Health Professional Development Scheme
It’s possible to become a certified Health Specialisation professional. This entitles you to add post-nominals to your title and be listed on a website as having obtained this Certification
For more information, view:
HLA has also produced a list of 2025 courses that are aligned with the 8 HLA Competencies and these may assist with professional development
Competencies and Course Map
View the 2025 Courses List (updated Mar 2025). These courses / activities have been mapped to the eight HLA Competencies to assist you with your professional development
Health Specialisation Skills Audit will help you identify gaps in your knowledge and provide guidance for choosing your most appropriate courses
Resources for new health librarians
- Join the aliaHEALTH e-list to stay up to date (overseas e-lists available also)
- Attend a HLA event (details posted on the AliaHealth e-list, HLA social media, and this website)
- Find a mentor – set up a monthly check-in with someone external to your new workplace for peer-to-peer learning
- Read JOHILA – Journal of Health Information & Libraries Australasia (or even consider contributing a piece …)
- Listen to Shoosh – a podcast about Health Libraries
- Consider undertaking a medical terminology course to help you with the jargon!
- Follow HLA social media
- Join HLi (Victorian focus but have online events that can be attended from anywhere)
- Read Early Career Health Science Librarian Resource Guide (US)
- Join some HLA health library Communities of Practice. They are free, every group welcomes new members, and they can look good on your CV:
- Health Library Managers CoP: glynis.jones@health.wa.gov.au | Health Library Managers website
- Hospital Librarians’ CoP: hospital.lib.cop@gmail.com (note – managers are encouraged to join the Library Managers CoP)
- Solo Health Library CoP: jane.orbell-smith@health.qld.gov.au
- Searching CoP: cassandra.gorton@monashhealth.org
- Artificial Intelligence CoP: visit AI CoP
Competencies Review and Comparison poster 2019
Health Librarianship Competencies
Review project
Creating the health librarian
professional workforce for the future by Ann Ritchie Presentation
Creating the health librarian
professional workforce for the future by Ann Ritchie Notes
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
🎦 Video creation made easy in Canva (1.00 – 2.00 pm AEST, Thu 1st May via Zoom)
🌏 Where: Online via Zoom (link to be sent day prior) 👯 Trainers: Eunice Ang - Medical Librarian, Northern Health Keren Moskal - Clinical Librarian and Education Lead - Monash Health 💰 Cost: $35 ALIA members; $65 Non-ALIA members. Another reason - along with...
Introducing scoping & systematic reviews: An Open Education Resource (27 May)
Event Description In response to student and staff needs, librarians at Federation University created an Open Education Resource to introduce a complex topic in an easy to understand, step by step way. This lunchtime session will describe the process of creating the...
How to Peer Review Search Strategies (Julie Glanville & Carol Lefebvre, 5 & 9 June)
Note - this is not an HLA Event Registrants will be able to view recordings / slides after the event (as times involved are not Australian friendly) More details available here This course provides a comprehensive guide to peer reviewing search strategies, essential...
CAUL Exhibition Events (Free – Brisbane / Melbourne / Adelaide in June)
🌍 WHERE & WHEN Brisbane: Monday June 16, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Bank, BrisbaneMelbourne: Wednesday June 18, The Events Centre, Collins Square, Melbourne CBDAdelaide: Friday June 20, Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide CBD...
Call 4 Abstracts / Registrations open – ALIA HLA Conference (Aug 21-22, Sydney)
🦘 Jump to: Theme | Location | Cost | Registration | Call for Abstracts ( 👉 by 06 Jun) | Gold Sponsors | Silver Sponsors ✅ Theme: The 2025 HLA Conference theme is: Innovation, Transition, & Growth: Thriving in a Shifting Health EcosystemHealth libraries and...
Here I am! Making the invisible library visible in healthcare (🎦 video now available)
👩 Presenter - Lori Korodaj 🕐 Feb 19 / 1:00 PM / Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney 🎦 Video can be viewed on the HLA Videos page CHS Library and Multimedia supports Canberra Health Services and ACT Health staff in providing evidence-based healthcare and research development...
Past Professional Development (PD) Days
2021
2020
2019 Program
Living Evidence – Partnerships and technology for up to date, reliable evidence – Julian Elliott
Better Connections: The future of digital health – Angela Ryan (ADHA)
Being data savvy – What do health librarians need to know? – Liz Stokes
Polyglot Search Translator – Justin Clark
Your authors will love you – Classifying search results to reduce numbers to screen – Anne Parkhill
Using machine learning to semi-automate abstract screening in a systematic review – Leo Ng
Ask an informationist – Choosing Wisely at Austin Health – Helen Baxter / Michele Gaca
Research data management – is this a niche role for health librarians? – Patrick Splawa-Neyman
“I want what she’s got” – Providing a liaison librarian-supported metrics service – Chrissy Freestone
Bibliometric analysis of University of Newcastle systematic reviews – Debbie Booth
What we count to what really counts – Measure outcomes versus activities for your library using statistical evidence – Laiman Li / Jacinta Cloney (OCLC)
Advocacy for Health Libraries – Sue McKerracher (ALIA)
Digital health education strategies for a skilled healthcare workforce: Be part of the conversation and contribute to the future of digital health learning and capability – Angela Ryan (ADHA)
Work smarter, not harder: How to utilise data to build an efficient library service – Cameron Wu & Cindy Slater (EBSCO) / Helen Ried
Person-centred care and its role in health literacy: How librarians can champion its values – Lindsay Barnes
Using automation tools to improve the speed of searching for studies for a systematic review – Justin Clark
2018
2017
2016
2015
Satellite event for the EBLIP8 Conference, Brisbane, July 9th
2014
Joint Collaboration Conference
2014
Joint Collaboration Conference HLA News Collaboration Special Edition