NGAC Response to the Australia Marriage Law Postal Survey

The New Generation Advisory Committee exists to help strengthen the participation of students and recently graduated library and information professionals in the Association. The Committee provides advice to the ALIA Board of Directors on issues of relevance to students and new professionals. NGAC works to inform the Board with the aim of ensuring the Association’s relevance to these groups.

At the end of last week NGAC started a dialogue with the ALIA Board on the issue of the impending postal vote on the issue of marriage equality. This has resulted in a formal response and submission from NGAC to the Board, which was submitted on the 16th August. In the interest of transparency for the varied group of individuals that we represent for ALIA, please find attached below our full response to the Australia Marriage Law Postal Vote of November 2017.

The official ALIA response generated on the 15th is a good start, and NGAC thank the Board for taking that step, but NGAC feel that further action is needed. We have included a list of recommended actions that we feel ALIA, and other GLAMR organisations, can and should implement.

Our recommendations are as follows:

• Provide a strong voice advocating this as not a political issue, rather a human rights issue.
• Highlight the need to critically evaluate information quality and bias in public discourse.
• Provide guidance on how to register to vote.
• Circulate organisational, community and individual stories from clients and staff in the LGBTQIA+ community.
• Share and/or develop resources for creating safe spaces in libraries.
• Promote resources for educating library patrons about LGBTQIA+ themes and issues.
• Challenge the idea that Library services and professionals are inherently neutral, and that silence on the matter is an endorsement of existing inequality.
• Develop a poster/resource/toolkit that can be used by all libraries in the lead up to the vote, to inform public, staff, and clients and include how libraries can help those affected.

We invite you all, either as individuals or organisations to endorse this response and share it widely.

2017 ALIA NGAC Response to the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey

Thank you,

The ALIA New Generation Advisory Committee

 

QLD – Interview Skills Panel and Workshop

So! You’ve created a stellar resume, teased out some STAR selection criteria, and scored yourself an interview.

What next? You’ve got to smash the interview and get the job!

Come join Queensland ALIA Students and New Graduates group for a hands-on panel and workshop all about the skills you need in an interview. We’ll be joined by experienced library managers and have the opportunity to ask them all the burning questions you have about what it takes to shine in a job interview.

Do you have a question for the panel? Contribute to our anonymous Padlet and get your question heard!

When: Saturday 2nd September

Where: Main Library (V714), QUT Gardens Point Campus

Cost: ALIA members free; non-members $5

RSVP: Spaces strictly limited. Please register by 29/08/17 via Eventbrite or email newgradsqld.alia@gmail.com

Key Selection Criteria workshop – Canberra

The ACT Students and New Graduates Group are holding a Key Selection Criteria (KSC) workshop at the National Library, come join us! Hear about the do’s and don’ts when it comes to writing KSC and how to stand out from the crowd. If nothing else, we hope you leave the event more confident about applying for your next job.

We have some wonderful speakers from the University of Canberra Library, The National Library of Australia, ACT Libraries and the Federal Government who are all keen to help you create the best possible job application.

WHEN: September 5, 2017 from 5.30pm-7.00pm
WHERE: Ferguson Room at The National Library of Australia
COST: Free for ALIA Members / $5 for Non ALIA Members
R.S.V.P alia.act.newgrad@gmail.com (with your ALIA Member No.)

We look forward to seeing everyone there!

Cheers,

Cindy Nguyen and Chris Sonneveld
ALIA Student and New Graduate (ACT) Coordinators

 

ACT Event: NLS8 wrap up

Jade, Cindy and I knew that the New Librarians Symposium was going to be amazing, that before it started we decided to organise a wrap up event. We also knew that not everyone would be able to get to NLS8, but hearing about it from those who did would be the next best thing.

On our panel we had Chery Gladman, who volunteered at the conference and was given the opportunity to attend part of the conference as an thank you for her help. We also had David Faraker and Charissa O’Sullivan from the Australian Parliamentary Library who attended as well as ALIA’s ACT State Manager, Jade Koekoe who ran her own DIY Marketing for Libraries workshop at NLS8.

As the moderator, I had the privilege of asking our panel a variety of questions surrounding NLS8. Our panel responded by providing an overview of NLS8 as well as an insight into their thoughts of the 3 day conference. We touched on librarian health and well being, DIY research, being your genuine self and the available resources of prison libraries. We also asked our panel to highlight some potential workshops and lectures that they might like to see at the next New Librarian Symposium in 2019.

Overall, the event was a huge success due in part to Cindy’s cheese and dip platter and my artistic videography through Facebook Live. If you are interested you can watch the whole panel on ALIA SNGG’s Facebook Page.

 

Again, thank you to all our panel members for participating and to all of our attendees.

We look forward to seeing you all at our Key Selection Criteria workshop on the 5th September 5:30pm at the NLA.

Chris Sonneveld

Canberra: Midwinter Dinner

Collaborations are great, and ACT SNGG had a fantastic time with ALIA URLs putting together this year’s Midwinter Dinner.

As it is ALIA’s 80th Birthday this year, it was agreed that a venue that had a 1930’s feel would be amazing and we were lucky enough to book the historic Hyatt Hotel. On top of a great venue, we had a birthday cake, trivia and everyone came in their best 1930’s outfits. The highlights of the night for us were picking a best dressed and hearing Sue McKerracher’s speech, in which she was a Director visiting the colonies and giving library staff a motivational talk. The following is a short extract from Sue’s speech, she suggests reading it with an upper crust English accent :