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This document promotes news regarding Australia Reads campaigning as of Tuesday 25 May 2021.

Health Libraries Australia Lunchtime seminars 2021: Thursday 15th July and Thursday 22nd July, 1.00-2.30pm. 

Webconference recording (MP4 audiovisual) of seminar 2 of the "Open Scholarship - All things open" seminars held by HLA, which feature presentations on open access resources in university and health libraries.

ALIA’s Special Libraries Working Group has put together this directory of special libraries to support collaboration. The directory is not a comprehensive listing, but it does identify like-minded individuals working in similar situations. The aim is to enable people to share non-competitive information, insight, expertise, ideas and resources; to improve the sense of connectedness in a sector with many one-person libraries, and to strengthen special libraries’ advocacy network.

This directory is an update of the 4th edition published in early 2021.

Health Libraries Australia Lunchtime seminars 2021: Thursday 15th July and Thursday 22nd July, 1.00-2.30pm. 

This seminar presentation (PowerPoint slides) discusses work by the authors to progress an open research strategy, done at a national level, including implications for health researchers and health research leaders.

ALIA By-Laws as amended to December 2021.

Health Libraries Australia Lunchtime seminars 2021: Thursday 15th July and Thursday 22nd July, 1.00-2.30pm. 

This seminar presentation (PowerPoint slides) discusses the work of the Open Research Reference Group formed to address the barriers to change in the first steps towards making open research a reality at Griffith University.

Library services at VET education providers improve the lives of students by supporting every student, providing 24/7 access to resources, acting as a welcoming space, facilitating digital inclusion and independent learning, widening horizons, providing copyright expertise, business efficiency, education equity, and the recruitment, engagement and retention of students.

Libraries contribute to the university's competitive advantage by providing a central point of reference for students, award-winning spaces, digital access to the world's knowledge, understanding of new digital technology, copyright expertise, contributions to and dissemination of research output, open access and traditional publishing, business efficiency and the recruitment, retention and engagement of students.

Agenda for the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Board of Directors Meeting held on Monday 24 May 2021 at ALIA House, Canberra and via Zoom.

The first meeting of the ALIA Professional Pathways Board in 2021 was conducted over Zoom on 5 July 2021, and included discussion of a range of issues including:

• Meeting in NAIDOC week.
• Conduct of the Board.
• Professional Pathways.

Health Libraries Australia Lunchtime seminars 2021: Thursday 15th July and Thursday 22nd July, 1.00-2.30pm. 

This seminar presentation (PowerPoint slides) discusses impacts of and responses to open access, and ways to target the future goals of the practice.

This advocacy document for the #VoteLibrary campaign discusses the services and impacts of libraries in Australia. When people think about libraries, they think about public libraries, but across Australia there are some 13,000 public, school, university, TAFE, health, law and other special libraries, serving more than 10 million people. There are government department and parliamentary libraries, assisting researchers and policy makers. And there are our National, State and Territory Libraries providing access to heritage materials which document the living history of the nation. The goal of all libraries is for a smarter, more literate population, with universal access to information, leading to increased civic engagement. Libraries comprise collections, physical and virtual spaces, technology, programs and services, expert staff and are shaped around the needs of their 10 million-plus users. 

Poster promoting live online workshop, held 19 August 2021, for librarians who are presenting the results of their research or assisting researchers and clinicians in health and medical disciplines.

During the first phase of ALIA's digital health literacy training program, more than 2,700 public library staff have been trained to support patrons in navigating and understanding Federal Government digital health initiatives, such as My Health Record.

This document (PowerPoint slides) provides instructions and templates to create a visual resource to help library staff run information sessions ALIA has created.

ALIA, along with the Australian Space Agency and The Office of the Chief Scientist, and with help from Science Time From Space, is very excited to be able to bring an additional science and educational component to National Simultaneous Storytime 2021 - a science demonstration conducted by astronauts on the International Space Station emulating the heat balances between the sun/Earth/space.

Student questions about temperatures in outer space were answered by Bjarni Tryggvason, Former Astronaut, Research Engineer and Test Pilot.

The ALIA Community on Resource Description (ACORD) is a new ALIA Advisory and Special Interest Group which aims to support the Australian resource description community. ACORD carries forward the role previously played by the Australian Committee on Cataloguing (ACOC), which dissolved in May 2019, after 40 years of serving the Australian cataloguing and resource description community.

This document sets out the 2019 ACORD Terms of Reference.

INCITE: The magazine for library and information professionals - July/August 2021 Volume 42 Issue 4

Contents: From the President -- From the CEO -- Celebrating books at the ABIAs -- Library and Information Week 2021: Newcastle Libraries Humble Lecture -- Exploring stories that matter -- If you go out on the Quad today -- Creating curious kids -- Data for advocacy -- Public libraries, public good -- The best fit for the job -- Professional Pathways update -- Easy as 1 2 3 -- News from the States and Territories -- From space, everybody can hear you read -- I believe -- Let's talk: Theological libraries -- Building the Christian library -- An exceptional school library -- Angaza Beyond -- Shouting from the rooftops -- What do I believe? -- Try this.

This advocacy document supports the #VoteLibrary campaign. As we head into the 2022 federal election, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) encourages candidates to adopt the library agenda. Fifteen policy, legislative and funding positions are outlined which support the values and goals of the library sector.

This submission from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Australian Public Library Australia (APLA) discusses how libraries bring lifelong learning to the people who need it most; support adult literacy in its many forms; and make the link between early literacy and family literacy. 

The ALIA Board met on 10 August 2021 to develop the next iteration of the ALIA Strategic Plan 2020-2024, with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as its planning framework. At this time, and for the next four years, the ALIA Board foresees the need for a four-fold approach:

1. Supporting a resilient, diverse workforce
2. Developing alliances and collaborative ventures
3. Succeeding through advocacy
4. Enhancing Member value

In addition to ALIA’s ongoing investment in advocacy and the development of critical stakeholder relationships, the workplan for 2021-2024 will feature three major areas of activity linked to the strategic priorities and ALIA’s continued commitment to the SDG.

1. Delivery of the Professional Pathways initiative
2. Review and refresh of ALIA’s structure and operations
3. Increased focus on ALIA and the Sustainable Development Goals

ALIA is investing in a new website and database designed to make managing membership easier and more convenient, and to make information more findable for all our website users.

This document describes the new Member Centre, to be launched 23 August 2021, and answers frequently asked questions.

Paper produced by the ALIA Special Libraries Working Group and AGLIN Think Tank on July 2021 as information resource for ALIA Members and selected stakeholders.

From small libraries run by one or two qualified librarians through to sizeable library and information services employing a team of professionals, special libraries are constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of their users. Special libraries have readily introduced new technologies and new ways of working to deliver greater efficiency and effectiveness.

This paper sets out the position for special libraries in relation to networked or cluster models and offers factors for consideration by management and the library team if this approach is tabled within the organisation.

During the first phase of ALIA's digital health literacy training program, more than 2,700 public library staff have been trained to support patrons in navigating and understanding Federal Government digital health initiatives, such as My Health Record.

This document provides a visual resource to help library staff run information sessions ALIA has created.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and ALIA Australian Public Library Alliance (APLA) respond to the Regional Telecommunications Review issues paper drafted by the Australian Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

ALIA and APLA support equality of access to the benefits arising from our increasingly digital society and view public libraries as having an important role in bridging the gap for those who don’t have the skills, knowledge, money, devices or high speed connection to be regular and confident users of the internet.

ALIA and APLA ask the Regional Telecommunications Review committee to reference the role and value of the public library network in its report and to encourage federal government, telecommunications industry actors and other stakeholders to approach libraries, through councils, as key delivery partners in new initiatives in this space.

The Greening Libraries Literature Review provides an overview of academic and professional literature relating to sustainability practices in the library and information sector in Australia and overseas. It is the first output from the Greening libraries research project and was commissioned by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) with the support of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL).

[Peer reviewed] Abstract: The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic forced public library staff to rapidly rethink the services they offered as lockdown restrictions meant that libraries as social venues briefly came to an end. Online content was developed overnight to fill the void. This study examines the impact that the contactless operational model has had on library services across Australia, as seen through the eyes of eight public library staff. The qualitative study contributes in-depth data to scant literature about public libraries and the pandemic in an Australian context. The study highlights the value of libraries to the community. The need for in-person contact is discussed in terms of future service design in library and information practice.

This document is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association on 2 August 2021, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24750158.2021.1955436.

Citation for published article:

Maree Wilson (2021) Australian Public Library Staff Living through a Pandemic: Personal Experience of Serving the Community, Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 70:3, 322-334, DOI: 10.1080/24750158.2021.1955436

© Maree Wilson 2021

This digital guide was produced by RMIT researchers to support Australian Public Libraries to develop and enhance digital literacy programs for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. The guide was produced as a result of a project conducted in partnership with Hume Libraries. The project was initiated in response to the 2019, Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) report, ’Services for Migrants and Refugees’, which examined the programs that were being implemented across Australian Libraries.

The research project extended ALIA’s work by partnering with Hume Libraries to explore, examine and document the pivotal role that library staff play in implementing and sustaining Digital Literacy Programs for CALD communities. The framework presented in this guide was informed by a literature review that identified good practice and lessons learned in developing, delivering and supporting digital literacy programs globally. It is also informed by the analysis of a series of interviews and a focus group with staff from Hume Libraries in Melbourne who have extensive experience developing and facilitating digital literacy programs to support their CALD community. The remainder of this guide features an introduction to Hume Libraries, followed by presentation.

Summary of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Board of Directors Meeting held on Monday 24 May 2021.

Summary of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Board of Directors Meeting held on Monday 15 March 2021.

On 24th March 2020 the Prime Minister of Australia declared the immediate closure of libraries across the country as part of the national attempt to slow the rate of COVID-19 infections. This meant over 1,600 public library service points across the country in urban, regional and remote locations, were no longer able to offer services on their premises.

This research aimed to explore the response by public libraries across Australia to the COVID-19 crisis. Its findings will assist public libraries in understanding their own roles and performance in a community crisis and will enable them to better prepare for and react to similar crises in the future so that community needs are met as efficiently and effectively as possible. In addition, the research aimed to identify possible trends in future service and resource provision resulting from measures put in place during the COVID-19 crisis.

It is important to note that the protracted nature of the pandemic has meant that many public libraries across Australia are still facing significant operational challenges. We therefore recognise that examples of innovation and best practice are still emerging, and that in many cases public library staff have yet to be afforded the space and time needed for effective reflection on their response to the crisis.