Roadshows: Talking to the Library Community in Your Space
Senior staff of the National Library regularly interact with colleagues in libraries around Australia. We work together on projects, share information, provide advice, present papers at seminars and conferences, and collaborate and cooperate in many different ways.
One of the regular events on the National Library’s calendar is the ‘roadshow’. This involves the Director-General and the Library’s executive staff travelling around Australia to talk to staff in other libraries about our strategic thinking and our new services and directions. The roadshow also provides an opportunity for our executive staff to receive feedback on issues of importance to the Australian library sector. This feedback forms an invaluable part of the Library’s ongoing strategic planning.
This year the roadshow has been to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and a smaller roadshow has been held in Darwin. Senior staff of the Library are also happy to present a compact version of the roadshow when visiting colleagues around Australia. The final roadshow for 2007 will be held at the University of Technology, Sydney, on 25 October. In 2008 roadshows are planned for Hobart and Adelaide, and if time allows we will visit other places as well.
This year’s roadshow covers a wide range of topics, including the Library’s workforce planning; our new streamlined approach to cataloguing; key challenges for online reference services; major projects such as newspaper digitisation and PeopleAustralia; and our latest thinking on the adoption of a common technical infrastructure for our online services.
If you would like to view the PowerPoint presentation used in the 2007 roadshows, you can do so by visiting the Library’s website under For: Libraries at http://www.nla.gov.au/services/serv_libs.html.
Jasmine Cameron
Assistant Director-General, Executive Support



