Blog Every Day in June Day 3: "You never say never'

“You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” –A.A. Milne

TO DREAM

What do you want to be when you grow up? A librarian. This has been my answer ever since I was eleven. The teacher librarian at my primary school inspired me then and still does. So with that deep conviction I didn't think anything more about it until high school when I had my first career night. On this night I tracked down the representative promoting this profession and spent hours there finding out all there was to know… 

From high school I went to university and completed a Bachelor of Arts, then because there were no Librarianship studies offered in Newcastle, I came to Sydney and completed a Graduate Diploma in Library Science.

OPPORTUNITIES

Okay so far so good....everything was going as planned then I tried to get a job. All through my working life I am so grateful for the Library Managers who have been prepared to take a chance and it was because of my beginning that I ended up in special libraries. The librarian at a stockbroking library who took on a young librarian with no work experience, the librarian at a lead and zinc smelter who saw my potential, the librarian at a private independent school who could see the knowledge I would bring to her library.

CHANGE

In 2007 I decided that I needed a change after 20 years in special libraries, also deep down I wanted to see if I could be a teacher-librarian (TL). I resigned from my job and back to full-time university I went - completing a Bachelor of Teaching through UTS, what a roller coaster ride! Going back to study was a huge shock, as was trying to get a job without any TL experience (a déjà vu moment) and stepping into a world going through massive changes in technology.

THE FUTURE

If my older self was to tap my younger self on the shoulder and tell her what she would experience in the future I would have said "Don't be ridiculous". What would prepare you for the rate of change I have seen since becoming a TL? The world of BYOD ( bring your own device), the flipped classroom, social media as a teaching and learning tool, ebooks and the great information overload that is the Internet.

 So....to finish I think the only way to sum up my professional working life so far is to use this quote 

"The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different".

With my Primary School Teacher Librarian at the opening of my school's new library - 2012

Jacinta Ebbott is a teacher-librarian at an independent Catholic school in Sydney.

Online Study

This year is the first year I have studied online. I wasn't completely sure it was the best way for me, but decided to give it a go. As those two subjects are winding up now, I've had mixed feelings about how successful it has been for me, but would feel confident about tackling it again in the future.

One of the hardest things about online study for me was missing the comments, questions, and discussions that are part of face to face learning. I love it when I don’t quite get something and the person next to me can explain it in a different way to the teacher, and then it clicks for me.

In the classes I attended, the forum is intended to take the place of this interaction, but it didn't always work well. Some students are too reserved to contribute, or don’t put up questions because they worry it doesn’t show them in a good light. Others are just happy to read the forums but don’t want to participate.  When the forums (fora?) are not well used it can be quite isolating for students. I started to think no one else is asking questions because they all get it and I’m the only dumb one, or a more sinister line of thinking, the others are all emailing direct to the teacher and I am missing out. A successful online class fosters an active forum with wide participation, so jump on in.

Another aspect I found hard was linking up with other students. Although I didn’t have any group assignment work, I do love having a chat with other students, giving or getting tips about sources, and even just having a moan about something in the course. From some conversations I’ve had recently with Sydney based students studying at Charles Sturt, they also found that contacting and meeting up with other students locally to form study/support groups was an enormous benefit, and really kept them going. I was lucky enough that some of my online classmates were also in my face to face class in another subject. If your class isn’t fostering this type of interaction, then you need to be the one to reach out.  It’s worth the effort.

One final thing I found was that in one subject, I was just so focused on completing the work, that I really didn’t get a good sense of the whole subject. Keeping to the timetable took up a lot of my attention in this subject, and sometimes it just had to be as mechanical as that, as I had to balance other subjects too, and it wasn’t until I started the revision that I began to see the bigger picture. I always like to try to investigate widely on subjects I’m studying because I don’t just want to pass, I want to understand the subject well. Make sure you try to see the forest as well as the trees. Of course, an active forum, and a friendly cohort can help with this.

Have you undertaken online study? What are your best tips and what would you change?

Lauren Castan

Undergraduate studies through distance ed

For ALIA’s Blog Every Day in June, I thought I would write about my undergraduate studies through distance ed.

Many many years ago I was going to do Year 10 work experience in a library, but did not follow through. My decision to change careers and study library and information management was in part to fulfil that long ago desire. I find knowledge and information management and communication a fascinating area and libraries can still give me butterflies in the stomach at all the learning opportunities and possibilities they contain.

I undertook the Bachelor of Applied Science in Library and Information Management (LIM) through Charles Sturt University distance education starting in 2008 and finishing earlier this year. The course has since restructured as Bachelor of Information Studies with specialisations in Librarianship, Information and Knowledge Management, and Records and Archives Management.

The greatest benefit distance education gave me was the huge amount of flexibility, which enabled me to accommodate my family and work commitments with my study commitments. For a degree that focuses on information connectivity there were times that communication with lecturers was difficult but I feel that there would have been similar sorts of issues with face-to-face study, albeit slightly different ones. I believe that maintaining a positive outlook was an important part of getting through the course work; again would that have been any different with face-to-face study? Probably not; I have certainly learnt self motivation skills in the process.

Looking at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2006, 2009 and 2011 Household use of Information Technology in Australia confirms the impact on every age group of the growing use of the internet within our society. Distance education capitalises on this usage.

I experienced firsthand the shift in how online services are provided and how educational information delivery has shifted exponentially in the last decade. The way students manage their course material, study notes and study load are in a continual state of flux through the rapid change we experience through the ongoing development of the World Wide Web, and the services it provides - like social software and cloud computing.

Overall I had a very positive learning experience from distance education. I would not hesitate to recommend this mode of study. Subject and reference material were accessible anywhere and all the time. The library services were excellent. The skill of working 18 hr days to meet an assignment deadline has also been developed. 

There were a few very dry subjects (best not to elaborate) along with the really fascinating ones. The subjects that worked best were ones where the material was well structured and the subject coordinator interacted on the forum regularly. When posting a comment or response; if the coordinator consistently gave feedback to comments no matter how minor, it builds on the sense of being part of an interactive student community. When an opinion is acknowledged it goes without saying that forums work best when then their coordinator understands the subject material in depth or had input into the subject matter. 

Coming from a Tafe Horticulture Diploma as my last educational effort; the experience of the LIM degree was most marked by the currentness of the reference and resource material. When writing an essay on information services any books over 4 years were considered too old as a reference because of the rapid changes in the interaction of library and information services with the internet and online services. This contrasts greatly with my experience of horticulture design and utilising resources that though old are greatly valued. A good example of this is the way online chat services have developed and their importance has waxed and waned. Huge shifts in library programs and service delivery, as well as the advent of ebooks.....using social software like Facebook to interact with library users.....so many changes have occurred in this field since 2008. It reinforces the fact that there is a continual change process occurring in delivery of services for the library and information field.

When studying practical horticulture I remember a high point was when maculata species changed genus from Eucalyptus to Corymbia - a different pace of change entirely to that of the library and information field. I currently volunteer at the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens Library, and greatly value the chance to work on bringing records online with the faster pace of an ever-growing information environment.

I have certainly developed many skills that I am eager to put into practise, and am now on the journey of seeking work in the library and information management field; realising how useful a course on completing Selection Criteria for job applications would be!

Selena Douglas-Brown

Tales from a Professional Placement

It's with great pleasure that I introduce an ALIA Sydney guest blogger for today's blog post, Kristine Boardman. Kristine has just started doing her professional placement as a librarian with me, and I'm enthusiastic about showing her all of the aspects of my job, as an academic librarian. I'm also excited about all of the things that Kristine will be able to teach me along the way, and the things that I will learn being a professional placement supervisor. So without further ado, I introduce Kristine:

___________________________________________________________________________

As part of the Librarian degree through Charles Sturt University I have commenced my Professional Placement at The University of Sydney’s SciTech and Badham libraries this week. As I am employed as a Library Technician, the opportunity to see the difference in the roles is something I am really looking forward to.

After the first few busy days the main difference I have noticed is the amount of teaching and training done by the Faculty Liaison Librarians (FLLs), especially early in semester. I have sat in on two classes and the focus on Information Literacy skills for students commencing their research is a major part of these training sessions. The FLLs have demonstrated their depth of knowledge in database searching, evaluating sources and the use of reference management software, Endnote.

The opportunity to gain knowledge about this role and an understanding of the responsibilities that go with a position such as this will be very beneficial when applying for jobs at this level. There is a lot I still don’t know about the finer details of FLL role and some things which I particularly want to explore include:

·         How to develop effective working relationships with academics, research and teaching staff

·         Managing the collection and gaining a more specialised knowledge of the subject area and resources

·         Planning, marketing and promotion of services and activities for clients

I am very fortunate to have an extremely enthusiastic staff member who volunteered to be my Placement Supervisor and this has a great bearing on the opportunities I will be able to participate in, in my time here. Already the amount of help and goodwill from all the staff and time they have set aside for consultations is wonderful. As the University of Sydney Library is such a large organisation there is so much to learn about and people to meet. The extent to which the library serves its clients will become clearer to me over the next couple of weeks and I am privileged to be able to do this placement in such a dynamic library.

Kristine Boardman is a Library Technician at the Univeristy of Sydney Library and she is currently studying towards her library degree at Charles Sturt University.

Crystal Choi is an academic librarian and a member of the ALIA Sydney committee. She tweets @crystalibrary.

Disclaimer: I didn't in any way put Kristine up to the lovely comments in her blog post!!!