ALLA (WA) News Blog

With a new Committee working hard, we thought it was time to share a little bit about who the Committee is behind the scenes. Over the next few weeks each committee member will answer a few questions so you can get to know them better. Don't forget you can meet them in real life at our  events .  Stephen Griffiths, ALLA (WA) Vice President 2017-2018 Jonesy, Stephen's cat, with a fidget spinner Who is a hero who has inspired you in your career? I’m a big fan of the public service librarians mentioned in the NSW library pay equity case ( [2002] NSWIRComm 55 ) – their actions set a precedent that improved the lot of librarians across the country. And also James Procell, the library director of the Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library in Rupa Marya v. Warner Chappell Music Inc who unearthed the Mildred and Patty Hill manuscript for “Good morning to all” (aka “Happy Birthday to You”) which helped the court determine that the iconic song was out of copyright and kicked...

Today marks the start of Open Access Week . With that in mind, here's a blog post from Cornell University Law Schools VoxPopuLII Blog - home of the Legal Information Insitute [LII] which has been providing open access to American law since 1992. (Those familiar with our own AustLII would see the relationship here). The blog post, 25 for 25: A Librarian's Free Law Awakening  by Sarah Glassmeyer talks about her "free law awakening' and the process of law publishing, and how this challenged her "librarian perceptions of what really matters in publishing Free Law." It's a nice reminder of the value that free legal platforms do give us as law librarians (and practitioners). For instance, The public needs to be able to access legal information on the open 24/7 Internet in an easy to navigate, mobile friendly way, since most people – especially lower income individuals – access the web via mobile devices. .... Primary law needs to be published witho...

ALLA (WA) Members are invited to the ALLA (WA) Spring Breakfast. This event will give members an opportunity to enjoy networking, a lovely spring morning and some good food. When:  Wednesday 25 October 2017 at 7.30 am Where:  Tiisch, 9B, 938 Hay Street (Corner Milligan Street), Perth RSVP:  Friday 20 October to Judy Allan  judith.allan@legalaid.wa.gov.au Please Note: Tiisch will accept separate billing, and for ease have requested pre-orders. Please include your order with your RSVP. Tiisch’s menu can be found here:  http://www.tiisch.com.au/food/ 

This job was originally posted on seek.com.au  Legal Research Officer South Australian Parliament Research Library Part-time (Monday to Wednesday) / twelve-month contract A Legal Research Officer is required to join a small team who contribute to the Library's research, reference and information services. Duties include the preparation of research reports, and written and oral briefings on a wide range of matters for Members of the South Australian Parliament. A post-graduate qualification from a recognised tertiary institution is essential. When Parliament is sitting some rostered evening work will be required. Employment is subject to provisions of the Parliament (Joint Services) Act 1985.  Recreation leave will not be approved on Parliamentary sitting days.  Appointment may be subject to a satisfactory offender history check. Any person who has been, or is currently, politically active may compromise the strict political neutrality of this p...

Salary Range: $76,585 to $82,706 pa (plus 17% super) Employment Type: Full-time (36.75 hours per week) and fixed term to 31 December 2018 Location: Geelong Waterfront Campus or Melbourne Burwood Campus About the Role: To liaise with staff and students in designated Faculties, Schools and research centres to ensure that the Library is responsive to the teaching, learning, and research needs of the Deakin University community. This will include: As part of a cross-campus team, initiate and maintain strategic liaison with academic staff, researchers and students in the Faculty Business and Law to ensure Library responsiveness to client needs. Develop collections and identify free scholarly resources in collaboration with academic and research staff and liaison teams to enhance the achievement of teaching, learning, and research objectives of designated Faculties and Departments or Schools. As part of a cross-campus team, to design, deliver and evaluate digital literacy prog...

This position has been previous advertised on seek.com.au - visit the original posting for video footage. Library & Research Assistant Reporting to a Director Exciting challenge - Newly created role Flexible working hours The Firm With offices globally and an expanding Sydney office, this reputable firm are located in the heart of the CBD with spectacular views. The firm maintain a very low staff turnover and provide their staff with; Regular team and firm wide events (lunches, dinners, drinks, Melbourne cup and Christmas parties), health insurance discounts, monthly morning teas and more! The Role This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Legal Research Librarian to join their Sydney office. This is a standalone role supporting Australia, Asia and the US. Your duties will include: Provide reference and research to professionals of all levels Ensure Lawyers are kept up to date on Business development Being the first point of contact and ...

This position was originally advertised on Seek.com.au  Senior Librarian About Hall & Wilcox Hall & Wilcox is a pre-eminent independent business law firm with one of the fastest growing partnerships in Australia. We are currently a firm of more than 550 people, including 70 partners. We have offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, Perth and Brisbane and act nationally for Australian-based clients and multinational clients with Australian interests. Our leadership team was recognised by winning Managing Partner of the Year at the 2015 and 2017 Australian Law Awards. About the role We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Librarian to join our growing Knowledge & Library team. This role will provide the opportunity to work closely with various practice groups within the firm across all office locations and will be responsible for supervising two team members. Duties Provide research and reference services to the firm Maintenance of the refere...

Our friends over at ALIA have just released the fourth annual ALIA LIS Education, Skills and Employment Trend Report .  The report seeks to provide students, educators, employees and employers with an understanding of the national landscape and inform ALIA's work. The ALIA news post for the Report provides a summary of its findings: The report shows that over the five years from November 2010 to November 2015, there were 43.5% fewer Librarian positions in the workforce; 16.3% fewer Technician positions, and 12.4% fewer Library Assistant positions. However, looking ahead to May 2022, the Department of Employment predicts a 15.6% employment rise for Librarians, a relatively stable number of Library Technician positions and a drop of 13% for Library Assistant positions. There is expected to be a modest increase in the number of qualified positions available over the next five years, but a significant decrease in the number of positions for staff without a library and inform...

With a new Committee working hard, we thought it was time to share a little bit about who the Committee is behind the scenes. Over the next few weeks each committee member will answer a few questions so you can get to know them better. Don't forget you can meet them in real life at our  events .  Judy Allan, ALLA (WA) Committee Member 2017-2018 Judy Allan Who is a hero who has inspired you in your career? There are three people who have influenced me greatly and to whom I am grateful for their help and support: Judy Clayden, my lecturer in cataloguing at ECU who made a particularly challenging subject interesting; Megan Evans who gave me my current job and who gently introduced me to law and mentored me to the point where I was competent; and last, but not least, Deb Harvey, my current boss, who is a very warm and incredibly generous person who is helpful and supportive of such aims and ambitions as I have. What is the proudest moment in your professional life...

Have a desire to write a journal article? What about present at a conference? We've found some opportunities from all over the world. Conferences CALL/ACBD Conference 2018 The Canadian Assocaition of Law Libraries / L'Assocation Canadienne des Bibliotheques de Droit Conference will be held on 27-30 May in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Submissions for Conference Sessions and Lighning Talks are open until October 20. The theme is Build Bridges | Broaden Our Reach. See the conference website for more details.  Journals Australian Law Librarian Journal The Australian Law Librarian   is seeking  contributions for the upcoming issue.  Centred around the theme of professional development, issue 4 of the journal is the place to share your experiences in mentoring, being mentored and growing as a professional. As a professional, you never stop growing. With this issue, we invite you to share your experiences, learnings, and thoughts on mentoring and professi...

Registration for the 2018 IFLA World Library and Information Congress is now open. The 84th IFLA Conference will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 24-30 August. Attendees can register via the Congress website . Please note that if you registered for one of the previous IFLA Congresses since 2012 via the online registration system, you can use the same login username and password for IFLA WLIC 2018. Should you have a group booking of ten or more attendees please contact: wlic2018-registration@kit-group.org for further information on how to register your group.

Two positions are available in the Law Library at The University of Melbourne: Liaison Support Librarian : Continuing role.  Liaison Librarian: Fixed term until 30 June 2018. Applications for both positions close 19 October 2017.

With a new Committee working hard, we thought it was time to share a little bit about who the Committee is behind the scenes. Over the next few weeks each committee member will answer a few questions so you can get to know them better. Don't forget you can meet them in real life at our events .  David McDowell, ALLA (WA) Committee Member 2017-2018 David McDowell Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Victoria Who is a hero who has inspired you in your career? My family always encouraged me with my career choices despite them not always being the most lucrative or having the best job prospects. I worked a few different jobs before settling on a career working in libraries. I can't identify one person alone who influenced that decision but the people I have worked with along the way have made me feel that this was the direction I was meant to take.  What is the proudest moment in your professional life? Does staying consistently employed in the library field count...

This position was originally posted on  Seek.com.au An exciting new opportunity exists for an experienced Research Librarian to join our well established Sydney Office. As a member of a high performing global team, the Research Librarian is responsible for providing reference and research library services to lawyers, paralegals and support staff on a Firm-wide basis. This is a full time position reporting to the Director of Firm Research & Library Services and the Australian Director of Operations. The responsibilities of this role include the following: delivering high quality legal and business research services to the Firm; performing in-depth and complex business and legal reference and research duties, including responding to user requests for information from internal and external resources, onsite and offsite materials, and print and non-print media on legal, business and general topics; ensuring that lawyers are kept up to date on all legal and business developm...

Following the 2016-17 Annual General Meeting the Board are are seeking nominations for the following positions: Treasurer CPD coordinator and Director  The positions are an opportunity for any member of the Association to expand their professional skills over the course of 1 year with the option to extend for a further 2 years. With the support of the ALLA Board the Treasurer and CPD coordinator undertake the following duties: Treasurer  Responsible for ALLA Ltd financial reporting, and liaison with professionals engaged for financial services. The role of the Treasurer includes assisting the Board to ensure the Association’s compliance with all financial and governance requires. The Treasurer oversees the disbursement of funds to the divisions and the expenses incurred by the Association. CPD Coordinator & Director The CPD Coordinator manages the national CPD calendar. Working with members, non-members and vendors the CPD Coordinator organizes events to be he...

Last week The Guardian (Australian Edition)  published an interesting article about the potential downsides of being professional services staff with an academic background at a higher education institution. The article, Work in an academic-professional hybrid role? Say goodbye to career progression was written by an "anonymous academic", highlights the position that many academic librarians face. We blur the lines of professional staff and academic staff, something that tends to not fit will within the traditional career paths of Australian universities. I now realise that some academics see me as someone who is just there to help them, while others see me as purely academic. But it’s also an inherent feature of the job: it’s hard to focus your work when you spread yourself thinly. Moving up within the institution is difficult when others are specialised, and you feel you do a bit of everything. Of course not all librarians want to be on an academic career path, but ...

Introduction: Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. When the reasons for decision starts with "Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear." you know it's going to be good. Just wait til you get to the end. Full decision of AF v SWP (DLA) (No. 2) [2017] UKUT 366 (AAC) available on BAILII .

ALLA (WA) Members are invited to the ALLA (WA) Spring Breakfast. This event will give members an opportunity to enjoy networking, a lovely spring morning and some good food. When: Wednesday 25 October 2017 at 7.30am Where: Tiisch, 9B, 938 Hay Street (Corner Milligan Street), Perth RSVP: Friday 20 October to Judy Allan judith.allan@legalaid.wa.gov.au Please Note: Tiisch will accept separate billing, and for ease have requested pre-orders. Please include your order with your RSVP. Tiisch’s menu can be found here:  http://www.tiisch.com.au/food/