My Final Reflection

I believe this portfolio is an accurate representation of me as an information professional however I still remain unsure of whether or not I will use it professionally in the future. I have found that contributing and compiling evidence of my work is a useful exercise for reflecting on my experience as an LIS student and as a new graduate. This portfolio shows the breadth of my work as a student whether it is from using social media, writing reports, or showing my technical skills. It also shows my ability to reflect and critically analyse my work and events I have attended and find out how they help me become a better information professional.  My ability to reflect and learn from different situations is my best attribute as an information professional and my portfolio accurately depicts this. Reflecting on events was the most entertaining aspect of keeping this portfolio and I truly believe it has helped me become a better professional.

I sincerely hope I have the motivation to keep developing my portfolio after graduation. If I am being honest with myself I will probably not remember to keep updating it unless something extraordinary happens. With my apathy being the case the most important lesson I have learned from building and maintaining the portfolio over the past 1.5 years is how important it is to reflect on significant professional events or even the seemingly insignificant reflection on using a new piece of software. Keeping the portfolio has taught me to reflect on everything and if I can at least do that mentally I think I will be on my way to becoming a good information professional.

All in all I enjoyed compiling data for this portfolio. My intention is to maintain it for as long as I can into the future. I believe using a program like Blogger which is tied to my Gmail account increase the chances of me updating the blog into the future.

Witty Lama - Professional Development Event

Of all the professional development events I attended as part of this course the presentation by Liam Wyatt (or Witty Lama) was the most surprising. I came into the presentation with no expectations or even any idea what it would be about. When Liam began to talk about Wikipedia I was intrigued. Wikipedia is a tool that I have used almost every day of my student and personal life, if I need some quick information on a subject I know that Wikipedia will give me the answer. The first interesting tid-bit that he shared with us was that “wiki” was actually the name of a bus in Hawaii that the founders of wikipedia used. Liam then went on to tell us about the features of Wikipedia and how knowledge curation by ordinary people is contributing to this very large and popular website.

Professionally, I saw this talk as enlightening and surprising. I attended essentially on a whim and came out of the event with a new respect for Wikipedia and the people who strive to make it as true and informative as possible. This made me realise that personal development events are worth going to because you never know what you are going to learn. After watching Liam I think I have become an advocate for Wikipedia and although I haven’t gone as far as editing to the website, I have a deeper appreciate for it than I did before the talk. I like to think of myself as an open-minded person and the fact I was so resistant to coming to this event in the first place only to have my views changed was a really interesting experience for me.

ALIA Resume Build Workshop

At the beginning of the course I subscribed to the ALIA New Grads Facebook page and email list. I have never been part of a professional organisation before so it is nice to know that ALIA has programs available to support library students. I was alerted to the resume workshop via the Facebook page, it just happened to pop-up on my newsfeed. At the end of 2013 I had applied for role as a library assistant however I did not get the job. I needed to address selection criteria and having never done this before, I was unclear about how to go about it. I thought going to the ALIA resume workshop would be a good opportunity for me to ask questions and assess my current CV.

The ALIA team organised for those attending the workshop to have about 20 minutes with a professional working in the library field. I was lucky enough to speak to a lady who had significant managerial experience in a large academic library. My resume was forwarded to her upon my application so she would have time to look over it and bring out points for discussion.

Meeting in the cafe at SLQ probably added to the conversational tone of the workshop. Usually I am nervous about letting people see my resume but I was very comfortable in this situation. The manager gave me a number of key points to look out for when writing up  my resume, they were:

1. Show personality. The manager said that when she looked at my resume she could see what I had achieved but she could not see what my personality was like from merely looking at dates and names of degrees. The majority of this would be conveyed in my cover letter but it could also be added to my descriptions of work experience.

2. Contextualise. This was in relation to my references, which I had just listed without any indication on their role or how they were related to me. I needed to give more contextual hints so the reader of my resume didn’t have to do any guess-work.

3. A unique resume. The biggest point my managerial mentor emphasised was the need to tailor my cover letter AND resume to every job I applied for. While I had been told to tailor just my cover letter, my mentor suggested to tailor my resume as well ie. descriptions of work detail and achievements.

Overall I found the information passed on to me as very useful and something that will benefit me in my future search for employment. Attending the resume workshop not only validates my efforts in professional development but also justifies the ALIA New Grads group as being helpful to new librarians. I enjoyed meeting other library students and chatting with other library professionals over coffee, it was a great networking opportunity.

Penguin Teen Australia Live - Professional Development Event

Earlier this year I attended the Penguin Teen Live event hosted by SLQ in Brisbane. I found out about this event through an email subscription list and through my Twitter feed. This was the second event I sought to attend through my own professional network and I believed it to be a very rewarding experience. Attending the live event  gave me a unique perspective into the young adult (YA) book market.

Upon arrival we were given a free book and asked to sit in a large auditorium. I was both surprised and not surprised to find that the majority of guests were teenage girls. There was a couple of boys thrown in and a couple of supportive mothers too. I sat with one of my friends and observed the event with interest, trying to look at things from the perspective of a young people’s librarian or even just a public librarian.

The host of the event talked about books that had been published earlier in the year and books that would be published later in the year. Many of the teenagers in the room voiced their opinions on their favorite books and often squealed as pictures of book covers flashed up on the big screen. I was taken aback by how visceral the reaction was, the teens were so passionate about the books and the characters, it was easy to get caught up in the emotion of the moment.

Although I understand that book selection is generally up to vendors now, I believe it is still important to touch-base with young people to see what they are reading and what they are passionate about. An event like Penguin Teen Live Australia offers teenagers the opportunity to connect directly with publishers and validate their love of reading with like-minded people.

I didn’t leave the event with any new skills or particular insight into the world of librarianship, but I did find out that teenagers are enthusiastic about books they read and get excited about new books they haven’t even heard of. The fact that this event was hosted by SLQ shows that library support exists for these kind of events. I can see events like this being held at small public libraries by librarians to entice new readers and engage old readers. I am glad my efforts to maintain my personal network allowed me to discover and attend this event.

YLibrary: What's next for libraries? Panel - Professional Development Event

One of the professional development events recommended to library students via email was to attend YLibrary: What’s next for libraries? panel at SLQ. The panel consisted of four guests who each had their own unique view of the future of libraries and books. The event is recorded and available via the ABC website.

When I first began telling people I wanted to become a librarian they were all very concerned that I may not have a job in the future: “But libraries aren’t going to exist in the future.” or on the other end of the spectrum: “Why are you studying a Masters in Information Technology when all you’re going to be doing is reading books all day?”. For the most part I try to point out that information will always need to be stored somewhere and in some way and it’s a librarians job to help access that information. I also try to emphasize that physical books aren’t going to become obsolete anytime soon and that even if they did, librarians would still be needed!

There were many interesting and thought-provoking points that were brought up during the panel discussion. One of the topics covered was the role of the physical library as a community hub, which is a concept that has become familiar to me during the course of my study. People don’t come to the library just to read books anymore, they come for educational courses, to meet like-minded people, or just wi-fi! I did one of my fieldwork placements at a library that functioned as a community hub and it was great to see how seamless the integration was between library staff and those responsible for other cultural events.

Another point that stuck with me throughout the lecture was the idea that although preservation of books and other materials is important, it is not the questions that libraries should be asking themselves now. This point resonated with me as part of me believes that librarians and other archivists should aim to preserve information for future readers. As I thought about this topic more I began to realise that what is the point of preservation if there is no-one available to help readers access information. Even though I think it is sad, the need for librarians to remain relevant and constantly validate their role in society is the more pressing issue at hand.

Attending the Y Library event was probably the most inspiring and informative professional development session I have attended to date. I’m looking forward to attending more!

Fieldwork Placements

During the course of my studies I completed three professional fieldwork placements. My initial plan for fieldwork placements was to work in a public library, an academic library, and a specialised/corporate library in order to get the most experience possible. In the end, I completed placement at Bond University Law Library, Helensvale Public Library, and QUT Gardens Point Library. My fieldwork journals are included for perusal.

Bond Fieldwork Journal

Helensvale Fieldwork Journal

QUT Fieldwork Journal

Social Media Monitoring: @NPRLibrary

I decided to use Twitter to find an organisation to follow for the social media reflection. I made a Twitter account at the beginning of this course to increase my professional network, it was through my interaction with users online which made me realise how important Twitter connections are through out the library community. When I joined Twitter I followed a number of library-related accounts; one of the accounts I followed was NPR Library. I chose to follow NPR Library because I have been a fan of NPR (formerly National Public Radio) programs for a long time. I was surprised to find the NPR library twitter page and after looking at some of their tweets I found the content both informative and interesting as it was coming from librarians in a broadcast setting.

According to NPR Library’s Twitter page they are currently following approximately 700 people and are followed by over 6,000 people. Their first tweet was on the 3rd of March, 2009 and since then they have tweeted over 700 times. Going back through their tweets to the very beginning, it is interesting to see the way Twitter has changed and how the librarians have developed as social media experts. The first few tweets were tentative but they soon developed into well-informed, targeted bursts of information to their audience.

Upon monitoring their account from the beginning of January to the end of March 2014, it is interesting to note they post at least once a day, some days even warranting 5 or 6 posts. The majority of their posts are re-tweets from other NPR departments ie. @NPR Music or @nprarchives or other organisations like @SmithsonianLibraries or @NatGeoMag. In the three months of media monitoring I conducted, I noticed there was a nice balance between re-tweeting other organisations, promoting other NPR stories, sharing interesting thoughts or asking questions of Twitter followers, and how the NPR Librarians work.

While there are no particular themes to the NPR Library tweets the feed provides a diverse mix of engaging content and personable/professional quips. The impression I get from this is what I imagine all social media should be: a little insight into the daily life of an organisation.

Joining and monitoring the NPR Library twitter feed has been immensely beneficial to my professional development for a number of reasons. Firstly, the NPR Library Twitter feed is a glimpse into the world of broadcast librarians and is something different from the traditional public library or university library Twitter page. Secondly, the professional network of people who follow or are followed by NPR Library are diverse and allowed me to expand my person Twitter connections. Lastly, by following and interacting with NPR Library on Twitter inspires me to work hard and aim to work at an organisation with an international reputation.