The countdown is on.... Are you ready for ALIA Access 2010 - Brisbane

Health and Specials back in partnership - along with Acquisitions, Resource Sharing, Professional Development and lots, lots more. Early bird registration closes on 7th July and, remember, it's cheaper if you register online.

The Conference dinner on Thursday 2nd September is a distributed networking opportunity and you may select from a variety of options in your registration. Join the Health crew at Kapsalis - Greek Cuisine
Address: Shop 31a Southbank Parklands, South Bank
http://conferences.alia.org.au/access2010/network.html

Make the trip even more worthwhile by participating in the QULOC (Queensland University Libraries Office of Cooperation) allied event that is open to all. Evidence Based Practice in Health for Librarians will be held Wednesday 1 September at the University of Queensland's Library Conference Room, St Lucia. There will be a modest charge for the day of $50 to $60. Further information and registration will be available from the QULOC website in the next few weeks.

This is a 'content-rich' day. A mix of presentations and workshops will engage and educate. Come along to hear from your Australian colleagues, and from presenters such as Carol Lefebvre (UK Cochrane Centre), Professor Chris Del Mar (Bond University), Dr Satyamurthy Anuradha, Associate Professor Suhail Doi and Dr Tammy Hoffman (UQ), Dr Ann Walsh (QUT), and Ms Connie Schardt, Past President, MLA and the Medical Centre Library, Duke University.

Round the day (Wednesday 1st September) off with a Health dinner - please contact me (remove 'no spam') from the address) by email if you would like to attend a Health get-together on Wednesday evening (1 Sepember). More on this closer to the date.

Cheryl Hamill

So How Much Does it Cost to Run a Conference?

This post by Graham Black, ALIA Access 2010 Conference Convenor and current ALIA Vice-President, makes interesting reading. I remember someone telling me years back just how much conference budgets are eaten into by meal costs -pardon the pun! :)

Anyway, mark the dates 1-3 September in your diaries...

…a Coalition of the Willing - Health Partners with Specials, Acquisitions, the Literate Information Types, for a Conference (and an UnConference) - and All of it with a Fringe

Set aside the first week in September for a visit to Brisbane for ALIA's Access 2010 conference. Health Libraries Australia (HLA) has been busy preparing a program that is more than the usual conversation we have within the profession. It is a program to influence the direction and development of health librarianship in Australia. Where do you fit in the health workforce, what is your scope of practice in the health care team, how will you make a difference in the health system over the next few decades? Be a part of the Health stream to have your say.

Join in with our coalition partners to mine the richness of their programs. There is considerable commonality of interest with the programs being prepared by the specials, acquisitions, information literacy, unconference streams and more.

The fringe event will be held on Wednesday 1 September and is a partnership between HLA and Queensland University. This will be a more practical skills-sharing (free) event at UQ sites. Suggestions so far include workshops on Advanced PubMed and on evidence-based librarianship. You are invited to propose other topics.

It's great to see the reawakening of our Health / Specials conference relationship - let's make the most of it. Put it in your diaries now, and start writing up those submissions for support.

WebJunction

In a recent press release, WebJunction, an online social network learning community for librarians and library staff, has released Library Management Competencies, a guide to courses and resources to help current and aspiring library managers be more successful in their work. Competencies are grouped around the following sub-categories:

* Budget & Funding
* Community Relations
* Facilities
* Laws, Policies & Procedures
* Marketing
* Organisational Leadership
* Personnel Management
* Project Management
* Staff Training & Development
* Strategic Planning
* Trustees and Friends

I can't comment on the quality of the courses but it may be useful to know that many are self-paced - you have a year in which to complete them - and each costs around US$40 (just over AU$60).

FOLIOz for 2009

ALIA and ScHARR (University of Sheffield, UK) are presenting 4 online courses this year as part of the FOLIOz (Facilitated Online Learning as an Interactive Opportunity) series.

Promoting and Marketing Library and Information Services' (PROMISE)
Monday 23rd March - Friday 8th May 2009
Cost $220 for ALIA members

Moving into Supervision: Supervisory skills for library technicians and/or newly qualified professionals (MOVES)
Monday 1st June - Friday 17th July 2009
Cost $220 for ALIA members

Managing for Service Quality (MSQ)
Monday 24th August - Friday 9th October 2009
Cost $220 for ALIA members

Maximising the impact of your service (Maxim)
Monday 30th November 2009 - Friday 22nd January 2010 (including a two-week break 21st December-4th January)
Cost $270 for ALIA members

I completed the KM FOLIOz course that was offered in 2008 and really got a lot out of it. The course was delivered by email (typically one per day) supported by web materials, briefings, powerpoint tutorials, audio and video presentations, quizzes and buddy exercises. Some days, all I had to do was read an article. Other days, I needed to complete an exercise. Whatever the task of the day, by the end of the course I had developed a portfolio of work that reflected what I had learnt and how I intended to apply my new found knowledge. It was suggested that participants would need to put in 2-4 hours of work per week but I found, like most things in life, what you put in was what you got out! Another great thing about the course was how flexible it was; I could complete the activities at my own pace (though I would highly recommend trying to maintain a consistent pace!).

If you are interested, contact Judy Brooker, ALIA's Professional Development and Careers Manager, on 1800 020 071 or email judy.brooker@alia.org.au for more details.

Places are filling...HLA at dreaming08...have you registered?

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY
TUESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2008

The countdown is on everyone. Numbers are building fast and there’s less than a month left for you to register for the HLA Professional Development Day at dreaming08. We need to hear from you soon. In addition to some great speakers, there’s a load of excellent PD workshops on offer and it’s your preferences that will determine the final program.

You can find the draft program and registrations forms on the ALIA HLA website.

Registrations close 18 August 2008.

HEALTH LIBRARIES STREAM, MAIN CONFERENCE
WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2008

We are very excited to announce our keynote speaker* – Dr Stephen Duckett, Executive Director, Reform & Development Division, Queensland Health and author of Australian Health Care System.

Dr Duckett’s paper will be titled, Beyond the Blame Game: National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission Proposal. (Commission’s report). He'll be looking at the big picture reforms in Australia, and his view of implications for Australian health libraries. A book signing, sponsored by Ramsay Books, will be held following this session.

Visit the dreaming08 website to register.

[*Trish Greenhalgh was originally announced as keynote speaker but has had to pull out due to personal reasons.]

Ann Ritchie and Cheryl Hamill
Co-convenors, HLA at dreaming08

EAHIL Conference 2008

Is anyone planning to go to the EAHIL conference in Helsinki this year? If so, let me know if you'd be prepared to either blog from Helsinki or write for HLA News.

Don't know anything about Finland. Check out the conference blog!

11th European Conference of Medical and Health Libraries
23rd - 28th of June 2008
Helsinki, Finland

Registrations now open - HLA at Dreaming08 Professional Development Day

Please visit the ALIA Health Libraries Australia website to download the registration form and draft program for the Health Libraries Professional Development Day being held on Tuesday 2 Sept 08 at the Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs.

The program is looking fantastic - great content, good networking opportunities, excellent value for money.

And don't forget, the following day (Wednesday 3rd Sept 08) will feature the health stream of the ALIA Biennial Conference so don't forget to register for that as well - whether it be just the one day or the whole conference.

Chasing the Sun: virtual reference workshop

CHASING THE SUN is an innovative approach to international co-operationby making use of time zone differences across the world and uses OCLC's Questionpoint virtual reference software. The service currently runs between Australia and the UK and is expanding into Canada with interest from New Zealand. More information can be found on the CTS home page. Libraries participating in CTS can also provide a local virtual reference service to their own staff via the same software licence for a small extra fee.

Chasing the Sun - an after-hours virtual reference service for clinicians will be used to demonstrate the principles and practice of VR. Training will cover 2 areas.

* Virtual reference as a skill
* Using Chasing the Sun (this session will be hands on and all
participants will have a chance to be a client as well as a VR
librarian).

DETAILS

Trainer:
Sue Rockliff, co-administrator of the Australian Chasing the Sun Service and the Senior Librarian at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide.

Venue:
The Department of Health training room in North Sydney.

Cost:
$30 for ALIA members
$40 for non-members

Date:
Friday 30th May, 2008 9.30am to 12.30pm.

Registration:
To attend, please fill in the registration form.

Please note:
You do not have to be a Chasing the Sun member to participate in the training, so this is the opportunity for anyone in NSW who may be interested in learning about virtual reference, to get in and see what it is all about. Places are limited so don't delay.

More information:
If you have any queries or want to talk more about CTS, please call Sue Rockliff on 08 82226408 Mon-Wed or email or visit the ALIA HLA website.

CAVAL's Space Planning for Libraries - any HLA members going?

If any HLA members are planning to attend CAVALS's 2 day Space Planning for Libraries program (17-18 June) could you please contact me. I have been reviewing 'Appendix Two: Recommended minimum space requirements for health libraries' in the Guidelines for Australian Health Libraries (3rd ed) and am interested in hearing about latest trends in space planning.

QANTAS flight deals to Alice Springs in time for HLA at Dreaming08

For those of you intending to go to HLA at Dreaming08 (or those who need some enticement), QANTAS has recently advertised Red e-Deals from various capital centres to Alice Springs (Sydney $198 one way; Melbourne $179 one way; Adelaide $189 one way; Perth $239 one way; Darwin $169 one way; Brisbane $199). It covers flights taken between 22 July and 18 September 2008 (click on 'Top End Deals' to see the full range of dates included in this deal) but bookings must be made by 14 April or until seats are sold out. Visit the QANTAS domestic flights page online.

HLA is not endorsing QANTAS as a preferred carrier. We're just merely letting you know so you can take advantage of the offer.

And if you need any reminding as to why you should seriously consider attending HLA at Dreaming08, go not further than our top 10 reasons.

HLA at Dreaming 08:

• Tuesday 2nd September, Health Libraries Professional Development Day.
• Wednesday 3rd September, Health Libraries Stream during the main conference program.

Registrations open for next FOLIOz Course: G2G

Registration is now open for

Getting to Grips with Knowledge Management (G2G)

The course will start on 28th April 2008 and brought to you by ALIA and The University of Sheffield (ScHARR)

This a high quality online learning activity conducted at your own pace and in your own time:

Course duration: 28th April 2008 - 13th June 2008

Course Aim: This course aims to provide practical skills in delivering knowledge management techniques that are feasible at a local or organisational level. The course will be supported by real-life case studies and practical tasks and exercises.

Course Objectives: By the end of this course participants will be able to:
* Understand the importance of knowledge management.
* Identify the main considerations to be taken into account when planning a knowledge management strategy.
* Use knowledge management tools to meet the needs of their organisation or community
* Prepare a planned approach to developing a "community of practice".
* Identify strategies to enable you to sell the benefits of
knowledge management at an organisational or local level.
* Evaluate the effectiveness of knowledge management techniques.
* Engage with fellow participants in discussing issues connected with practical knowledge management problems and situations.

Cost:
ALIA Member $195
ASA/RMAA/ASLA/LIANZA Member $195
Non-member $295

Registration forms and FOLIOz information now available at
http://www.alia.org.au/education/pd/workshops/

HLA at Dreaming08 - top 10 reasons to be there

One thing we will share from the March issue of HLA News is our top 10 reasons to be at HLA at Dreaming08.

1. Loads of health library specific content

…and it’s back to back!
Health Libraries Professional Development Day, Tuesday 2nd September
Health Libraries Stream during the main conference program, Wednesday 3rd September.

2. Prominent health library keynote speaker

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, a regular BMJ contributor and author of 7 academic text books (remember ‘How to Read a Paper - the basics of evidence-based medicine’, BMJ Publications, 2002? Well, that’s Trish!). Her presentation will be: Tales of the field: Challenges and pitfalls of evaluating large-scale IT projects in healthcare.

3. Get a different perspective; hear the latest in health librarianship

…from invited speakers with international and national perspectives, as well as colleagues who are doing it on the ground.

4. Professional development

We guarantee you’ll learn stuff. The content is strong and practical.

5. Network, network and then network some more.

We all know this is where the real action takes place.

6. Backs onto a darn good general library conference with some strong academic content that’s applicable to ALL OF US.

Visit the Dreaming08 for more details of the program.

7. Not nearly as expensive as SOME conferences we know of!!

8. Heavy discounts on the cost of the Health Library PD day for ALIA members attending the whole conference

9. You get to be part of the HLA team spirit.

Contribute to HLA’s priorities for the next year as we lead up to the International Congress of Medical Librarians to be held in Brisbane 2009, help shape our profession’s vision for the future vision, be a part of your national group that advocates for health librarianship and coordinates national initiatives such as the Workforce Planning research that is currently underway.

10. Be wowed by Alice Springs.

It’s a unique attraction. And the Henley on Todd is the weekend before . Why not make it a holiday?

HLA Regional group (Qld) Event - Brisbane, 31 Jan

New Technologies, Tools and Trends at the New England Journal of Medicine

Hear Tom Richardson, Director of Institutional Sales & Service for the New England Journal of Medicine, discuss the latest technologies, publishing trends, and new tools developed at the journal and globally. This is an ideal opportunity to ask Tom questions about the future of publishing and journal subscriptions.

When -Thursday January 31, 2008
Time - 2:00-3:00, followed by afternoon tea
Where - QUT Gardens Point Campus Library, V Block Room 714
Cost - Free
RSVP - Wednesday, 30 January 2008 to j.hall@library.uq.edu.au or l.evans@qut.edu.au

World Congress of Health Professionals Mar 26-29, Perth

Registration is open for the World Congress of Health Professionals to be held March 26-29 2008 in Perth.

"This world congress represents the first time that all health professions across all sectors, have been invited to meet. It is an opportunity to meet those in the forefront of developments in health, to hear experts share their vision of our future and to network with leaders in health from across the world."

The Congress has five themes:
Global Challenges and World Health
Innovations in Service Delivery
Workforce and Training Developments
Demands and Opportunities
The Impact of New Technology on Health Care

and is hosted by:
The Metropolitan Allied Health Council
The Allied Health Alliance of Western Australia

Register for the 2007 NSW Health Libraries Forum

The NSW Health Libraries Forum 2007 Committee are pleased to announce Sally Toms of North Coast Area Health Service as the recipient of the Forum sponsorship opportunity for regional librarians. Thanks to Ramsays Medical Books and More, Sally and her colleague Kath O'Meley have $750.00 to help pay for accommodation, travel and registration at the Forum on 8-9 November at Gosford Hospital.

To join Sally and Kath at the Forum, register now at the earlybird rate of $100 (2 days including Forum dinner), and you will go in the draw to win a PDA courtesy of ProQuest.

Register now at: http://nswhlf2007.blogspot.com/.

For enquiries, please contact Suzanne Lewis or Lisa Cotter.

(Posted for Suzanne Lewis)

ALIA's professional development e-list

Karen Mills was recently appointed as the Professional Development Officer at ALIA national office and she's been busy sending out updates on upcoming PD events on the ALIA professional development e-list. Sign up to aliaCPD to receive notification firsthand.

PD event - Bridging the gap: translating research into policy and practice

Presented by the HLA Regional Committee (Qld), Associate Professor Ann McKibbon from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University will be presenting the free lecture on knowledge translation, on Tuesday 21 August in the Auditorium, Medical Education Centre, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Herston, 2pm-3pm. Light refreshments will be provided following the presention. ALL WELCOME - no need to RSVP.

For more information click here.

Ann McKibbon BSc, MLS, PhD, is a medical librarian who has been working in the areas of evidence-based medicine, medical informatics, and knowledge translation for more than 25 years at McMaster University inHamilton, ON Canada. Her work includes studies of clinicians using Medline and other information resources as well as the Clinical Queries in PubMED. She received a PhD in medical informatics at the University of Pittsburgh in 2005 and is an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster. She continues her research and teaching in informatics and knowledge translation in the medical school and to other audiences outside the university. She has over 50 peer-reviewed publications and has taught more than 100 workshops to librarians and health professionals. She enjoys making difficult-to-understand topics (e.g., statistics) easily understood and believes strongly that librarians have a major role to play in research inside librarianship and in other disciplines. Taken from:
http://www.bm.cm-uj.krakow.pl/eahil/cec.php

NSW Health Libraries Forum 8-9 Nov 2007

Northern Sydney Central Coast Health is hosting the 2007 NSW Health Libraries Forum at Gosford Hospital on 8-9 November 2007. This practical and innovative event will consist of papers, posters, workshops and meetings designed to facilitate networking and deliver valuable professional development opportunities. The theme of the conference is "Focus on the User Environment: Techniques and Technologies", and abstracts submitted to date indicate a range of Web 2.0 and other technologies being used to enhance library users' information environment. The call for papers and posters has been extended to July 9 and more information can be found on the Forum blog at http://nswhlf2007.blogspot.com/.

Keep an eye on this site for the program which will be posted shortly and for registrations. The Forum has a focus on health librarianship but will be of interest to librarians from other fields also, and all are welcome to attend.

LIANZA Conference '07

Some of the papers to be presented at the 2007 LIANZA conference later this year look really interesting. You can find the programme and abstracts at http://www.lianza.org.nz/events/conference2007/programme.html
Please contact me if you're attending and interested in blogging from the conference and/or writing a report for HLA News.

Thomson Scientific update sessions

Thomson Scientific will be conducting Web of Knowledge and Bibliometric Analytical tools update sessions across Australia late May/early June. RSVP is required, no later than May 5th, as the sessions have a fixed capacity. Contact Dharshani on 61 2 8587 7704 or dharshani.goonetilleke@thomson.com for more information or to book.

Perth, 9-11.30am 31st May
Curtin University of Technology
Room 218, Level 2, Robertson Library (Building 105)
Kent Street, Bentley

Melbourne, 9.30-12pm 1st June
University of Melbourne
Tute & Committee rooms, Baillieu Library
Gate 12, Royal Parade, Parkville

Sydney, 9.30-12pm 4th June
University of Sydney
Training Room 3, Fisher Library
Eastern Avenue F03, Camperdown Campus

Adelaide, 9.30-12pm 5th June
University of Adelaide
Ira Raymond Room, Barr Smith Library, North Terrace Campus

Brisbane, 9.30-12pm 6th June
University of Queensland
Library Conference Room
Duhig Building, St Lucia