Research Applications in Library and Information Science (RAILS)

The Research Applications in Library and Information Science (RAILS) 6 conference was held on Friday the 22nd of January, 2010 at Charles Sturt University’s Canberra Campus. Academic, student and practitioner researchers from around Australia gathered to share their research, renew friendships, and dream up new projects.

The organising committee for this year's RAILS consisted of Dr Anne Lloyd, Dr Bob Pymm, and Damian Lodge - many thanks to them for their efforts, much appreciated. On behalf of ALIA, Derek Whitehead, University Librarian at Swinburne presented the ALIA RAILS 6 Scholarship to Jia Tina Du, PhD candidate at QUT (above left).

The program was diverse with papers on a wide range of topics, from an analysis of the choices and decisions that inform entry into the library and information profession, to the role of cognitive coordination in web search. The full program is available at: http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/educat/sis/RAILS6.html.

An important part of any meeting is the social networking - at right Kerry Smith from Curtin infiltrates a table of blokes at lunch (Gobinda Chowdury, UTS; Peter Macauley,RMIT; Michael Olsson UTS; Damian Lodge, CSU; Mike Middleton QUT and Mark Brogan, ECU )! Apologies to all the other people I took photos of. I am a very poor photographer, and you wouldn't thank me for posting them :-) Here's to meeting in another year at the next RAILS!

ALIA Higher Educators' Forum. Thursday 21 January 2010

On Thursday 21st January ALIA hosted a Higher Educators Forum. The venue was CSU's campus in Canberra. Academics from the universities offering bachelors and masters programs in library and information studies were invited to attend. Educators attended from Curtin University; Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove and Gardens Point; RMIT University; University of South Australia; University of Technology, Sydney; University of Canberra; Edith Cowan University; and of course, there was a large contingent from CSU. Employer and ALIA representatives also attended - Sue Hutley, Dianne Walton-Sonda, Damian Lodge, Robyn Ellard and Gillian Hallam (ALIA), Derek Whitehead (Swinburne and ALIA), John Shipp (University of Sydney and CAUL), Jasmine Cameron (NLA and ASLA) and Deirdre Kiorkgaard (NLA). Items discussed included course recognition/accreditation, fieldwork placement, recognition of prior learning, the proposed RDA changes and research in the LIS sector. While agreement was not reached on all topics, valuable discussion and community building occurred. The photo is of some of the attendees who enjoyed dinner together afterwards at the Kurrajong Hotel.