1. Committee Membership
Another round of EOIs for ACORD membership will be posted in April 2026.
Within its current membership, ACORD is seeking nominations for a new Treasurer. This role is responsible for preparing the draft annual budget and managing income associated with ACORD events. Nominees must be current ALIA personal members.
2. Trove Strategic Advisory Committee (TSAC) Elections
Nominations are currently open for 4 vacant TSAC poisitions. Nominations are by partner category and must be received by 31 March 2026. More information is available on the Trove Partners website.
3. AI in the Library Catalogue
The committee began discussions on whether there should be a guiding broad, high-level Statement on Using AI in the Library Catalogue, for both content of materials held and creation/modification of catalogue records. This would be a statement that libraries can refer to when developing their own policies.
4. Rare Books Template
Following ACORD, National Library, and Rare Books sector feedback, the Rare Books Template for Trove Cataloguing was reviewed last week. Instructions and guidelines were provided, and the template will be refined for broader use. Enhancements are planned for the July/August release. Communications will be sent to Trove Partners once the changes are implemented.
Round-up of Community of Practice and Project updates:
- Cataloguers’ Catch-Up – No meetings currently scheduled until after June 2026 due to ACORD capacity.
- Reparative Description CoP – Last meeting held 5 February 2026. There will be six meetings in 2026, held every two months. The next meeting will have a guest speaker from Wellington City Library to discuss their in-house classification system. The group are currently running elections for two co-convenor positions.
- Schools Catalogue CoP – There will be three meetings in 2026 in line with terms 2-4. There will also be a more relaxed Chat & Share that will be held a couple of weeks after each presentation for more general, informal discussion. The topics for this year are: Cataloguing non-book items; Genrefication; and Cataloguing school archives.
- NSLA RDA Project – Due to absences for this meeting, there was no update on this project.
- Australian Subject Access Project (ASAP) – Background work is progressing for this project with surveys to be sent to Steering Committee for review and approval. The Working Group is preparing the interim report, which will be submitted to the Steering Committee for review.
News from ALIA:
- ALIA board elections are currently underway.
- The ALIA National Conference is coming in hot, being held in Sydney 11-14 May 2026.
- Several awards are currently open for nominations, including the Distinguished Library Technician, Marjorie Cotton, F A Sharr, and Bess Thomas awards. Closing dates vary but many are rapidly approaching, please check the ALIA website for more details.