Notes from Down Under: New Grads in Australia Part I

by Naomi Doessel

Hi! I am Naomi Doessel, an Information Literacy Librarian from Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland. I have been actively involved in the Australian Library and Information Association for a few years now, primarily in new graduate initiatives. Sebastian has asked a few of us in Australia to share with you what we do down here, so I thought I would start with an overview of what is going on right now.

The new grad movement in Australia is young (about ten years) and pretty strong. However it waxes and wanes with people’s involvement, commitment, and there is a pretty constant revolving door as “new” new graduates make their way into the profession, and those who have been “new” become “not-so-new” and start to move out of the “new grads” camp and into… wherever suits them! One of the great things about new grads is that they are often coming up with new ideas and pushing boundaries, so this is a snapshot of where we sit now: not where we will be forever.

ALIA New Grads eList (Website)
ALIA eLists are not just for ALIA members – or even just for Aussies! While most of the events advertised on the lists will be in Australia, more and more there are virtual Professional Development events being offered, as well as discussions about professional issues and news shared. Also you will get to find out when our awesome conferences are on and when you might want to make a trip “down under” to visit us!

ALIA New Graduates Group (NGG) (Website | Blog)
The NGG is the localised, “grass roots” sector of the new grad movement in Australia. They provide a forum for new graduates to communicate and socialise with colleagues and build relationships and networks within the profession. The group aims to facilitate networking for the new generation of library professionals, provide a forum for the discussion of issues relevant to new professionals, organise meetings and training specifically relevant to students and new graduates, and facilitate the introduction of new graduates into the wider ALIA community. They have a blog, a facebook page, and a lot of the members tweet. There are currently active groups run by volunteers in all of our six states and one of our territories. The National NGG convenor, Andrew Finegan, also sits on NGAC (see below) to ensure effective communication between the two groups.

ALIA New Generation Advisory Committee (NGAC) (Website)
NGAC is an ALIA Board appointed advisory committee. We advise the ALIA Board on issues related to new graduates and students. Our main function is to discuss the strategic issues related to new graduate participation within ALIA, rather than actively putting on events, however members are often involved in their local area and conference organising committees also. When a position on an advisory committee is vacant, a call for expressions of interest is advertised and personal financial members of ALIA can nominate to join a committee. NGAC members are selected based on various factors including their expertise in the area of relevance, their ability to represent the organisation in a positive manner and contribute to the goals of ALIA. I Chaired NGAC for almost two years before stepping down to focus on my research (below), NGAC’s current Chair, Vanessa Warren, was the NGG Coordinator for Tasmania for two years prior to joining NGAC.

ALIA Access New Grads Stream Committee: Jo Beazley, Naomi Doessel (co-convenor), Rachel Wray (co-convenor), Bonnie Dixon

ALIA New Librarians Symposium (NLS) (Website)
NLS is a stand-alone conference for new graduates and students. It was devised in 2002 by ALIA’s current Executive Director, Sue Hutley. Sue saw a lack of professional development opportunities for new graduates and ran a two day symposium in Brisbane. NLS 1.5 was in Brisbane a year later, NLS2 was held in Adelaide in 2004, in 2006 it was in Sydney and 2008 saw it move to Melbourne. NGAC did a thorough review of NLS in 2008-2009, and recommended to the ALIA Board that NLS continue to be supported by ALIA as an important event for the next generation of library and information professionals.  Previous year’s conference papers are available online. In 2011 NLS5 is being held in Perth, back-to-back with the ALIA National Library and Information Technicians’ Conference. There will also be a Library Camp Perth at around the same time, so if you’ve ever wanted to visit the west coast of Australia (think Margaret River wine tours!) September 2011 will be a great time to do so! Abstract deadline is December 15th 2010 so get writing now!

ALIA Access New Grads Resume Reviews

ALIA Access: What next! Practical Information to Enhance the Career of New Graduates (Website)
In 2010 ALIA cancelled all its regular conferences as the IFLA Annual Congress was due to come to Brisbane. Unfortunately financial circumstances meant that the international conference was moved to Sweden, and in its stead a group of committed volunteers and ALIA staff members organised a multi-streamed conference, including a New Graduates day which was very successful. There was also a LibraryCamp which a lot of new grads attended and participated in. Conference papers are available on the website. Katherine Howard has blogged here about the conference, as have many others. A collation of some of the entries can be found on this Libraries Interact post.

ALIA Access New Grads Networking Bingo

Energise > Enthuse > Inspire (Website)
A column for and by new graduates, EEI has been running in ALIA’s monthly magazine inCite since 2003. EEI seeks to engage and inspire students and new graduates with the association and profession as a whole. Covering all aspects of LIS, EEI offers a glimpse into the many and varied careers, opportunities, networks, and prospects available to those entering or seeking to enter the profession. Having coordinated the column for four years, I am stepping down at the end of 2010 and the new coordinator Lesa Maclean is taking over.

ALIA Study Grant Award 2010 (Website)
Conference mentoring: Assisting new professionals to get the most out of ALIA conferences
The American Library Association (ALA) runs a similar program at their annual conference through their New Members Round Table. I have been awarded the 2010 ALIA Study Grant Award to pilot a conference mentoring project at ALIA Information Online Conference and Exhibition 2011. It will be an opportunity for first time attendees to meet someone more experienced in the industry and in conference participation, and to gain insight into the best way to approach a major conference. First timers are paired with more experienced delegates prior to the conference, and a conference focused mentoring relationship will be established. Watch this space for further details as nominations will open as just as soon as I get my ethics approval, and Sydney is beautiful in February!

A version of this article was first printed in inCite:
Doessel, N. (2010 April). Get involved! New Graduate participation in ALIA. inCite, 31(4), 25. Available from http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/incite/2010/04/EEI.pdf

A version of this article will also appear in LIANZA’s e-Library Life 16 November 2010. http://www.lianza.org.nz/news-events/newsletter

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Naomi Doessel is an Information Literacy Librarian at Griffith University in sunny Brisbane, Queensland. She has worked in libraries since 2004 in academic, public and law libraries as well as in the corporate world in business research, in London and Melbourne. Naomi has been an Associate (professional) member of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and engaged in the Professional Development sheme (AALIA CP) since graduating from QUT in 2006. She coordinated the monthly new graduate’s column Energise > Enthuse > Inspire in inCite from 2006-2010. She has served on the New Generation Advisory Committee (NGAC) since 2008 and as Chair in 2009-2010. She is now focussed on an research project, as the 2010 ALIA Study Grant Award recipient Naomi is investigating conference mentoring via a trial at the 2011 ALIA Information Online Conference & Exhibition.

Contact: naomidoessel@gmail.com | Twitter | WordPress.

ALIA Access 2010 revisited

by Katherine Howard

Billed as the ALIA event of the year, the ALIA Access 2010 conference did not disappoint.  It was a conference of many “firsts” – it was the first ALIA conference to offer live web-streaming to ALIA members unable to attend in person; the first ALIA conference to have multiple, sector-based conference streams organised by multiple committees; and it was the first ALIA conference to be sold out – a great achievement considering that it was organised in just 14 months, after learning that IFLA 2010 would not be held in Brisbane as originally planned.

On a personal level, it was a time of many “firsts” for me also – it was my first time to Brisbane (I have been to many other parts of Queensland, but never to its capital, Brisbane) and it was the first time I had both attended and presented at an ALIA conference.  In fact, I presented 2 papers – one about my experience as an Erasmus Mundus student in the International Masters in Digital Library Learning (DILL) programme and one about the issues of access and equity in relation to people with a print disability, with special reference to people who are blind or vision impaired.

Day one of the conference comprised library tours to various libraries (academic, public, special) in Brisbane and surrounding regional areas.  My selected tour took me to three libraries.  Firstly, we visited Chermside Library – a “hub” library which is part of the wider Brisbane City Council network of public libraries.  Of particular interest was the children’s area, called “Flight Deck 4032.”  Everything in this area is space and/or rocket related – even the alphabet cards continue this theme with “A is for Astronaut:, “B is for Blast off” and so on.  The area is dominated by a huge model rocket to really set the scene!  Reading suggestion lists are strategically placed in this area, and in “The Corner” – the young adult space which also includes x-boxes and chairs for teenagers to make themselves comfortable.

Brisbane City Square Library tour (cc by MissSophieMac)

The next two libraries we visited were in the Moreton Bay Regional Council area – the Pathways Library and Redcliffe Library.  The Pathways Library is a joint use library, sharing the public library facilities with the senior campus of the local state secondary college.  One Friday of each month, the Pathways library holds a “Loud @ Pathways Library” night, a youth engagement initiative for 12 – 17 year olds.

The library at Redcliffe is co-located with the Redcliffe City Art Gallery.  The library itself is environmentally driven – it heats from the floor up and there are huge louvre windows which work in conjunction with the air-conditioning, automatically closing when the temperature falls below a certain level to allow the warmer air to be retained.  The louvres also let in vast amounts of natural light and allow fresh air to circulate (much better than recycled air!).

Presentations started in earnest on day two. The conference was given an international flavour in the “Collective Wealth, Global Sharing, Global Resources” stream with a presentation by Poul Erlandsen from the Royal Library / Copenhagen University Library in Denmark.  Other sectors to have concurrently running sessions included Health Libraries; Technical and Further Education (TAFE) libraries (TAFE is a pre-university, tertiary level educational institution in Australia); and a discussion about whether Information Literacy and Web 2.0 is a paradox or not, lead by Professor Christine Bruce from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).  The New Grads Group had a strong presence at the conference, with a full day of presentations by new graduates who shared their experiences of what they have done to enhance their careers.

Library Camp (cc by kjlindsay)

The New Grads Group continued their support of new-comers to the library profession (and to conferences!) by holding a “Library Camp” on day three.  Stephen Abram gave a virtual presentation – “The keynote you have when you are not having a keynote”!

A fabulous half-day workshop on Library Leadership was facilitated by Dr. Neil Carrington, formerly from the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) Leadership Centre and now CEO of ACT for Kids.  Dr. Carrington discussed the differences between leadership and management, and that there is a time and a place for both in the workplace and our personal lives.  Two things that remain in my memory from this session (although there are many others!) is that leaders know how and when they should lead, and how and when they should manage; and that leaders understand how others think.  The workshop interactively discussed current workplace performance cultures and how leadership rather than management could help move from an undesirable workplace culture to a desirable one.

The final session I attended was another workshop format – LIS Education for the 21st Century, facilitated by the Project Team from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project.  As my Master thesis looked at the skills and knowledge required to work in a digital library, this was a particularly interesting session for me.  It provided an opportunity for the LIS profession – including practitioner, educators, employers and students – to discuss and provide feedback to the project team about the current state and future needs of LIS education in Australia.  It was a lively discussion indeed, which could have continued for many hours had we not needed to vacate the Exhibition Centre!

Overall, ALIA Access had a very positive vibe about it.  It was extremely well organised with so many high-quality speakers and interesting papers.  The only complaint I have – the usual one I have, and certainly not unique to this conference! – is that it was not possible to hear every presentation.

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Katherine Howard graduated with a Post Graduate Diploma from the University of South Australia in 2006.  She then worked for two special libraries – the Sound Library at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Disability Information Resource Centre (DIRC).  In 2007 she was awarded an Erasmus Mundus Scholarship which allowed her to undertake the International Masters in Digital Library Learning (DILL) program. She graduated from this program in 2009 and until recently managed the Digital Audio Book Library for the Royal Society for the Blind in South Australia.  She is now Associate Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).