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In 2013, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) set out to investigate (1) How will libraries remain relevant for users? (2) What changes will institutions and individuals in the sector experience? (3) Will ‘library and information professional’ continue to be a necessary and desirable occupation? Three years on, we have reviewed the themes, actions and what we have learned since the original investigation. This is the May 2017 update of the Future of the LIS Profession: School Libraries report.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Schools and the Victorian Catholic Teacher Librarians (VCTL) make available to school communities 'A Manual for Developing Policies and Procedures in Australian School Library Resource Centres'. It is the result of a joint working party and has been published to support the professional practice of staff in school libraries.

This manual sets out how to develop the policies and document the procedures that are essential for exemplary library management practices. The implementation of these policies and procedures aims to ensure equitable access to resources for all in the school community. A school library that is well managed is in the best possible position to offer the range of library programs and services that are essential to support the school’s student learning goals.

National Library and Information Technicians Symposium, 27-29 September 2017 North Sydney: bridge to knowledge

This conference paper discusses how library technicians and their IT colleagues can work collaboratively to the benefit of staff, the organisation and most importantly, library patrons. 

Information technology is vital to ensuring the smooth running of all library systems and services. However many libraries face challenges with IT staff to implement new projects and provide a responsive service to library patrons. Improved interpersonal relationships between library staff and information technology workers achieve positive outcomes for library patrons and the organisation as a whole. This issue is important for library technicians in particular, as they often have increased contact with IT staff through the nature of their roles. This paper will recommend measures that establish a good foundation for library technicians to successfully collaborate with IT. 

Explanatory statement for special resolutions considered at the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) 29th Annual General Meeting held on 17 May 2017 at ALIA House, Canberra.

The ALIA Board proposed adding the term 'environment' to the first object of the Constitution and the inclusion of an additional object 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.

In 2013, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) set out to investigate (1) How will libraries remain relevant for users? (2) What changes will institutions and individuals in the sector experience? (3) Will ‘library and information professional’ continue to be a necessary and desirable occupation? Three years on, we have reviewed the themes, actions and what we have learned since the original investigation. This is the May 2017 update of the Future of the LIS Profession: Special Libraries report.

In 2013, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) set out to investigate (1) How will libraries remain relevant for users? (2) What changes will institutions and individuals in the sector experience? (3) Will ‘library and information professional’ continue to be a necessary and desirable occupation? Three years on, we have reviewed the themes, actions and what we have learned since the original investigation. This is the May 2017 update of the Future of the LIS Profession: Public Libraries report.

In 2013, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) set out to investigate (1) How will libraries remain relevant for users? (2) What changes will institutions and individuals in the sector experience? (3) Will ‘library and information professional’ continue to be a necessary and desirable occupation? Three years on, we have reviewed the themes, actions and what we have learned since the original investigation. This is the May 2017 update of the Future of the LIS Profession: Library and Information Professionals report.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

This conference paper describes a project in 2015 at the University of Adelaide Libraries to demonstrate innovative and relevant use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology in support of the University's mission. The project aimed to demonstrate opportunities for the University Libraries to utilise emerging technologies. 

The pilot project existed as part of a greater movement driven by the University’s Technology Services division, and allowed an examination of how established groups could best exploit a technology on the very forefront of change. To meet this goal a two phased project was proposed focusing on the rapid acquisition of VR production skills and the creation of a body of resources which could assist staff and students in the creation of content for this new media format. Using the freely available Unreal Engine (UE4) an experience was created which allowed users to view a fictional world which rendered the effects of Boolean searching on a range of objects.

This project existed within, and due to, upheaval within the library industry. The direction of the project and the decision to produce documentation supporting an unreleased product came from the idea of the academic library as a place that creates opportunities for self-directed clients, easing the process of learning and research. The process highlighted the value of documentation designed to lower the initial barrier to entry for this rising technology. Following the pilot project the University Libraries will consider VR as a component of the 'Library of the Future’ and determine how best it may be utilized to meet client needs.

The Reading Hour is one of the most celebrated annual reading initiatives in Australia, and supports individuals, families and communities to discover and rediscover the joy of reading. The Reading Hour emerged from the National Year of Reading 2012, and is an ongoing campaign from Love2Read, funded by the ALIA Australian Public Library Alliance and in partnership with the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which discusses how in 2015 State Library of Queensland (SLQ) led and facilitated Fun Palace events at libraries across Queensland. Originating in the United Kingdom, Fun Palaces are free, welcoming events combining arts and sciences, made for and with local people. The Fun Palaces campaign is an ongoing movement for culture at the heart of the community. Held at libraries, museums, town halls, theatres and more these family events are as large or small as the organisers want to make them. In 2015 SLQ provided funding to seven public libraries, these were libraries from Gold Coast, Mossman, Beaudesert, Lowood, Longreach, Weipa and Thursday Island. The libraries hosted jugglers, archaeologists, cartoonists and robotics experts and enthusiasts from their local community to celebrate art and science in all its forms. Participants at SLQ could tumble, skip, leap and hoop with Vulcana Kids Circus, meet a giant virus and help it grow, program, control and battle a robot, go air surfing with walk-along gliders, paint a mural with veggies and much more. SLQ also developed a comic maker as a contribution to the global event.

Contents: Staying alive: health science library practice in the 90's by Andrew Rooke and Adam Clark; Medline and more: Sydney's St Vincent Hospital microwave their Medline by Judith Weaver; Wellington: wonderful or woeful? by Jo Marshall; President's column - 8th International Medical Library Congress; Editor's note: Stop thief! - discussion about copyright; National Executive: Ian Stubbin, Virginia Staggs, Toni Silson, Grahame Manns.

Original document held at ALIA House, Canberra.

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) policy to ensure resource provision is an effective and integral part of curriculum development to support the school's vision and objectives.

Superseded by: ALIA ACSL Statement on School Library Funding and Resource Provision (2024)

This document provides a timeline that covers the milestones in the history of school libraries which became a separate section of the Library Association of Australia, now the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), in 1967. It also highlights significant events in the education and/or government sectors. Data from many of the reports commissioned by ALIA was used for lobbying federal government bodies which resulted in funding for school library buildings and resources. This funding, together with an emphasis on positive learning outcomes for students, has ensured that school libraries are influential within the education and library communities. For fifty years ALIA Schools has supported its members to make a positive difference to student learning outcomes. This support has also ensured that teacher librarians and school library staff are effective professionals.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which discusses incorporating an intern program into the recruitment process at University of New South Wales (UNSW).

As with other complex organisations, having the right mix of staff is always a challenge in libraries. In recruiting staff at UNSW Library we look for particular skills, knowledge and aptitude and we make our decisions based on candidates’ qualifications and relevant experience. If you are new to our profession without the required experience and/or the right qualifications then many doors to a fledgling library career will remain firmly shut. Conversely, library managers think about succession planning and want to encourage new people to the profession. Some managers also want staff to join the “revolving door” by creating opportunities to gain experience in all sorts of library work. So how can library managers open the doors and build revolving ones? One strategy that UNSW Library has used is to run a successful intern program. The program consists of employing four final year/just graduated librarians for twelve months to work in the Client Services Unit.

The paper describes the intern program in detail, including planning, costs, recruitment, training and outcomes. It also explains how implementing an intern program does not have to be complex or time consuming for your library and how its ongoing impact can be extremely beneficial for participants, the organisation and the library profession.

Contents: Farewell photograph from 92/93 National Executive - Cheryl Hamill, Elizabeth Hides, Anne Batt, Brigitte Glockner; casemix; report from the 10th National Cataloguing Conference, Fremantle, 4-6 November 1993.

Original document held in ALIA House, Canberra.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which reports on an information literacy and employability project undertaken by the University of Western Sydney Library to improve support for the School of Business by reviewing the information literacy programs offered to students, with a view to developing a more relevant curriculum. The project explored which information literacy skills are of practical value to newly graduating students in the work place and of greatest value to their employers. Interviews were conducted with new graduates and employers.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

This conference paper discusses how the NSW Parliamentary library went about building a learning organisation. The NSW Parliamentary Library is the oldest specialist library of its kind in Australia. The staff of the library are also specialists, who possess remarkable amounts of knowledge about parliamentary resources and history. Like many libraries today, a great deal of this knowledge is tacit, with vast amounts of corporate knowledge embedded in the memories of comparatively few individuals.

In the 2014/2015 Business Plan, in line with the strategic plan of the Department of Parliamentary Services, the Parliamentary Librarian set a goal-based activity to “Build a learning organisation”. A project team was formed, and an original plan for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building was implemented.   A basic PMBOK (project management body of knowledge) framework was adopted to clearly define the scope, objectives, approach, stakeholders, team composition and risks of the activity. Distinct process groups of Definition, Planning, Implementation and Review were employed and project management templates ensured the project was methodologically sound while still maintaining the ability to quickly achieve results and test the project’s effectiveness. Three surveys were employed to inform implementation and provide a measure of project impact. Qualitative feedback was gathered through regular team meetings, staff forums and informal interactions.   The first round of the project ran over 11 months, with an implementation phase of 7 months, and focussed on creating the foundations for a system of structured knowledge dissemination and management. 

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

[Peer reviewed] This conference paper discusses incorporating an intern program into the recruitment process at University of New South Wales (UNSW).

As with other complex organisations, having the right mix of staff is always a challenge in libraries. In recruiting staff at UNSW Library we look for particular skills, knowledge and aptitude and we make our decisions based on candidates’ qualifications and relevant experience. If you are new to our profession without the required experience and/or the right qualifications then many doors to a fledgling library career will remain firmly shut. Conversely, library managers think about succession planning and want to encourage new people to the profession. Some managers also want staff to join the “revolving door” by creating opportunities to gain experience in all sorts of library work. So how can library managers open the doors and build revolving ones? One strategy that UNSW Library has used is to run a successful intern program. The program consists of employing four final year/just graduated librarians for twelve months to work in the Client Services Unit. To date nineteen graduates have participated in the program with all but one gaining permanent work in libraries, including at UNSW Library, either during the internship or immediately after. This is significant as the interns state that prior to this experience, they had never even made it to interview stage. As interns are treated as regular Client Services team members they are paid the same, do the same work and have the same training and professional development opportunities as everyone else. This arrangement is beneficial to both interns and the Library as the interns come to UNSW full of new ideas and enthusiasm, and are hungry to learn as much as they can, which in turn inspires our permanent team members. To date interns have contributed to activities as diverse as working at the Help Zones of the three campus libraries, developing the enquiry management system, participating in a university-wide client services project, user interface testing for web services, and assisting in the Document Services Unit.

This paper describes the intern program in detail, including planning, costs, recruitment, training and outcomes. It also explains how implementing an intern program does not have to be complex or time consuming for your library and how its ongoing impact can be extremely beneficial for participants, the organisation and the library profession.

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) policy to fulfil a school's teaching and learning goals through a well funded and appropriately resources school library.

Superseded by: ALIA ACSL Statement on School Library Funding and Resource Provision

HLA News: National News Bulletin of Health Libraries Australia - The national health group of the Australian Library and Information Association

Contents: Making a day of it: innovation for enhancing library value -- Convenor's focus -- Medline's Australian evolution: from 1976 to 1993 -- Notes from Seville: report from the 15th EAHIL Conference in Spain -- MLA News -- eResource procurement: an ALIA Health elist discussion topic -- Workshop opportunity: advanced search techniques for systematic reviews with Carol Lefebvre -- 2016 HLA Professional Development Day program and link to presentations -- 2016 HLA Professional Development Day: program abstracts -- Professional development diary dates.

HLA News: National News Bulletin of Health Libraries Australia - The national health group of the Australian Library and Information Association

Contents: High value, high visibility: wrapping up the year in Townsville -- Convenor's focus -- Workshop report from WA: advanced search techniques for systematic reviews -- MeSH update -- Call for papers: IFLA World Library and Information Congress -- Improvement fundamentals: free online health and care service improvement course -- Your health, your say: National Digital Health Strategy Consultation -- Open access repository: grey literature -- Call for abstracts: 9th International Clinical Librarian Conference, UK -- Professional development diary dates.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this paper contains images and names of people who are now deceased.

This conference paper discusses the value, relevance and role of historical images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people along with the decriptive metadata that was recorded at the time of capture.

The historical image has never held a more significant place in our online engagement with the cultural record. In the digital environment, the research and publication value of images competes much more closely with the heavy material significance of the object and the traditional pre-eminence of the historical narrative. Colonial photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders possess a unique power to both demonstrate European colonial myth-making and corroborate Indigenous experiences that are otherwise unrecorded.

The majority of colonial photographic portraits and tableaus of Indigenous subjects were sent to Europe with family letters or for scholarly exchange. They were produced for scientific, documentary and commercial purposes – to document a ‘dying race’, as visual evidence for theories of evolution and as picturesque representations of the noble savage to feed the commercial taste for the exotic. They were prized for capturing reality, whilst simultaneously peddling myths of the other. Thus, much of the original descriptive metadata is absent or inaccurate, revealing the prejudices of these purposes.

For many Indigenous Australians today, they are also extraordinary family photos of mostly unknown ancestors. Their great value lies in this capacity to so immediately render our national history in terms of these dialectics of engagement.

Our digital delivery services offer great opportunities to restore these photographs within local domestic spheres and to be reconciled with oral family histories. There are, however, many particular discrepancies between the value in increasing access, and various Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions surrounding the power and cultural relevance of visual imagery. This is exacerbated dramatically as our institutional pursuit for increased digitisation and online discoverability makes them easily viewable to a mass audience.

This paper examines the challenge of absent and fabricated metadata in these photographs as they are discovered, delivered and published online. It draws on research into the role these collections play in European anthropological museums, including the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University and the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, to consider their transactional provenance. It also explores cultural rights and the value of photographs to Indigenous communities and considers the seminal Ara Irititja and new Indigenous databases and ask how we can best connect with experts in Indigenous communities to fill gaps in the descriptive metadata of our national memory.

ALIA HLA professional development day, held 18 July 2016 at Kolling Building, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, Sydney. Featuring presentations:

• Captivating your audience: using eLearning software for the creation of learning objects.
• Trello? Can you hear me? Enabling enhanced communication for library staff through a cloud-based application.
• Chimps Dreaming: utilising free email and a web editor to customise eTOC delivery for time-poor clients.
• Hi! I need to find a photo: health libraries and hospital history.
• From Repository to TROVE.
• Putting patrons in the driving seat: implementing e-books at The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network.
• There’s a guide for that! Using LibGuides at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network.
• Anne Harrison Award.
• Launch – Health Libraries Australia Archive.
• HLA/Medical Director Health Informatics Innovation Award.
• ALIA PD Scheme Health Specialisation: presentation of certificates to Certified Professionals (Health).
• The tree of collaboration: getting to the roots of conducting a collaborative health research project.
• Common (and curly) questions about sharing health data.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

This conference paper discusses how in 2015 State Library of Queensland (SLQ) led and facilitated Fun Palace events at libraries across Queensland. Originating in the United Kingdom, Fun Palaces are free, welcoming events combining arts and sciences, made for and with local people held in the first weekend in October. The Fun Palaces campaign is an ongoing movement for culture at the heart of the community. Held at libraries, museums, town halls, theatres and more these family events are as large or small as the organisers want to make them. In 2015 SLQ provided funding to seven public libraries, these were libraries from Gold Coast, Mossman, Beaudesert, Lowood, Longreach, Weipa and Thursday Island. The libraries hosted jugglers, archaeologists, cartoonists and robotics experts and enthusiasts from their local community to celebrate art and science in all its forms. Participants at SLQ could tumble, skip, leap and hoop with Vulcana Kids Circus, meet a giant virus and help it grow, program, control and battle a robot, go air surfing with walk-along gliders, paint a mural with veggies and much more. SLQ also developed a comic maker as our contribution to the global event.

This paper shares what happened, what was learned at the first Fun Palaces and why this program is an important part of SLQ’s commitment to inspiring Queenslanders’ creativity. The future direction of Fun Palaces will be discussed including the aim to incorporate more community led and created activities as part of our commitment to increasing community engagement in libraries. The paper also includes details of the 2016 Fun Palaces programs.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

This conference paper reports on an information literacy and employability project undertaken by the University of Western Sydney Library to improve support for the School of Business by reviewing the information literacy programs offered to students with a view to developing a more relevant curriculum. The project explored which information literacy skills are of practical value to newly graduating students in the work place and of greatest value to their employers. Interviews were conducted with new graduates and employers.

ALIA Universities and Research Libraries (URLs) ACT, 8 September 2016 Canberra: data and libraries - harnessing the possibilities

The ALIA URL group provides a networking and information-sharing forum for all levels of library staff interested in issues and trends affecting the development of university and research libraries. 

This seminar presentation (PowerPoint slides) focussed on libraries and data, exploring new directions in data usage and sharing in the academic and government spheres.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which discusses how the NSW Parliamentary library went about building a learning organisation. The NSW Parliamentary Library is the oldest specialist library of its kind in Australia. The staff of the library are also specialists, who possess remarkable amounts of knowledge about parliamentary resources and history. Like many libraries today, a great deal of this knowledge is tacit, with vast amounts of corporate knowledge embedded in the memories of comparatively few individuals.

In the 2014/2015 Business Plan, in line with the strategic plan of the Department of Parliamentary Services, the Parliamentary Librarian set a goal-based activity to “Build a learning organisation”. A project team was formed, and an original plan for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building was implemented. The results have been overwhelmingly positive, promising and even unexpected.

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) policy describing the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in school libraries and their impact on the delivery and use of information and communication services.

National 2016 Conference, 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage Create Lead.

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper that describes a project in 2015 at the University of Adelaide Libraries to demonstrate innovative and relevant use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology in support of the University's mission. The project aimed to demonstrate opportunities for the University Libraries to utilise emerging technologies. This pilot project existed as part of a greater movement driven by the University’s Technology Services division, and allowed an examination of how established groups could best exploit a technology on the very forefront of change.

HLA News: National News Bulletin of Health Libraries Australia - The national health group of the Australian Library and Information Association

Contents: Who we are: 2014 census finding revealed -- Convenor's focus -- National Simultaneous Storytime at Ballarat Health Services -- Taking it to the next level: reviews of systematic reviews -- HLA/Medical Director Health Informatics Innovation Award winner announced -- HLA and MLA joint poster project -- Book review: Climate change adaptation for health and social services -- HLA Member Survey report -- Competition: Your chance to promote the importance of research in the Australian library and information profession -- HLA Professional Development Day: full program revealed -- Professional development diary dates.