ALIA activities

This blog has been quiet lately, as a number of other things have taken place. I was in Adelaide from last Saturday to last Tuesday, at the 70th anniversary celebrations and award presentation at the State Library of South Australia, and at the ALIA Board on Sunday, and at the public libraries conference, Sunday and Monday. And I attended a meeting of the NetAlert Advisory Council in Sydney last Wednesday.

You may have noticed the announcements by the Prime Minister and by the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts of a $189 million funding program intended to make the Internet safe for children. So we needed to send out some information about that. You can read ALIA's press release, issued yesterday, here. You can also listen to the Prime Minister's podcast, and some coverage relating to libraries about Senator Coonan's announcement.

As you can imagine, all of this ALIA activity has led to a need for a little balance, so I am listening to Garrison Keillor while I write this. It is possible that balance is not quite the right term for this activity. And I am aware that Keillor's idiosyncratic combination of the sentimental and the wacky is not necessarily to everyone's taste - like melted cheese on noodles (apparently a Minnesota favourite) but the show is sponsored by Bertha's Kitty Boutique - "for persons who care about cats. And now here is Dr Phil with Cat Call-in Corner ..." - so bound to be a favourite with many librarians.

Take this as a short personal halt in the serious business of being a libraries blogger. Tomorrow I will share some thoughts about titles in libraries, and later next week I will send some thoughts on the Commonwealth Government's new program to provide us all with free filters.