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

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.

Research grants of up to $5000 are offered by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). The Research Grant Award is open to library practitioners and early career LIS researchers who are Members of ALIA.

The purpose of the award is to enable the recipient to undertake a research program on a selected library or information issue of present and future relevance to the development and improvement of library and information services in Australia.

This document provides a template for recipients of the Research Grant Award to complete for quarterly reporting to ALIA.

Library Design Conference 2021: Changing Spaces virtual conference held on 18 March 2021.

This document provides a conference program. Featuring presentations on:

• Designing public buildings in a post-COVID environment (Keynote)
• Changing faces, spaces and places: the impact of Library space transformation at the University of Western Australia
• The Creative Technology Hub sets sail
• State Library Victoria
• City of Salisbury Library
• Library Design Awards 2021
• Library Design Awards panel

ALIA Information Online 2015 Conference, 2-5 February 2015, Sydney: at the edge.

Abstract

Visions of technological utopia often portray an increasingly ‘seamless’ world, where technology integrates experience across space and time. Edges are blurred as we move easily between devices and contexts, between the digital and the physical.

But Mark Weiser, one of the pioneers of ubiquitous computing, questioned the idea of seamlessness, arguing instead for ‘beautiful seams’ — exposed edges that encouraged questions and the exploration of connections and meanings.

With discovery services and software vendors still promoting ‘seamless discovery’ as one of their major selling points, it seems the value of seams and edges requires further discussion. As we imagine the future of a service such as Trove, how do we balance the benefits of consistency, coordination and centralisation against the reality of a fragmented, unequal, and fundamentally broken world.

This paper will examine the rhetoric of ‘seamlessness’ in the world of discovery services, focusing in particular on the possibilities and problems facing Trove. By analysing both the literature around discovery, and the data about user behaviours currently available through Trove, I intend to expose the edges of meaning-making and explore the role of technology in both inhibiting and enriching experience.

How does our dream of comprehensiveness mask the biases in our collections? How do new tools for visualisation reinforce the invisibility of the missing and excluded? How do the assumptions of ‘access’ direct attention away from practical barriers to participation?

How does the very idea of systems and services, of complex and powerful ‘machines’ ready to do our bidding, discourage us from seeing the many, fragile acts of collaboration, connection, interpretation, and repair that hold these systems together?

Trove is an aggregator and a community; a collection of metadata and a platform for engagement. But as we imagine its future, how do avoid the rhetoric of technological power, and expose its seams and edges to scrutiny.

ALIA Statement on Afghanistan in August 2021. As libraries around the world work towards achieving the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, our deep concerns are for the best possible outcome for all people in Afghanistan, and particularly women and girls.

This submission from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), the Australian Public Library Alliance (APLA), and ALIA Health Libraries Australia discusses how public libraries support people to gain information and health literacy skills; and the role of health libraries as important sources of information for medical students, researchers, clinicians, and other health practitioners.

In 2021, ALIA supported the Declaration statement in support of literacy and numeracy for all adult Australians alongside Adult Learning Australia, the Australian Council for Adult Literacy, the Australian Council of Social Services, the Australian Coalition for Education and Development, the Reading Writing hotline, the Australian Neighbourhood Houses and Centres Association and the Literacy for Life Foundation.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the ALIA Board, Members, Committees, Groups and staff have worked fast to respond to the changing situation. This document is a summary of COVID-19 related activity carried out by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) from March to July 2020.

Article by John Geijsman AALIA and Kirsty Lightfoot from INCITE May/June 2021 Volume 42 Issue 3 - Open Space.

This article discusses how libraries are connecting with their communities online with the development of a dedicated community Minecraft server.

Each year the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) trend reports provide Members, including employees, employers, students and educators, with an understanding of the national library and information science (LIS) education and employment landscape. 

As the sector’s peak professional body, ALIA promotes the use of accurate data and analysis to drive evidence-based policy and planning. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided additional challenges in data collection, with some government agencies forced to pause or alter their reporting, or to release data with strong cautions as to reliability.

To address this data gap, for the first year ALIA conducted a survey of Institutional Members. The survey provided a snapshot of the industry during the pandemic and gauged sentiment about the future. This survey supplements information gathered from other sources including the annual course returns from ALIA accredited courses and the latest figures from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

Attachment 2 to Australian Media Literacy Alliance submission to the Inquiry into international digital platforms operated by Big Tech companies, March 2023.

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).

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Board accepts that climate change is a dangerous reality and that its effects pose an increasing threat to libraries and the communities they serve.

The statement outlines actions being taken by ALIA to respond to climate change by supporting its members, reducing the association's own environmental footprint and being and active participant in collective efforts to improve the outlook for the planet.

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.

Speaker list for a virtual professional development seminar held 26 November 2020, featuring presentations which highlight innovation in health libraries following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Article by Sue McKerracher, CEO of the Australian Library and Information Association from ACCESS November 2020 Volume 34 No. 4

This article discusses the Australian Media Literacy Alliance's (AMLA) approach to creating media literate citizens.

This document provides an overview of how Australian libraries provide valuable support for Australian authors and publishers. 

ALIA’s Special Libraries Working Group has put together this directory of special libraries to support collaboration. This directory is an update of the edition published earlier this year, and 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 document outlines the foundation knowledge required by an entry-level graduate employed in the library and information sector.

This document replaces "The library and information sector: core knowledge, skills and attributes (2014)".

For the Australia Reads 2020 rebrand we moved towards a fun, friendly and flexible look and feel that would appeal to kids and grown ups alike and allow us to easily pivot towards #AustraliaReadsAtHome during lockdown. The Australian Reading Hour, our major event, was delayed from September to November and all but one live author events were cancelled. The move posed significant challenges, but the three campaigns over the year created months of promotion of the benefits of reading.

Miss Anne Harrison (1923-1992) was librarian-in-charge of the Brownless Medical Library at the University of Melbourne (1949-1983), and founder of the Central Medical Library Organization (1953-1994). She helped pioneer the introduction of Medline into Australia, and was a founder of the Australian Medical Librarians Group in the early 1970s, and later of the LAA Medical Librarians Section (now ALIA Health Libraries Australia).

The Anne Harrison Award was established to commemorate her work, and to encourage others to make their own contribution to the development of health librarianship.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Health Libraries Australia Executive (HLA) along with the ALIA Board of Directors supports the safety and well-being of library workers and the health sciences communities. The Executive advocates for the safety of members, colleagues, health care workers, and the general public in the continuing provision of information services and resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This submission from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) discusses the role of library and information professionals in supporting formal education and lifelong learning through school, TAFE, university, public and special libraries. In order to run these institutions and provide these services, we need tertiary qualified library and information professionals.

Under the government's draft legislation, teacher librarianship units of study will be funded in line with teacher education units of study in the proposed new model. However, ALIA is advocating for all library and information science courses to be reassigned from Cluster 1 to Cluster 2, alongside IT and education, given our professions’ close alignment.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has been conscious of the growing casualisation of the library and information workforce in recent years.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 illustrate the fact that casual staff become the most vulnerable of workers when library organisations are faced with shrinking budgets. Furthermore, those currently employed in library work face the brunt of increased workloads as casual staff are stood down.

Secure work conditions for our members are an important factor in sustaining a strong, engaged and committed workforce for the Australian library and information sector. ALIA strongly encourages those in positions of power – library management, university heads, school principals, organisation leaders and local councils – to commit to supporting their casual workers.

Article by Lesley Acres, CSLP Project Officer and Program Officer, Indigenous Services, State Library of Queensland and Aimee Said, NSLA Program Coordinator, National and State Libraries Australia from INCITE September/October 2020 Volume 41 Issue 9/10 - Professional Growth.

This article discusses the Culturally Safe Libraries Program (CSLP), a collaborative effort by national, state and territory libraries to provide a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island clients and colleagues.

This submission from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Australia Public Library Alliance (APLA) discusses the expansion of libraries into the broader arts and culture mix; the ongoing need for university qualified library and information professionals; and the benefits of creative and cultural industries to Australian society.

ALIA-APLA provides the following recommendations:

• Align librarianship with IT and education in the Job Ready Graduates plan
• Invest in Australian books, writers and reading
• Promote public libraries as centres for digital transformation of government services

Well-resourced school libraries staffed by qualified library professionals are essential to rebuild the literacy levels of Australian students and achieve an appropriate level of reading competency. School libraries are necessary to create safe, confident users of online content and ensure that young people are media literate.

The statement calls on commonwealth, state and territory governments to ensure equitable access to appropriately funded and well-resourced school libraries, enhanced by the services of fully qualified teacher librarians and other library professionals.

In June 2020, Australia had faced its first lockdown and in many parts of the country we were starting to adapt to the ‘new normal’. The New Generation Advisory Committee (NGAC) noticed an apprehension among new professionals during two #AusLibChats. The May topic for #AusLibChat was Housebound and the June topic was Mindfulness. During both chats it was clear from the tweets that people were struggling to find peace during these stressful times. Many who were casuals lost their jobs. Others looking for employment were voicing their dismay at the lack of opportunities.

The NGAC composed a survey titled, “How has COVID-19 affected the careers of emerging GLAM professionals?” This report provides an insight into the experiences, opinions, and feelings of new generation professionals on how COVID-19 had, or was currently, affecting their careers.