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

[Peer reviewed] This conference paper explores the capacity of academic librarians to participate in creating an app which brings together key journal information in a userfriendly interface that assists academics with maximising their research impact. The paper discusses how research impact is at the heart of institutional performance and reputation and is increasingly gaining prominence in academic library services. The University of Wollongong (UOW) Library implemented a Research Impact Analysis Service (RIAS) in 2011 to help researchers, research centres and the University strengthen their impact by providing detailed, strategic reports based on citations analysis drawn from numerous datasets. Consideration was given to issues of scalability and capacity to sustain and grow the service. An opportunity for collaboration arose, connecting the Library’s business need with the software development skills of JoindUp, a local start-up company under the umbrella of UOW’s iAccelerate business incubator program. The vision was to introduce efficiencies and innovation in the production of Journal Impact Reports. The project brief was to develop an application that draws journal metrics together to empower academics in their strategic publishing decisions. 

A project team was established and developed the Publish for Impact app which allows researchers to access a range of journal indicators in a user-friendly interface, providing a comparison of relevant titles. The Publish for Impact app has demonstrated the capability of academic libraries to embrace the development of new technologies to bring strategic benefits and add value to Library services. The app enables workload efficiencies, flexibility and assists academics to make informed decisions when choosing where to publish.

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 explores how academic librarians are under pressure to continually adapt services and resources to meet the changing needs of academic staff and students and respond to the wider availability of unmediated digital information (Jaguszewski & Williams, 2013). Many university libraries are responding by pursuing new methods of client engagement by providing more targeted and personalised library services (Tiffen & England, 2011). This paper presents findings from a small study of the information seeking approaches of 13 academics teaching mathematics in a range of Australian universities. It finds that while academics have direct access to more information than ever before, they are also time poor, face many challenges as teachers and are under increasing pressure to change their approaches to teaching. Findings suggest that communities of practice could be effective in supporting access to information about teaching. Librarians have the opportunity to foster such communities and to support the information gathering and sharing of the communities of practice.

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)

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.

We welcome this opportunity to respond to the Productivity Commission Data Availability and Use Issues Paper. Library and information professionals work with data every day: we capture data; we help store data and make it accessible; we help make data discoverable; we help others find the data they need; we contribute to data policy discussions.

While we are aware of the potential risks to individuals’ privacy, mitigation strategies exist and we are also aware of the benefits of releasing data into the world. On a grand scale, the work of library and information professionals in making data more accessible and discoverable supports a stronger evidence-based approach to policy development in government and greater innovation through humanities and science research initiatives. At a less macro level, making data available through libraries can support small businesses and entrepreneurs with new product development and it can help individuals with their own projects. Family historians, for examples, are dedicated users of digitised newspapers and local history collections.

ALIA's response to the Productivity Commission Data Availability and Use Issues Paper (April 2016) includes eight recommendations.

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which reports on a research project that considered the perceptions, expectations, and behaviors of library employers on job negotiations as both employers and as job seekers. A survey was used to collect demographic data, including gender, age, position, and type of library respondents work in, as well as data on respondents’ reasoning of why they did or did not withdraw an offer of employment, their level of comfort in negotiating, and how much flexibility they believe there was for negotiating job offers. The research question was addressed through quantitative analyses of responses to multiple choice questions and qualitative analyses of responses to open ended questions.

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

[Peer reviewed] This conference paper reports on a research project that considered the perceptions, expectations, and behaviors of library employers on job negotiations as both employers and as job seekers. A survey was used to collect demographic data, including gender, age, position, and type of library respondents work in, as well as data on respondents’ reasoning of why they did or did not withdraw an offer of employment, their level of comfort in negotiating, and how much flexibility they believe there was for negotiating job offers. The research question was addressed through quantitative analyses of responses to multiple choice questions and qualitative analyses of responses to open ended questions.

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

Contents: Adding and finding treasure in Trove -- Convenor's focus -- Driving innovation and excellence: HLA/Medical Director Health Informatics Innovation Award -- EBLIP goes to USA -- HLA scholarship winner announced -- Which drugs work best for nausea and vomiting in the ED? Ask the library! --- Lost opportunity: '85% of biomedical research is wasted' - not to mention librarians -- MLA News -- Ipswich Hospital Library reinvigoration -- National round-up: WA and Queensland -- HLA PD Day, MOOCs and online training -- 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: 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.

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.

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.

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 explores the capacity of academic librarians to participate in creating an app which brings together key journal information in a userfriendly interface that assists academics with maximising their research impact. The paper discusses how research impact is at the heart of institutional performance and reputation and is increasingly gaining prominence in academic library services. The University of Wollongong (UOW) Library implemented a Research Impact Analysis Service (RIAS) in 2011 to help researchers, research centres and the University strengthen their impact by providing detailed, strategic reports based on citations analysis drawn from numerous datasets. Consideration was given to issues of scalability and capacity to sustain and grow the service. An opportunity for collaboration arose, connecting the Library’s business need with the software development skills of JoindUp, a local start-up company under the umbrella of UOW’s iAccelerate business incubator program. The vision was to introduce efficiencies and innovation in the production of Journal Impact Reports. The project brief was to develop an application that draws journal metrics together to empower academics in their strategic publishing decisions. 

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.

ALIA National 2016 Conference 29 August-2 September 2016 Adelaide: Engage create lead

This paper explores the place of Research Data Management (RDM) support services as an extension of the academic librarian's role. The presenters anticipate that RDM support will become increasingly important in an ever-more data-driven research environment, and share the experiences of three South Australian university libraries in providing RDM, including the skillsets developed and lessons learned.

This report concludes that Library and information science is an occupation with a relatively small, highly qualified workforce (representing approximately 0.2% of the Australian labour force) and an equally small education footprint (approximately 0.2% of VET students and 0.1% of higher education students).

Although the LIS workforce is small, our sector has significant reach and profile because millions of Australians use library services. More than 8.6 million Australians are registered public library users (source: National and State Libraries Australasia statistics) and still more use university, VET, special and school libraries.

The library and information sector remains an attractive proposition. It has a higher average age for workers, many of whom benefit from the option of part time flexible working. However, the workforce tends to be fairly static, with a relatively small number of vacancies occurring through staff turnover, people leaving the sector and the creation of new positions. The full impact of Baby Boomer retirement has yet to be felt, with people staying longer in the workforce.

There will be a modest increase in the number of qualified positions available over the next five years, but a significant decrease in the number of positions for staff without a library and information science qualification. Changes to ALIA’s professional development program in the lead up to 2020 will reflect the need for Certified Professional status in many parts of the sector.

The 2016 edition of the ALIA LIS Education Handbook provides details of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) accredited courses run by higher education and VET providers across Australia. These courses provide newcomers with a gateway to their career and experienced professionals with opportunities for advancement. ALIA accreditation means that courses have passed rigorous assessment by senior leaders from the profession and it acts as a quality assurance for students seeking the best educational outcomes.

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.

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

[Peer reviewed] This conference paper discusses gaming as a pastime that encompasses a wide range of activities including video games, board games, pen and paper role playing games, and card games. It evaluate the ways in which an urban public library can assess and meet the varied social and emotional needs of patrons using board and video games and examines issues surrounding gaming in libraries. It considers the role that game playing can have in the creation and building of communities when participation is facilitated by a public library through the provision of games and gaming events.

A survey was used to gather information to present a snapshot of the gaming habits of a community of individuals who utilise the services of an urban public library. The results can inform other organisations when they are creating a game collection or expanding an existing one to help them choose titles which promote shared experiences and foster communication between community members. 

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

[Peer reviewed] This paper analyses changes to the librarian role and outlines how the Discipline Librarian (DL) role has developed over the last two years at Griffith University, moving away from traditional librarian services and towards a more targeted approach that delivers newly created services supporting scholarly impact throughout the research lifecycle. A strategic change in the service model delivery and a review of research support services identified new services and skills sets that would be required by DL’s. An audit of existing research skills identifying potential skill gaps indicated most DL’s would require additional training and development. This paper also discusses the capability framework and maturity model used for skills development. The authors, employed as Discipline Librarians, surveyed their peers to discover individual perceptions around the newly defined role and also to identify challenges or perceived barriers in communicating the new role and services to their community. Survey findings are discussed.

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

[Peer reviewed] Prison libraries play a pivotal role in serving the educational, recreational and other information needs of prison inmates.  This conference paper discusses the updating of the Mimimum Standard Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners.  

In 2015 the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) established a working group to review and update the Minimum Standard Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners, first published in 1990. The guidelines are designed to assist with the planning of new prison libraries as well as in the evaluation and development of existing services. They are based in part on the third edition of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners (Lehmann & Locke, 2005). This paper describes the activities of the Working Group and the challenges they faced. It examines how Corrective Services New South Wales has responded to the publication of the Guidelines. Other activities relating to prison libraries that are underway or proposed are discussed and opportunities for further research are suggested.

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper that discusses gaming as a pastime that encompasses a wide range of activities including video games, board games, pen and paper role playing games, and card games. It evaluate the ways in which an urban public library can assess and meet the varied social and emotional needs of patrons using board and video games and examines issues surrounding gaming in libraries. It considers the role that game playing can have in the creation and building of communities when participation is facilitated by a public library through the provision of games and gaming events.

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.

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.

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.

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 presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which 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.

It 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 explore 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.

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper that analyses changes to the librarian role and outlines how the Discipline Librarian (DL) role has developed over the last two years at Griffith University, moving away from traditional librarian services and towards a more targeted approach that delivers newly created services supporting scholarly impact throughout the research lifecycle. A strategic change in the service model delivery and a review of research support services identified new services and skills sets that would be required by DL’s. An audit of existing research skills identifying potential skill gaps indicated most DL’s would require additional training and development. This paper also discusses the capability framework and maturity model used for skills development. The authors, employed as Discipline Librarians, surveyed their peers to discover individual perceptions around the newly defined role and also to identify challenges or perceived barriers in communicating the new role and services to their community. Survey findings are discussed. 

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the paper which discusses the issues faced by children with special needs and their families when accessing public libraries. 

The research found there were five common elements that libraries focussed on when addressing issues of accessibility for children with special needs and their families. These elements were: Collections, Programs, Partnerships, Physical barriers (space and equipment), Training. The elements were used to create an inclusive library model. The foundation of this model is supportive management. The inclusive libraries model provides an entry point and structure for public libraries wanting to improve access for children with special needs and their families.