Click06

Citation

Combes, B. (2007), "Click06", The Electronic Library, Vol. 25 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2007.26325daa.001

Click06

The Australian Library and Information Association 2006 Biennial Conference was held in sunny Perth from 19-22 September 2006 in the new Convention Centre overlooking the picturesque Swan River. The Conference theme Click06: “Create, Lead, Innovate, Connect, Knowledge” deliberately challenged the norm; playing with words and sounds, and asking participants to think about the library profession’s role and responsibilities in coming years.

Over 800 delegates attended the event and, besides a scintillating array of papers and presentations, were treated to a range of sightseeing tours, gourmet conference lunches and a sumptuous dinner, plus a world-class exhibition with over 90 participants. There were conference blogs, castanets, roving musicians, stilt walkers and a mysterious Dr Click who kept a Spanish eye on proceedings. In summary, Click06 was a social success from start to finish.

Even better still, the quality of the keynotes speakers and the individual sessions was excellent. Presenters came from far afield, including Germany, the USA, South Africa, Canada and the eastern states of Australia. There were plenty of local presenters too. A major strength of the conference was the programme, which catered for a wide variety of interests and a range of topical issues. Keynote speakers included topics such as leadership (Canada), libraries and information agencies creating national partnerships to enhance literacy standards for all (UK), creating a national digital library agenda (NZ) and a thought-provoking and extremely humorous look at information as the golden age of ideas or just the dark ages with broadband (Australia).

Individual sessions covered a wide range of topics from wikis and blogs, operating a library SMS service, academic libraries and the RQF, the future of reference services and the Kimberley Writers’ Festival to financial accounting and library collections, restructuring, institutional repositories in regional Australia and the inner workings of the library OPAC. Papers were either refereed by the Programme Committee or published as workplace practice. The range and quality of presentations and papers was exceptional and the papers selected for this special issue provide a “taste” of the innovative work and developments currently being undertaken in libraries and information agencies around Australia. Each paper was reworked by the authors and updated and revised for this special issue. We hope you will enjoy these selections as much as the Click06 participants.

Barbara CombesSchool of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia