Every three years

There is to be a Commonwealth election in October, and it is traditional to compile a shopping list before elections. I wonder what we in the library interest might put on our list? On one hand, many library issues are local or state, and so putting them on the table in a federal context seems inappropriate. On the other hand, the Commonwealth Government seems to regard state and local issues as space for expansion into, so maybe that is OK. But I think it would be wise to focus on issues which are specifically Commonwealth.

Suggestions would be useful - feel free to send comments to this blog. The ALIA Board is meeting next week, and since this will be my first meeting, it would be good to have something helpful to bring to it. Here are my first thoughts.

Copyright is a clear Commonwealth issue, and more widely we are interested in all those related areas of free culture, open access to knowledge, and the like. Related to this is national information infrastructure. The Senate report, Libraries in the Online Environment (2003) had some great ideas, few of them implemented. For example, Libraries Australia is useful to many Australians, but should be funded centrally as a piece of basic national infrastructure. Broadband also fits under the heading of national information infrastructure - we are very interested in that, too.

It may be that other organisations have electoral agendas too, and we could talk to them. I will look forward to your comments.

Blog changes direction

Many thanks to those scores of people (well, hundreds) who voted for me in the recently-declared ballot for vice president of ALIA. The job starts in May, when Roxanne Missingham becomes President of ALIA.

Congratulations to Damian Lodge and Kate Watson, who have been elected to the ALIA Board, where they will join Philip Keane,Michelle Brennand and Helen Partridge, whose terms extend to 2008.

Many thanks to Kevin Dudeney, Margaret Allen, Graham Black and Richard Sayers, who also contested these positions. They would all have been great additions to the ALIA Board, and hopefully will have other opportunities in ALIA in the future. It is great to see the level of interest and participation increasing.

Many thanks to the readers of this blog, too, and especially those who have posted long and thoughtful comments, and concise comments too. Several readers? Dozens? I think "happy throng" is probably a bit too much, Ainslie. This blog is having a slight change of direction, but not of name. It is no longer an electoral blog.

I am looking forward to being involved in ALIA again. I was reminded by Deirdre McNally that I currently hold the record for chairing the shortest AGM on record - Acquisitions Section, early 1990s, 2 minutes I think. Watch out.

I am looking forward to getting around. Kerrie Kelly and Tania Barry have already suggested that I should rock up to the National Library and Information Technicians Conference in October 2007 and the New Librarians Symposium in December 2008, respectively.