ACTive ALIA award winners for 2008

Nicola Cross was awarded the ACTive ALIA Initiative award 2008

Nicola Cross has made major contributions to the activities of ACTive ALIA in Canberra over the past year and has always been an active member of the group. Nicola is a very pleasant, willing and enthusiastic member of the library profession and has done a lot to develop others in the profession both by her work as the Information Statistical Skills development officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics and as a member of the Australian Government Libraries and Information Network (AGLIN) training taskforce and the AGLIN/ACTive ALIA joint information sharing sessions. Nicola is responsible for the administration and booking of worthwhile speakers for this seminars as well as the extensive work she has done for AGLIN organising a variety of speakers to provide inexpensive training opportunities of librarians and related professionals.

She has always contributed to the profession and encouraged others to do so. She is an active member of the Library Technicians Group and has nurtured others to reach their full potential in this sector of the profession. She teaches the full range of cataloguing and metadata work to students at the Canberra Institute of Technology as well as contributing to ALIA. She is a pleasant, keen and willing member of any library group, prepared to go the extra mile to assist others with their professional development in her voluntary capacity and in her professional work teaching information and statistical literacy skills to others.

Nicola has contributed significantly to the ALIA Library Technicians Group, ACTive ALIA, AGLIN/ACTive ALIA Information Sharing forums and AGLIN Training and Development Taskforce. She is a dynamic, enthusiastic and delightful member of the profession.

Helen Roberts was awarded the ACTive ALIA Outstanding Contribution Award, 2008.

Helen has been an associate member of ALIA throughout her working life in libraries. She has been an enthusiastic and committed member of the ACTive ALIA Group (formerly ACT Branch) and of the ACT University and College Libraries group (URLs). For many years she served on the Executive of each group, has been President of the URLs group and was Convenor of ACTive ALIA from 2001 to 2004.

Helen has been a frequent contributor to ProACTive, the newsletter of ACTive ALIA, writing news items, a regular Convenor’s column, and notes on professional issues.

In these roles Helen has been an informal mentor to her colleagues and has provided support and advice to ALIA colleagues in the ACT.

Helen was the Law Librarian at the Australian National University for 17 years until her retirement in 2006. She was a committed professional with deep subject expertise in addition to her library qualifications, having completed her law degree at the Australian National University in 1995. Helen was responsible for the development of innovative services at ANU Law Library, including establishment of the Law Library’s formal role in teaching law students the skills of legal research. Helen was also the Copyright Officer for the Australian National University.

Helen has been a very active member of the Australian Law Librarians group, and was the State news editor for the Australian law librarian.

Helen has contributed to ALIA Group activities and committees in the ACT (see Criterion 1). She has also participated in ALIA activities at the national level, having been a member and Chair of the ALIA Copyright and Intellectual Property Advisory Group, and a member of the Australian Libraries Committee on Copyright and the Australian Digital Alliance.

In 2002 Helen was awarded a Silver Pin for her contribution to ALIA committees and activities.

Helen has been generous with her time and expertise in support of ALIA and other professional groups such as the Australian Law Librarians group. She has given many presentations in the ACT and elsewhere in Australia on law librarianship, copyright, intellectual property, and purchasing electronic resources. Helen has always been willing to participate in seminars and panel discussions on the implications for librarians of changes in copyright or intellectual property legislation, and she has contributed to discussions on a wide range of professional issues.

Helen Roberts has made an outstanding contribution to ALIA at both local and national levels.

Well done Nicola and Helen!