Library Technicians Conference Encore 2011; New Librarians Symposium Encore 2011

Almost 20 attended the conference encore at the National Library on 19 October. A YouTube of Rachel Green, one of the keynote speakers at the Library Technicians conference, started the session focusing on confidence and networking.

Robin Bell gave a great presentation of the New Librarians symposium, emphasizing papers on a range of programs that strengthen the development of technology skills and knowledge. He talked of the inspiring presentations of Mal Booth and Kathryn Greenhill. While technology was a focus so was teamwork and personal development. A copy of his slides will be available shortly.

Naomi and Noellen from the National Museum talked about the National Library Technicians conference. They came back with lots of ideas from presentations and tours. They recommended Rachel Green's presentations on networking and client service. A bus tour to Edith Cowan University and Wannaroo Library gave great insights. The presentation on use of iPads was very useful and gave confidence to explore their use at work (and home). The Acquisitions seminar was very useful. Suppliers at the seminar gave very practical advice. They have been in touch with people they met at the conference and seminar, putting into practice the networking tips from the conference. The RDA presentation was also excellent. OH & S issues were well covered in a session at the conference. The bus tours were highly recommended.

Catherine James from the AFP also practiced her presentation skills. She was found the conference a great way to meet colleagues she know only via the phone and email. The presentation "Getting out of your comfort zone" was terrific, highlighting how to juggle your life and work to get better control and manage priorities. A great suggestion is to make an appointment with yourself to focus on particular things. It's ok to say I'll get back to you. Finding your most productive time of day is important by scheduling things around that. She enjoyed Rachel Green's session on networking, gently building confidence to engage with others through exercises in her session.

Lucinda from Treasury showed a video from YouTube "first follower" which emphasized the importance of the first and subsequent followers, not just leaders. "It takes guts to be a first follower. The first follower transforms a lone nut to ....a movement". Rachel Green's use of freddo frogs to demonstrate "dropping the ball" to not pick up others anger in the workplace was great. Elana Norlin inspired us with a presentation of persuasion and influence, using her library and their funding review to identify how to and how not to present your case. She recommended everyone look at the presentation. The presentation on the WA Dept of Sport library was enthralling - the library became "virtual" with it's physical collection significantly reduced.

Janetta from ALIA found Rachel Green's session on mindfulness very challenging and has inspired her. From the ALIA stand the conference vibe was really strong and positive. The follower video was also used in the crossover event on the Friday afternoon of the Library Technicians and New Librarians events. Janetta presented at the Library Technicians conference on the review of the education system for technicians and gave an overview of the project.

Leadership lessons were talked of including getting up on the dance floor. the music at the dinner was great.

The event also provided an opportunity to talk about the need for a rounded approach to LUS and museum and archive skills. For educators there is a challenge in making this doable for students. RDA, metadata and cataloguing were key areas of discussion at both the new librarians and library technicians conference. Rowena's presentation at the Library Technicians conference was recommended.

Roxanne Missingham

Parliamentary Librarian

Kym Holden awarded the outstanding contribution award from ALIAActive 2011

The ALIA ACTive group congratulates Ms Kym Holden on becoming the group’s 2011 Outstanding Contribution award recipient.

Kym is the Director of Library Services at the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations She received this award as recognition of the following:

• Work for ALIA in encouraging capacity building and knowledge sharing for library staff across the ACT;

· contribution to Information Awareness month which has effectively raised the profile of libraries within the information professions and supported many professional development activities;contribution to the ACT ALIA committee; and

· considerable achievements in the workplace including delivery of new online training services, development of library intranets and information skills in the department, reflecting extraordinarily well on the skills and knowledge of the profession.

In addition to her work in the ACT Kym has made a major contribution to Australian government libraries through hear leadership in the Australian Libraries Government Information Network.

We will be recognising Kym’s success in an article in a forthcoming issue of the ALIA newsletter, Incite.

The ACT Group thanks James Bennett for the prize (two fabulous books) which we were able to award Kym with.

Well done Kym!

Roxanne Missingham

Parliamentary Librarian

Vale Nilofer Mannan

Nilofer Mannan a library colleague battled cancer for quite some time. She passed away on Sunday 3 September 2011 in Greenwich Hospital in Sydney. She was surrounded by family and friends and our thoughts are with her children Adam and Aniqa. Nilofer, as the former Library Manager at the Dept. of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, was an active member of our library community, serving on the AGLIN Executive Committee for a number of years. She worked in a range of portfolio libraries during her library career. Nilofer always met life with a smile and will be sadly missed by all those who know her.

Kym Holden
DEEWR Library Manager

Gungahlin library opening: the Jewel in the crown

A number of us were fortunate enough to be invited to the opening by Simon Corbell, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, of the new Gungahlin library on 17 June 2011. The opening of a new public library is a very rare event. It is a new purpose built library that incorporates a number of gee whiz facilities that many of us wish for but never get. These features include feature free internet access, a media zone with DVDs and CDs, a café, an interactive soccer game for youngsters and an outdoor courtyard. What I liked most about the new library was its spacious light airiness and the enthusiasm of the staff that seem to enjoy working in this clean bright new building. A lot of planning and thought has been put into the Library – this shows in such things as the thematic organisation of the book collects such as Home and garden, Health etc and then sub arranged in to the Dewy number systems. However this larger grouping works better for the average library user who wants to browse and find things easily rather than having to navigate the complexities of the Dewey Decimal system.'

The Government has invested approximately $12 million dollars into the new library as part of the Gunghalin College project which also includes Gungahlin College Library Zone and CIT and Community Rooms. All in all this form so part of the wider educational precinct in Gungahlin and makes the overall zone, a delightful piece of public space. What topped off my pleasure in the new library was the memoralisation of Michael Salmon’s books, the Monster that ate Canberra with the new statue of the Monster at the front of the library. This ties the new building in with the wider history of the National Capital in the form of bunyip whimsy. I suggest you go out and look at the new library yourselves both as librarians and library users as then at least you can say you have been there and done that.

Several interesting features on the library were broadcast on ABC radio 666

Sorting the books at the Gunghalin library

Bunyip sculpture unveiled in Gunghalin

Trove wins egovernment award 2011

Congratulations to the National Library of Australia for winning the Excellence in eGovernment Award at CeBIT Australia last week. Trove is a fabulous service providing access to a wonderful range of information resources held in Australian libraries and other cultural Institutions.

It reveals digitized material, scholarly collections and print material held in libraries in all sectors. A wonderful recognition of a fantastic product.

you can read more at

http://www.cebit.com.au/2011-in-the-media/CeBIT-2011-Trove-search-engine-wins-eGovernment-award

or at the AGIMO govspace blog.

Roxanne Missingham
Australian Parliamentary Librarian

Digital Hansard presentation 8 June 2011

Bernie Harris, Kathryn York and Roxanne Missingham gave a presentation on a cold winters night to an audience of enthusiastic librarians at the National Library. They reported on an over 12 month project which has delivered access to over 600,000 pages of Hansard, enabling the community to have online access to the complete Hansard for the federal parliament. Hansard is now fully accessible in facsimile as PFDs and searchable through conversion to XML. Bernie described some fabulous stories of Hansard and its making including controversial proceedings and changes in speech making by members of parliament over the years. The slides include a link to Bernie’s Whispers in the corridor history, a speech by Arthur Calwell and Question time videos.

Powerpoint presentation

Library Technicians Day 2011

National Library Technicians Day was celebrated in the capital with a great breakfast at Pork Barrel attended by around 40 enthusiastic ACT library staff and students. Colleen Gammage and I had a wonderful time organizing the event getting more and more excited as the list of acceptances grew. We had two door prizes -a great book published by the Centre for Information Studies at CSU "Libraries in the twenty first century" and "Uniting a profession" published by ALIA.

Library technicians are a vital part of ACT library services - they have fabulous energy, great ideas and skills. I'd like to thank all library technicians for the terrific contribution they make to Australian libraries.

In the coming months we'll think about some more activities for library technicians. If you have any suggestions please contact Colleen or me.

roxanne.missingham@aph.gov.au
colleen.gammage@treasury.gov.au

Roxanne Missingham

Parliamentary Librarian