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Promotional sticker template for use in libraries as part of the 2019 FAIR "Vote Library" campaign.

Following The Age newspaper article "Schools that excel: No detentions, no libraries, no problems for this girls' school", which claims that Siena College Camberwell in Victoria has abolished its library, Gaynor Robson-Garth, the Principal of Siena College, has written to ALIA stating that the article misrepresents the reality of the situation and that the school continues to have a library and employ qualified library staff. She clarified that the library was merely rebranded as the Albertus Magnus Learning Centre, and it continues to fulfil the essential work that school libraries provide to students.

This advocacy document supports the #VoteLibrary campaign. As we head into the 2022 federal election, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) encourages candidates to adopt the library agenda. Fifteen policy, legislative and funding positions are outlined which support the values and goals of the library sector.

9th Specials, Health and Law Libraries Conference, 26–29 August 2001 Melbourne: Rivers of Knowledge
 
Abstract:
 
The funding relationship between universities and their teaching hospitals is fundamental to the developmentof the larger teaching hospital libraries. Such funding therefore affects the quality of library service touniversity staff and students in teaching hospitals and flows on to influence hospital library development generally throughout Australia. Very little is known nationally about this relationship, and so an extensive study of CAUL libraries was undertaken across Australia in 1993, 1995 (follow-up only) and 2000 byMonash University Library and Southern Health Library Service, Melbourne with additional comments tobring the study current to June 2001. The questions posed in the survey included: the nature of funding provided; whether such funding was provided by university faculty, library or both; any formal agreements between universities and their teaching hospital libraries; the nature of what was purchased with the funds provided; the details of any on-site access by teaching hospitals to university databases. The results of these surveys are given in detail, indicating that: funding is provided by universities around Australia; both university libraries and faculties provide funding; curiously, most universities do not have formal agreementswith their teaching hospitals; funding is spent on a variety of resources and staff; access is generally provided to University electronic resources for teaching hospital libraries. A brief comparison is offered between the results of the 1993 and 2000 surveys. It is hoped that this study will provide the background of information needed for rational planning and decision-making by university and hospital library staff and administrators in developing teaching hospital libraries in Australia.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference poster presentation outlines the history of the National Library of Australia (NLA) in collecting and providing access to Asian language library material so that Australians can study counties in our region in their languages.
 
The primary function of the National Library of Australia is to ‘maintain and develop a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the Australian people’.  Since the 1950s the Library has actively built a large, significant and growing collection of Asian language library material to fulfil this mandate.
 
The Library’s overseas collecting priority is to acquire contemporary publications from East and South-East Asia across the humanities and social sciences to support high-level research. Since Asian collecting began in the 1950s the Library has built Australia’s largest collection of Asian material that now numbers over 600,000 volumes. Collecting is strongest from Indonesia, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Myanmar. However, the Indonesian collecting program provides for the Library’s strongest ties with the local community and a direct opportunity for regional engagement.
 
The Library employs four locally based staff in Indonesia specifically to ensure acquisition of material only available on the spot and for short periods, including semi-published and occasionally controversial primary source materials that are not able to be acquired through established vendors.  It is this kind of collecting that is attracting the interest by scholars from around the world and is the strength of our activities. The Library’s Indonesian collection is considered to be among the strongest collection of contemporary Indonesian material in the world and it is a valuable national resource. It is used by the academic and research sector both within Australia and overseas and supplies unique primary and secondary source research materials supporting in-depth study of Indonesia.
 
The total collection now numbers about 200,000 books, 5,000 periodical titles, 250 newspapers and thousands of reels of microfilm and sheet maps. The Library is actively increasing collecting of ephemeral material such as election posters and websites to meet demand from researchers. Many Indonesian government publications held by the Library are not held by any library or government agency in Indonesia. It is the largest such collection in Australia and compares favourably with other major contemporary collections on Indonesia such as the US Library of Congress and the British Library.

Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
 
This conference paper discusses the marketing and promotion of digital collections through social media.
 
Digital cultural collections sites represent a large investment for cultural institutions but often marketing and promotion of these collections take a significant amount of time. While many institutions excel at marketing and promotion at face-to-face events, they may find it difficult to maintain the time and energy to keep promoting resources on social media. Social media is vital for cultural institutions that use web statistics to justify the expense of digital cultural collections. In this paper, the authors will discuss time-saving, practical social media approaches for promoting digital cultural collections sites, such as the Living Histories @ UON site, using a targeted approach which goes beyond traditional social media engagement. The authors will discuss their practical experiences raising awareness of the Living Histories site and enhancing community engagement by designing and executing a multi-pronged social media ‘campaign’.
 
The correlation between posting on social media and page hits will be demonstrated using quantitative analysis of statistical web data. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest will be some social media tools used. Some strategies utilized include: a Twitter bot, targeting content to specific user groups (i.e. a Facebook group), automated social media posting, participating in global social media events (i.e. Explore Your Archive week), blogging and asking affiliated users and groups to post content on their accounts.  The authors will report on which strategy and which social media platform was most successful in drawing users to the Living Histories site. Strategies that failed at engagement will also be discussed.

Exercises for schools.
 
The 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being celebrated around the world this year and there will be special events at the National Library of Australia and several State Libraries on 10 December 2018, in partnership with the UN Association of Australia.
 
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights speaks to the values held by library and information professionals, and in May 2017, Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Members voted to include a new Object in our Constitution: "to endorse the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in response to the many challenges faced by the world today and into the future."

On 24th March 2020 the Prime Minister of Australia declared the immediate closure of libraries across the country as part of the national attempt to slow the rate of COVID-19 infections. This meant over 1,600 public library service points across the country in urban, regional and remote locations, were no longer able to offer services on their premises.
 
This research aimed to explore the response by public libraries across Australia to the COVID-19 crisis. Its findings will assist public libraries in understanding their own roles and performance in a community crisis and will enable them to better prepare for and react to similar crises in the future so that community needs are met as efficiently and effectively as possible. In addition, the research aimed to identify possible trends in future service and resource provision resulting from measures put in place during the COVID-19 crisis.
 
It is important to note that the protracted nature of the pandemic has meant that many public libraries across Australia are still facing significant operational challenges. We therefore recognise that examples of innovation and best practice are still emerging, and that in many cases public library staff have yet to be afforded the space and time needed for effective reflection on their response to the crisis.

ALIA Information Online 2017 Conference, 13-17 February 2017 Sydney: Data Information Knowledge
 
[Peer reviewed] This conference paper discusses the transformation of a workplace learning environment.
 
Abstract: We have all had experiences at work that we wish would just disappear. This paper will reflect on the authors’ journey to transform our workplace learning environment and experiences during 2011-2016 by embracing a collaborative and sustainable approach to bringing together a community of confident, responsive, and reflective learners. We encourage curiosity and lifelong learning, sharing skills and professional interests whilst managing expectations and shared responsibility for career-long and career-wide learning. This paper will form a case study and focus on our practical examples which will explore learning from unlearnings by a novel use of the social media network Snapchat to convene a reflective practitioner meshwork. The authors will reflect on seven themes of unlearnings we screenshot on Snapchat, including: What’s in a Name?, Be Your Own Hero, Winners Never Quit, Don’t Remind Me, Caustic Solutions and Stay in Your Own Lane.
 
The paper discusses how we achieved a transformation of our learning environment over five years and the key milestones we refer to as unlearnings. These unlearnings were learnt during the course of facilitating a range of workplace learning initiatives, namely, 23 Things; 23 Research Things; Innovations Forums; LEG Briefings; Lync Information Sessions; Library Staff Conversations; and ACU Library StaffShare. Resulting from our approach to an evolving workplace learning environment, colleagues have reported increased confidence in their use and application of emerging technologies for personal and professional purposes, motivation to return to formal tertiary study, benefits of multiple modes of mentoring, skills refresher opportunities, and the unifying affect of and effect on library staff as they up-skill and multi-skill together.
 
Learning from our unlearnings, we propose a reflective, transformative, bottom-up problem-solving approach to workplace learning in the Library context to bring about a change-ready library and information professional workforce. This paper will provide critical reflection on the broader context of the Library’s contribution to the knowledge economy by expanding on the notions of corporate memory and collective industry memory. These notions of memory, workplace learning and their vulnerability will be explored in the context of the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) workplace. Wherein there is robust bureaucracy and managerialism, alongside the amorphous and vulnerable memorisation of vital professional knowledge.
 

In November 2019, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) published The Future of LIS Education Issues Paper to inform a sector-wide discussion about the current state of professional education: the needs going forward, and the challenges we face in trying to identify and deliver the best outcome.
 
Following the publication of the issues paper, ALIA carried out a survey of members, and sought submissions and feedback from stakeholders and focus groups. This paper provides a summary of the themes which emerged during the consultation with the sector which has enabled work to start on three possible future scenarios. The scenarios will be presented to participants at the LIS Education Summit, which has been rescheduled from 4 May 2020 to coincide with ALIA Information Online 2021.

ALIA National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: engage create lead.
 
A poster paper describing a research project funded in part by the 2014 ALIA Research Grant Award.
 
This research lies at the emerging field of human information interaction and retrieval (CHIIR), with particular emphasis on user-centred approaches to information retrieval. The project included designing and conducting a user experiment to assess the effect of displayed Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms on gaze and search behaviour.
 
The results include several kinds of research data that inform the understanding of the relationship between interface, reading patterns, search behaviour and search performance. 

The Australian Library Journal: Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association - Volume 58 No. 4 November 2009
 

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead
 
This conference paper discusses the Twilight Talks program of public lectures which aims to improve the delivery of consumer health information to the Darling Downs community in Queensland.

ALIA National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead
 
This paper details the 'scavenger hunt' designed by the Research Services Coordinator at Curtin University to engage library staff in developing research data management skills. The paper explores the background and methods of the scavenger hunt as well as presenting the lessons learned from an amibitious project that did not proceed quite according to plan. The experience it offers is valuable for librarians looking to undertake work in the emerging area of research data management.