ERA Meeting 2010 - Brisbane

ERA will hold a meeting in Brisbane for ERA members and for representatives from Australian libraries interested in finding out more about ERA.

Where: the Treasury Casino & Hotel located at 130 William St Brisbane (at the top of the Queen Street Mall),

When: Wednesday 1 September, 1.00 - 4.00 pm. This is the same week as the ALIA Access 2010 conference in Brisbane.

The ERA meeting will provide the opportunity for library representatives to come together to discuss and input into policy direction and strategic issues for ERA, as well as foster relations with vendors and facilitate cross-sectoral networking.

Registrations will open early July.  Attendance is free but registration will be required via the ERA website. 

2011 ERA Membership Forum in Sydney

Planning has started for the 2011 ERA Membership Forum and we would be interested to hear from you with any suggested speakers, proposals for presentations or papers by participating libraries or other ideas for the event.

This year we are planning to hold the meeting in Sydney and the proposed date is Friday, 4 February 2011: following the 2011 ALIA Information Online Conference (1 - 3 February 2011).

You can access the papers and presentations from the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Membership Forums on the ERA website.

Please forward any suggestions for the 2011 Membership Forum to era@nla.gov.au.
 

Special libraries and ERA

I am involved with the ERA initiative as I fervently believe in the new information access paradigm enabled by Australian national licences for key online information resources for all Australians. As both an employer and adult educator, the provision of an ubiquitous foundational information environment would ensure a dependable entry level on which we can build information literacy for specific specialties.

ERA provides two advantages to special libraries:

1. The National Library of Australia negotiates subscription terms and conditions for the resources on the ERA product list, allowing purchasing to be done very quickly and with the minimum of effort at our end.
2. The ERA process also provides an opportunity to look at new electronic resources by providing product information and easy access to product trials from the ERA website.

Participating in ERA can keep prices to a minimum for all special libraries in Australia as the price on offer generally decreases the more libraries that subscribe. There are already 29 special libraries who have a total of 42 subscriptions through ERA.

The ERA Executive Committee is working toward increasing the take up of products. I am looking forward to the day when so many libraries are participating in ERA that special libraries can subscribe to relevant fundamental products at a reasonable cost and our clients can move from one library to another and know that they will always have access to a set of quality online information resources.

- Lynette Miller (ERA Executive Committee - Specials)

Key Dates to Remember

1 July 2010 - Financial year subscription cycle commences

early July 2010 - Registrations open for the ERA Meeting 2010 in Brisbane

1 September 2010 - ERA Meeting in Brisbane

1 January 2011 - Calendar year subscription cycle commences

4 February 2011 - 2011 ERA Membership Forum in Sydney