Took this on the way to vote..Tony Abbot/Kevin Rudd?...dont remember who I voted though!

Graduate Trainee

Reflection on Graduate Trainee experiences

It had been an amazing experience working as a Graduate trainee at Charles Darwin University Casuarina Campus Library. I started the traineeship from 20^th of March 2013 with Research Services. This area focusses on a particular group of audience- CDU Staff, Menzies school of health staff, RIEL, CDU Post Graduates, Masters by Research, PhD Students, etc. I had opportunities to attend workshops on Finding Theses, Setting up Alerts in databases like web of science, science direct, scopus, and EndNote X6. I also worked on My Research website and learned to use Contribute - a web editing software. With the help of my mentors I learned to create libguides- Theses Libguide and Reference libuguide. I attended several one on one consultation on researching via Summon, Databases, Google scholar, etc. I also attended a presentation on theses proposal by a researcher. Research services are a central point for all the researchers and they are guided on every step of their candidacy during their research life cycle. I also attended a workshop on social media tools for researchers and have been using some of the tools like twitter, drop box, prezi, slide share, etc for professional purpose. It was an interesting experience as I had not had much exposure to advance level of research skills.

I moved on with Liaison Librarians’ team next. I learnt to create lesson plans, deliver researching classes for VET, TEP, Undergraduate and Master’s Group of students. I liked delivering and having a two way conversation with students. I thoroughly enjoyed the different sessions we had with different groups and the approach. I also learnt how to record instructional videos using Camtasia, Prop profs for creating quiz, collaborate for online classes, etc. I also worked on reviewing Reference Collection, stock take, recommendation for current collection. Familiarizing these tools as well as learning to work with a team who is ready to share, care, respect and collaborate made my journey further smooth.

I continued later with Library Resource services and received training on cataloguing-editing MARC fields- and processing resources. I also learnt how to process Inter Library Loans and Document Delivery via RELAIS. I have received training on Acquisitions module in Symphony and learnt how to order books via CDU Bookshop, James Bennet and GOBI and assign cost/price/budget against individual schools. Furthermore, I also worked on a spreadsheet for renewing serials and run report on usage of 7 day loanable magazines and also learnt how to activate eBooks on Serials Solutions. The different functionalities of Library Management System include running reports of items with various statuses. I used the web reporter function to run reports of all the items that have ‘discard’ and discard ‘weeding’.

Currently, I am working with Library support team. I am trying to understand the background function of Library Management System.

Thus, It is a great opportunity having to work in all the different areas of the library and understanding their functionalities. In addition working with most of the staff members and learning from them is a very significant phase. Each area’s function is interconnected and is related to each other. I have thoroughly enjoyed this and

Top End ALIA Symposium

8^th ALIA Top End Symposium Design Discover Diversify held at CDU in October 2013

In this biennial conference librarians came along and shared their stories. It was a wonderful experience having to listen to the stories of librarians working in different libraries. They shared their experiences working in remote communities and engaging parents and communities with technology. A young librarian shared her story about starting an informal book club where student came along without their parents and gradually involved themselves reading and showing interest in the activities librarian organized for them. Parents joined along and also their reading levels were surprisingly improved which was reported by their school teachers. It serves as a community hub and helps formal and informal opportunities to engage the local community and reflect local identity. It is a point of access for information about the community.

Libraries and librarians have a significant role to play in order to disseminate knowledge to the society. Is library located within four walls? Opportunities and challenges of eBooks in public libraries by Sharon Harvey were presented by Sharon Harvey-Manager Brisbane city council. People still want to read books. However, Brisbane city council libraries research survey reveals 50% books could go online by 2020.

Thus, attending ALIA Symposiums helped me explore new ideas, enriched creativity, augmented new perspectives and develop networking with professional members from different parts of the nation.