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 20th 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
8th 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.
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