The Australian Law Librarian Journal

The Australian Law Librarian is the official journal of the association. Published quarterly, it contains articles of interest to those working within the field of legal librarianship and publishing fields. It also provides a vehicle for information sharing amongst divisions of the ALLA as well as serving as a forum for discussion of issues related to legal publishing.

The Australian Law Librarian sponsors the annual Ted Glasson Award for the best feature article published in the journal.

From 2011 we will also be conducting a Readers’ Choice Survey were readers will be invited to vote on their favourite article published in the previous year’s Journal.

Journal on Hein Online

Volumes 1 (1993) - 17 (2009) of the Journal are available in full text on Hein Online.
Please note: you, or you organisation, need to subscribe to Hein Online to access these issues.

2010 Surveys

Journal Survey - Update

In March 2010 the Journal conducted a survey of its readership to see how relevant the Journal is in their professional lives.
Throughout 2011 the Communications sub-committee will continue to discuss how other ideas and suggestions from the March Survey can be implemented.

Salary Survey

In 2010 the Journal sponsored a Members’ Survey. The Communications Sub-committee (John Botherway, Robin Gardner and Dorothy Shea) coordinated the compilation of the Survey questions and the analysis was undertaken by Dr Shona McIntosh, who also conducts the annual BIALL Membership Survey in the UK.
The total number of respondents was 277 and there were 236 analysable responses.
Of these 236 there were 177 full-time, 57 part-time and less than 5 self-employed/freelance respondents. A total of 41 questionnaire respondents were excluded from the analysis as a result of inappropriate, or the omission of, salary data.  
The final report is freely available to ALLA members. Non-ALLA members may purchase the survey for $55 plus postage. Please contact Dorothy Shea at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Over the coming months we will be reporting regularly on the steps being taken to implement many of your ideas.

Current plans are for the Survey to be conducted on a biennial basis and the sub-committee welcomes feed back on the structure of the 2010 Survey, the questions asked and suggestions for additional questions or questions that were not considered relevant.

Robbie Frazer, from Prenax, very kindly donated a Kindle as a prize for  participating in the Salary Survey. Janelle Boyd from Queensland was the lucky recipient, though as yet she is not going to be able to read the Journal on this device.

We would like to record our appreciation to Prenax for their support for the Association and the Journal.

Dorothy Shea
Editor - Australian Law Librarian
24 February 2011 

2011 Call for Articles

I would like to invite everyone working in law libraries to consider writing an article for the Australian Law Librarian. Perhaps  there is something you feel passionate about, or something on which you would like to air your views. It could be serious, it could be light hearted or it could be about what you do outside the law library.
 
Topics that have been suggested to me include
 
1.Tips for surviving in the current economic crisis
2.Innovative use of social software to connect with your clients and law librarians
3.Law Reporting - does it have a future?
4.Negotiating an appropriate salary package
5.Succession planning in libraries
6.Anything on legislative developments
7. Disaster management plans
 
I am sure there are many more topics that you will think worth the effort of putting pen to paper (metaphorically speaking).
 
Having an article published in the Journal will look good on your CV and it has the potential to put you in the running for the annual Ted Glasson Award - as well as the prestige this includes a monetary reward (currently $300.00). Recognition from your peers is another possibility in the newly created 2011 Readers’ Choice Survey.
 
The Editorial Board looks forward to hearing your ideas about possible articles or you can just send an article to us. If you have never written an article before don't let that stop you - everyone has to start somewhere.  All submissions will be considered and constructive comment and feedback provided where appropriate.
 
Dorothy Shea
Editor
Australian Law Librarian

Note from the Editor on 24 February 2011 seeking contributions

In 2011 the Australian Law Librarian is looking to include a number of short feature pages in the Journal. We won't overwhelm you with an exhausive list in one go - just a couple of suggestions every few months. Here are two possibilities for you to consider:

New Dimensions: approximately 500-1000 word profile and photo of a current ALLA members who is not on a Divisional Committee and whose current position offers insight into the various dimensions of what constitutes "law librarianship" in 2011. An example from  Tasmania would be the Tasmanian Police Librarian whose induction saw her undertake a partial police training program, including unarmed combat and learing to use a firearm. Articles should look at promoting some of the lesser known members of ALLA, celebrate the diversity of our profession, and range from the serious to light hearted in tone.

Tricks of the Trade: We would like to run a regular one to two page feature of handy tips in using legal research tools, including search techniques, shortcuts, where to find material not on the Internet and different terminology used in particular subject areas. Again an example from Tasmania is that we have Fact Sheets rather than Explanatory Memoranda for our legislation.

And if you want to tackle something more challenging then once again we are calling for full length articles for the Journal.

Dorothy Shea
Editor
Australian Law Librarian

Changes

Readers will notice that from Volume 18(4) we are no longer including the Conference Column in the Journal. It has not been discontinued but is now available on the ALLA web site where the information will be more up to date. Web updates can be added immediately information becomes available whereas the time lapse between receipt of the column and publication in the Journal was often a couple of months.

Mail Address

Australian Law Librarian
PO Box 4523 Bathurst Street Post Office
HOBART 7000
Tasmania
Australia

Editorial Board

Proof-reading and IT Co-ordination - please contact the Editor.