Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) welcomes the federal government’s commitment to open government policies and freedom of information and agrees that public sector information should be recognised as a national resource to be developed and preserved in the public interest. ALIA asserts that this information should be publicly available except where restricted by law, privacy considerations or is business in confidence.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) supports library associations around the world. Support for international library associations will be consistent with ALIA’s core values policy statement.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) promotes the free flow of information and ideas through open access to recorded knowledge, information and creative works. This is a core value of the Association.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) recognises that the copyright and intellectual property system must ensure a fair and equitable balance between the rights of creators, owners and users, and the advancement and sharing of knowledge, to encourage creativity, innovation, research, education and learning.

The Australian library and information profession is committed to increasing the Australian Library and Information Association’s presence in the global library community, to providing leadership through ALIA’s expertise and to promoting greater understanding of international librarianship and library issues in the global information environment.

Adopted 1997. Amended 2001. Reviewed 2009. Amended 2018. Superceded by "ALIA international relations statement" (2022).

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) adopts in principle the right of people with a disability to equitable access to information through all library and information services, and promotes the observation of current Commonwealth, state and territory disability discrimination legislation.

The library and information sector has a distinctive area of knowledge and skills which is required for effective professional practice. Library and information specialists need to acquire the relevant disciplinary expertise, demonstrate employment related skills and be prepared for a challenging and dynamic future in many diverse environments.

This document was superceded by "Foundation knowledge for entry-level library and information professionals (2020)".

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), Australian Society of Archivist (ASA) and Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA) collaborated on the development of the Foundation Knowledge, Skills and Attributes for information professionals working in archives, libraries and records management.

In 2014, ALIA, in conjunction with the Australian Law Library Association, Health Libraries Inc (HLInc) and Health Libraries Australia (ALIA HLA, a national group of the Australian Library and Information Association), released a study which suggests law firms, government departments, associations and other organisations involved with special libraries gain over $5 in return for every $1 they invest in special libraries.