ALIA REPOSITORY
The ALIA/Health Libraries Australia (HLA) health specialist competencies apply to all Australian health librarians and health library technicians, who are library and information professionals who have obtained qualifications from an ALIA-accredited, post-secondary educational institution and are eligible for professional librarian membership or professional library technician membership of ALIA.
The health specialist competencies build on and extend the foundational ALIA Framework of Skills, Knowledge and Ethics for the Library and Information Services Workforce (July 2025).
Health librarians and health library technicians have unique responsibilities in the organisations in which they work, where the related concepts of evidence based healthcare and clinical governance are fundamental features of the environment. Health librarians and health library technicians must understand and be competent in the information skills associated with these two concepts – that is, they must know how to find the evidence and manage evidence-based information and knowledge resources that are used in clinical decision-making and policy development.
Competency Area 1: Health reference and information services
Competency Area 2: Health data, information and knowledge management
Competency Area 3: Health information literacy and educating for evidence-based inquiry
Competency Area 4: Digital health and technologies
Competency Area 5: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health context
Competency Area 6: The health environment, communities and stakeholders
Competency Area 7: Health research
Competency Area 8: Health leadership and management
Competency Area 9: Health professionalism
The ALIA/Health Libraries Australia (HLA) Competencies for Health Librarians and Health Library Technicians 2026 replace the previous 2018 edition.