The Victorian Library Technicians: 2006/2007 Overview
2006 was a bumper year for the Victorian Library Technicians Group with 11 events occurring and rapid developments to the Victorian Library Technicians webpage. The season kicked off with a visit to the University of Ballarat in February to help library technician students ease into the new academic year. A panel session was conducted which heard professional library technicians discuss the real world of libraries and the roles library technicians play in them, including the importance of ALIA.
February also saw a visit to the Mornington Peninsula Library Services Mobile Library. Attendees heard about their floating stock, the Mornington Library network, the satellite communications, and the bus itself. April saw an after hours, behind the scenes tour of the State Library of Victoria’s current exhibition “National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries”. With SLV’s Claire Williamson as tour guide (who also happened to be the curator), delegates were in for a WOW of a time!!
March brought Hot of the Press in which the first stop of the day was at Stomp in Abbotsford, a specialist AV supplier which boasts a large range of music and film titles all at wholesale prices. The second stop was at Vision Australia in Kooyong, where we learned about the services provided to clients and the ways in which technology is advancing to better assist the blind with accessing the written word. The afternoon was spent at Raeco in Scoresby where we were treated to a delicious lunch. While at Raeco we saw a presentation on the cataloguing of non-book materials by SCIS (Schools Catalogue Information Service), learned about the services that Raeco provide to the library industry, and heard about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) from 3M Library Systems. The day provided delegates with the opportunity to learn about non-book materials from a variety of angles including the production, processing, storing and loaning of these materials.
May brought Library Week and National Library Technicians Day was celebrated with a visit to library technician students at Victoria University. Again the role of library technicians was discussed and the important role ALIA plays in library technicians lives. That night, library technicians from around Victoria gathered in Melbourne for dinner to catch up with old friends, to meet new ones and to simply chat about life in libraries.
Techs on Tour (in its 9th year) again took place in June. A behind the scenes look at work in libraries with tours of the State Library of Victoria’s Genealogy Centre, stacks, Rare Books, Mirror of the World exhibition and an overview of SLV 21st century strategies. Afternoon tours included guided visits to the RACV Library, University of Melbourne Rare Book Collection, SLV Manuscript Collection and RMIT’s Greek Resource Collection.
August fast approached and Victorian technicians gathered for their Annual General Meal in Southbank, to catch up at the halfway mark of the year. In October a fully booked tour group headed to the Public Records Office of Victoria in North Melbourne to learn more about the Victorian Archives and this wonderful resource valued at more than $140 million.
The year was rounded out with the 4th River of Opportunities weekend workshop in November, a collaborative event from the Victorian ALIA Library Technicians Group and the NSW ALIA Library Technicians Group. This year it was held in Albury, NSW. The Saturday saw a full program of informative speakers in the morning with library tours in the afternoon. The Sunday kicked off with more great presentations before we all bundled back (up or down) the highway home.
2006 was a bumper year for the Victorian Library Technicians Group with 11 events occurring and rapid developments to the Victorian Library Technicians webpage. The season kicked off with a visit to the University of Ballarat in February to help library technician students ease into the new academic year. A panel session was conducted which heard professional library technicians discuss the real world of libraries and the roles library technicians play in them, including the importance of ALIA.
February also saw a visit to the Mornington Peninsula Library Services Mobile Library. Attendees heard about their floating stock, the Mornington Library network, the satellite communications, and the bus itself. April saw an after hours, behind the scenes tour of the State Library of Victoria’s current exhibition “National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries”. With SLV’s Claire Williamson as tour guide (who also happened to be the curator), delegates were in for a WOW of a time!!
March brought Hot of the Press in which the first stop of the day was at Stomp in Abbotsford, a specialist AV supplier which boasts a large range of music and film titles all at wholesale prices. The second stop was at Vision Australia in Kooyong, where we learned about the services provided to clients and the ways in which technology is advancing to better assist the blind with accessing the written word. The afternoon was spent at Raeco in Scoresby where we were treated to a delicious lunch. While at Raeco we saw a presentation on the cataloguing of non-book materials by SCIS (Schools Catalogue Information Service), learned about the services that Raeco provide to the library industry, and heard about RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) from 3M Library Systems. The day provided delegates with the opportunity to learn about non-book materials from a variety of angles including the production, processing, storing and loaning of these materials.
May brought Library Week and National Library Technicians Day was celebrated with a visit to library technician students at Victoria University. Again the role of library technicians was discussed and the important role ALIA plays in library technicians lives. That night, library technicians from around Victoria gathered in Melbourne for dinner to catch up with old friends, to meet new ones and to simply chat about life in libraries.
Techs on Tour (in its 9th year) again took place in June. A behind the scenes look at work in libraries with tours of the State Library of Victoria’s Genealogy Centre, stacks, Rare Books, Mirror of the World exhibition and an overview of SLV 21st century strategies. Afternoon tours included guided visits to the RACV Library, University of Melbourne Rare Book Collection, SLV Manuscript Collection and RMIT’s Greek Resource Collection.
August fast approached and Victorian technicians gathered for their Annual General Meal in Southbank, to catch up at the halfway mark of the year. In October a fully booked tour group headed to the Public Records Office of Victoria in North Melbourne to learn more about the Victorian Archives and this wonderful resource valued at more than $140 million.
The year was rounded out with the 4th River of Opportunities weekend workshop in November, a collaborative event from the Victorian ALIA Library Technicians Group and the NSW ALIA Library Technicians Group. This year it was held in Albury, NSW. The Saturday saw a full program of informative speakers in the morning with library tours in the afternoon. The Sunday kicked off with more great presentations before we all bundled back (up or down) the highway home.
And last but not least, 20 enthusiastic Library Technicians, 2 Raeco representatives and about 200 Santa’s (male and female) met at the Clare Castle Hotel on the 15th December for an end of year celebration dinner.
Before we knew it 2007 was again upon us. The committee had decided on a quieter year as it would be capped off with the 14th National Library and Information Technicians Conference in Melbourne.
However March rolled around, and so did Hot off the Press: Children’s Literature Style. The day included talk by author/illustrator Trudy White, a presentation by Sue Flockhart, editor at Allen & Unwin, a presentation from the Little Bookroom, a tour of Dromkeen, presentations by the Centre for Youth Literature, plus many more interesting talks and tours. Thanks again to our wonderful sponsors, Raeco.
In May we celebrated Library and Information Week and in particular, National Library Technicians Day. On National Library Technicians Day, staff and students of Victoria University's Library and Cultural Studies department were treated to a morning of guest speakers and fun to celebrate the day. Speakers included Kerrie Kelly; convenor of the Victorian Library Technicians section of ALIA, Gail Schmidt; convenor of the ALIA National Library and Information Technicians Conference, Trish Murray; treasurer of the Victorian Library Technicians section of ALIA, James Owen; technician at the State Library of Victoria, Jenny Barron; representing the One Umbrella employment agency and Margie Anderson; a teacher at Victoria University and Victorian Local Liaison Officer for ALIA.
That night, 23 library technicians from around Victoria gathered at the Silky Apple Chinese restaurant in Armadale to catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and simply chat about life in libraries. With a library related quiz and some fabulous prizes from One Umbrella, the night was filled with a lot of laughs and plenty of stories.
In July, delegates gathered at the State library of Victoria to celebrate the 10th Techs on Tour. The day covered presentations on marketing and Web 2.0 as well as those fascinating tours of usually inaccessible areas of the SLV, such as Conservation and Preservation. The day concluded with a choice of 3 off site tours, Victoria University – Flinders Campus, Freehills Law library and the Melbourne University Bookshop.
August fast approached and Victorian technicians gathered once more for their Annual General Meal, this time at the Casino, to catch up at the halfway mark of the year. It is a good chance to simply drink, eat and chat about life in libraries.
As you all know, Melbourne is the host of the 2007 National Library and Information Technicians Conference. So on behalf of the organizing committee, and the Victorian Library Technicians committee, welcome to Melbourne and we trust that you will enjoy all that it has to offer. We are sure that you will benefit from this conference immensely and learn lots about the way things are done in different library sectors, along with a list of things to take back and implement into your own workplace. We look forward to meeting and mingling with you throughout the week.
Once again, the Victorian Library Technician committee will finish the year off with a Christmas dinner to toast and reflect the year that was! More in-depths articles have been written regarding our events in our quarterly publication Technotes. Check it out at: http://alia.org.au/groups/libtvic/ and whilst there, look up some happy snaps on our social pages.
1 comment:
Good work Gem and the LT Team !
Good to see your review of the year.
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