ALIA National Library & Information Technicians Conference 2007

On Thursday (11th Oct) I attended day 2 of the Conference. The Grand Hyatt in Melbourne was the venue for the Conference. The theme of Thursday’s program was Initiate.

In the Plenary session the topic of the presentation was Secondments, also be known as rotations or exchanges. Sharon Uthmann, Ipswich Library and Information Service, talked about her own experiences plus the findings of the Research she had done. Advantages and benefits for both the workplace and the staff were explained. Opportunities for mulit-skilling, transfer of knowledge & experience, introduction of new ideas, personal development were some of the benefits to be experienced.

There were challenges to be managed as well. Issues for staff such as fitting in, feelings of uncertainty, adequate training and false expectations need to be addressed. The workplace can suffer too with disruption to rosters and movement of staff.
However, the challenges can be overcome with good management and an adequate Secondment policy.

You can view Sharon's blog
http://dunnandwilson.blogspot.com/

This presentation provided food for thought and I came away from this session thinking of the possibilities of establishing a rotation program for our library desk staff. Apparently, it was something that had been done at Hawthorn a number of years ago. Is anyone else interested in developing such a program?

Another session which I felt supported the theme of initiate was the Australian Bureau of Statistics presentation.
The ABS presentation demonstrated a shift to a more client based focus with its recent web site changes. Free online statistics with 3 levels (tourists, harvesters & miners) of information being provided has been the approach taken to help achieve statistical literacy for the web site users. RSS is also another strategy introduced to reflect a client based focus.