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VICLINK MEETING

October 14th 2003

2.00pm

Venue: State Library of Victoria Conference Centre

MINUTES

Present: Lynne Makin (Chair) (Upper Murray Regional Library), Elisabeth Jackson (Moonee Valley), Chris Payne (Mitchell), Graham Dudley, Jenifer Gawne (Dept Victorian Communities), Barbara Horn (Yarra Melbourne Wendy Quihampton, Debra Rosenfeldt, Nicole Lowndes, Beata Wacek, Brendan Fitzgerald, Damien Tarquin (State Library, Public Libraries Unit), John Murrell, Janet Aumann(West Gippsland), Jan Penney (Goldfields), Chris Kelly, ), Dale Cousens (Hume), Adele Kenneally (Glenelg),Sandra Jeffries(Mornington), Patricia Smythe (Kingston), Anne Holmes (Boroondara), Libby Woodhouse(Goulburn Valley),Michael Byrne, Jenny Ruffy (Monash Patti Manolis (Maribyrnong), Neville Humphris (Moreland), Katrina Knox (Darebin), Peter Carter (Casey Cardinia), Sally Armistead (Corangamite),

Karen Cummings (Whitehorse-Manningham), Rebecca Herington, Andrew Wright (NILS), Susan Orr (Campaspe), Sue Kelly, Helen Zibell (Mildura), Julie Rae (Central Highlands), Natalie Brown (Greater Dandenong), Caroline Ramsden (Stonnington), Leonie Bridgeman (Corangamite), Anne Armstrong (Reference CoOp)

1.Apologies

John Binnion (Eastern Region), Colin Morrison, Helen Balcam (Dept. Victorian Communities), Alison Katona (Mornington), Elaine Richmond (High Country), Sue Kelly (Mildura), Stephen Dempsey (Wellington), Heather Phillips (Frankston), Karen Ward Smith (Dandenong), Libby Sturrock (NILS), Anne Rasmussen (Stonnington), Jan Sutton (Gouldburn Valley)

2. Minutes of meeting held on 12 August at Nauru House

Moved Chris Kelly, seconded Patti Manolis That the minutes be adopted. Carried.

3.Business arising from the Minutes

Staff Training – proposed seminar on staffing in public libraries. This will be held at RMIT on Tuesday 25th November. Representatives of Universities and TAFE will be attending and it will be an opportunity for public librarians to discuss their staffing needs with those providing training in our industry. It has become part of the Statewide Training Program so details and bookings will be available through the calendar.

4.Correspondence

Inwards:

  • 21 July 2003. From Shaw and Gay, Management and Taxation accountants regarding the Viclink Audit Review
  • 23 July. From Shaw and Gay regarding Members Limited by Guarantee
  • 5 August – From Alyson Kosina, Viclink Secretariat, forwarding the above two letters
  • 14 August – From Sam Lipski, President, Library Board of Victoria advising that Dr. Vicki Williamson has been appointed Chair of the Advisory Committee on Public Libraries
  • 26 August – From Julie Rae advising of her attendance on LIANZA Conference, SA Library Conference and CAVAL Consortia meeting and requesting reimbursment of costs.
  • 29 August - From Anne Armstrong, Convenor, Reference Cooperative, requesting Viclink Executive support in requesting alterations to questions asked for the Annual Survey

Outwards:

  • 19 August – To Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, CEO and State Libraian advising that Lynne Makin and Barbara Horn are Viclink’s nominees for the Advisory Committee.
  • 26 August - To Candy Broad, MP, Minister for Local Government, thanking her for attendance at the Viclink Annual General Meeting
  • 18 September. To Graham Dudley, Co-ordinator Public Library Services, Department for Victorian Communities, requesting a review of the Annual Survey questionnaire
  • 24 September. To Alyson Kosina, Secretary, VALA. Suggesting that VALA and Viclink share the costs of legal advice regarding members’ limited liability
  • 7 October. To Craig Anderson congratulating him on his appointment as Director of Library Services at RMIT and thanking him for his contribution to public libraries in Victoria over many years.

The correspondence was noted.

  1. Financial report

The treasurer spoke to the financial report which had bee circulated before the meeting. Invoices will be sent to members next week.

Moved Chris Payne, seconded Anne Holmes That the financial report be accepted. Carried.

  1. Gulliver report

Julie reported that there had been three nominations for a vacancy on the Gulliver Steering Committee and the Committee was now giving consideration to criteria for membership.

A forum will be held in February to showcase possible Bruce databases.

7.Department for Victorian Communities Report

A copy of the report will be sent with the minutes.

Jennifer Gawne was introduced as a new project officer in the public libraries section. Jennifer will be particularly concerned with training.

The timing of the payment of quarterly grants was mentioned as of concern to libraries who had budgetted on the basis of receiving them at the start of the month.

It was resolved that Lynne will write to the DVC Expressing Viclink’s concern.

The Country Library Services Manual was praised and Barbara Horn pointed out that it is of use to city libraries as well. Workshops for city libraries will be held if there is enough interest. Members should let Graham Dudley know if they are interested.

Graham is also asking for interested people to join a working group to review the Annual Survey questionnaire.

  1. State Library Public Libraries Unit Report

This report is available on the Infonet.

The State Librarian and CEO is interested in visiting public libraries around the state. Library Managers should contact the CEO’s office to arrange this.

Connie Maggio and Lynette Lewis have been nominated to fill the vacancy on the Training Committee and CPLG will be nominating a country libraries representative after their meeting on 16th October.

9.CPLG News

CPLG meeting is on 16th October.

  1. Viclink Executive Report

The Executive met on 15th September and discussed the following issues:

  • Proposed workshop on staffing issues
  • Secretariat review
  • SWIFT – report on progress
  • Proposal from the Law Foundation for setting up legal resources in Victorian public libraries
  • Financial matters – accounts for payment and ratification
  • Limited liability for Viclink Committee members – legal advice to be sought with VALA
  • Financial reporting. Trish Smyth attended to discuss issues of concern
  • Gulliver – Proposed budget, reimbursement of costs to attend LIANZA conference, proposed forum to be held on 6 February.
  • Annual Survey
  • The need for a business plan for Viclink – a special executive meeting to discuss this will be held on 5th November.

Lynne Makin reported further on the Public Libraries Advisory Committee which is working on setting up a framework for the relationship between Public Libraries, the State Library and the MAV.

The MAV Library Committee has not met for some time but John Murrell has been working with the MAV in relation to the SWIFT project.

12. Viclink Subcommittes – Reports

  • Reference Cooperative. Anne Armstrong reported that the Cooperative had met on 11 August and the next meeting is on 11th November.
  • Collections Cooperative – A report was sent and will be circulated with the minutes
  • Children’s Subcommittee. Robyn Burns reported on the activities of the Committee and the next seminar to be held in Bendigo on 31st October.
  • Inter-Library Loans Subcommittee – Will be attending a Viclink Executive Meeting to discuss the activities of the Committee.
  1. Libraries –Building Communities

Graham Bean from New Focus gave a report on the progress of this project.

The first report is available on the Infonet and other reports have been received in draft form.

The on-line survey will be administered soon and all libraries were encourage to participate. It will be a very cost effective way to obtain information about library users.

A summary of report outcomes will be sent to the Viclink List.

  1. Marketing Project presentation

A representative from the Marketing Bank gave a presentation of the @your library campaign.

The campaign is designed to fit in with activities already carried out by libraries. For example the first program in January will be Holiday Fun @your library and will showcase libraries’ holiday programs.

There will be a different program every two months.

Champions planning seminars have been arranged for various locations.

  1. Web 4 All

Brian Hardy from NILS gave a presentation of the Web 4 All project. This is a program developed in Canada which uses a smart card to provide Internet access easily and cheaply to people with various disabilities. An Australian version will be available next year for about $1500 per library.

Graham Dudley reported that there may be funding for this available through the Winthrop estate. Further information and calls for expressions of interest will be sent later.

Members expressed a concern that Web 4 all does not currently operate on XP platform.

14. Other Business

Patti Manolis reported on the successful Kinetica session held in the morning.

15 NEXT MEETING

Tuesday 9th December. Venue to be advised.

The Meeting ended at 4.15 pm.

Ramsay/Reid Scholarships

These were presented at 5.00 following the Viclink Meeting. Congratulations to the winners:

Patti Manolis – to undertake a study tour of public libraries in East Timor with a view to working out ways in which public libraries in Melbourne can assist them and also to improve services to East Timorese people in Melbourne

Helen Zibell – to study library consortia arrangements in Australia and North America.