• City of Sydney's  fabulous new branch library at Surrey Hills. This glorious new "green" building sits like a shining beacon in the middle of the surrounding historic streetscape. Staff have responded to the overwhelming numbers who have ome through the door and the normal teething problems with good humour. If you get the chance go and have a look. The library is a 10 minute walk from Central Station and there are some fabulous cafes in the vicinity.
• The Online organising committee, particularly Kay Harris and Linden Fairbairn. Many of us have Online permanently marked in our professional calendars but have you ever considered the hard work that goes into making this, our biggest conference, such a success? Unlike the other ALIA conferences Online is always in Sydney and most committee members commit to more than one stint. Great job team!
• My colleagues in the NSW Public Libraries Marketing Group. We are drawn from around the state and meet quarterly. My favourite bit is the information sharing component which is accompanied by mad scribbling and cries of "can you send me that?". Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.
• The wonderful staff at Central West Libraries who keep me sane, on track and are happy to share Easter egg stash (yes, I do still have some) - aren't they kind. 

The votes have been counted, the outcome announced and suddenly I'm the soon to be Vice-President of ALIA! It all seems a little unreal. There have been many email, phone and text messages: some from colleagues I haven't seen for many years which is a bit like Christmas; some with attachments including possible tiara choices; a number from other candidates; and many from the NSW Public Library Network. I have also received a greatly appreciated message from Kevin Dudeney who was a most worthy opponent. It has been wonderful to receive them all. Flowers have been delivered and there are promises of champagne!

A big thank you to everyone who voted and to all those who offered support. Most importantly  special thanks  to the staff of Central West Libraries, my family, friends and colleagues (with more in advance) for making everything I get involved with possible. You are the real stars.

So how do you celebrate at 4pm on a Wednesday - break open the left over Easter Eggs!

Cheers

 Last week I had an email from a new ALIA member asking if I thought it was an Association for designed for Librarians alone or whether it in fact encompassed a wider range of information professionals (hence my subject line "Friends or Relations"). Rather than just respond to "Mr X"  I decided to post this blog in the hope that others too may be interested.

As reported elsewhere in  pre-election discussion I strongly believe that we need to think as one industry for the benefit of our members and the communities we serve. So what is our industry? Well increasingly it's more than what we might traditionally associate with the term "library" and even "information" ,and if we keep a weather eye on the changing environment we'll find that it's not a static set of components. I believe that we can adress and explore this in a number of ways.

ALIA 's governance currently allows for recognition from the allied fields of Computing Science  (AALIA (CS)) and Records Management (AALIA (RM)) and the possibility of expanding this to encompass Knowledge Management (KM) is currently under discussion. The issue of allied fields was certainly canvassed  at the Summit last Friday (I believe that details of the discussion will be up on the ALIA site this week).

We can also continue to develop strong partnerships with allied associations.  Some of these already exist and are formalised by Memorandum of Understanding/Collaboration. With good will on both sides this process could be expanded to include a raft of other Associations for our mutual benefit. 

Finally we need to look at these synergies when reviewing the education requirements of our industry. From an employer's perspective it's time for us to be creative in how we package these to maximise the opportunities for education and professional development.

"Mr X" I hope this goes some way to answering your questions. The discussion at the Summit raised many questions for me and I have been working through them with colleagues, friends and family in the intervening week. Not all of these people are in our industry, in fact most of them aren't which is why I've found the conversations so interesting. From my (very) small "survey' base many professions seem to be facing similar issues  in relation to education and recognition of qualifications. But different professions/institutions/associations are adopting varied approaches and this gives me faith that we we find a clear way forward using the examples of others.

On that note I'm braving the rain (hurrah!) and going home.

Easter, and time to curl up and read between catching up with family and friends. Thankfully the weather is decidedly cooler which for me adds to the experience and stops the chocolate melting. I'm just finishing Geraldine Brooks' People of the book. It was the chosen title for our  book group's (Pageturners) March  meeting - I fudged my way through even though at that stage I was only up to page 80, luckily it wasn't my turn to lead the discussion!

Pageturners is one of my Library's book groups and is open to everyone. The numbers vary from month to month. We started it several years ago to counter the difficulties new residents faced when trying to break into the "closed shop" of many of the established groups. Subsequently we have an ever changing audience which makes for a stimulating time. The wine and cheese helps too. Every few months we invite an  expert to join us to give further insights into the subject - for example we had a child psychiatrist when we read We need to talk about Kevin (Lionel Shriver) , a magistrate when we spoke about Jo Cinque's consolation (Helen Garner) and a Catholic ethicist when we looked at My sister's keeper (Jodie Picoult).

This all builds on the strong reading and writing focus we have as a Library which in turn reflects what our communities have told us they want. One of the key strategy areas in both our Strategic and Marketing Plans is headed "Joy of Reading". In recognition of this focus last year we appointed a full time Reading and Writing Coordinator (the gorgeous Jasmine). Jas's job brings together a number of strands we'd put in place over the past 12 years and gives them a new direction. What I find interesting is that many of these take us back to the focus we had up to the 1970's, a focus that is obviously important to our communities. If you're interested in where we're headed go to the Central West Libraries site www.cwl.nsw.gov.au, the planning documents hang off "about us" while "Reading and Writing" will lead you to some of our other projects including the Central West Writers' Centre.

Back to People of the Book.  Without giving too much away it traces the people through whose hands the Sarajevo Haggadah, a Jewish prayer book passes to ensure its survival. Following Pageturners "we" had a great idea. We're now tracing and recording the journey of 5 of our own "books" in the lead up to Australian Library and information Week when we'll publish their "stories". We're looking at an easy book, an audio book, a periodical, a novel and a general non-fiction work. Serendipity played a role when a library in Pinjarra WA requested a very suitable title on ILL so we'll be able to show a bigger picture perspective. We'll be putting details up on our web site but feel free to copy the idea.

Hope you all have a great Easter

Cheers

Jan

Our Library Committee met last Friday. They are a wonderful group representing the 5 local government areas we service. On the agenda for information I had a paper about the Learning 2.0 project we're currently involved in. As the Committee covers a range of ages and interests I expected a few "luddite" comments ... and I got them. I also received overwhelming support and interest in the project. One of the delegates who had obviously read the papers before the meeting (always a good sign) came bearing a copy of the February 2008 Government News whose cover story "Library 2.0: the next chapter" is a recommended read - good way of raising the topic with your funding body. It's also refreshing to see a library issue make front page news in this publication.

Meanwhile in my own Learning/Library 2.0 journey I'm grappling with Library Thing! - I'm very tempted by the T shirt on the web site.

Cheers

Jan

For me Sunday morning is marked by routine: breakfast at the table surrounded by the weekend's papers, a long phone call to my sister Jo in Wollongong and at some stage a visit to the markets to stock up on fruit and flowers. The latter invariably means running into someone - the "who" depends on how early or late you are.

This morning my conversation over the sweetcorn was with Robyn Schwartz. Robyn was for many years the Librarian at Orange Agricultural College (under its many aliases) before becoming Institute Librarian at the Western Institute of TAFE. Though she retired a few years ago she is still active in the profession undertaking consultancies and supporting libraries (including my own) through a number of initiatives. It wasn't long before talk turned to things library and I confessed to my nomination as VP. This in turn led to ALIA and its role in regional and rural areas.

If you look at my responses to the "Questions for Candidates" on the ALIA site http://www.alia.org.au/governance/elections/2008/board/vp/questions.JR.html you will see that one of my key issues is to re-engage the profession in regional and rural Australia. When I first came to Orange in the early 1990's the ALIA Regional Group was newly formed and very active. As someone new to the region and new to their sector (I had just swapped from publics to specials) it was a wonderful opportunity to interact  with other library and information professionals and to develop the networks on which I have built my career. Over the succeeding years I held a number of  executive roles in our regional group, including president, and working together the group developed some great projects.

Unfortunately with the review of ALIA in the early 2000's our group was dissolved and while we have made an effort to maintain some cooperation and cohesion without the overarching structure of ALIA we have dissolved into our sectoral groups, totally missing the "big picture" focus. Those of you who work in regional areas will recognise the importance of working together as one industry to the benefit of our respective communities. With limited resources (and here I include staff) this is a positive step towards overcoming some of our difficulties. I have had many a conversation with colleagues locally about re-starting our group but like many things it sometimes needs an incentive from above and this is where I believe ALIA can assist.

Hope you have a lovely day

Cheers

Jan