Newsflashes from Branch Executive Committee (29th March 2006)

NEWSFLASHES FROM THE BEC MEETING OF 29 MARCH 2006

* We were joined by Sello Borephe representing RETIG.

* Ingrid Thomson will be part of a team from UCT's Centre forEducationalTechnology presenting a blogging workshop at the eLearning Africa 2006 1stInternational Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the last week of May. There will be reportbacks on the conference at the WHCELIG colloquium and at the LIASA Conference.

* BEC wishes Anna Louw, longstanding member, a speedy recovery from her recent operation

* LIASA Conference 2006
The plans for LIASA conference are progressing well. We're looking forward to an exciting conference. This will not be a repeat ofNelspruit.

Naomi Haasbroek reported that a site inspection was held at the Saint George Hotel. The facilities are excellent with a large venue for the plenary sessions and numerous breakaway rooms plus large exhibition space. The hotel itself has 130 rooms at very reasonable rates. A discountedrate has been negotiated for LIASA members.

Accommodation and transport bookings have been outsourced to a professional company, and an experienced professional conference organiser have been appointed by the Representative Council.

It was pointed out that the conference falls during Ramadan and that the special needs of our Muslim colleagues would be accommodated. More information will be made available.

Ingrid has created an unofficial wiki for the conference. More information about this will follow.

Conference information, registration forms etc will be available on the LIASA website towards the end of May.

* LIASA/SABINET Librarian of the Year
The nomination forms were sent out to every single member receiving the latest LIASA-in-Touch. Please return the forms to the Western Capebranch asa finalist has to be selected to represent the branch in the national competition. One needs to be a LIASA member to be nominated, butanyone can nominate. Please contact Ingrid or the Chair for forms or more information. The deadline for the nominations is 30 June. A judging panel will be set up to make the selection. So please send in your nominations - YOU can be the 2006 Librarian of the Year.

* BRANCH AGM 2 August 2006
In May, watch out for the AGM notice and nomination forms for the nextBEC committee in your snail mail. As this is election year, information about the BEC portfolios will be made available as well to assist in identifying potential representatives.

It is an election year for the interest groups as well, so make sure you diarise the dates.

*LIBRARY WEEK LAUNCH
The launch event that took place at the Bridgetown Public Library was well attended and a collaboration between LIASA WC, the Provincial Library Services and the City of Cape Town Library Services. A report with photographs will appear in the next newsletter. Don't forget to send through your library week activities and highlights reports to Ingrid!

* NEWSLETTER
This is scheduled for online publication in the first week of April.

* INTEREST GROUP NEWS
- Public and Community Libraries: reported back on the ArchieDick/VinceKolbe talk. We hope to make the transcript available via the Western Cape branch page.

- School Libraries and Youth Services: there was an activity on Wednesday29 March.

- Special Libraries: reported on and were congratulated on thelibrary tours that had been arranged during SA Library Week. Hopefully this will become a regular event during SA Library Week, and it was suggested that the tours be run again later in the year. Several public librarians who could not attend because of activities in their own libraries that weekhad expressed interest. There is, of course, nothing stopping individual librarians approaching individual libraries to arrange a visit.

- Interlending: This interest group has taken a decision to disband and has officially notified the chair and the national interest group convenor.

- Higher Education: Another call for papers for the colloquium will be sent out . This is an opportunity for academic and research librarians to share what they are doing with other colleagues.

- Information and Communication Technology: Next meeting will be a joint event with LiSLIG and the KM Practitioners Group on 17 May: Networking in the Profession

- Research Education Training Interest Group: Upcoming workshop on 25th April entitled "Librarians writing for Publication". Details were sent out this morning.

* UPCOMING BRANCH EVENTS
Our annual training workshop takes place in June, and is currently being planned. We are looking at presenting a workshop on "How to share what we do" through presentations, articles, reports and so on. We plan on taking the same workshop to the Southern Cape when we visit during May.

* CAPE TOWN BOOK FAIR
The Cape Town Book Fair takes place from 17-20 June in the Cape Town International Convention Centre. This promised to be a very exciting event. Visit the website at http://www.capetownbookfair.com/ for more information. You will be kept informed of some of the highlights ofthis event.