On Becoming an Associate

Recently a lovely friend of mine asked for advice about the process for becoming an Associate of LIANZA. It made me reflect on how beneficial I actually found the whole experience. So when we were planning this Blog I decided that this could be a good thing to share with you.

I became an Associate in October 2007 (that's me in the shiny red dress) and I didn't find it an onerous process at all.

So what do you have to do?

Note: you should read the full requirements for the nitty gritties.

But in short you need to:

Step 1:

• Fill in a form that states your career details, length of LIANZA membership and qualifications
• Write a statement about your skills and competence as a professional librarian
• Pull together a portfolio of reports, articles, bibliographies, guides, publications, that you've written.
• Arrange for 3 referees to write really nice things about you and your career. ; )
• Pay a very reasonable fee of $50 to help cover the cost of administration.

Step 2
If your application gets through to the interview stage you need to:

• Prepare a 10 minute presentation on your career and present it to the interview committee (made up of 3 or 4 members of the Credentials Committee).
• Then you have an interview with 3 or 4 senior, talented people where you get to talk about your career and your thoughts on the library profession and how you to contribute to it.

So what do you get out of it?

There are tangible benefits to becoming an Associate ( a pin, a lovely certificate, a citation, and the awards ceremony that gave me the chance to wear my shiny red dress) but it is the intangible ones that stand out for me. In fact it was the application process that I got the most out of. It provided the satisfaction of bringing together the things I've done in my career into a portfolio and then sharing it with the interview panel. Then during the interview I had the wonderful privilege of conversing with some interesting, talented, senior members of our profession. I got to share my thoughts, ideas and hopes for our profession with them and, best of all, I got great advice from them. I think they asked me a few tricky questions too but I don't really remember what they were. What I do remember is that it was a very positive and affirming experience. It is the most enjoyable interview I've ever done!

So why do it?

When I try to think back on why I applied for it I came up with this:

I applied because I am committed to the library and information profession (and everything we do) and also because I am proud of contributions I have made (and will continue to make) to it.

Being an Associate of LIANZA is official recognition of this committment and I'm really proud of that.

Well this is all my own personal experience and thoughts. If you're thinking about applying next year then I'm happy for you to contact me. Also, perhaps some of my fellow associates could share their experience in the comments?


Cheers

Fiona ALIANZA