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Proposal detail
A number of factors make the current production and distribution of each January and February issues of inCite problematical:
- Imagesetters, printers and mailing houses traditionally close shop from before Christmas until after New Year, making it extremely difficult to produce and deliver the January issue before the third week of January.
- Current advertising deadlines for each February issue are set to an unworkable 1 January. It is an uphill task to produce a quality issue when both contributors and advertisers are predominantly on leave. Consequently, both the January and February issues have had lower levels of advertising revenue, to the extent that we average only two-thirds of our regular income over this period.
To work around both of these problems, we propose to produce a January inCite 'yearbook/magazine' - focussing on offering a directory of library services and people. The issue would offer the opportunity to showcase some of the key personnel and activities of the sector, and to provide readers with a publication in magazine format that gathers together useful and timely material in one place.
Possibilities for inclusion are:
- Directory of library services
- Directory of key librarians (including university librarians, state librarians, etc)
- Directory of library schools (including profiles of Deans etc)
- Directory of library courses (from our current Courses booklet)
- Vital Link update form (in preparation for committee changes in the new year)
- ALIA membership statistics from our database
- Australian Library Week information
- A list of all current ALIA publications, including all divisional publications
- ALIA strategic plan
- An ALIA application form (and information on joining)
- Brief information on all divisions of ALIA
- A yearly calendar of events (including ALIA's conference program)
We would round out the content with articles loosely-titled 'The year in review', a collection of three essays from three leading exponents of the library sector. We anticipate that the essays would look forward into the future as well as review achievements. ALIA National Office may wish to use this opportunity to report on the year's activities from an ALIA National Office perspective.
Advertising would be sought from within/without the sector (directory listings for members available free of charge).
Deadlines
To produce the proposed inCite 'year-magazine', and to alleviate the problems with the production of the February issue, an alteration to current deadlines for copy and advertising is required. The following table outlines the proposed schedule:
| deadlines |
| copy and advertising |
10 Oct |
1 Dec |
1 Feb |
1 Mar |
1 Apr |
1 May |
1 Jun |
1 Jul |
1 Aug |
1 Sep |
1 Oct |
1 Nov |
| events and appointments |
- |
18 Jan |
18 Feb |
18 Mar |
18 Apr |
18 May |
18 Jun |
18 Jul |
18 Aug |
18 Sep |
18 Oct |
18 Nov |
| issue due out |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
For many members of the Association, the Christmas to New Year period is seen as a hiatus in a busy year of activity - this is reflected in the number of Events that are displayed in current December and January issues. We are therefore confident that announcements of Events and ALIAppointments (job vacancies) would not be unduly affected. In any event, ALIA's website can be used as a platform for late-breaking events and job vacancies. Advertisers will need to be informed of this arrangement as early as possible into the financial year, to allow for budgeting and marketing plans.
Conclusion
This proposal was shaped following discussions and consultation with ALIA National Office senior staff, advertisers, printers, distribution agents, and members of the Association. This draft has also been submitted to the ALIA Publishing Policy Committee for comment and advice. An inCite 'year-magazine' would extend the amount and quality of information that is offered to members through our current publications line-up. And by offering an inCite 'year-magazine' to non-members at an attractive price, the publication would become a useful promotional and recruitment tool. |
