Library furniture

And you are actually trying to convince me that this is comfortable? Ok it looks really funky but how long could you realistically sit there and read?

Library on the Internet

I wonder how many people use this service? Seems awfully expensive when you can pop down to your public library for free?

Writer's rooms

So speaking of writers, I feel like I have a connection with them. Not sure whether it is because I am a librarian who works with books, or whether it is because I think surely "I have a book in me!!". But anyway, I love to delve into the world of writers (and not necessarily reading their books - not enough time!). So this website is cool because it has links to writer's studies etc. I love the difference between the super messy, the ultra neat, the libraries etc. My study at home very boring compared to these!

Book: Unpolished Gem

Back in August I went to an author talk about this book in nearby Daylesford Library. You know when you go and you just love sitting and listening to authors talk about their works? Anyway, she (Alice Pung) was a great presenter and there were lots of things that bonded me to her - like the fact that she is my age. Anyway, the book sounded great but I resisted and didn't buy a copy, instead I reserved it. So after all the hype what did I think? You know I am a bit unsure - it has had rave reviews and I felt like during the talk I would love it to bits (as most others in the room had read and loved it) but I'm not too sure myself. I can't decide if I liked it because I was meant to, or if I didn't like it all that much? Anyway, I suppose I did enjoy it to an extent but it was one of those books that jumps back and forth through her life and you get all confused at what age she's meant to be? So, the verdict: Undecided!!

Up-to-Date (well sort of!)

OK, so now that brings me up-to-date (well sort of!) I may have finished Uni but I have so many other things I have to do! I have to proof read my husbands last two assignments for the year, I have to do Technotes for the Vic LT Group and help promote the Christmas Party (not sure where it is yet), Write an article for Vic Specials and New Grad News, I have to type up the minutes for ALIA Vic, I have to chase up come contacts for NGAC and prepare a paper for the Board, I have to hunt out some info for NLS4, I have to focus on the Ballarat Library Group for 2008, I have to burn some DVD’s, I have to write some letters then finally I want to do some of the things I enjoy like reading some books, doing some jigsaws, watching some trashy DVD’s from my school days, sleeping lots more, eating lots of yummy food, cooking – well attempting to, exercising, more than I currently do. And the list goes on…

Finished Uni

Yeah for me! Big claps! I have just submitted my last assignment for Uni and I feel fantastic. I can just about say that now I have my Masters! (OK – I need to wait for my results but close enough!). Now I have to decide what I am going to spoil myself with. Last night when I finished I opened a good bottle of wine to celebrate (By good I mean $16 compared to my usual $8!) I am definitely thinking of buying a whole TV series on DVD but also I think a facial or some sort of pampering is in order! Now that I have finished Uni though I can get back to all the ALIA and Library stuff that I have been shoving aside for far too long! So yeah for me and lets hope this blog can stay a little more updated now!

Ballarat Library Group Dinner

On Thursday November the 1st, 35 people from Ballarat and surrounds gathered at Gee Cees in Ballarat for dinner. What a fantastic evening. There were representatives from Ballarat Health Services Library, University of Ballarat, ACU National – Aquinas Campus, University of Melbourne - School of Forestry Library and another handful from different primary and secondary schools in the region. It was a super night. We were extremely lucky that the University of Ballarat paid for the private upstairs room so we had a great gathering away from everyone else. I had previously nabbed some ABC “The Librarians” bookmarks from Margie Anderson, Victorian Local Liaison Officer for ALIA, so each person got one of these, plus a few extras scattered about. The team at SMB (University of Ballarat) had also printed off some Librarians’ posters from the ABC website so these were intermingled on the tables too, plus the provided us each with a little bag of fine chocolates from our boutique chocolate shop (once again, many thanks to UB – they went down a treat the following Friday afternoon whilst at work!). I also had four ALIA shopping bags and placed hidden ALIA stars under seats as lucky prizes. Plus one contained an ALIA book journal too! Many thanks to Margie for these. But, the best thing was just meeting and chatting to everyone from the different library. There are some great people out there and there was much excitement behind the idea of starting a local library group for next year. Naturally I stayed until the end, but guess what – I was home within 10 minutes! Big difference to that long drive back up the highway!

ALIA Vic Meeting and The Librarians Screening

On Wednesday October 31st I headed down to Melbourne for an ALIA Vic Committee Meeting at RMIT. It was good as we discussed our upcoming Christmas Party. Stayed tuned to the ALIA list-serves for more information! After that we headed over to Melbourne Central for a bite to eat before heading back to RMIT Library for the encore screening of The Librarians.

My thoughts? Mixed. I did enjoy it and laughed out loud but I am not sure if it was because it was funny or because I was in a room full of other ‘library people’ who were all laughing. Anyway I will definitely be watching it to see how it progresses. The first episode just introduced everyone. I read an interview about it today that said the working title of it was “Shelve this”. I wonder if it would have been so popular and so widely discussed if this was the title. Anyway, I will stick with it – it did remind me of certain public librarians I know!!

NAC Teleconference

As you have previously read, I attended the Ballarat NAC and I was chosen as the representative for the National NAC Teleconference. So on the night of Tuesday October 30th, I dialled into the ALIA Teleconference from the comfort of my own home. We each had two minutes to comment on the top two issues raised at our meeting, and then later to comment on the most important issues ALIA needs to focus on in 2008. I was a bit sceptical at first thinking ‘I wonder if this will work’, but it did! It was really great. The best thing was that I was about 5th in line to talk and I followed other regional areas such as the Riverina, Alice Springs, Rockhampton and Townsville. The great thing was that I wasn’t made to feel so isolated by living in Ballarat. I saw lots of other places struggling just like Ballarat due to their distance from a capital city. It actually gave me a great deal of comfort knowing I wasn’t alone and that others were in the same position as me. I am hoping to get in touch with other regional areas to gain an idea of what library events work for them and to see how many people they usually get turning up to events to gain an idea of what to expect in Ballarat. I do think that ALIA needs to focus on Regional areas more and get out there and be proactive! But all it all it was really good!

Book: The Wrong Way Home

(This is a different book cover to the one I read. It's funny isn't it that a book cover can say so much!)

I just finished the book “The wrong way home” by Peter Moore. If you like travel humour then I suggest you give this a go. I picked it up whilst secondhand book shopping a few months back and I will definitely be reading more of his works. He is an Aussie and it follows his journey from London to Sydney without stepping into a plane! Can you imagine? It took him like eight months and yes he did have to catch one tiny little plane but it was still a great read. I think the thing I love most is that he visits so many interesting places that I can never imagine myself venturing to. Just the adventure of it all. That whole – oh I wish I could do that - when nothing is really stopping me except myself!

NLS4 Meeting

On Saturday morning, the 27th of October I woke early so I could have some breakfast with my mum. I figured I better see her considering I had stayed there for two days and just used her house as a backpackers! So anyway it was great to catch up with mum as now I have moved a few hours away, life is busy for both of us, so we hardly get to bond anymore and she is one of my best friends! After lunch I headed into the city for our next NLS4 meeting – and boy was it a long one. We are in the middle of picking a venue so it is all very busy. Plus we all have so many ideas that we are just itching to discuss. I promise you it will be an awesome event so stay tuned for further information!

HLI Conference

So on the Friday morning (the 26th) I caught the train in and had my favourite Boost Juice for breakfast and headed to the HLI Conference for a great day of networking with those in health related libraries. Here are my notes from the day:

‘Gen Y’: are they really that different? David Chalke

Single, unmarried, live at home (but will move interstate), take gap years, 1/3 come from broken homes – so they are non-committal.
Very funny presentation but he didn’t ask if there were any Gen Y’s there – like me! My boss had a chuckle though as she said she recognised many of the traits in me!

Wikis for knowledge communities. Bernie Lewin

Gave a general overview. Use them for sharing – a collective mind. Use wikis to nurture, not control.
His talk reminded me that there is so much out there like the discussion page son wikis, forums on Bookmooch. Too many things to be a part of and not enough time – How do you be selective? He reminded me very much of the work my friend Jill does at Urbis.

Delivering the evidence to the client. Terence Harrison

This was about clinical librarianship and the fact that to do this you need to know a little bit about all disciplines (allied health, medicine, nursing, psychiatry etc.). He mentioned databases and resources such as CATMaker, PICO, DARE (UK), DUETS. And the bliki he is working on: www.clinicallibrarian.wordpress.com

So much great information but he whizzed through everything so quickly and we could have learnt so much more. If the presentation was one hour long it would have been better.

Integrating Web 2.O applications into the OPAC. Toby McAleer.

They got all staff (ATO) to do the Learning 2.0 package. Then they split things into phases:

Phase 1: included book covers, chapter descriptions, book summaries (enriched content). And they added single search (federated search option on Sirsi Dynix)

Phase 2: News/RSS Feeds, Wikis, Your own library account etc. All in one page with the catalogue in the middle.

Testing Phase: Tagging (via Library Thing) and Del.ico.us

It reminded me that we should really run an RSS session, but it was also one of those moments where you go ‘Oh – you can do all that because you have the money, the time, the staff and a great ILMS!’. Such is life!

Awards

SLA presented to Stephen Due from Geelong Hospital. I mean the work he has done for use with consortium's is amazing. Definitely well deserved.

Pat Nakouz Award was not awarded as no one applied! Think of a topic!

Feeds and mashups: a healthy diet of live content. Andrew Pentecost.

Mashup – like on Realestate.com where it has Google Maps. (mashing two products together).
He gave a live example which was great as we could easily take this back and add it to our intranet page.

Library 2.0 @ Curtin University Library. Dianna Blackwood

SMS queries. Podcasts. Look up David Rothman blog.

Podcasting is something I definitely want to learn how to do next year!

Austin Health Libraries Survey. Dominique Collins

Was very interesting in that they used consultants but in reality there is no way we could afford to do that. However it looks like they got good results from it!

Reel Librarians. Andrew Rooke and Marijana Bacic

Great way to end the conference by looking at Librarians in film. Good snippets and some really old movies. The only current one mentioned that I haven’t see is Possession (2002). Rent his one!

Dinner

Many headed home after a few drinks but the usual crowd stayed on for dinner. What a great night. Gee I love Margaret from Box Hill and Kathryn from Western is always a great laugh. Not forgetting my trusty sidekicks Michelle and Laura! I caught the train back to mum and dad’s and didn’t get in until gone midnight! What a huge day but an excellent one at that!

New Grad Group Event: Key Selection Criteria

OK, so I headed to this event at RMIT University Library on Thursday 25th for a Vic NGG event. I am not looking for a job so KSC wasn’t really up my avenue but boy what a fantastic event. This was definitely one of the most practical I have been to all year. If I was looking for a job there was so much great information to take away from it. In fact I left thinking how on earth did I get a job because I am sure my KSC were no way near as good as what was discussed on the night! So here are my notes from the night with the following panellists:

Ian Smith (Library HR at LaTrobe Uni),
Jenny Baran (One Umbrella),
Meka Mellers (Hume Library Council).

KSC tell you what employers are looking for. So tell them what they want/need to know about you. Don’t expect them to hunt out the answers. Get to the point – give examples. Stand out (in a good way) be accurate, write clearly and in a positive voice.

If you don’t meet a KSC, say you don’t have these skills but you have…. Don’t leave anything out!

Less is more – fewer words, quality not quantity. Use bullets pints (some say yes – public, some say no – academic). Don’t use ambiguous words. Be succinct!

It is a time consuming process – give it your full focus. Use the KSC list as your headings. Use concrete terms: I organised…I edited…I liaised with…I instigated…I investigated…NOT I was involved in …or I assisted…

Picking out particular words like abilities (could do) or experience (can do) evidence/demonstrate (means give examples).

Break each KSC into parts.

Skills are transferable – good word to use.

State your achievements. I improved time frame by….

Suggested book: How to address selection criteria by Anne D Villiers.

Treat each application separately (for when you are applying for multiple jobs).

In public/government/universities etc. the interview then revolves around the key selection criteria.

Cover letter/KSC/Resume. Use same fonts/sizes/underlines/bolds etc. so there is a uniform look. An RTF Format document opens the same as you saved it (ie. When submitting via email).

Overall this was just a fantastically well run event. Big claps to both Michelle and Laura who organised it – just superb!

After the event I headed to the soccer club to follow my dad to the mechanics (to get his truck serviced). He was off to QLD the next morning for an old farts soccer tournament! Good on him – I hope I am as active as him when I get old!