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

Merry Christmas to all LLOs

Thank you to all the ALIA LLOs and for the fabulous work you all do. I love working with you all.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your families and friends! All the best for 2008.

Cheers, Robyn

Chasing those lapsed members

Continuation from the October LLO meeting....

We all know it's important to chase lapsed members. By the time it's got to an LLO these members have received 2 renewal invoices, but is there a better way of doing this?

• should LLOs be chasing lasped members? As we can now personalise our emails - should membership just run a report email of all lapsed members with the sort of email you're sending, then give you the last lot in October?
• is the personal touch from the LLO better?
  
• what have LLOs found to be useful (email is better than phone etc)
• are there serial offenders who only renew when the LLO contacts them and is this a problem?
• does anyone know what other associations do?
• are we choosing the best time to be chasing members - should we do it earlier, later etc?

All food for thought.

Heartfelt thanks!

Thanks for welcoming me to your list. I'd like my first post to be a big thank you for the efforts that you put in over the ALIA/CAVAL Copyright Workshops. I've just heard that we made a profit! This was due to your sourcing of free or cheap venues and catering and also to your publicity.
The feedback that I've had so far from attendees is also positive about the content and the organisation.

Moyra

Profile of new graduates report

The report was interesting reading - although it is important that it was completed by people attending NLS - so they were already professionally active.

To my mind 3 things stood out that we as LLO's could have a direct impact on;
* Lack participation and undertanding of the PD Scheme
* Need for more mentoring (Or the feeling of more mentoring. I often think people don't realise all the mentoring opportunities that already exist to be exposed to mentors thru ALIA)
* Lack of involvement by LIS learning institutions with ALIA. This was also raised at all 3 of the NAC meetings I attended.

What do you think we can do/learn from the report?

M

Volunteer in the Spotlight

I've emailed everyone the 2008 preliminary roster (I can't believe I've written 2008 on something and that I'm thinking that far ahead - eeek), which includes our "Volunteer in the Spotlight" column.

We've interviewed and written almost a year's worth of columns this year and I think it's time to review the concept. Originally this column came from complaints at last year's NAC that volunteers were given enough exposure or public thanks. But can we do it better or is it even working?

I'd love your comments on things like:
Format
Style
Length
Need
Target audience
(and anything else you can think of)

"LLOs in Touch" with others

I thought it might be useful to create a list of other blogs / Wikis / Web pages library related (or not) that we find useful, informative or just plain interesting.

Here are a few to get us started:
Derek's Blog http://dereksaliablog.blogspot.com/
Derek's our vice president and has his own blog where he discusses ALIA issues. Very interesting to hear from a Director.

Roxanne's Blog http://www.roxannemissingham.blogspot.com/
Roxanne started this after Derek, which is why she's second. Again interesting to see what's happening

Board Blog http://www.alia.org.au/blog/
This is the ALIA Directors' public blog - I must say - they could be more exciting

Kevin's Blog http://www.auslibrarytechnician.blogspot.com/
This one's interesting. Kevin is often controversial about ALIA and it's good to check up with what he's saying every now and then (especially when it's about you :-)

Not for Profit Network http://www.nfpn.com.au
This is a great organisation designed to support NFP (like us). Lots of great resources here too (especially under "Resource Library")

NAC Knack!

Thought that I would get the ball rolling after all our discussion yesterday about the NAC. Suggestions for alternative ways of hosting them and therefore avoiding the dreaded catering problem were: online NAC (blog or wiki), or teleconference. This would also save trying to find venues, photocopying and all that miscellaneous stuff that takes so much time and energy.

Thoughts, comments and additions welcomed as there has to be a better way to do the NAC!

Wow - this has a life of its own

So there I was feeling guilty about you guys. I've been so busy with certain complaining members (think LT, think NLS 4 etc and you may know who I'm talking about) that I haven't even visited this blog since it started.

So I jumped on to discover that it has a life of its own - that's incredible. Thanks for being such wonderful staff and embracing ideas even if you're not sure they'll work.

Cheers, Robyn

Image problems

In two recent, but separate, discussions, librarians have complained to me that part of our image problem is due to "cranky old school librarians". As a former teacher-librarian, I'm horrified, though I do know some of my school colleagues don't present the kind of image we'd like (but I think you can also say that about some people in all areas of the profession). I'm just wondering if this is the kind of comment you hear too? If so, how we might tackle it?

Catering for functions

I find catering to be one of the most challenging aspects of organising functions. I thought this might be a good place to collect tips. Here's a few to get us started:

* Sushi rocks - there's almost always gluten intolerant people and vegetarians at every function. Sushi makes everyone happy!

* Up to one third of people who RSVP don't show up, so undercater. I've never run out of food yet while sticking to this rule.

* Anti pasto platters are easy and relatively cheap to put together: try strawberries, 2 or more cheeses, gourmet dip, water crackers, some gluten free biscuits, and something a bit special from the deli like caperberries or tiny stuffed bell peppers. If you grow lavender at home, put lots of it on the platter to decorate - it looks and smells wonderful.

Networking ideas

Once you start blogging, you can't stop!
One of the most valuable things I do to keep my 'finger on the pulse' never goes on my timesheet - too much wine and laughter involved! Every 6-8 weeks I have a lazy weekend lunch with a bunch of women in Brisbane. They're all current or ex directors, presidents or state convenors of ALIA. I find out things that I'd otherwise never know about (upcoming events, industry trends etc) because these women come from all sectors of the industry. It's a way of keeping ex board members engaged too since there really is no 'life after the board'. They have a wealth of experience and are generous with advice etc.
So, if you're lucky enough to get on well with even one or two ALIAphiles in your town, think about starting up a regular social get-together. These things tend to take on a life of their own and will grow over time.

Teacher Librarians' blackboard

Hi everyone, just a quick post to test the technology.
Next month I'm trying a new adventure - connecting in cyber space with students of the Master of Learning Innovation (Teacher-Librarian) program (ED09). The students don't have contact time, so the representative of SLAQ and I are going to participate in a week-long forum with students using Blackboard technology. That's a new one for me.
I have to put together a list of resources and questions to post to them about what it means to be a part of a profession. When I get more details, I'll be looking for some comments on this thread!
Cheers for now

Remember me?

Hi everyone

Yesterday I finally managed to remain in Groupwise long enough to catch up on my emails and feel a part of the team again :).