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Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) policy describing information literacy in the context of an information literate school community.

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

[Peer reviewed] This conference paper 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. 

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.

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) accompanies the paper which discusses how Shell Australia's Technical Librarians successfuly combine the roles of the traditional special librarian and the new data librarian. They are a vital part of Shell Australia's multidisciplinary Subsurface and Wells Technical Data Management team, working collaboratively with colleagues across data management, geoscience and information technology (IT) disciplines to ensure the increasing volume, velocity, and variety of the company's geoscientific technical data - very big data - is managed efficiently.

Shell Australia's Technical Librarians were key stakeholders in a recent project to review and improve the existing databases and processes used to manage Shell Australia's goephysical data. The cross-disciplinary engagement resulted in the implementation of tools and processes that provide improved metadata capture, clearer connections between projects and data, improved search functionality, better data management and stronger relationships with stakeholders. The professional skills of the technical librarian remain relevant and valuable in an era of big data, however cross-disciplinary collaboration with data stakeholders is essential to communicate this value and develop additional disciplinary knowledge and data management skills.

Contents: Membership -- Meetings -- Activities -- Alignment with the ALIA Strategic Plan -- Forward plans -- Summary of the sector/topic.

ALIA Special Libraries Summit, 2 September 2016 Adelaide: a satellite event to the ALIA National Conference

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) invited leaders from special libraries in government, health, law, research and other fields to come together to discuss the issues affecting the sector, with the aim of developing the basis for a collaborative national action plan. This report summaries the outcomes of the summit.

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) statement to advocate for library and information resources, programs and services in schools.

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

This conference paper discusses the challenge of promoting online collections in public libraries.

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

This conference paper discusses the City of Joondalup Local History Library's approach to digitising, preserving and publishing a local history collection.

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.

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 paper discusses an approach to managing copyright risk in libraries.

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) assesses and compares the usability of public library web sites in Australia, Canada and the United States.

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) highlights recent changes to copyright legislation and future prospects for libraries regarding fair use.

Ongoing financial, administrative, and technological changes present significant challenges and opportunities for government libraries in delivering services to their clients. Determining how government library and information services might best confront these challenges and take advantage of new opportunities is crucial for the future of the sector. The Australian Government Libraries Information Network (AGLIN) has commissioned a review of service delivery models in Commonwealth Government libraries. The goals of the Commonwealth Government Agency Libraries Review (CGALR) are to evaluate the libraries’ current service delivery models and to develop an options paper outlining some future models which might better serve needs of clients across government.

This literature review considers a range of current perspectives on library and information services,focusing on the specific issues and challenges facing contemporary government libraries and librarians. The review incorporates four key areas:

• Directions in government administration
• National and international trends in government library services
• Developments in contemporary special libraries
• Skills and competencies required by special librarians

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) accompanies the paper discussing the City of Joondalup Local History Library's approach to digitising, preserving and publishing a local history collection.

There are 246 TAFE libraries in Australia, supporting VET students in every State and Territory. At the beginning of 2016, ALIA's Vocational Education and Training Libraries Advisory Committee (VLAC) sought feedback about how changes in structure and funding have affected TAFE libraries and the library and information professionals who run them.

TAFE libraries were asked to complete an online questionnaire with 32 questions relating to changes in collection format, staffing, funding, space and the size of population served. The survey ran from 1 to 25 February 2016.

The TAFE Libraries National Reciprocal Borrowing Scheme is managed by the ALIA VET Libraries Advisory Committee. It allows students and staff of participating TAFE libraries to register and borrow materials in person from any other participating host TAFE library in any other state, in addition to their own library. The scheme is designed to assist students and staff who may be enrolled with or employed by a TAFE institution in one state but who find it more convenient to access TAFE library services in another state. The reciprocal borrowing arrangements between TAFE libraries within a state are not covered by this scheme.

An updated list of participating institutions can be found at Mapping of TAFE Libraries: Updated 2021.

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

This conference paper puts forward the case for a new publishing model for an open access (OA) library and information science (LIS) journal that also encompasses cultural heritage, informatics, and the digital humanities.

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

This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) accompanies the paper which examines the role of Australia in library and librarianship research undertaken by Chinese academics.

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) statement describing and promoting the role of teacher librarians in Australian schools.

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. 

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

This conference paper explores the Stonnington Libraries Online Literacy and Development (SOLID) program developed by Charlotte Aberhart for staff across the Stonnington Library and Information Service. Between 2012 and 2016 Stonnington Library staff found they were increasingly approached by patrons for assistance with mobile devices and online services, in an environment where 'digital first' content was becoming more prevalent. The SOLID program was designed to improve staff confidence in meeting the specific needs of Stonnington Library patrons and encompassed five modules, each allocated 6 weeks for completion: Tablet Basics, eBooks and eAudiobooks, eReference, Social Media, and Online Media.

The paper outlines the structure and content of the SOLID program and discusses the feedback received from participants. In the future the program will run bi-annually at Stonnington Libraries, a choice made to avoid staff fatigue and to allow technological advances to be incorporated. The SOLID program is also available to other libraries through a Creative Commons license (link provided).

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian School Library Association (ASLA) statement emphasising the importance of qualifications for a teacher librarian.

Superseded by: ALIA ACSL Statement on School Library Staffing (2025)

This is the final report of the 2012 Anne Harrison Award Project conducted between October 2014 - February 2015.

This document provides an overview of Federal Government Budget 2016 topics which may affect Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) members and their organisations including: digital transformation, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Public Sector transformation and the Efficiency Dividend, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, higher education, school funding, cyber security, and support for communities.

ALIA Universities and Research Libraries (URLs) ACT and Australian Government Libraries Information Network (AGLIN) ACT Seminar, 9 September 2015 Canberra: change, challenges and opportunities - recasting your library skills

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 investigates the future skills and competencies required by health librarians.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Minimum Standard Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners provide guidance on the establishment, operation, and evaluation of library services to prisoners in Australia.

ALIA HLA professional development day, held 9 July 2015 at Queensland University of Technology. Featuring presentations addressing:

• Smart Searching: Search Filters and Expert Topic Searches.
• PubMed Train the Trainer.
• Cost-Effectiveness Analysis for Health Librarians.
• Research Data Management for Health Services Librarians.