Panel - ALIA Special Interest Groups

The Special Interest Groups are some of the most passionate and active teams in ALIA, but with the number of new groups that have started in the last few years it can be difficult to keep track of what activities, information, and advocacy they provide. This panel brings together representatives from many of the recently formed ALIA SIGs to tell you about what they do, how they do it, and what to consider if you’re thinking of starting a SIG yourself.

Panelists:

Amy Rake, ALIA Disability convenor

James Baker, ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics secretary

Jill Rogers, ALIA Preservation and Digitisation convenor

ALIA Multicultural committee

The discussion will be facilitated by Jacqui Lucas, ALIA Learning Services Coordinator, who has been championing and supporting all these groups since their respective foundings and will provide insight about how the ALIA National team works to assist these groups.

Author Bio

James is a librarian at the Melbourne Athenaeum Library and teacher in the Diploma of Library and Information Services Course at Swinburne University of Technology. In addition to this James is one of the co-convenors for ALIA Victoria and the secretary for ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics. In his role with ALIA Graphic, James has developed and run the Librarians’ Graphic Book Club offering professional development relating to comics and graphic novels in libraries.

Author Bio

Amy Rake is the Children’s Services Office at the Tamworth Regional Library. Amy is a qualified primary and high school teacher. She received her degree from the University of New England Armidale and Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga. She delivers innovative programs with a focus on Literacy, Numeracy and STEAM subjects. She is also a disability and dementia advocate and works within this space. She is the convenor for the ALIA Disability group and the Chairperson for the local Dementia alliance group. She has a passion for making the library an accessible and inclusive space for all.

Author Bio

Jill Rogers is currently the Service Manager for Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Digital Collections. From 1992 until now Jill has worked in various roles across all sectors in the Information Profession in Queensland.

Jill is committed to lifelong learning and she has kept up with the changes in the industry by undertaking further study, reading and professional development, speaking at seminars and conferences and undertaking courses both in Australia and overseas.

Jill enjoys collaborating with others in GLAM organsiations particularly in the cultural heritage sectors to digitise, make discoverable, preserve and share our unique treasures.

Author Bio

Jacqui Lucas is Professional Learning Teacher Librarian for ALIA where they hold responsibility for the ALIA CPD Scheme, the ALIA Mentoring Scheme, CPD Digest, matters relating to the school library sector, along with support of a number of ALIA special interest groups. Jacqui is also a Standing Committee Member of the School Libraries section of International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the ALIA representative for the Australian Coalition of School Libraries (ACSL). Prior to working for ALIA Jacqui was an AITSL Certified Lead Teacher, Teacher Assessor, and member of the Highly Accomplished Lead Teacher (HALT) network.

When not working at ALIA, Jacqui sings with Canberra Qwire, crochets beanies, and loves growing food and caring for chooks in their garden.