ALIA Sydney Committee: Call for Expressions of Interest

ALIA Sydney presents a selection of formal and information events to encourage discussion and critical engagement and create networking opportunities across the library and information section in Sydney and beyond. The ALIA Sydney committee is a group of vibrant and committed volunteers who make it all possible.

ALIA Sydney is currently looking for new committee members to join our team. Through these roles you will have the chance to develop skills in event and project management, and make vital professional connections through your contribution to our community of practice plus you can have a lot of fun along the way. 

Each of the below positions is voluntary in nature, and each role is for a 12-24 month period. These roles are to commence in the year 2012, which is a very exciting time with the development of the new expanded program for ALIA Sydney.

Expressions of Interest (EOIs) should be received by COB Wednesday 4th of January 2012. EOIs should briefly introduce yourself and cover the criteria outlined for the position of interest. All EOIs and any questions should be directed to the ALIA Sydney Convenor, Kate Byrne and Convenor-Elect, Crystal Choi at aliasydneygroup@gmail.com or call 0414 955 258.

Coordinators x 2

These roles share responsibility for coordinating the professional development events of ALIA Sydney in conjunction with our existing coordinators.

Each Coordinator is expected to:

• Plan and Organise 2 events each year in conjunction with the rest of the committee.
• Liaise with the ALIA Sydney Convener for event ideas and ongoing support.
• Liaise with the ALIA Sydney Treasurer for event budget submissions.
• Submit updates for the ALIA Sydney blog at least monthly, including upcoming events (http://aliasydney.blogspot.com/)
• Post on/Update ALIA Sydney social networking pages regularly, featuring both ALIA Sydney event promotion and current awareness of library and information sector news and issues.
• Ensure a consistent and professional format for all ALIA Sydney communications in line with our communication strategy and templates.

Average Time Demand per month:  8 hours (prep plus actual events)

The interested person should:

• Be, or be willing to become, a current member of ALIA.
• Have an active interest in professional development with the Library & Information Sector.
• Maintain an active awareness of new issues and development within the L & I Sector.
• Have strong interpersonal and communication skills so they can be good at kick starting conversations and making introductions to put attendees at ease.
• Have a head full of ideas for ALIA Sydney events, promotions and online content (eg blog posts)
• A strong interest or expertise in technology, career development, emerging or other topics related to the L & I sector

Event Officer x 1

This developmental role helps make events happen. On a rotating basis, the Event Officers will be teamed up with the Coordinators to help with event organisation and management.

Each Officer is expected to:

• Assist with the organisation of at least 2-3 events each year in conjunction with the coordinator and convener.
• Post on/Update ALIA Sydney social networking pages regularly, featuring both ALIA Sydney event promotion and current awareness of library and information sector news and issues.
• Submit updates for the ALIA Sydney blog at least monthly, including reports on ALIA Sydney events (http://aliasydney.blogspot.com/)
• Ensure a consistent and professional format for all ALIA Sydney communications in line with our communication strategy and templates.

Average Time Demand per month:  4 hours (2 hours prep plus actual events)

The interested person should:

• Be, or be willing to become, a current member of ALIA.
• Have an active interest in professional development with the Library & Information Sector.
• Maintain an active awareness of new issues and development within the L & I Sector.
• Have strong communication and collaboration skills. 

End of Year ALIA Sydney Picnic: THIS SUNDAY

Photo by Mykl Roventine

The ALIA Sydney group invites you to join us out in the sunshine for an end of year picnic in the Botanic Gardens.

Please come along and relax, unwind, meet new people, catch up with old friends, and share your stories from 2011.

Friends and family are all welcome.

Where: on the Band Lawn, near the Venus Fountain (number 30 on the map)

When: Sunday, 20th November, from 12 p.m.

What to bring: Food and drink, something to sit on, hats and suncream.

RSVP: aliasydneygroup@gmail.com to give us some idea of numbers, or just turn up on the day.

We look forward to seeing you there to celebrate 2011 coming to a close. 

Digitasking like a freak

According to Amy Gahran, mobile digital omnivores are people who are cross platform consumers of technology who use mulltiple pieces of technology, that is, people who own and use 'smartphones, tablets and other connected devices'.

I'd like to take this idea a step further a suggest that digital omnivores are also digitaskers (digital multi taskers)- people who use not only one, but multiple devices simultaneously.

Case in point:

This is my desk as I write this blog post (you'll have to excuse the mess!) I am simultaneously writing this blog post and checking my emails on my work station, using my iPad to jot down ideas for a paper that I'm working on, using my camera to take this photo (although, I didn't bring my usb cord to work today, so I had to use another device to take the photo so I could upload it!) To the right is the work laptop where I'm preparing a workshop for my colleagues on the use of interactive polling devices, and I'm also reading and highlighing a journal article in between all of this.

So you might be thinking that I'm either A) crazy B) delusional or C) all of the above, and for some people working like this may well drive them absolutely bananas. But I find that I do some of my best work like this- as the above photo is uploading on my work station, I turn to the laptop and do some more work on my presentation. Don't get me wrong, I also have the ability to set my mind to a particular task and work on it continuously, but I do find that sometimes other disctractions can start creeping in (oh look, someone just tweeted me!).

Another case in point: an interesting discussion on Twitter between @newgradlib and @katecbyrne has just distracted me from doing this post, but it has given me some interesting perspectives to think about, which I am now incorporating into this post, as I type... (the idea that digitasking can spell trouble for many people who get sidetracked onto a path that may in fact negate the productivity) But for me, this particular example of a distraction was in fact positive.

I guess what I'm saying is that there are positive distractors and negative distractors. For me, having so many devices and hence things I'm working on, on the go can prevent those negative distractors creeping in. If you want to work productively in this digitasking way, I guess you have to be able to find a way to shut out the distractors that you find work negatively against you.

Alternatively, you could take what researchers are calling a 'mental break', that is- using social media to take a break at work, which apparently can increase your work productivity by 9%!

This is a link to an article I found on ReadWriteWeb on this research, although I'm sure there are lots of people who argue for the opposite (in fact, I'm sure that I've read some of these articles!) Again, I reckon it depends on the type of person/worker you are.... Interestingly, despite all of these technological 'distractions' that I surround myself with, I can't work when music is playing, unlike some people, who can only work when music is playing. Maybe someone should create a Myers-Briggs-type assessment for people to work out what sort of worker they are???

And... while I was finishing this post, two other librarians (@misssophiemac and @pinkfairaedust) have also joined the discussion- they are excellent examples of the digitasking librarian!

My name is Crystal Choi, and I'm a digitasking librarian (and proud of it!)

Crystal is a member of the ALIA Sydney committtee and tweets @crystalibrary.

Notes from the 2012 eResearch Conference, Melbourne.

I've been spending this week in Melbourne at the 2012 eResearch Conference and as we reach the close of day two I thought I would share some of my notes from sessions I've found interesting at the conference so far. I hope you find them interesting too...

Repository as App: Functionality to attract dark data - Prof. Bryan Heidorn 

This presentation was looking at the long tail of data, the small projects that are actually collectively making up the bulk of the data that should be available for people, the non-blockbuster projects. Small data is big science because it is high volume, is information rich, has high entropy, but also because the needs of this wide field are not really understood by either researchers, support staff or vendors.  

Where will you find dark data? Literature, Museum specimens, field notes, (un)experimental data sets, citizen observations. A great deal of the dark data we are using now are things that their value is only jut being discovered many years after being created. For example, journal and diary notes from citizens that mentioned when flowers bloomed are now being used for comparisons to identify the effects of climate change.

To better manage this issue the tools and business of science needs to be altered to seamlessly allow support management and communication of data. We need professional development and training to open up the field.

Creating opportunities to have data automatically moving across to support in the cloud or at least back up systems with built in sharing functionality will be vital to avoiding growth in the quantity of dark data.This is all about moving away from a world of the computer overlords who would control access to functional support, towards understanding how can we recycle data for reuses and embracing a democratization of data.

 

Rediscovering the Treasure

Since its public launch in 2009, Trove has proved to be a dynamic Australian resource, not just for providing a national catalogue but also as a source for discovery. As library professionals, we use Trove to locate not only books and articles but also videos, newspaper articles and images as well. But there are even more ways to use Trove as a tool as a professional resource.Here are three suggestions

 

Cite this

 So you’re decided to finally submit a piece to Incite. You’ve written your 500-700 word article, asked a few colleagues read it, had a couple of good edits and you are just about ready to go. Problem is you have cited a local council report and you are not 100% on how format the citation you’ll need to include. Trove to the rescue! Trove includes the records to many local and national reports and also has a handy little ‘cite this’ feature’. Just locate the work you want to cite and click the ‘cite this’ button, a pop up window will provide the formatting in APA, MLA and Harvard styles. 

Where, oh where? 

 From time to time books need to be purchased sight unseen. This can be due to the item being suggested for purchase or possibly the vendor has sent through a list of specials. Most of the time it is easy to tell where items can fit into a collection (children’s adults, reference, etc) but occasionally a title can be deceiving. Why not ask your librarian colleagues? Search for the questionable title in Trove to see where others have placed it in their collections. While each library needs to fit its collection to the client’s needs, a little input from other professionals never hurt. 

 

Inspiration 

 We all contribute (or should be contributing) to the professional conversation by participating in blogs, newsletters and journals. Most of the time the inspiration comes from a recent activity or pet project but once in a while we need something more. Trove can be a space to play, to help find that direction or spin on a subject. Browse the diaries or maps to see what has happened in the past. Find an old newspaper article about your subject like this article about Children's Book Week from 1945 (note the photo of Princess Elizabeth). Looking around for 'future libraries' in the videos has revealed this gem of a video created by Mosman Library. 

But these are just a starting point. There are so many possibilities. How have you used Trove in your professional life?  

-Amy Barker