ClickO6

Last week the ALIA Conference, ClickO6, was held in Perth. I have long thought that ALIA is more relevant to public and school libraries than to special and academic libraries and this conference did nothing to dispel my opinion. Central TAFE purchased three subscriptions and library staff were given the opportunity to attend the sessions that interested them most. I chose presentations on blogs, wikis and web design; the first two were repeats of presentations I had seen several weeks ago and the third offered very little that was new. In the exhibition hall various library-related vendors were well represented and I gathered some literature about those that interested me. (There weren't many freebies left as this was the third day of the conference. I did, however, gather enough pens to keep me writing for a year or more) Then I did a very stupid thing and left my "showbag" in one of the seminar rooms, not becoming aware of my loss until I was waiting for a taxi to take me back to work so there was no time to go back and look for it. All in all it was a wasted morning for me. I know a lot of time and effort had gone into it (one of my colleagues was on the organising committee) but I won't put my hand up to attend another similar conference. Several years ago the Health, Special and Law Librarians Group held a conference in Perth and that was streets ahead of this one in interest and variety.