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Submission from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), National and State Libraries Australia (NSLA) and the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) on the development of a more accessible Standards system. 

• ALIA, NSLA and the ALCC are supportive of a non-exclusive model for the distribution of Standards information in Australia. This has the potential to result in a more accessible Standards system, which we welcome.
• We are also supportive of Standard Australia's (SA) proposed principles – greater reach, awareness and use of Standards, ensuring long-term sustainability – but believe ‘access’ should also be included, setting a minimum requirement for public access to the Standards.
• We support the calls in other submissions to make the Standards publicly available under a Creative Commons (CC) licence, to maximise public access.
• In addition, SA should not limit its licensing to a single commercial licensor model. It should also provide one or more separate licences for non-commercial users, designed to meet the needs of these users and meet SA’s important public access mandate.
• To ensure SA’s financial sustainability, these licences could be provided at a reasonable rate designed to recover the cost of producing the Standards. Additional revenue could also be obtained through commercial licensing for products aimed at trade professionals, for whom the base level access provided through a library is inappropriate.
• Finally, we propose that SA partners with libraries and archives to make archived Standards freely and easily available to professionals and the general public, utilising purpose-built systems such as the (NED) service.

Health Libraries Australia Professional Development Day, 18 & 19 July 2019 Melbourne: All about data - what do health librarians need to know in the data driven world of ehealth?
 
eHealth and big data are driving massive change in the health sector. Librarians are continually challenged to be ‘data intelligent’ and to extend their skills in the use, visualisation and application of data and to support their clients’ data literacy. Librarian’s working in health science or inside health agencies and organisations are uniquely positioned to support the optimal use of data to support scientific research and the delivery of and improvements in health and medical care for individuals and the community.
 
This year the PD Day will combine keynote presentations with lightning talks and hands on workshops around the following themes:
 

• Data science - what does this encompass? 
• Research data management - is this a niche role for health librarians? 
• Open data, open science, the reproducibility crisis and the future of scholarly publishing - should we champion open access and research rigour?
• Bibliometrics, altmetrics, open access - what do these mean for collection development?
• Data as the new evidence - has the published literature been gazumped?
• Big data, predictive analytics, precision medicine and clinical decision-making - do librarians have a role? 
• AI - are there opportunities for librarians in data curation, metadata and linking?
• Digital literacy for consumers and health professionals - are librarians the best health literacy teachers?
• Data visualisation – tools, techniques and the role of the Librarian. 

The 'Australian Library and Information Association Galleries Libraries Archives Museums and Records Workforce Diversity Trend Report 2019' details the current status of diversity across the galleries, libraries, archives, museums and records (GLAMR) workforce using the 2006, 2011, and 2016 census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The age, gender, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation, people living with disability, and cultural diversity of Librarians; Gallery, Library and Museum Technicians; Library Assistants; and Archivists, Curators and Records Managers was compared with the levels of diversity in the total labour force. 
 
Five recommendations have been identified for the GLAMR sector to address imbalances highlighted in the report:
 

1. Encourage people to consider library and information as both a first and second career.
2. Find ways to significantly increase the number of male library and information workers.
3. Aim to double the number of Indigenous workers.
4. Continue to open up career opportunities for people living with disability.
5. Seek to recruit people born in Asia and/or from LOTE households with Asian first languages.

These guidelines have been produced to assist senior managers in organisations, governments, institutions, who are responsible for library and information services but may not come from a library and information background. They are designed to provide a good practice model for undertaking a service review, to achieve the best outcomes with the least disruption.

Books Create Australia is an alliance of those working in the Australian book industry who all agree: a reading nation makes for a better nation. With that in mind, authors, publishers, libraries and booksellers have come together as Books Create Australia to take collaborative steps to preserve, promote and value Australian books and writing not only in the short-term, but also in the future. This document sets out the achievements of the alliance.

Exercises for schools.
 
The 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being celebrated around the world this year and there will be special events at the National Library of Australia and several State Libraries on 10 December 2018, in partnership with the UN Association of Australia.
 
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights speaks to the values held by library and information professionals, and in May 2017, Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Members voted to include a new Object in our Constitution: "to endorse the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in response to the many challenges faced by the world today and into the future."

Report detailing feedback from survey of Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) members.
 
To give all ALIA Members the opportunity to provide feedback, every two years ALIA carries out a Membership survey. In 2017, the survey took place from 31 July to 28 August. It was similar in content to those carried out in 2015 and 2013, to help the ALIA Board assess changes in Member interests and concerns.

This document describes the role, skills and attributes, and duties and responsibilities of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Board of Directors.
 
 

Compiled by the State Library of Queensland's Regional Access and Public Libraries division on behalf of the National and State Libraries Australasia, this report is an overview of the services, infrastructure, income and expenditure of each state and territory's public libaries.
 
In 2014-15:

• Australia had 1,631 public library service points and outlets with 1,392 branches, 77 mobiles and 162 other outlets
• over 166.7 million items were lent to 8.2 million members of Australia’s public libraries
• over 114 million customers visited, or more than 9.5 million per month
• over 38 million items were made available for the use of the community and over $130 million was spent on ensuring that these collections remain up to date and relevant
• total expenditure on public libraries increased to over $1.14 billion, representing a 19.6% increase since 2010-2011
• over 194,000 library programs were attended by more than 5.8 million people.

Nominations for two vacant general Director positions have been received from four ALIA Members; Alicia Cohen, Jonathon Guppy, Clare O'Dwyer and Anne Reddacliff. This document provides background information on each of these candidates. 

This guide provides concise information about how to safeguard library collections in the event of a disaster and has been updated from an earlier edition (ALIA, 2010). The Guide (Part one) gives an overview and context for the Disaster Plan. The Disaster Plan Template (Part two) provides further details and a flexible integrated model with tables and a checklist for you to adapt and develop your library’s own Disaster Plan.

This document has been updated from an earlier edition (ALIA, 2010) and provides various disaster training scenarios which can help staff to prepare, update and refine library Disaster Plans and assist in staff training. A list of key issues is also provided for facilitators to select and adapt to help groups explore the implications of the different disaster scenarios.
 
This resource can be used in conjunction with the ALIA Disaster Management for Libraries: Guide (Part 1) and Disaster Plan Template (Part 2).
 
This document replaces "ALIA disaster scenarios for staff training sessions (2010)".
 
 

ALIA Information Online 2017 Conference, 13-17 February 2017 Sydney: Data Information Knowledge
 
The ALIA Information Online Conference has been held since 1990 and attracts over one thousand influential professionals from all sectors of the library industry. The conference gives access to key library and information service professionals from Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific, and beyond. The 2017 Conference will be an opportunity to connect over common interests, challenge each other, and engage with some of the most creative and exciting thinkers and innovators from our industry.
 

ALIA Information Online 2019 Conference, 11-15 February 2019 Sydney: Infinite Possibilities
 
This conference paper provides an introduction to Wikidata and Zotero.
 
Wikidata is managed by the Wikimedia Foundation, the same group responsible for Wikipedia. According to the Wikidata website, “Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Wikidata acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wikisource, and others.”
 
One of the projects within Wikidata is WikiCite, and its aim is to construct bibliographic references using data from Wikidata. These references could then be added to Wikipedia articles to improve their quality. There are several tools which can be used to add items to Wikidata, one of which is Zotero. Zotero makes it easy to upload a batch of bibliographic items to Wikidata.