The ALIA National Conference may have happened in May, but we always enjoy sharing any wrap-up talks by presenters when we find them. As they say, caring is sharing.

Here is a wrap-up of Ash Barber, aka Empower OER ALIA National Conference Wrap-up.

Ash joined Katya Henry (CAUL), Sarah McQuillen (UniSA), Jennifer Hurley (RMIT) and Angie Williamson (Deakin Uni) for ‘Daring Open: Maturing the OER Movement in Australasia’.

What was the chat about?

Sarah asked a few questions by sharing UniSA’s history and adoption of OER, a process that has happened for 20 years. UniSA has gradually replaced physical books with ebooks.

Sarah spoke about UniSA’s work to remove restrictive ebook licences from publishers with open OER alternatives (A thing we can celebrate). A process that led to a 47% licence reduction – saving 9 million dollars for the student body.

A conversation on the 3Rs of OER introduced us to the reasons for OER.

• Redistributive: Great for costs, availability, access and Universal Design for learning. OER = Free
• Recognitive: Belonging or Awareness. We see ourselves in the content given.
• Representation: To add inclusive knowledge and diverse voices.

A look at Sessions Ash joined.

Day 1: Shelley Ware’s keynote – Daring Greatly, Striving Valiently. Shelley asked the audience to reflect on where they sit on the Continuum of Cultural Competency. (see our X feed for the image of the Continuum of Cultural Competency).

Diversity in disability: Supporting the twice exceptional in library spaces

Presentation by Kim Shaw & Simon Ellaby.

Kim & Simon spoke about the importance of creating individualised programming and what explained Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) was about.

Creating communication that:

• Presume competence
• Attributes meaning
• Recognise behaviour as communication

Australian radical community and archives: opposition and interplay

Presentation by Katie Hayden & Romany Manuell – a post we have discussed on the blog.

Day 2:

Ash attended Tod Fernando’s keynote.

Presentation: AI and us: Embracing the opportunities for professional practice

Presentation by Liz Wakely Hall.

What did we learn from Liz’s presentation?

• You can use emojis as responses in Mentimeter polls.
• AI = umbrella term
• GenAI = machine learning to extrapolate from large datasets
• ChatGPT = Large Language Model (LLM), interacts in a conversational way

Day 3:

Lightning talk: Enhancing student well-being through recreational reading zones in an academic library.

Presentation by Lani di Stefano

What did we learn?

• Creating recreational spaces in academic libraries reduces stress.

Presentation: Bridging education research and cultural experiences: a new role of exhibitions in Australian academic libraries

Presentation by Jackson Mann

What we learned?

• Deakin University Library works to create conversations between research, the library and the community.
• A discussion on how exhibitions at the library are made that looked at case studies from Deakin Library and UNSW Library.
• How do the exhibitions connect to the library collection?

Explore Ash’s ALIA National 2024 – Empowered OER link for more info on what happened at the lightning talks.