and the IBBY Outstanding Books on Disabilty List. Currently newsletter editor Claire has presented papers at IBBY, IFLA, IRSCL and other Asia Pacific conferences.

Mylee has been associated with ALIA CYS since her first professional role as a children’s librarian. Mylee spent 12 years working with all of the public libraries in NSW as part of the Public Library Services team at the State Library of NSW.  These days you will find Mylee working at City of Moreton Bay in Queensland, a large public library service with a strong commitment to services, collections and spaces for children.

Based in Wollongong, NSW, Kellie is committed to making libraries inclusive, welcoming spaces for all children and young people. She holds a degree in Social Science and has a background in social services, having worked as a caseworker supporting children and families experiencing homelessness before becoming a clinician in the foster care sector, where she provided therapeutic support to children and young people.

Moving into libraries allowed her to combine her passion for community engagement with her expertise in youth development. She now focuses on delivering inclusive programs that connect disadvantaged children and youth to library services, fostering a sense of belonging and lifelong learning. Through her work, Kellie champions the role of libraries as safe, supportive spaces where children and young people can access vital resources, learn new skills, build confidence, and connect with their community.

Situated in Western Sydney, NSW, Gabby has been working in the library industry for the past 10 years. Starting off as a library technician in a school environment, she worked to obtain her Masters in Librarianship (Children's Literature) and now works as a collection development librarian in the public library system.

Her passion for books has steadily grown over the years and can always be found with a book close by; the majority of those being new release fantasy and graphic novels. Helping children, teens and adults find a book that they fall in love with is what she wants to do for the rest of her career. Making connections through books and instilling the love of literature so they become lifelong readers brings no greater feeling…even better than the feeling that the first coffee of the day brings!

Rachael is a CYS librarian at a small public library in South West WA and has worked in this field for over 20 years, in various roles. In her current position of Librarian:Youth and Children, Rachael develops programs for those under 18 years old which include book clubs, baby rhyme time, storytime, toddler tales, reading rewards cards, school holiday activities and more.

Rachael graduated from Curtin University with a BA Librarianship and Corporate Information Management in 2013 after having previously completed the Diploma of Library Services from Central TAFE WA. Rachael aspires to assist young people to find the right book at the right time and enjoys facilitating programs that encourage a love of reading. 

Ryan is a qualified Librarian and Disability Support Worker with over two decades of experience igniting a passion for reading and storytelling in communities here in Australia and North America. Recognizing a need for early literacy engagement, he proactively stepped up to launch a weekly preschool storytime at Highett Library, a program that quickly gained popularity and even drew the attention of former Olympian Nicole Livingstone.

Having personally overcome early reading challenges through the Adventures of Tintin, which inspired him to travel to destinations such as Antarctica and Egypt, Ryan champions the power of graphic novels and believes that immersing oneself in stories, whether read, watched or listened to, offers a far richer experience than passively scrolling through the socials.

Catherine is a Program Support Officer with Libraries Tasmania's School Libraries Team, currently on loan from her role as a Library Services Officer in the public library system. As part of the Tasmanian Government's Lifting Literacy Plan, the team supports K-12 government schools to strengthen collections, build staff capability, and boost reading engagement.

A former (and very enthusiastic) 1990s high school library monitor, Catherine returned to the profession after living abroad, completing a Diploma of Library and Information Studies in 2022 and on target to finish her Bachelor of Information (Librarianship) at Charles Sturt University in 2026.

As an extroverted introvert, Catherine is passionate about school library advocacy, information literacy, and can always be found spruiking middle-grade historical fiction (especially Katrina Nannesad!).

Based in Perth, WA, Ness has been part of the City of Joondalup Libraries team since 2019, where she is passionate about promoting early literacy and creating a space for grown-ups and their littles to relax and share stories and songs together.

After completing a Graduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies from Curtin University in 2017, Ness's focus is on supporting early literacy. She has a particular interest in assisting children who are learning to read, and has developed resources to support beginning readers gain skills and confidence through games, activities and sharing stories with their grownups.

Her favourite part of the week is Baby Rhyme Time, where she is treated with so many smiling faces and has the privilege of watching special moments of connection between parent and child each week. Her second favourite part of the week is her post-Baby Rhyme Time coffee break.