New directions in special librarianship: the role, the virtual and being indispensable

Convenors

Georgina Dale began work at the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) in July 2002. She is responsible for ALIAs professional development scheme and services, building a co-ordinated national professional development program, and liaising with the volunteer committees for ALIAs 60 special interest groups. In February 2004 Georgina took on the additional responsibilities of membership manager for ALIA. Prior to moving to ALIA, Georgina worked for a number of years as a librarian.

Although today Elizabeth Swan has her own company - Information Edge Pty Ltd - her background is in special libraries.

Nearly 17 years as manager of ACI's corporate information service which had a business library in Melbourne and a technical library in Sydney, followed over 7 years at CSIRO division of animal health in Melbourne, appointments in several special libraries in the UK, and a short time at Embase - a database producer - in Amsterdam.

Elizabeth remains passionate today about the role special librarians can play in their organisations to manage the efficient transfer of knowledge for better decision making.

She has twice (1985,2003) been awarded the Maria Geminis Award for 'outstanding contribution to special librarianship' in Australia.