Consultation Phase 1 Wrap

The first phase of the Professional Pathways consultation period has now concluded. The consultation phase was launched at the State Library of Queensland all the way back on 27 July 2022 and over the following three-and-a-half months, consultation activities continued apace, with feedback flowing in via the short five-question feedback form, facilitated workshops, written submissions to the Consultation Paper and finally through a survey.

The project team held thirteen face-to-face workshops in all state and territory capitals and several regional centres, four online workshops, and five online information sessions for specific groups including a session with the ALIA New Generation Advisory Committee and Students and New Graduates Group. Through these workshops we engaged directly with 515 individuals.

We were encouraged by the vibrancy of the discussions, with many participants expressing how pleased they were to have the opportunity to debate pressing issues and priorities with their LIS peers. Through these discussions we have heard many different voices and opinions and we have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about many different colourful pathways into and across the LIS sector. It’s always excellent to get out and meet people in the field!

Through written submissions to the Consultation Paper and responses to the short feedback form, we have received an abundance of qualitative feedback and analysis of the draft framework and associated ideas. Submissions were sent in by individuals and organisations from across the spectrum of library and information sectors, and from across states and territories. We received 43 short form responses and 29 written submissions to the Consultation Paper.

You can read all those that we were granted permission to publish here.

The survey has given us a great deal of quantitative data to work through, with over 1000 responses, which, when duplicates and incomplete responses were taken out, leaves 786 individual survey responses.

We would like to pay special thanks to the hosts at each of our face-to-face workshops at the State Library of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Southern Cross University, James Cook University, the State Library of Western Australia, the University of Sydney, Libraries Tasmania, the University of Tasmania, Deakin University, Federation University Australia, Libraries ACT, the State Library of South Australia, and Libraries and Archives Northern Territory. And huge thanks to each and everyone of you who has taken the time to engage with the consultation phase 1 process.

Next Steps

Dr Gill Hallam is busily analysing all the qualitative and quantitative data, which will be presented in a report in 2023. We are planning the second phase of consultation, which will also begin next year. Watch this space!