Australian School Library Association > About > Annual report 3 October 2003

Annual report

Australian School Library Association Incorporated

Annual General Meeting, 3rd October 2003
Annual report

Presented by the ASLA President, Mary-Ann Salisbury

The last year has witnessed a number of significant changes and some major innovations that have affected the operations and future directions of the association.

• The 2002 election of office bearers resulted in a complete change in Executive.  I thank the current Executive for the hard work and dedication that ensured a smooth changeover and the successful attainment of goals set by ASLA Council.
• After a trial of face to face meetings ASLA Council decided to return to regular teleconference meetings and only one face to face meeting a year.  Regular communication is maintained through the Council and Executive discussion lists.
• A major review of the ASLA Constitution has been undertaken and the final draft goes to Member Associations this week for approval at the beginning of 2004.
• A national Teacher Librarian of the Year Award has been set up, with sponsorship from Pledger Consulting, to recognise and honour an exceptional Australian teacher librarian in a school setting whose professional practice has a positive impact on student achievement and information literacy.  This award will be presented at the ASLA/CBCA conference in Hobart 2003.
• ASLA is a federation of associations of state/territory school library associations.  In 2001 the School Library Association of Victoria gave twelve months notice of a decision to withdraw from the national body.  Unfortunately, despite attempts to change their decision, SLAV is no longer a member of ASLA.

Publications

ASLA’s major publication is ACCESS, which has four editions a year.  Subscriptions to ACCESS, while predominately coming from member associations, also come from thirteen overseas countries.

ASLA continues to supply: Learning for the future: developing information services in schools (2nd ed.), Teaching information skills: Professional development CD, and Steps to success: Information literacy video. 

Research

ASLA commissioned ACER in late 2002 to conduct a review of the research from 1990 onwards on the impact of school libraries on student learning.  ACER has completed the review, Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement: A review of the research, and it is currently electronically published and available on ASLA’s website.  The official launch of the review was carried out by Senator Gary Humphries for Dr Brendan Nelson in Canberra at Telopea Park School on 24th September.  ASLA is indebted to Judith Timbs for her commitment to this project, and also thanks ASLA ACT for working with Judith to organise the launch.  ASLA is investigating the alternatives for commissioning research into the gaps that were identified by Michele Lonsdale in the review of the research.

ALIA-ASLA Liaisons

ALIA-ASLA Joint Policy Advisory Group has developed a Statement on Teacher Librarians that received endorsement from both associations.  ALIA-ASLA Joint Taskforce has developed Professional Standards of Excellence for Teacher Librarians and there have been a number of forums held to consult with stakeholders on the final draft of this document.  The feedback from these groups has been extremely positive as to the content and the intended use of this document.  Jill Ball, Di Ballantyne and Pru Mitchell have been the ASLA representatives on these ALIA-ASLA committees.

Advocacy

ASLA has introduced a new position to the Council – that of Advocacy Officer.  The role for this position centres on promoting the profession of teacher librarianship at the nation level.

Conferences

• Congratulations to Sharron Hewer, ASLA TAS and CBCA for their work to produce the exciting Island Journeys Conference.
• ASLA is to host an online conference from 15 – 31 May 2004.  The theme is ASLA Online I: Constructing communities of learning and literacy.
• Canberra is to host the next ASLA conference, 11 – 14 April 2005.