Third ALIA New Librarians Symposium
The third biennial ALIA New Librarians Symposium was held at the University of New South Wales on 1–2 December 2006. The conference seeks to inspire, invigorate and support professional development for new-starters with less than 10 years experience in the field of Library and Information Services.
Seven National Library of Australia staff attended the conference and had an opportunity to listen to and learn from both new professionals and seasoned ‘big-wigs’ from public, state and academic libraries. Attendees also got the chance to chat and network with colleagues from numerous institutions across Australia and from overseas, not to mention enjoying the perks of a cocktail party hosted by the State Library of New South Wales and a lively conference dinner at Randwick Racecourse.
The theme of the symposium, ‘Pathways and Possibilities’, encompassed a broad range of subjects to do with career enhancement and developments in the industry.
Keynote speaker Joan Frye Williams, a library consultant from the United States of America, delivered an inspiring address on shaping the user experience of library services. She argued that users want librarians to set up the ‘candy store’ to make information-seeking as barrier-free as possible. She also described a new mode of reference which uses wireless technology in the reading room. This allows staff to rove in the area where the users are working, acting as information ‘lifeguards’, rather than fixed-place ‘bartenders’.
Richard Lehane’s thought-provoking paper, ‘Allowing Talking in the Reading Room: User Collaboration in Archive Websites’ , explored the potential and pitfalls of user-contributed content to archival websites. This was a pertinent topic, as archives and libraries increasingly seek to use technology such as wikis and annotation to facilitate access to collections and information, and to harness the expertise of a wider body of researchers.
A number of papers explored lateral career moves available for recent graduates. Cathy Miller, a former National Library staff member, and Theresa McGinley drew attention to the Information Management industry as a good fit for Library and Information Studies graduates. Two presenters also shared their experiences working overseas—Nancy Fawley, an American working at an all-female university library in Qatar, and Maggie McCafferty, who volunteered as a librarian with the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in Dili, East Timor.
Just a few of the many other highlights included John Chisolm (Alice Springs Public Library) speaking entertainingly about falling up the library career ladder, Tania Barry (Children’s and Youth Library Services Coordinator, Wyndham Library) talking about how to engage the community in life-long learning, and Alan Smith (South Australian State Librarian) giving a practical and witty guide to networking at dinners and cocktail parties, as well as a range of papers exploring the ethical and political dimensions to being a librarian.
Staff from the National Library of Australia presented two papers at the conference. Kate Davis’s paper, ‘WhY Generation? Millennials as Managers, or the Future of Library Management’ , gave a work profile of the Y Generation and implications for the profession. Her account of a cohort of tech-savvy, ambitious, me-centric stimulus junkies struck a chord with Gen Y-ers in the audience, and their sometimes frustrated colleagues and managers!
Renée Shuttleworth and Beth Lonergan presented a paper co-written with Bronwyn Ryan, entitled ‘ Managing the Retirement Brain Drain: A Case Study from the Manuscripts Branch at the National Library of Australia’, outlining the associated effects of the retirement of long-serving staff in the Manuscripts Branch of the Library. Having experienced the loss of over 100 years of corporate knowledge in the branch over the space of just two years, the authors felt qualified to explore the effects of such momentous change and how it can be managed.
All in all, the event was a great success, setting an even higher bar for Melbourne when that city hosts the next New Librarians Symposium in 2008!
Most of the papers are available from the conference website, at http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2006/programme.php.
Podcasts are available from http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2006/audio/nls2006audio.xml (best opened with Firefox or your RSS aggregator) .
Beth Lonergan
Accessions Officer
Manuscripts Branch
National Library of Australia
Renée Shuttleworth
Librarian
Music Acquisitions and Cataloguing
National Library of Australia



