Applications from eligible NSW library staff for the 2011 Colin Mills Scholarship and the 2011 Kath Knowles Young Leaders Award have been extended until Friday 9 September 2011.

Colin Mills Scholarship

• a biennial award to the value of $8,000
• the Council and/or Library of intending applicants must be a current financial member of either Public Libraries NSW or the NSW MPLA

Kath Knowles Young Leaders Award

• an annual award to the value of $5,000
• available to library staff under 40 years of age who meet the eligibility criteria
• the Council and/or Library of intending applicants must be a current financial member of either Public Libraries NSW or the NSW MPLA

The State Library of NSW also maintains a page of awards and fellowships.

The Information Online road train is gathering steam as we type – only a week and a half away. In addition to the official programme, there’s some additional social events: an ALIA Sydney gathering and two #ALIAioc tweetups. Here are the details for each:

Date: Monday, 31st January 2011
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Cohibar
Location: Cohibar, Harbourside, Darling Harbour. (Next to the convention centre).

Date: Tuesday, 1st February 2011
Time: 8.00pm (after Official Welcome Drinks)
Venue: Crinz Bar
Location: Crinz Bar, Harbourside, Darling Harbour. (Next to the convention centre).

Date: Thursday, 3rd February 2011
Time: 7.00pm (after Official Closing Drinks)
Venue: Crinz Bar
Location: Crinz Bar, Harbourside, Darling Harbour. (Next to the convention centre).

If anyone is aware of other events please let me know and I can add them to the list.

Meant to add this last week but there’s still a chance to score some funding for research.

From the press release:

The State Library of New South Wales is currently taking applications for the DS Mitchell Fellowship and the Merewether Fellowship. The Mitchell and Merewether fellowships are designed to promote the Library’s role as a centre of scholarly activity and research, and to promote its rich and diverse collections. These fellowships were established through the generous benefaction of the late John Merewether.

More information on the Merewether can be found on their site, including a promotional PDF [220k].

Applications close on 21st June 2010

This seems somewhat timely, given a recent report on the decline of pay equity.  As per the blurb:

The fellowship is named in honour of the late Jean Fleming Arnot, MBE, FLAA, a former staff member of the State Library of New South Wales, who retired as head cataloguer in 1968 after a distinguished career of over 47 years of service. Miss Arnot was active in women’s organisations and a pioneer in the campaign for equal pay.

The fellowship will be awarded to a female librarian or female student of librarianship for an outstanding original paper of no more than 5000 words on any aspect of librarianship.

Applications for the Fellowship close on 19th April, 2010.

The fellowship is named in honour of the late Jean Fleming Arnot, MBE, FLAA, a former staff member of the State Library of New South Wales, who retired as head cataloguer in 1968 after a distinguished career of over 47 years of service. Miss Arnot was active in women's organisations and a pioneer in the campaign for equal pay

Yet another post about VALA

Kate Davis and her partner in crime, Carolyn McDonald, are working to complete their VALA paper (they have an extension…honest guv! but they need lots of folk to complete their survey.

Full details can be found on Kate’s blog but briefly they are exploring the relationship between IT and libraries. Libraries are moving more and more online in ways that tend to go round their local IT outfits. Is this sort of behaviour a result of problems with IT depts understanding libraries or vice versa? Is there a disconnect between libraries and IT? It’s an interesting question and I know from my own background that the relationship between IT depts and libraries can be a tricky one, with each group having differing expectations of the other. Definitely an area rich for study.

[update: ALIA has just set up a wiki to explore possible alternatives for 2010]

[update: official word (Prez) from ALIA, and from the Vice Prez]

Interesting news to hand in recent hours. Alas IFLA has decided to cancel the Brisbane Conference in 2010. They cite a bunch of reasons, primarily centred around the “Global Financial Crisis” which has everyone concerned at the moment. As most IFLA delegates are likely to be Northern Hemisphere based, they’ve decided to host the 2010 IFLA conference in Sweden instead. They see this as best suiting their anticipated audience.

There’s been a bit of discussion in the Oz library scene this evening, across twitter and facebook at least, about the idea of hosting an alternate conference. Many of the conferences that were due to be held in Australia in 2010 have been delayed to 2011/2012 to make way for IFLA. This strikes me as being the perfect opportunity to try something different, in fact we’re already hearing unofficially that ALIA has something innovative in the works. My own idea is to have some sort of grab bag of the best of the various Oz conferences and then some: a bit of ALIA, a bit of NLS, a bit of LibTech, VALA, a bit of unconference, a bit of mashup, a bit of tech, and so forth. This seems to be the moment for dreaming, for imagining…what can we do that would be so cool, so interesting, so happening, that folk overseas will look at us and go “wow! – why can’t we do that?”

Ideas welcome…please comment and contribute. Let’s have a discussion about the sort of conference we want in 2010.

Internationally recognised US Web 2.0 commentator, blogger and library academic, Dr Michael Stephens, has been appointed the 2009 CAVAL Visiting Scholar. On behalf of CAVAL and its project partners: CityLibraries Townsville and Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dr Stephens’ research project will seek to measure the value and effect of Learning 2.0 programs in Australian libraries.

“The intent of this study is to understand the impact on library staff and institutional culture and makeup after a Learning 2.0 program”, Dr Stephens says. “The critical questions for libraries looking forward are to what extent has Learning 2.0 impacted institutional culture and staff confidence, and to what degree has it improved the ability of library staff to use emerging technologies?”

Dr Stephens notes that “More than 500 libraries in 15 countries have implemented Learning 2.0 programs in 2 years but we know very little about their effectiveness.”

Working with a co-researcher from CityLibraries Townsville, Dr Stephens’
research aims to develop a world first model for what he terms “an exemplary Learning 2.0 program for Australian libraries.”

[update: Michael has posted a detailed summary of the proposal]

January has been busier than usual with stuff being released and conferences galore including Information Online, RAILS 5, and ALA Midwinter. NLS4 have announced in recent days that most papers are now available, and images have been flowing into their flickr group.

Around the traps, the new issue of the Australian Library Journal has just been released with the following articles:

• Wagga Wagga Womens Wireless and the Web: local studies and new technologies (Amy Heap and Bob Pymm)
• Out of the boot camp and into the chrysalis: a reflective case study (Katrina Macdonald)
• The evidence base: where is it? (Janet Smith)
• Bringing the evidence base to the alcohol and other drugs sector (Jane Shelling)
• Precision with ease: refining thesaurus support for quality health information searching on HealthInsite (Jill Buckley Smith and Prue Deacon)
• The role of libraries in eHealth service delivery in Australia (Sarada Rao)
• Fancy walkie talkies, Star Trek communicators or roving reference? (Ellen Forsyth)

Pew Internet have released a couple of new reports covering: Generations Online in 2009 and Adults and Social Network Websites. Finally, as others have noted, the 2009 Horizon Report has been released.

Lots of reading for the days ahead

update: no sooner had I posted than I came across a mention of an Australian report on Australians’ use and satisfaction with e-government services—2008, published by the Australian Government Information Office.

It’s on again, applications to attend Aurora in 2009 opened on Monday, 15 Sept 2008. Most comments I’ve heard suggest this a great learning opportunity, and particularly beneficial for those with leadership aspirations. ALIA has maintained a list of testimonials.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released a snapshot yesterday, as part of Library & Information Week, detailing several facts about library usage in this country including:

• 46% of Australians aged over 18 years visited a library in 2006
• 72,600 Australians reported unpaid involvement in libraries and archives in April 2007
• Libraries were the second most attended cultural venue or event in 2006

See the snapshot for further information.