The objective of this professional development activity was to fully train any person who was charged with cataloguing their collection within Hume Libraries in a completely new library Management System. Hume Libraries was in the process of transferring from Horizon Library Management System to Symphony Library Management System in line with Public Libraries Victoria Consortium. It was done over two sessions some time apart. The first session was an overview of how cataloguing and circulation was done in Horizon compared to how it would be done using Symphony. It took quite some time for the rollout to occur, and for the final full training was to be completed.

I was chosen by my manager to attend this training as I had recently been promoted to Library Technician and would need that knowledge to fulfil my new role. I then quickly became Acting Librarian as our substantive Librarian was taking extended personal leave. I then had the full responsibility of cataloguing materials purchased by Gladstone Park Secondary College. I would then train the librarian on his return to work more than 12 months later.

This training was thorough and in-depth. I have always enjoyed learning aspects of technology and systems and I especially learn best by watching and doing so to go through this training not only with a manual but step by step instructions with the facilitator was a success for me. We had access to a training site to practice on and I found this invaluable to practice the LMS cataloguing on especially after a full 7 hour training day.

This training was significant to me in a few ways. I have been aiming to work at a librarian level and this was a fantastic opportunity to begin that career move. I also was in an acting position in my workplace and I feel confident that I met the position demands and even exceled at it. Because of this training I am now the ‘go to’ person in our school library for anything related to using the LMS and have solid knowledge and experience in operating it.

Cataloguing and operating a LMS is also a responsibility in providing accurate access to information. In completing this training and being responsible for cataloguing items into our LMS, I have realised the importance of accurate resource discovery. I generally do copy cataloguing as opposed to original however, I still check each line or add and alter a MARC record to make sure it fits within the scope of our library and what our students and patrons would use for search terms as well as checking accuracy of titles, authors, and other important fields (Hider, P., & Tan, K.-C., 2008).

Overall, this session has had the biggest impact on my career so far in allowing me to take on an acting position and gaining experience at that level which I will use to further develop my information services career because this knowledge is transferable and extendable to other LMS’s and libraries.

References

Hider, P., & Tan, K.-C. (2008). Constructing record quality measures based on catalog use. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 46(4), 338–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639370802322515

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