PD presentation to teacher-librarians

Yesterday I spoke to a group of about 30 teacher-librarians from non-government junior schools about ALIA's PD program. This was the result of a request from one of them who is enrolled in the scheme, and is very impressed with it, and how it works. Her introduction set the scene nicely, so my job was pretty easy. I took the approach that most of them are doing the work anyway, and this was a way to have their efforts acknowledged. There were lots of nods from the audience! I also tied it in with moves in NSW to have teachers keep their credentials up to date through the NSW Institute of Teachers -- they have a category called "teacher identified PD" or something like that, and it sits very well with ALIA's informal learning activities. Might was well get double recognition for their efforts. And of course the very meeting they were all at was another excellent example. It really did go down well, and of course I used it to promote ALIA membership as well. Derek's Frontline in the most recent inCite was useful there. Lots of membership kits were handed out, as well as PD registration forms -- hope there's an influx of members and registrations as a result. One final thought -- freebies like balloons, post-its and bookmarks always go down well at gatherings of teacher-librarians!

LIS School visits

Hi all,

Your advice is wanted. When you visit LIS schools:

• What are the top 3 benefits of ALIA student membership that you emphasise?
• Have any of you done a double act with an ALIA group member and if so, how did it go?
• What goes down well with students?
• What would you never do again?
• How long do you talk?

Thanks, Sally

8 gorgeous ladies

Good to see you all!

Just a quick note from me to say how good it was to spend a few hours with you all last week. Face to face is definitely better than ear to ear! Trust you all made it home safely -- I finally got home yesterday after a very pleasant weekend in the nation's capital. I do like Canberra (and yes, I know I will now be tarred and feathered and banished from Sydney!). Robyn, thanks for all you did to get us together and to ensure the value of our shared time.

LLOs visit Canberra

While we're still figuring out the date we're all descending on Canberra (see the Doodle survey at http://www.doodle.ch/q5civdk44n2mtwbf) doesn't mean we can't start scheming...

Some of us may be spending some leisure time there, and Canberra being the hub of all things cool and chic, we'd better start fitting it all in. Last time I visited Canberra I was about 8, so if you have any suggestions for things to do and see, leave your comments here.

My children have been on school trips to Canberra and highly recommend the shelving robots at the National Library (please tell me if they're just pulling my leg).

Suggestions for restaruants - happy to let Robyn give us the local favourites, but I liked this site which tells you where to go pollie watching (http://www.taste.com.au/news+features/articles/370/canberra).

On questions about teacher-librarians

I've just answered a couple of questions about teacher-librarian qualifications, and Robyn thought it might be useful to share it with you. Hence, this posting. Here's my answer to a rather vague question about whether teacher-librarians are teachers, or librarians, or both:

"re qualifications for teacher-librarians: I do know quite a bit about this, since I spent many years working as a teacher-librarian myself. In the government sector, teacher-librarians must have teaching qualifications, but not necessarily librarianship quals. This is due to a variety of issues, but most significantly duty of care requirements. Teacher-librarians teach extensively (or at least they should!!), and thus must be qualified teachers. In secondary schools, about 95% of teacher-librarians are qualified librarians. In primary schools, where many teacher-librarian positions are part-time, the figure is less, maybe 75 or 80%. ALIA would like to see all teacher-librarians with dual qualifications -- see https://webaccess.alia.org.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarians.html and http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarian.standards.html

"I've just had a quick look at the NSW DET website, and see that they too ask for dual qualifications https://webaccess.alia.org.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/employment/teachnsw/brochures.htm%23librarian But I think the reality is that they cannot always fill positions with dually qualified people, especially in regional and rural areas -- though certainly this is their preference -- and must go with the teaching quals first.

"The non-government sector is mixed -- very difficult to give you a comprehensive overview, but I'd say the majority of teacher-librarians in this sector have dual quals.

"You might be interested in the work that Georgia Phillips and others are doing to promote teacher-librarianship and school libraries at The Hub -- see https://webaccess.alia.org.au/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://hubinfo.wordpress.com/ ALIA is certainly following this work with great interest. And of course ALIA and the Australian School Library Association work closely together."

As an afterthought, it's worth adding that in NSW, the DET has put substantial resources into helping teacher-librarians gain ALIA recognised qualifications -- in fact this is how I got my start in the industry, completing a Grad Dip in Teacher-librarianship at the then Kuring-gai CAE I(now UTS) way back in the mid 80's.

And please, don't take any of this as gospel, especially the figures -- they are very much guesstimates!

Welcome back in 2008

And have we got a fun-filled year ahead with projects, projects, projects!

In 2008, you'll discover a new design over the ALIA website content. Yes, we will be updating the style sheets to reflect our branding. Due for completion in late January, early February

ALIA NO will be revamped. Yes - gutted like a fish and made pretty. This will be starting late January, early February and hopefully finishing in March / April.

And just because we want to keep life interesting for the ALIA staff, we'll be implementing a new member services database. This project has started and we'll be receiving a project plan from Coresoft tomorrow (Friday 25th January).

We'll also hopefully be organising a member survey, organising or assisting with our biennial conference, satellite events, NLS4, group events, education and workforce summit, public libraries summit.

Yes - another exciting year brought to you by ALIA - your favourite workplace :-)

Cheers, Robyn