ALIA Biennial- the value of discovery

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks. I recently attended the ALIA Biennial conference and I had a great time. It was a conference of firsts for me- I was on the social media committee, presented my first paper and I took part in the mentoring programme as a mentor for the first time. I also spoke at the First Timers’ Breakfast.

There was a great breadth of papers presented and some really wonderful keynote speakers. Some of the highlights were hearing Justice Kirby’s keynote address, as well as hearing the ideas put forward by Dr Tom Ruthven on data mining and Professor Mitchell Whitehall on the design of beautiful interfaces that encourage exploration and discovery.

Besides all of the ideas that I took away from listening to the keynotes and presentations, I also took away a lot of other valuable experiences with me, such as all of the new people I met and talked to, all of the people I started following on Twitter, participating and monitoring the social media streams (did you know that the #ALIA2012 tag actually trended in Australia at one stage?) and of course, experiencing presenting for the first time. In fact, I would have to say that the informal and incidental learning experiences and discoveries that came about from talking to people during breaks, meal times, at the informal Tweet up and after my presentation, were probably the most valuable to me personally. I made some wonderful new friends and acquaintances, who have expanded my professional learning network considerably, whom I hope to remain in contact with long after the heady rush of attending the conference itself fades away. 

Judging from the tweet traffic on Twitter, everyone seemed to enjoy joining in the conversation. And judging from the traffic still being tagged with the #ALIA2012 hash tag, as everyone is preparing to report back their discoveries to their colleagues, people are still abuzz with conference chatter, even three weeks after the conference. This really demonstrates the impact that the conference-going experience has had on the LIS community. And it's a great community to be a part of. From my experience, we're a generous and passionate bunch of people and it’s a pleasure to be a part of it. 

Did you attend the ALIA Binenial? What was the most valuable thing you took away from it? Even if you didn’t attend the conference, you can search for the Twitter hash tag #ALIA2012 and check out some of the archives of Tweets that were captured on the ALIA Biennial blog.  

- Crystal

Crystal is the convenor of the ALIA Sydney group and tweets @crystalibrary.

First Timers' Breakfast

ALIA Sydney is proud to be a part of the upcoming ALIA Biennial conference this week.

Myself and two other committee members, Sophie MacDonald and Vikki Bell will be speaking at the First Timers' Breakfast to share our tips and tricks for getting the most out of the conference for first time delegates. The breakfast is sponsored by the University of Wollongong Library, and University Librarian Margie Jantti will be opening the proceedings.

If you're going to be at the first timers' breakfast, we'll see you there!

- Crystal
ALIA Sydney Group Convenor

ALIA Biennial 2012

I’ve just taken a stroll through previous posts on the ALIA Biennial blog and have learned so much.   So much stuff out there to help you through life!   Fides and I are looking forward to talking more about these developments at the Biennial Conference.  Only a couple of weeks to go now.  It is has been an interesting journey putting this conference together and we hope that for those who attend and/or who follow us through social media, that you will discover and re-discover all sorts of interesting things.  The key feature of an ALIA conference is that it brings together all sectors and we encourage you to explore the inspiring work that other libraries and colleagues in Australia and overseas are doing.  The program is exciting, wonderfully diverse, and should lay the seeds for many conversations during and beyond the conference about reimagining, re-envisioning, and discovering ourselves as a profession.

One comment about the conference we’ve regularly heard is that the conference is expensive because it’s being held at the Hilton.  Not true.  Conferences are costly events to host as yes, you do have to pay for a venue that’s large and flexible enough to hold the estimated number of delegates, concurrent sessions and exhibition space, plus you need to supply catering, ensure IT support, attract interesting speakers etc.  However, the cost of having the conference at the Hilton was extremely competitive compared with other venues, particularly as there are no hidden costs as most of what we require is already available at the hotel.  Being in the heart of the city means that getting to the conference is easy for delegates and once at the hotel, plenty of options for dining.  Of course there is the lure of the QVB with its upmarket shops, not to mention the new Westfield city complex, but we trust that our delegates and their accompanying family and friends, will shop each day after the conference has finished.  After all, there is only so much you can spend in three days!  The Hilton is not too far from the NSW Art Gallery where we are having our conference dinner, and there is also the Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Sydney Museum and, of course, the iconic Sydney Opera House.  So there’s a lot on offer within walking distance to keep delegates and accompanying family and friends well occupied. 

When planning the conference dinner, it was clear that delegates wanted something different to a traditional sit down dinner but wanted to be all together rather than separating into smaller groups.  A few of the Conference committee members explored options and felt that the NSW Art Gallery would do the trick.  The menu looks delightful and there will be plenty of opportunity to chat with one another and enjoy the beauty of art.  There will be time for dancing too!  Volunteers at the Art Gallery have kindly offered to show delegates around, our very own personalised tours.  You can’t get better than that. 

Another important social event of the conference is, of course, our welcome reception party.  This is because it is the official opening of our exhibition.  Our sponsors and exhibitors are essential for having a successful conference, they all put a lot of effort into putting together their stands and are keen to talk with delegates about their products and services.  At the Biennial Conference the exhibition will be set across two floors and we encourage everyone to visit EVERY stand.  Our sponsors and exhibitors are crucial to the holding of the Conference and we encourage everyone to check out the massive exhibition space.  You will be amazed at what you see and who you meet!   

Looking forward to meeting you at the Biennial.

Best wishes,

Janet and Fides

Janet Fletcher and Fides Datu Lawton

Co-Convenors, ALIA Biennial 2012

*This post was cross-posted on the ALIA Biennial blog.

Here's to a successful Blog Every Day of June!

What an incredible month of blogging! ALIA Sydney’s second Blog Every Day of June project was indeed a wonderful success, due to the plethora of contributions from our incredible guest bloggers, the regular ALIA Sydney Group committee and of course due to you, our readers.

We had posts encompassing a wide ranging list of topics, which I hope you found thought-provoking, inspiring and interesting. We had a huge readership over the past month and you can see that it has spanned across several countries (even when we take into account the bots that are bumping up our stats!) I do want to particularly thank our international guest bloggers for their contributions as they had to deal with time differences and the like, when submitting their blog posts to us! 

It’s indeed a wonderful time to be an information professional- there are so many interesting facets to our work to explore and learn about, so I thank you all for your posts, comments and readership. I do hope that the ALIA Sydney #blogJune effort sparked some new ideas and discussions amongst your colleagues.

In fact, due to the overwhelming support that we’ve had from our guest bloggers, and to celebrate the lead up to the ALIA Biennial conference in the second week of July, we’re pleased to announce that we’ll be extending Blog June into the first few days of July.

So please, keep reading and continue commenting.

Thank you and happy #blogjune!

Crystal

(ALIA Sydney Group Convenor)

ALIA Biennial

The ALIA Biennial conference is nearing, and I can feel the excitement building! 

I am lucky enough to be on the social media committee for the upcoming ALIA Biennial, along with Ellen Forsyth from the State Library, Cathy Johnston from Coffs Harbour Library, Sophie McDonald from UTS Library and Jeff Cruz from the City of Sydney Library.

The thing about this group, is that 4 of us are in Sydney and one of us is in Coffs Harbour, so I haven’t actually had the pleasure of meeting Cathy face-to-face as yet, which means that we’ll be meeting for the first time at the conference itself, while we’re flitting around adding to the conference’s presence via our social media streams. (If you see us in person, say hi. If you’re not attending the conference, say hi anyway, via any of our social media streams!)

That’s the beauty of social media- you don’t have to be in the same city, or even in the same country to form a group, network or add to your PLN. I digress.

The ALIA Biennial social media committee has been experimenting with lots of different social media, including Pinterest, Tumblr, blogspot, Flickr, Springpad, Google + and of the tried and true old favourites, Twitter and Facebook. You can see a list of our efforts and their links here.  

And while you’re at it, why don’t you head over to the ALIA Biennial blog, to check out our Blog Every Day of June efforts over there? We’re focusing on discovery and what it means for us in our daily lives and from a work sense. We’re also interested in hearing your thoughts, so I invite you to submit a short 30 second video or a photo on your take on ‘discovery’. You can find out more here. 

- Crystal 

Crystal is the convenor of ALIA Sydney and is also on the ALIA Biennial social committee. She’s an academic librarian at the University of Sydney Library and she tweets @crystalibrary.

Dream and discovery

Three different tools: planning social media for ALIA Biennial
All rights reserved by ALIAbiennial

This is a month to #dream and for #discovery.  These themes are from two collaborations which I am involved in, which are also participating in #blogjune.. 

The #dream theme comes from the National Year of Reading twitter reading group which has a monthly reading theme based on the flowers in the logo.  This is the second year of a twitter reading group run by the New South Wales Readers Advisory Working Group.  This is a reading group which any library can promote to their readers, as if they had done all the work.  The themes are listed on the blog and each of the months has a description which libraries can link to, repurpose, or reuse on their own blog, facebook or other social media tool.  Libraries are using these themes for in library events and services such as face to face reading groups and story times.

Planning for the twitter reading group for 2013 will take place in Wagga on 19 June.  Ideas are being collected on the Readers Advisory wiki so you can add your suggestions for next year.  We plan early so that people can use the themes for their face to face reading groups. 

Your library can participate by promoting the reading group in whatever way works for your library clients.  You can participate by tweeting your reading during the month, or joining the end of month discussion which starts at 8.00pm on 26 June, come along for a few tweets, or many, and share reading which makes you #dream.

The #discovery theme is the conference theme for the ALIA Biennial conference. I am on the conference committee and am chairing the social media team.  Those of us on the social media team decided we would really go with the theme of discovery so we are trying different ways for people to interact via social media prior to the conference.  You can see the various tools we are experimenting with here.  You can read about the #discovery on the ALIA Biennial blog.  Join us in the discovery.

Ellen Forsyth

A Review of Social Media Apps

I like to think of myself as a pretty savvy guy, an up-to-the-minute librarian and an all-around social media guru. Well, maybe not a guru, but a guru-in-training. Before I was a librarian, I worked in online marketing for a social network before it was cool. And now I do training for library staff and library users on everything from Facebook & Twitter for Beginners to Social Media Marketing 101.

So when it was suggested that I join the ALIA Biennial Social Media Committee, I thought, piece of cake. I know my way around Facebook and Twitter, inside and out, backwards and forwards, blindfolded. 

But the SM Committee blew me away. They didn't talk so much about the SM standards (like Facebook and Twitter--although they knew their way around an FB admin page and a hashtag), they talked about the new kids on the block. Archivist. Storify. Diigo. Paper.li. SpringPad.

These were social media applications I’d never heard of. Then there were the apps I had heard of but never really gave a chance: Pinterest. Tumblr. Librarything. Good Reads.

So, in the spirit of ALIA Biennial 2012, I plan to take the theme of DISCOVERY to heart and explore every social media app I’ve never used or use very rarely. I expect that I’m not that only one who has never heard of some of these (or never used them), so I would like to share what I discover with other ALIA delegates and LIS colleagues. While other SM Committee members will provide in-depth details of how they are using these apps, I want to provide you with a quick snapshot of those social media apps that are new to me and ones that I am just discovering. Likewise, if we have a ALIA Biennial blog post with more in-depth info, I'll add the link as well.

So have a look at some of the newest social media apps as well as some you may have not given a chance. Maybe one of them will be a social media life saver!

Likewise, what are some of the apps that I missed but you love? Is there an app out there that you couldn't survive with out? Is there an app that is just plain fun, a guilty pleasure?

ALIA Biennial blog post?	App	Type	How it's used	Follow me
	Pinterest	Social image/video organiser	Use it to organise and share photos and videos	My Pinterest
	Tumblr	Social web organiser/blog	Use it to organise and share text, photos, quotes, links, music and videos in a blog format	My Tumblr
	Archivist	Twitter archiver	Create an archive of Tweets that you can later analyse, export and share (limits: it cannot go back in time and it uses the Search API, not the "firehose")	My Archive
	LibraryThing	Social book catalogue/network	Create a "library-quality" catalogue, list what you've read, & create a book-based social network. Great for creating a personal catalogue.	My LibraryThing
	goodreads	Social book catalogue/network	Social bookshelves with reviews and ratings--a great way to find book recommendations based on what you've read and what you want to read.	My goodreads
	Storify	Social web organiser/blogish	Pull together elements from different social networks & add your text to create a story	My Storify

(cross posted on the ALIA Biennial blog)

-Jeff Cruz

@jncruz on Twitter

User Education Librarian

City of Sydney Library

Reading Discoveries

One of my favourite poems is John Keats’ On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
   And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
   Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
   That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
   Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
   When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
   He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
   Silent, upon a peak in Darien.


In his poem, John Keats has spent years reading Homer and though he knows that this old, epic tale is loved by many it isn’t until he reads a translation by George Chapman that he understands the beauty of The Odyssey and The Iliad and it feels to him much like an amazing new discovery.


This poem has always served as a reminder to me as a readers’ advisory librarian to keep an open mind about people’s reading preferences and to actively challenge myself not only to read beyond my own interests but to reread in areas that I have not previously enjoyed. It is about considering a new storyteller when all the other storytellers have not given you that feeling of magic that you hear other readers discussing. For example, I have read numerous science fiction novels over the last 30 years yet none have filled me with awe and compelled me to read more. But I continue to read a few science fiction novels a year for I am hoping to have my Chapman’s moment and eventually discover a whole new world to explore.


Last week, the Orange Prize for Fiction was awarded to Madeline Miller for The Song of Achilles. Here is yet another book of a story that is thousands of years old that is still inspiring retellings and rediscovery of Homer's popular and much loved tale. 


I think that it is apt then that the ALIA Biennial this year has the theme of Discovery. Our library and information profession is as old as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. And just as Homer’s original story has changed over the millennia so has our profession. From the original depositories of scrolls, to the codex, the printing press and now to digitisation, The Odyssey and The Iliad and librarians have been on an age old journey together as keepers, disseminators and storytellers. And as long as there are new readers in the world, Homer and librarians will continue towards discovery.

Looking across the Peloponnese from Mycenae, Greece: the location from which Helen was kidnapped by Paris, triggering the Trojan War. (Photograph is Vassiliki's own.)

Vassiliki Veros is the ALIA State Manager for NSW, and is on the steering committee for the NSW Readers' Advisory Working Group, which runs the Love2Read Reading Group celebrating the National Year of Reading 2012.