ALLA (WA) News Blog

The adventures of the Finding the Law Project continue!  So it’s time for another update from the Project Lead, Anastasia Stepanovic, and Project Coordinator, Alice Hewitt. Our last update on the ALLA (WA) Blog was back in June – and since then we have presented at the ALLA (WA) Conference, published articles in the Australian Law Librarian journal, and we’ve gained a lot of ALLA member feedback and suggestions – end even a few new members to the project team.  At the ALLA Conference 2022 in Hobart, Anastasia and Alice presented a paper paying respect and homage to the evolution of Finding the Law – including all its various names, formats, and teachers. The presentation was centred around where ALLA had began this sort of law librarianship skills training, the different names the course was titled over time, and the different divisions that took the lead over time. The conference presentation was delivered using Rise Articulate, the building ground of the new FLO Project and ...

Back in May we brought you an update on the start of the new National Finding the Law Online (FLO) Project (you can see it here Do you know about FLO? ).  Below is an update from the Project Lead, Anastasia Stepanovic, and Project Coordinator, Alice Hewitt. 

Get ready to conference! The ALLA Conference 2022 website is a great resource to find out all you need to know about the conference. Make sure you take a look to check out details about the conference, including special conference rates for accomodation . This year the conference is being held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor Hobart , Tasmania and the conference program looks to have some great events in the program! Workshops Per ALLA Conference Tradition, there will be a half-day MOYS Workshop held on 24 August 2022. This 3 hour workshop will be led by staff of the High Court of Australia Library. It costs $75.00 for ALLA members, and $95.00 for non-members. Get in quick though - the workshop will be limited to 12 people.  Tours What is a librarian conference without a tour of a library? There are two tours available to nominate for when completing the registration form . Conference registrants can nominate for a tour of either the State Library of Tasmania or the Andrew Inglis C...

Strategic Plans for Libraries Tuesday 9 November, 10.00am (AWST) In this session two law librarians share their experiences developing and implementing strategic plans for their libraries. Register online : NOTE: this event is open to ALLA members only, please have your membership number with you when you register. At the Supreme Court of Victoria, consultation with the legal sector helped develop a five-year strategic plan that reflected the desire for a modern and dynamic Law Library of Victoria. The plan aims to establish a digital library service to support current and future generations of the legal profession to deliver better justice outcomes for all Victorians. Law Library of Victoria Librarian Laurie Atkinson will present the strategic plan and describe the consultation process, how the plan evolved, became operational, and how progress is measured. From the Supreme Court Library Queensland, David Bratchford will focus on the process of developing SCLQ’s current strategic plan...

Creating Engaging Online Content for Library Users: Introducing Kahoot! and Padlet Thursday 7 October 11.00am (AWST) Michelle Clarke from K&L Gates and Anastasia Stepanovic from the University of Melbourne will share their knowledge of Kahoot! and Padlet, two free platforms that have helped them create engaging online content for library users. Register online : NOTE: This event is open to ALLA members only, please have your membership number with you when you register. As online learning replaces face to face library sessions, librarians may find themselves looking for affordable options to create interesting course content.  In this session two experienced librarians share their knowledge of Kahoot! and Padlet. Kahoot! Kahoot! is a widely used cloud-based tool to create and deliver teaching and testing quizzes. It’s used in educational institutions as an online game-based learning platform and includes a free component. In this online session Michelle Clarke from K&L Gate...

Hi ALLA (WA) Members, Just a reminder that the ALLA Conference 2021 takes place this week – Kicking off on Thursday 23 September with a Welcoming Address from Her Honour Chief Justice Helen Murrell from the ACT Supreme Court, followed by a Keynote Address by the Honourable Justice Stephen Gageler AC from the High Court of Australia. Due to Covid restrictions, the conference is being held virtually. This allows us all to access the program of speakers and events this year from the safety of our home or workplace. If you want to know more about the presentations to help plan your schedule, including abstracts, click on the title of the session in the Conference Program . Be sure to register , if you haven’t done so already. Registrants will be able to access the conference recordings for 6 months following the conference. If you aren’t registering – all ALLA Members are encouraged to attend the ALLA Ltd. Annual General Meeting at 12:38pm on Thursday, where we can hear from Nat...

ALLA members would have received an email from Emma Joneshart, President of ALLA Ltd regarding a call for nominations for members to join the ALLA Ltd Board of Directors. Nominations will be voted upon at the ALLA AGM, held on Thursday 23 September during the ALLA Virtual Conference 2021 . The ALLA Ltd Board of Directors is an important part of the Australian Law Librarians' Association's governance. Made up of at least eight members of ALLA, nominations are open for the following positions:  Vice President Secretary Treasurer Vendor Relations CPD Coordinator General Directors The Vice President position is for a term of 3 years, consisting of a year each as Vice President, President and Past President. The other positions are for a 2-year term, allowing for a sufficient time period to become familiar with the role and have meaningful impact on ALLA projects.  Each role is varied, with support from other members of the Board, and in addition to monthly meetings (mainly via te...

It's ALLA Virtual Conference 2021 Month! Our first ever fully virtual conference takes place on Thursday 23 September and Friday 24 September 2021.  The Conference Program is now available in an interactive format allowing you to view session times in your own time zone - where ever you plan to tune in.  Sure, a 7am start might be a bit rough normally, but the perk of a virtual conference is: no one will know if you are logging on in your fuzzy slippers (hopefully, we won't need them by then) and munching away on your breakfast of choice.  Of course, if you would rather sign in at a "normal" hour, don't forget that the sessions are all being recorded and remain available to registrants for 6 months following the session.  Key note speakers and special guests this year include: Stephen Gagelar AC, Justice of the High Court of Australia Helen Murrell, Chief Justice of the ACT Supreme Court Meridith Leigh, acting First Parliamentary Conusel with the Commonwealth O...

 In great news for those in Western Australia, the 2021 ALLA conference is now going virtual. The program will be much as usual, plus all the usual exhibitors, but tweaked to allow for a virtual conference.  This is a great opportunity for ALLA (WA) members to attend, without the pesky costs of flights, accommodation and of course, hard-borders.  The details for our conference are below: Dates: 22-24 September 2021 Theme: ALLA – Past / Present / Future Registration fees: Member – $120.00 Speaker Registration – $100.00 Non Member Registration – $150.00 To register for the event please go to the ALLA Conference website .  The ALLA (WA) Committee hopes 'to see' many of you at the conference.

The latest issue of AALL Spectrum has a great article about how law librarians can use coding to create customisations within their work flows. The article doesn’t focus on any advanced coding languages (think Python or Ruby) but instead focuses on the codes that form the building blocks of the web and how these can offer real-world applications for libraries. In ‘Coding with the building blocks of the web’ the author, Nick Szydlowski, offers advice on how to use, learn and maintain coding all while leveraging existing skills. Szydlowski suggests that “law libraries may benefit from embracing a culture in which staff are encouraged to invest in foundational  technological skills. … there can sometimes be more emphasis on learning consumer-level tools, in the form of new vendor products and features, and not enough emphasis on the type and fundamental skills that can be re-used project after project.” The article presents a great think piece for those considering branching...

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...

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...

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 ...

Last night on Biblia (ALIA West's Blog), we saw that our Vice President, Alice Hewitt, has been busy at work helping plan the Library Leadership: A Celebration. See if you can spot her in the post Collaboration in Action! Library Leadership: A Celebration For more information on the Library Leadership: A Celebration event, check out our previous post , or our Facebook event . Spaces are filling, but you've still got time before registrations close on May 12.

Are you thinking about extra studying or upskilling yourself? Or maybe you just want to fulfill your lifelong dream of becoming a librarian. Take a look a the courses from the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University. Applications are now open for Session 2 2017 in the follow courses: Master of Information Studies; Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) Master of Education (Knowledge Networks and Digitial Innovation) Bachelor of Information Studies. For more details, check out the course information website here . Thanks to Kelly Underwood for suggesting this post. 

Can't quite decide if you want to join your fellow WA LIS professionals for this unique, first of its kind, professional development day? Please feel free to ask Alice any questions you have, but for now here's a little bit of a sneak peek at the schedule to help you decide. 8.30 - Registration 9.00 - Introduction & Welcome 9.30 - Speed Networking 10.00 - Morning Tea (Catered) 10.30 - Leadership Speaker, Dr Carmen Lawrence 11.30 - Sector Leadership Roundtable 12.00 - Lunch (Catered) 1.15 - Laughing Yoga with Grant Stone 1.45 - Library leadership in the wider environment: IFLA on the world stage.  Jennefer Nicholson, former Secretary General of IFLA.   2.45 - Workshops: Three issues in Library Leadership. What we do now - What we want to do - What we will do  3.30 - Afternoon Tea (Catered) 4.30 - What next? 5.00 - Finish 5.30 - Optional Dinner at Sauma.  For more, and to register, see our previous blog post.  Note: this post ha...

All members of the Western Australian Library sector are invited to attend this all day professional development event. Organised as a joint project by representatives from LIS within WA including, ALIA West, ALLA (WA), WASLA, ALIA ARL WA, ALIA HLA, WALTG, TAFE WA Learning Resources Services Network, CURTIS, and with special thanks to the State Library of Western Australia. This event will offer attendees the chance to improve cross sector networking, by getting together, discussing and exploring what we all how in common and how we can all positively influence our changing profession. The day will earn ALIA members 6 points for the ALIA PD scheme and include:     Guest Speakers Dr Carmen Lawrence, formed Premier of Western Australia and Jennefer Nicholson, former Secretary General of IFLA Workshops and Discussion Panels Speed Networking and Laughing Yoga Library Leadership: A Celebration will be held at the State Library of Western Australia on Friday 19th of ...

With 2017 ALLA Ltd is offering a new model for the ALLA Fellowship.  With the 2017 Fellowships we hope to help as many members of the association as possible attend international conferences that focus on the area of law librarianship. Fellowships Available ALLA Ltd is now offering five $1500 fellowships to help members attend international conferences (one fellowship is available to each of the conferences below). Fellowship Application Closing date Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference (CALL/ACBD) (Including complimentary registration) 19 April 2017, 5pm AEST British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) Conference (Including complimentary registration) 30 April 2017, 5pm AEST American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Conference 31 May 2017, 5pm AEST New Zealand Law Librarians Association (NZLLA) Conference (Including complimentary registration) 30 June 2017, 5pm AEST ...

Tweet time! Talk careers & career development at tomorrow's ALLA Tweetup @ 7.30pm ADST. Details here . Note I did that in <140 characters.

May 19, 2017 - State Library of Western Australia Save the Date A chance for the whole WA library sector to get together, discuss and explore what we have in common and how we can all positively influence our changing profession. Two pre-eminent leaders in their fields will be helping us to get the discussion going. Organised as a joint project by representatives from LIS within WA, including ALLA (WA), with special thanks to the State Library of Western Australia and Kerry Smith. More information will be available very soon.