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.

Journal on Hein Online

Volumes 1 (1993) - 18 (2010) of the Journal are available in full text on Hein Online. Volume 18 has been sent to Hein and all material from that volume should be available in the first quarter of 2012.
Please note: you, or you organisation, need to subscribe to Hein Online to access these issues.

Other Online Options

Journal articles can also be accessed from AGIS and AustLII. See those services for coverage.

Surveys

Journal Survey

From time to time the Communication Subcommittee of the ALLA National Executive will conduct surveys relating to the relevance and importance of the Journal as the professional journal of the Association and its value to individual law librarians.

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 the editor at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dorothy Shea
Editor - Australian Law Librarian
24 February 2011

2012 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 economic hard times
2.Innovative use of social software to connect with your clients and law librarians, including Facebook, Twitter, Wikis and Blogs
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
8. Cloud computing
9. eBooks - the challenge for law libraries

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

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.