This year, the ALIA National Conference headed to South Australia for a Truth and Dare conversation.
ALIA SNGG’s X, Social Media Coordinator Ryan Siriwardene and ALIA Students and New Graduates Group WordPress Site/Blog Coordinator Louise Warren attended the conference.
Ryan and Louise had a photo with Amy Walduck at the time Amy was on the ALIA Board, now ALIA’s new ALIA Senior Manager, Membership & Engagement.
Ryan attended ALIA Board President Jane Cowell’s pre-conference ‘Book Challenges’ workshop.
Louise attended Rachel Smith and Amy Meredith from Noosa Libraries, Traineeships: Enriching Lives and Libraries talk.
A talk that highlighted that trainees (students/graduates):
- Bring fresh ideas to the library
- Provides a diverse workforce in the library sector
- Equips participants with library skills
- Reduce bias in the hiring process by becoming a representative and cultural workspace
- Trainee programs can be customised to fit the trainee’s skills and experience
Louise and Ryan both had new corporate headshot photos from the Recruitment Booth. A place that offered interview skills & resume review coaching sessions at the conference.
ALIA Multicultural Joey Chung and ALIA Disability Amy Rake teamed up for ‘From Stereotypes to Empathy to Inclusion: How Diversity can Bring Strength to the LIS Workforce’ pre-conference workshop.
Joey & Amy’s workshop highlighted a need for libraries to review their hiring processes to reflect inclusive workspaces for people with hidden and visible disabilities, Cultural and Linguistic diverse backgrounds, LGBTQIA+, First Nations and Torres Strait Islander groups.
On Tuesday, Shelley Ware had a keynote talk on Daring Greatly, Stiving Valiantly.
Shelly provided 8 Aboriginal ways of learning.
- Connection through shared stories approaching learning via narratives
- Picture Pathways to Knowledge
- Using Images and visuals to map out processes of learning
- See, think, act, make and share without words
- Keep and share knowledge with art and objects
- Put different ideas together to create new ideas
- Work from wholes to parts, watching and then doing
- Community links. Centering on local viewpoints.
ALIA President Jane Cowell announced the HCL Anderson Award, Metcalfe Award and Library Technician of the Year Award recipients.
Geoff Stremple & Dr Gabie Haddow were winners of the HCL Anderson Award.
Emilia Bell won the Metcalfe Award, and Chloe Delaney won the Library Technician of the Year Award.
Ellen Coates, Co-Convernor of the ALIA VIC group, spoke about the PMI Library, adding a collection of #National24 swag for their National Wrap-up on May 20th at Kathleen Syme Library.
ALIA Multiculture’s Joey Chung shared a post on Inclusive Learning Programming.
Three tips included:
- Designing inclusive information programs addressing the needs of the individual
- Having diverse library staff
- Having events that celebrate diverse cultures and identities
Bruce Munro, Manager of Library Service at the Queensland University of Technology Library, spoke about QUT Library’s work to make welcoming spaces & inclusive collections for LGBTQIA+ and First Nations communities.
ALIA NGAC’s presentation found that 45.61% of survey respondents called for libraries to remove driver’s licence requirements for roles that do not require the individual to drive as part of their work duties.
Romany Manuell spoke on Radical Libraries, sharing the story of her role at Melbourne Art Library, aka MAL, Jessie Street National Women’s Library in Sydney and Kurilpa Flood Library in Queensland.
James Baker from the ALIA Graphics and Novels group spoke about book clubs. Sharing that book clubs are a place for peer-to-peer discussion.
If you are interested in joining ALIA Graphic’s book club, James has posted 2024 Themes and Titles for their book club to the ALIA Graphics site. Marvel & DC fans, join them in November for Event Comics to talk about Secret Wars and Crisis on Infinity Earths.
Australian Local Government Association called for sustainability-funded council-run libraries.

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