UQ Library: Acronyms Project

Reflection 

• Briefly outline the objectives of the activity.

I devised the idea for this project as there were no resources for extrapolating UQ Library acronyms. During my time at Telstra, one popular resource used was the Acronym Bible, which inspired this project. Furthermore, there were a lot of murmurings within our team regarding a resource where acronyms of departments and their purpose within the library were documented and extended. I pitched the project to my Assistant Manager, Stephen Wilcox and enlisted the assistance of my colleague Rebekah Kelly to start the project. This voluntary project would support any new staff or casual LSOs in deciphering UQ’s many acronyms and departments and existing staff.

• Explain the reason you have attended.

As mentioned previously, this project was created to create an acronym resource. I also wanted to lead the project as I believed it would be a worthwhile experience for professional development and would look good as an accomplishment on my resume.

• Indicate the relationship of the activity to your work or studies.

As mentioned previously, the purpose of this project was to assist new staff with understanding the many acronyms UQ Library utilises during day-to-day activities. The project was a valuable experience for me as a leader, meeting project goals, workflows, and deadlines. I used the practises I learnt throughout my career and the content in INF200 Supervision and Management class. Despite initially only having one team member. I constantly communicated with Rebekah, setting deadlines, meetings and goals to achieve desired outcomes.

Stephen wanted a list of about 65 acronyms generated in a humble Excel Spreadsheet. Once the data was gathered, we migrated the information into Sharepoint using a list format. Once in Sharepoint, Hilary Mclaughlin, the longest-serving LSO, was added to the project to aid in organising the data and compartmentalising it in a format pleasing to users. The project went smoothly, with small hiccoughs surrounding evidence for acronyms. For example, the acronym DHESL is for Dorothy Hill Engineering and Sciences Library. This information is not privy to students and is a term coined for library staff. When adding this entry to our resource, we needed to ensure that a reference to the acronym, its name and extrapolation of the term is within our internal systems or websites.

• Explain what the activity helped you achieve in terms of learning outcomes.

This activity provided me with experience in leading projects, setting realistic project goals, delegation, presentations, environmental scans and meeting desirable outcomes. Throughout my career, I have done all of the above in different capacities, usually as a pilot of project members but never in a project I have run. This gave me a unique opportunity to experience something outside my normal purview and amass the knowledge I have gained during my career and use it practically. I believe that presentations should be informative and attention-grabbing, depending on their context. This was the first time I presented anything at UQ, and I sought the feedback of my peers. My colleagues were cordial with their feedback and told me they enjoyed my presentation due to my enthusiasm, information and humour and incentivising the presentation with a challenge through internal comms name our resource. Allowing the team to get involved in a naming competition caused traction for our site and made my team curious to check out the resource we created. Another aspect of the project that was different was environmental scans; before this, I still needed to learn what these were and their purpose. These scans gave me insight into how other academic libraries conduct their processes and the resources available to students. Allowing for opportunities for comparative analysis used to improve our conduct.

• Comment on how you plan to use the learning gained.

Managing a project and presenting it to staff is always a worthwhile endeavour. It throws you into the spotlight, and the outcomes of the project’s goals fall on you. This experience was invaluable as I could use the skills gained in other projects and the various presentations I did during my placement. The experience also equips me with skills to lead future projects and has given me the confidence to do future presentations, something I know will come up in my future roles as a Faculty Librarian or Digital Content Specialist. The project also helped me understand the bureaucracy behind UQ, allowing me to get in the head of directors and senior managers and understand why strategic decisions are made for resources.