Active ALIA Winter Dinner 2012

About twenty two librarians gathered at the Scholar restaurant in Dickson for our Winter dinner on Thursday 28 June 2012. The restaurant is aptly named as we had some intellectual conversation and librarians are suppose to be the guardians of scholarship. What I enjoy about the annual dinner is catching with range of librarians from a variety of library sectors. By coming together we get to focus on common issues and challenges. The function room at the Scholar restaurant was small enough to make the meal an intimate occasion and the Chinese banquet covered all tastes

At mid dinner, Vanessa Little, Director of Libraries ACT rose to tell us of her vision and direction for ALIS during her term as president. Vanessa spoke of the challenges that are facing the Association and the need of members to advocate both for their libraries sand their profession. She thanked Sue Hutley for leaving the association in a good financial position under her stewardship as the former CEO. I was interested to hear of Vanessa’ changing and expanding roles in the ACT government as one of the manager of the new arboretum and how she has encouraged her staff to learn about and become involved in the needs of the Canberra community. Libraries ACT can been seen to be making a positive difference in the life of the Canberra community. The talk capped off for me an interesting evening



 I also want to thank Gaik Khong who organised the dinner very ably and ensured the rest of us had a good evening in a pleasant venue.

 Karna O’Dea Active ALIA convener