ALLA (WA) News Blog

In March 2023 we announced the  closure of the Allgwa list , and welcomed the arrival of the  ALLA (WA) Google Group .  To take full advantage of the Google Group - particularly the ability to deliver news directly to your inbox - the ALLA (WA) Committee has made the decision to cease posting to the ALLA (WA) Blog.  ALLA (WA) Members are encouraged to join the Google Group to make sure they don’t miss out on key news, events, job opportunities from the committee and our members.  Over the past twelve and a half years we've have over 208636 visitors (and still counting) to the ALLA (WA) Blog, from all over the world. We thank all of our readers who have supported the blog. We especially thank all of our blog editors and contributors who have volunteered their time, skill and knowledge to develop this resource. The ALLA (WA) Blog will continue to be available in an archive format. We look forward to using the ALLA (WA) Google Group to share infor...

 Don't forget that RSVP's to the ALLA (WA) Autumn Breakfast are due on 21 April!

The ALLA (WA) Committee invites ALLA (WA) members, and those with and interest in law libraries to join us to catch up with your law librarian colleagues and friends over breakfast at Basilica.  Come enjoy a delicious breakfast, chat with friends, and talk to the ALLA (WA) Committee.  Members of the ALLA (WA) Committee will be there - feel free to let us know what you think about future professional development opportunities you would like to see in 2023.  You have the option of pre-ordering your meal and drinks to speed up service on the day.  The current menu can be seen on Basilica's website .  If you wish to pre-order, please include details in your RSVP.  What:           ALLA (WA) Autumn Breakfast Who:           ALLA (WA) Members and those with an interest in law libraries (invite your co-workers!) Where:         Basilica,           ...

Hello ALLA (WA) Google Group! As with many list servs operating on the Mailman system, we have discovered that the allgwa list serve is no longer functioning as it should. We’ve explored maintainable long term solutions and alternatives to this and have decided to shift to using Google Groups to allow for the ongoing ease of communication and information sharing between members of ALLA (WA). All existing members of ALLA (WA) and the Allgwa list were sent an an invitation on 7 March 2023 to join the ALLA (WA) List Google Group . Thank you to those who have already accepted!  If you haven't accepted this invitation by now, it has expired. But that doesn't mean you can't join the Google Group. Just visit the link above and request to join. 

Dear ALLA(WA) members, On the 30th November we had our ALLA(WA) AGM and welcomed our 2022-23 committee. An email with the AGM minutes and reports will be sent to members shortly.    Our new committee is as follows: President: David McDowell Secretary: Jane Beer Treasurer: Anne Young Committee members: Gilien Bevan, Alice Hewitt, Sky Atkins, Fiona Archibald I want to extend a warm welcome to Sky Atkins (Herbert Smith Freehills) and Fiona Archibald (Federal Court of Australia) for joining the committee and thank returning committee members for volunteering their time for another term. This will be my last term as President and Jane’s last term as Secretary so I encourage any interested members to attend our committee meetings throughout the year and learn about the activities of the Committee as well as these positions throughout the year as they will be vacant at the next AGM. Joining the committee has been a wonderful networking experience for myself and has helped me develo...

The ALLA (WA) Committee met on 12 October 2022 to discuss a number of important activities for the Division.  The Committee have decided that going forward we will provide recaps of what was discussed at each meeting to better share the work of the Committee with our Members. Key topics discussed at the meeting included:  Updating the ALLA (WA) Inc. Rules to meet legislative requirements Accessibility of Western Australian COVID-19 Directions AustLII medium neutral citation inaccuracy Database Roundtable Session  ALLA (WA) AGM and End of Year Dinner - 30 November 2022 Full details for the ALLA (WA) Annual General Meeting,  along with details for the End of Year Dinner and special resolutions to update the ALLA (WA) Rules, will be shared with ALLA WA Members soon.  The next ALLA (WA) Committee meeting will take place on Thursday 3 November at lunchtime via Teams. All ALLA (WA) Members are welcome to join the discussion at this and future meetings.

The ALLA(WA) Committee has their next committee meeting on Wednesday 12th October and we would like to invite you to attend.  Our meetings are currently held remotely via Microsoft Teams and start around 5.15pm.  This would be a chance to discuss the recent ALLA Conference and AGM where many concerns and issues around communication were raised. We will also be discussing some upcoming events. This would be an opportunity to ask questions and make any suggestions. The ALLA(WA) committee is also interested in hearing any ideas on how we can serve our members better.  If you would like to attend please let David McDowell,  ALLA (WA) Presiden t know by COB Tuesday 11th October.  David McDowell ALLA (WA) President

We wish to share with you an exciting update about a cross-divisional, joint ALLA (WA) and ALLA Victoria collaboration. Over the past few years there has been much discussion about better ways to communicate with current and prospective ALLA members.  The Western Australian and Victorian Divisions have been using various social media channels for quite some time including, Twitter ( @alla_vic and @lawlibsWA ), LinkedIn , and the ALLA (WA) Blog (which is celebrating its 12th Birthday this month). These have provided a well-received presence online, but both Divisions have concerns around the possibility of missing out on hearing from current and perspective ALLA members through not being active on other social media platforms where our members are. Together the ALLA (WA) and ALLA Vic committees are looking to work towards creating a space to engage all current and future ALLA members, no matter what State or Territory they come from, in a new formed social media collaboration: Law...

ALLA (WA) Members are invited to join our ALLA (WA) Conference Bursary Winners for a night of shared learnings and catching up with colleagues.  When: Thursday 29 September, 5.20pm Where: DLA Piper, Level 21, 240 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000 Register: Via the ALLA Website Event & CPD page . Join ALLA (WA)'s 2022 Conference Bursary Winners - Sky Atkins and Alice Hewitt - as they present a recap of all things ALLA Conference 2022.  An opportunity to share learnings from the sessions, and to catch up in person after all this time. The ALLA (WA) Committee will be providing some drinks and light nibbles during the session.  Please be at the venue at 5.20 for a 5.30 start time.  Please provide details of any dietary requirements when registering for your event ticket.  If you have any questions about the event, please contact the ALLA (WA) Committee . 

You read that right folks,  ALLA Librarians have taken over the Lawfluent Podcast this week! Our friends at Open Law, an innitiative of BarNet Jade, have been kind enough to let some ALLA members grace the airwaves during their season 2 episode: Law Librarians from ALLA! Phil Mullen (ALLA NSW & ALLA Ltd), Anastasia Stepanovic (ALLA Vic) and Alice Hewitt (ALLA (WA)) joined forces for a round table discussion on everything from how we got to law libraries, how law libraries are all different, the book worm from Toy Story, and some very strange research requests.  Hosted by the wonderful Isabella Elena Carrozzi, and playing on a podcast platform near you.  Check out the Lawfluent Podcast now: Lawfluent Website Lawfluent Instagram Open Law LinkedIn

The ALLA Conference is a little over a week away!  Unfortunately our President David McDowell, will not be able to attend the Conference, but the ALLA(WA) Committee wish all our WA members who are attending a great Conference, particularly our WA Bursary recipients, National Fellowship recipients, and conference presenters.  We've compiled compiled some important ALLA Conference information below:    ALLA Ltd. AGM The ALLA Ltd AGM notice was sent via Google Groups. The AGM will take place on Thursday, August 25th at 4.00pm – 5.00pm EST in Hobart as part of the 2022 ALLA Conference. A webinar link will be distributed for those not attending the Conference.   ALLA Awards 2022 Don’t forget to nominate a law librarian, law library service or publisher for the ALLA Awards 2022. Nominations close this Friday, COB, 19 August 2022.  More information is available on  this post here ALLA (WA) Social Media During the week of the conference, the ALLA (WA) Soc...

The ALLA(WA) Committee has their next committee meeting on Wednesday 13th July and we would like to invite ALLA (WA) Members to attend. Our meetings are currently held remotely via Microsoft Teams and start around 5.10pm. We know there has been some dissatisfaction from ALLA members around communication from ALLA National regarding access to the new ALLA website, the creation of new email lists and membership renewals. This would be an opportunity to ask questions, make suggestions and air any frustrations. The ALLA(WA) committee is also interested in hearing any ideas on how we can serve our members better. If you would like to attend please let David McDowell,  ALLA (WA) President know by COB Monday 11th August.

The latest edition of the Australian Law Librarian  journal is available now available from Informit . Volume 30, Issue 2 is packed with some great articles. See below for some highlights! 45 years of ALLA (WA) Following on from celebrating our 45th Birthday on 31 March 2022 , ALLA (WA) President, David McDowell spent some time digging around in the ALLA (WA) archives and wrote a great piece.  Take a look at the article, and the ALLA (WA) Committee is working on an in-person event to celebrate 45 wonderful years.  David McDowell, '45 years of ALLA (WA)' (2022) 30(2) Australian Law Librarian  69 State and Territory News You can also hear more from David, and other Divisional Presidents in the regular State and Territory news column of the journal Lisa Capps, David McDowell, Anastasia Stepanovic and Joanna Longley, 'State and Territory news' (2022) 30(2)  Australian Law Librarian  57 President's Letter Want to hear what is going on with ALLA National? Na...

With just one week to go before the Law Access Walk for Justice 2022 - don't forget to join your fellow ALLA (WA) Members and register for our team ! Registration is free. Walk with us to celebrate the pro bono contribution of the legal profession and to raise funds for Law Access. If you can't make it to the city, are isolating at home, or just don't want to get up that early - you can join in virtually on social media by tagging #W4J22 or simply just make a donation to the team.  To join the ALLA (WA) Team at the link below. You will need to register first. Once you are part of the ALLA (WA) Team you can share the ALLA (WA) team Fundraising page and get sponsored, or donate yourself. JOIN OUR TEAM DATE:                      Tuesday 17 May 2022 TIME:                      7:30am start, event concludes between 8:30 and 9:00am LOCATION:      ...

Today is ALLA (WA)'s 45th Birthday.  The first meeting of the members of the then WA Branch of the Australian Law Librarians' Group was held in May 1977 (see the April 1977 edition of the Australian Law Librarians' Group Newsletter ). But we began on 31 March 1977 (you can see our birthday on our ACNC registration ). ALLA (WA) has come a long way in the past 45 years, leading the way with publishing ALLG(WA) Newsletters and having the oldest and longest running blog of any ALLA Division, and even hosting the ALLA Conference in Perth. With the COVID-19 situation preventing us from a proper, in-person celebration - we would like to take this moment to thank every past and present (and future) ALLA (WA) Committee member for the time they have spent serving the Western Australian law librarian and legal information professional community.  There are too many to thank personally - and we have been going through the archives in the hopes we haven't missed a name! Those who st...