by Rob Penfold | Jul 29, 2025 | Events
Description
This session is being delivered in collaboration with HLI and ALIA Research Advisory Committee.
Focus groups can be a great way for health librarians seeking to explore attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of their patrons. They can also be used as a brainstorming session to help bring in to focus the issue at hand, which can then be followed by more targeted data collection using a questionnaire or semi-structured interview. This session will outline the pros and cons of using focus groups in a health library context. Whether you’re new to focus groups or looking to refine your approach, this session will provide useful insights to support your evidence-based practice!
Presenter: Katherine Howard
Dr Katherine Howard is Intersect Australia’s Digital Research Analyst for UniSA. She supports UniSA researchers by providing expertise in various digital tools and technologies, facilitating access to NCI’s HPC (Gadi), and coordinating Intersect’s training program for UniSA staff and students. Katherine’s background is in Information Science and she has extensive national and international experience as a researcher and academic. Katherine was most recently a Research Fellow with the ARC-funded ‘Library and Information Science Research in Australia’ (LISRA) project, aimed at enabling and encouraging research in Australia’s library and information profession. Prior to this, she was an Early Career Development Fellow at RMIT; has held academic positions at QUT and UniSA; and undertaken sessional work with Curtin University and Charles Sturt University. Dr Howard has received many scholarships and research awards. She was awarded a two-year scholarship to undertake the Erasmus Mundus International Master in Digital Library Learning, studying with world-renowned Information Science scholars in Norway, Estonia and Italy. Katherine was the first person outside of North America to win a Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, and her PhD, completed at QUT, was nominated for an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award. Katherine’s research focuses on new and emerging roles for information professionals, particularly around data science, research data management, and in the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector. She also has a keen interest in the Digital Humanities.
ALIA Competencies
C2: Reference and Research Services
C7: Health Research
See also: HLA Competencies
🕥 When
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
1.00pm to 2.00pm (AEST)
🌏 Where
Online webinar Zoom – a link will be sent the day prior.
This event will be recorded and sent to attendees following the event.
💲 Cost
ALIA Members – Free (just 1 of 14 benefits of HLA Membership)
Non-Members – $22
✍ Register
Register | Additional Information
by Rob Penfold | Jul 9, 2025 | Events
📰 Description
This session will demonstrate how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance grant writing. Attendees will discover techniques to leverage AI for developing ideas, creating initial proposal drafts, enhancing content quality by improving clarity and aligning language with funder priorities, and developing supplemental documents such as letter of support, budget development. We will also briefly discuss challenges and responsible use of AI for grant writing.
Leila is a senior research librarian and a published researcher with over twenty years work experience in academic and health libraries. Leila has extensive knowledge and deep understanding of research paradigm and methodology, research process, dissemination, and implementation. During her career, Leila has been supporting research and teaching needs of staff and students from established researchers to HDR students. She has contributed to large scale research projects such as national level public health research, international polices, clinical guidelines developments and systematic reviews as a consultant and co-author. Leila supports researchers’ needs through research life cycle and provides consultation and assistance with literature reviews, grant applications, data management planning, scholarly publishing and open access, research promotion and impact assessment. As part of her current role, Leila is a scholarly communication advisor for Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) supporting research staff and faculty conjoints in conducting and publishing research projects.
🗓️ When
Wednesday 6 August 2025
1.00pm to 2.00pm (AEST)
🌍 Where
Online webinar Zoom – a link will be sent the day prior.
This event will be recorded and sent to attendees following the event.
💲 Cost
ALIA Members – Free
Non-Members – $22. Another reason to consider HLA Membership
📝 Register
Register | Additional Information
by Rob Penfold | Jul 9, 2025 | Events
📰 Description
Catchii is a web-based software for systematic review screening, developed here in Australia. It supports all stages of the screening process, from duplicate removal to data extraction, and includes features such as multi-user collaboration, advanced keyword highlighting and AI-assisted screening. Most importantly, Catchii is completely free to use, offering a viable alternative to paid tools while remaining comparable in functionality. This session will present Catchii’s features and demonstrate its use in systematic reviews. For more information: https://catchii.org
🗓️ When
Wednesday 23/7/25
1:00pm – 2:00pm AEST
🌍 Where
Online webinar Zoom – a link will be sent the day prior.
This event will be recorded and sent to attendees following the event.
💲 Cost
ALIA Members – Free. Another reason to consider HLA Membership
Non-Members – $22
📝 Register
Register | Additional Information
by Rob Penfold | Jun 23, 2025 | News
Submissions are open for the HLA/Telstra Health Digital Health Innovation Award
Submit your application using the online form by 30 June 2025.
The HLA/Telstra Health Digital Health Innovation Award is funded by Telstra Health and maintained by the ALIA Health Libraries Australia group.
If your library has introduced an innovative technology solution, we invite you to share your great idea with us, receive accolades and $3,000 to implement or further your idea.
The Award focuses on innovation projects in health care information delivery with practical outcomes. The submission must fall into one of the following categories:
- The innovation is proposed (and the funds will be used to implement the innovation)
- The innovation has already been achieved (and the funds will be used to further develop the innovation, or for the professional development of the team)
For information and more details visit: HLA/Telstra Health Digital Health Innovation Award – ALIA
Many thanks to Telstra Health for their ongoing support. This award is now entering its 17th year!
The award will be presented at the ALIA HLA Conference in Sydney in August.
by Rob Penfold | May 30, 2025 | Events
We are pleased to let you know that registrations are now open for Research Support Community Day 2025, with the event program available to view here.
Research Support Community Day continues to remain a free, annual event that offers professional development and training for anyone involved in providing research support and related services. It is an opportunity to connect with colleagues, share ideas, and build your professional network. Holding the event online across 3 days ensures we can welcome participants and presenters from a range of Australasian and New Zealand time zones.
Find out more about our previous events and speakers from the Research Community Day YouTube channel.
Once again, we are grateful to Sage Publishing Asia-Pacific & Central Asia for their continued sponsorship of the event.
With the registration, there is an option to not attend but receive access to the recordings
👉 Note – this is not an HLA event
✅ A few presentations of possible interest:
- Systematic review Fun-damentals
- Full Text Seeker: A tool to assist with systematic reviews
- Safeguarding scholarly integrity: A novel approach to detecting predatory journals
- Generative AI training: Opt in or opt out?
