#ALLA2016conf, Day 2

Day 2 of #ALLA2016conf kicked off with a discussion on social media and blogging. Michelle De Aizpurua from Monash University's Law Library and Andrea Gilbey at Oxford University Press graciously stepped into a last minute withdrawal from the programme.  They reminded us that our mobile world is not bound by geography, and that blogging is not academic writing - it should be conversational, personal and short, especially for 'Gen 140 characters'.

I turned up ten minutes late after grabbing a much needed latte from Mr Tulk cafe, just next door to the conference venue.  Augustus Henry Tulk was the State Library of Victoria's first librarian, chosen from a short list of 48 applicants in 1856.  48 seems like a huge number, even then, and I wonder what Mr Tulk would have thought of a journalist heading up the State Library, breaking down prosaic notions of professional roles.  For more on this I recommend reading Richard Susskind's The Future of the Professions.

The words which stood out on Day 2 of #ALLA2016conf were analytics, actionable intelligence, business intelligence, partnerships, demonstrating value, and, incandescent rage.  Karen Rowe-Nurse spoke from the heart about managing in today's multigenerational organisations and highlighted the importance of building a good rapport with your boss; approaching management as a state of mutual dependence; and to avoid sending emails with the following words: 'the answer is just no'.  In the heat of engagement we sometimes need to take a deep breath and walk away from the keyboard.  I'm no exception.

Client Current Awareness in an Online World was a panel presentation from Herbert Smith Freehills, Allens and Manzama, who utilise news aggregation and content intelligence to deliver personalised results to clients.  Manzama are now focusing on the next wave of delivery around predictive analysis: being able to proactively spot events in the future, a kind of clairvoyance we could all use in our own professional lives.  A session from King Wood & Mallesons on business and industry intelligence providing another reminder that both lawyers and law librarians need to be agile to client needs and think creatively about how to source and present information, and structure that information delivery using smart templates.

The afternoon provided an absorbing range of legal topics.  Helen Edney, the Library and Information Manager at Northern Territories' Legal Aid walked us through their Crime Wiki, and, discussed how she was able to demonstrate the financial value of their services by cost benefit analysis.  The theme of partnerships with commercial publishers was picked up again by the librarians at the Supreme Court Library in Queensland who discussed providing a suite of online services to their large group of stakeholders.

Junior Browne from the University of the West Indies, in charge of the Faculty Law Library started with a cricket analogy which reminded me of a similar Richard Susskind quote, we can all learn from elite athletes - playing forward rather than defensively.  Junior walked us through Carilaw and the collection of Commonwealth Caribbean primary legal materials.  The afternoons session rounding out with a chilling discussion of data retention and privacy in the digital era from Jason Bosland at the University of Melbourne and the editor of the investigative unit at the Age, Michael Bachelard.  Papers from the conference will be available soon online, and a selection will appear in the ALL Journal, worth following up.

Conferences, they take it out of you.  All that networking, listening, note taking, and, all that worrying - am I strategic enough?  Have I flagged all these issues?  Where can I find out more?  Should I start playing computer games? Did you see the orange water bottle from Thomson Reuters?  Which publisher is giving away the Lindt chocolates?  If attending a conference can feel like 5 days work compressed into 2, convening a conference is a very large task and Veryan Croggon, Leanne Whykes and their committee made this look, from the outside, effortless.  Well done, and thank you, it was a stimulating, thought provoking 2 days.

#ALLA2016conf, Day 1

I'm sitting in the State Library of Victoria's Helen Macpherson Smith Genealogy Centre, the outside walls of the old library form the inside of this more recent wing, in between sessions at Day 1 of ALLA's (for the uninitiated, the Australian Law Librarians Association) biannual conference.  A university student sits at the table we share receiving instruction from her tutor, pouring over physics conundrums together. Their formulas distract me as I gather my thoughts to write this, but they also offer a perfect illustration of some of the themes teased out today: disruption, hybrid learning, STEM/STEAM curriculum, gamification, collaboration and creativity.

Rose Hiscock, the inaugural Director at the Science Gallery Melbourne, gave the opening keynote address and spoke about, amongst other things, collapsing a topic. Take climate change for instance, is there a more innovative and compelling way for scientists, in collaboration with artists to tell that story and engage the population? And what happens when we stop paying attention to what's happening around us? The team from Directioneering, an executive career strategy firm who can reengineer your resume and revamp your LinkedIn profiles, quoted a CEDA report which estimated that 40% of current jobs will be replaced by computers in 10-15 years time.

#ODEAR

Somewhere in the middle of these propositions and challenges from the podium a Panda bear danced at the back of the auditorium offering its own unique contribution to disruption, distracting the speaker momentarily, and offering some clever marketing from one of the publishers (see #jadedpanda).

It's worth noting that the fifth speaker of the day would be the first to speak specifically on a legal library topic, on implementing a legal research skills programme at the University of Canterbury.  Clare O'Dwyer, an earlier speaker talked about her move to Vietnam to head up Library Services at RMIT University's campus, but this was more in the line of directioneering and reingineering careers.

I have my own personal career advisor, someone who keeps me pointing in the right direction and anticipating a future now, my 12 year old nephew Cole.  Shortly I'll leave this wonderful building, the State Library of Victoria, inspiration to generations of Australian writers, researchers and students, and battle my way through the crowd outside glued to Pokemon Go, and head off to conference drinks at the old Melbourne Goal.  See you tomorrow