Críticas Magazine

Loida García-Febo

Successful Model: New Librarians @ the Australian Library and Information Association
August 28, 2008

Worldwide, library associations in Canada, USA, UK, Italy and Australia host new librarians’ groups in an effort to address the needs of this population. The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) hosts the strongest group. By creating a National New Graduates Group (NGG) and a New Generation Advisory Committee (NGAC) to work with ALIA Executive Board, they have developed a wining formula that we wish to see in every library association around the globe. IFLA 2010 will take place in Brisbane and IFLA/ New Professionals Discussion Group (NPDG) has partnered with our colleagues from AUS to present an insightful program by and for new professionals.

To better understand the success of ALIA/ New Generation Group, I contacted Alyson Dalby, the NGAC liaison person with ALIA Executive Board. As such she is representing Australian new grads to IFLA/New Professionals Discussion Group in preparation for the IFLA 2010 Congress.

I wanted to know more about the role of the NGG within ALIA, how the NGAC changed librarianship in AUS, and their future plans. I hope this encourage library associations to seriously consider hosting groups or committees for new graduates or new professionals.

Role of the New Generation Group within ALIA, (how it is seen within the AUS library community):

The New Generation Advisory Committee exists to help strengthen the participation of 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. The Committee works to provide information to the Board and National Office staff to inform development and delivery of services for new professional and student members, with the aim of ensuring the Association's relevance to these groups.
NGAC works closely with ALIA/ National New Graduates Group (NGG): while the NGAC has an advisory role within the Association, the NGG works actively with new graduates to provide opportunities for networking and professional development. Often, the Committee and the NGG work together to achieve the common objective of increasing new graduate participation in the Association and engagement with the profession.

How the New Graduates Advisory Committee revolutionized librarianship in Australia:

NGAC has been the driving force behind the establishment of many of the new graduate events currently running in Australia. While we work behind the scenes, it is the work of NGAC that has seen the establishment of the New Librarians' Symposium (NLS) as a regular event. This event is a highlight on the Australian conference circuit and provides a valuable professional development opportunity for new librarians, in terms of acting as a forum for new professionals to present papers, to learn from each other, and to learn from leaders in the profession.
 
NGAC has also made inroads to increasing new graduate participation in core association processes. At the last ALIA Board of Directors election NGAC posed a number of questions to the candidates relating to their commitment to supporting new graduate interests within ALIA, and distributed those to new members in an effort to increase member involvement in the election process. This provided an opportunity to get incoming Board members thinking about issues of importance to new graduates, while allowing new graduates, who might otherwise find it daunting to participate in formal processes like elections, to make an informed vote and engage in the process. 
 
Future Plans:

The 4th ALIA New Librarians' Symposium will be held in Melbourne in December, and is open to all. If past events are anything to go by, it promises to be the highlight of the new graduate calendar. NGAC is currently involved in a project to review the medium-term future of NLS, which we hope will allow us an opportunity to tailor the event more closely to new graduate needs - and perhaps get a bit more creative with the delivery format.
 
We are also looking at how we can encourage more new graduates to engage in on going professional development beyond graduation, and are thinking up all kinds of wild ideas for IFLA 2010 in Brisbane. We've recently had an injection of new members to the committee, and hope to start some new projects within the next couple of months. Watch the committee's website at http://www.alia.org.au/governance/committees/new.generation/ to see what we're up to.

New professionals in Australia have taken their library association by storm and are having great success. They are working with library decision makers and senior officers to meet the needs of recently qualified librarians. They have developed a conference solely for new grads! I hope this brief entry has piqued your curiosity of replicating ALIA initiatives within your library association.

Posted by Loida García-Febo on August 28, 2008 | Comments (0)