ALLA (WA) News Blog

Library Camp Australia is a FREE day-long unconference discussing library-related topics. This is immediately after the VALA conference in Melbourne, so many of the speakers from the conference will be attending. It is a great day and an excellent chance to learn and network with the profession.  DETAILS Date: Friday 12 February 2016 Time: 9:30am for morning tea for a 10am start until 3:30ish Place: Building 80, RMIT Food: BYO plate to share. No lunchbreak, but all-day grazing/breakout room and a 20 min midday breather Sponsors: RMIT. More wanted. Please contact Lisa Miller (lisa@miller6.net) if you would like to sponsor the event Theme: Anything to do with libraries Participate: This will be run as an unconference, with participants deciding sessions on the day. There will probably be Powerpoint Karaoke, Lightning Talks and maybe a Fight Club plus any session you want to be part of… Register NOW !!! Hat tip: ALLA(WA) Past President - Mawghan Elverd. S...

Should you end a sentence in a text message with a full stop? Maybe not, according to a study by researchers at Bingham University. In fact according to this study, when sentences in text messages are followed by a full stop the sender is perceived as insincere. Read more about this research here .

Lightning Talks ALLA(WA) Presents A New Year Event Come join your fellow ALLA(WA) members to celebrate the beginning of 2016 and be dazzled by our collection of quick, snappy and informative talks. This session will include a selection of light breakfast options and refreshments sponsored by Thomson Reuters. When: 8 – 9.30am (talks start at 8.20) Tuesday 16 th February Where: Jackson McDonald, Level 17, 225 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA RSVP by Friday 12 th February to Anne Young ( Anne.young@dlapiper.com ). Please include any dietary restrictions

Collaborate and Learn ALLA is proud to collaborate with LexisNexis and present a webinar on  Legal information usage and research workflow. Over the coming months ALLA will collaborate with leaders in the information industry to bring you expertise and knowledge that will enable you to turn information into knowledge. Legal information usage and research workflow – Reflection on recent study findings In 2015, LexisNexis conducted a Legal Information and Research Workflow Study. The purpose of the study was to gain a greater understanding of legal information usage patterns and current research behavior by legal professionals. This information is valuable to LexisNexis and also of interest to those managing information on behalf of law firms and government organizations. This webinar seeks to share some of the survey findings for Australian participants working in a law firm environment. Areas being discussed include; usage, content types and research app...

It's timely today, 26 January, to point about that the International Association of Law Libraries' blog features a post about the origins and controversies of Australia Day  and the holiday's relationship to the question of constitutional recognition of indigenous people. Worth a read!

Jennifer Jeffes writes on the London School of Economics and Political Science blog how universities can support long term strategies to boost engagement with Parliament. She outlines three strategies higher education institutions can deploy: 1. Embrace digital 2. Think interdisciplinary 3. Plan for serendipity Read the full blog post here .

Need help with your summer reading selection? Editors of The New York Times Book Review have published their list of 100 Notable Books of 2015. See the list here .

ALLA(WA) is now on Twitter! Give us a follow and see what's new: @lawlibsWA . We're tweeting trends and news in law librarianship, the legal profession, government, libraries and literacy, and higher education.

Curtin University Library is seeking a Copyright Support Officer (Continuing, Part-time 0.6 FTE). More information is on the Curtin Future Staff website . Applications close: 5pm, Monday 1 February 2016

Deakin University is seeking a law librarian (full time, continuing position): more details here . Applications close 5 February 2016.

Cross-posted from multiple mailing lists Call for participation - international librarianship experiences Lara Seven Phillips (formerly of the University of the South Pacific, Fiji) and Kate Holvoet (currently at Zayed University, in the UAE) are writing a book on librarianship abroad; basically all the things we either learned the hard way or wish someone had told us before we started. It is scheduled to be published in December 2016 by ABC-CLIO/Libraries Unlimited. We are looking to include anecdotes, advice, cautions, lessons learned, etc. from other librarians who have worked abroad. We want to hear from people who work in all areas of librarianship, and at different kinds of libraries. We want our book to reflect a variety of international experiences. If you are interested in telling us about your experience, please click on this  Dropbox link , download the survey and return it to kate.holvoet@gmail.com and lara7seven@gmail.com. We would appreciate having quest...

The International Librarians Network blog is always worth a read for anyone who is interested in getting of a glimpse of libraries and librarians in other countries and sectors. A recent post features the very busy work life of a law librarian in a public sector organisation in Scotland. She shares a recap of her many, many projects as well as some lessons learned in the process. She reflects: I’m doing a job where I’m many things: service manager, building manager, budget manager, line manager, stock selector and purchaser, cataloguer, contract manager, project manager, internal user trainer, legal researcher, enquiry desk staff, and the person that others in related bodies ask for assistance on library matters, simultaneously. In many organisations, these roles would be being performed by multiple staff. In my workplace, it’s down to my colleague and I to do every role. Again, this has been quite a lot of pressure on a small team, but we’ve coped really well. If yo...

As part of Wikipedia's 15th anniversary festivities, a campaign has been started to engage information professionals in improving the quality of the articles. The campaign is called #1Lib1Ref (One Librarian, One Reference) and runs from January 15–23, 2016. The goal is for every librarian to add or correct at least one reference in a Wikipedia article. More details are on the 1Lib1Ref page . Here's the rationale: More references make Wikipedia a better reference tool. Join us, and make a small contribution to the sum of all human knowledge! [...] Because anyone can edit Wikipedia, the Wikipedia community has developed a core strategy to ensure the quality of information in its articles: including footnotes to reliable sources to allow Wikipedia readers to "verify" the information. This strategy helps the global volunteer community effectively work towards meeting Wikipedia's vision: "the sum of all human knowledge." Readers and editors who don...

Those interested in digitisation and preservation may enjoy this blog post: "There are over 1 billion gigabytes worth of digital material across Yale’s library system, and the team of preservationists keeping it secure will see a major software upgrade in the spring. Preservica, a United Kingdom-based digital preservation company, will help library staff keep an eye on all of Yale’s digital files, preventing them from becoming corrupt and keeping the digital material organized through a specialized classification system. Until now, Yale University Library — the group of professional school libraries and smaller collections at Yale — did not have a centralized way to protect and organize digital material in its library system." Read more from Yale Daily News

The University of the South Pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu is seeking a law librarian. More details are on the Uni Jobs website . Deadline for applications is 15 January 2016.

Those who have occasion to explain the origins of law reporting to graduates or students in 2016 might enjoy this brief article by Ruth Bird, Bodleian Law Librarian at the University of Oxford. On the International Association of Law Libraries' blog, Ruth offers " a glance at law reporting in the common law world ", concisely explaining the practices that led to England's Nominate Reports through to reform and standardised in the mid-1800s with the Council of Law Reporting. Hat tip: ALLA(WA) President - Alice Hewitt. Librarian, Reference and Information Services, Murdoch University.

Cross-posted from the WAIN mailing list  ALIAWest is pleased to announce the ALIA West Symposium 2016 which will take place on Friday 15 July 2016 at Curtin University. This full day PD event is based on a flipped conference model but is targeted at all library workers in Western Australia. The theme is "The Unexpected." We invite you to submit an abstract for a paper by Monday 28th March at aliainwa@gmail.com. We would love to hear about: An innovative programme you have developed and delivered. The results of your Masters or PhD research project. Issues facing the library industry as a whole. Unexpected learnings or outcomes from projects. Andrew Kelly Convenor, ALIA West Symposium 2016 On behalf of the ALIA West Symposium 2016 Committee: Tamara Capper Camille Peters Lisa Billingham Marlena Janisch Jean Broomhall Younian Wei

The University of Western Australia Library is currently seeking applications for two Senior Librarian positions in the Research & Learning Support section of the Library. There is one full time position and one part time (0.5 FTE) position available. The deadline for applying is 22nd January 2016. Visit the UWA  jobs website for further details and information on how to apply.

As pointed out on the Opinio Juris blog , the UN Office of Legal Affairs provides video recordings of lectures on international law through the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law . The lectures can be browsed by topic and include such subjects as environmental law, law of the sea, humanitarian law, and the law of outer space. The latest lectures include: Sir Michael Wood on “International Law and the Use of Force: What Happens in Practice?” Professor Djamchid Momtaz on “La sécession en droit international” Professor August Reinisch on “The Evolution of WTO Dispute Settlement”

If you're looking to do some post-holiday reading, have a look at the November/December issue of GlobaLex from New York University. There are 3 new articles and 6 updates. New articles: Cyberwarfare and Collateral Damages by Edoardo E. Artese & Valentin Vitkov A Review of the Progressive Development of International Human Rights Framework on Capital Punishment by Michelle Miao Researching the Legal System of the Republic of Djibouti by Mustafe Mohamed H. Dahir Updates: Researching Cameroonian Law by Charles Manga Fombad Guinean Legal System and Research by Ibrahima Sidibe Guide to Nigerian Legal Information by Yemisi Dina & John Oluwole A. Akintayo & Funke Ekudnayo Guide to Legal Research in Serbia by Linda Tashbook & Marko Zivanov The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) - An Introduction and Research Guide by Martin Wählisch The Swiss Legal System and Research by Martin Mo...

ALLA has announced that the 2016 conference will be held from Wednesday 24th August to Friday 26th August 2016 at the State Library Victoria, Melbourne. The conference website can be accessed here .

Congratulations to Carolyn Kearney who has been awarded a Life Membership. She was wholeheartedly recommended by her colleagues for her contribution to ALLA over a number of years. Carolyn's career biography will be formally published in the Australian Law Librarian which we believe is a fascinating read and we look forward to this. On behalf of the ALLA (WA) committee we extend our congratulations to you Carolyn!