I had three goals going into my placement at the State Library of Victoria (SLV): experience a range of roles within a public library, gain an overview of how the library strategically engages with its local community and participate in customer service operations in a public library. Through twenty-two individualised overviews with people in different positions within the library, I was able to gain an in-depth understanding of the variety of areas a librarian can work in. During the quarterly training and staff meetings, I was able to observe the planning for community engagement firsthand. I participated in the customer service operations as I worked alongside staff on the Reference Desk and answered multiple deferred inquiries from the “Ask a Librarian” section of the website. My time at the SLV culminated in a presentation I gave on “Connections and Collaboration.”

I was able to connect these experiences with things I have learned about through my Master’s courses and with my current position as a teacher librarian (TL). I found through these encounters that the SLV librarians are often doing a deep version of what I do as a TL. For example, answering questions via the reference desk or through the website is similar to what I do, however, the volume, breadth and depth of the questions asked, and information being accessed was so much more sizeable than what I have students asking of me and our small school collection. It was fascinating during the Description of Original Materials overview to hear the process the librarian went through in how to catalog items for discovery. There was so much thought and consideration in to how the user might be trying to access the resources and how to help the patron know how to best get what they are after.  As a result of the course, ETL505 Describing and Analysing Education Resources, I was able to understand the complexities of the task. It certainly made me thankful for the work SCIS does on behalf of schools! The staff meetings I sat in on were interesting as well. I saw many similarities to school staff meetings, but the SLV meetings seemed broader, more formal, and less personal. I wondered if that had to do with the greater variety of roles within the institution and the number of staff. Due to the course ETL504 Teacher Librarian as Leader, I noticed both the SLV and my school meetings have focused on the strategic plan and values that come through the agenda.

The experiences I had at the SLV were useful to me in many ways. It was good to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. It has helped me recognise how much I enjoy my current role as a TL. I realised how different the interactions between patrons and staff at the SLV are to my relationships with staff and students at school. I came to understand how much I value the connection I have built up with students over the years. I really enjoy selecting resources, knowing exactly who will be excited to access it. I look forward to planning for classes and interacting with them. As interesting as it was, I did not sense the same excitement when I was helping strangers at SLV, knowing it was unlikely I would ever see them again.

There are many ways I will apply the things I learned at the SLV in the future. During my placement, I saw opportunities for different curriculum resources. For example, Year 3 HASS curriculum focuses on local communities and the diversity of individuals interacting with them (Hass, 2017). Year 4 emphasises the effects of people interacting with places over time with a focus on exploration and colonization in Australia. I have found it difficult at times to find good local stories to share with the students, but I found that the SLV blog has an abundance of interesting stories, all about Victoria, written by SLV staff after helping patrons access SLV resources. I am excited to share a selection of these stories with students next year. The abundance of resources I did not know about before has really stretched my thinking as to how I can plug students and staff into the SLV collections. There are a large number of databases and research guides designed specifically for VCE students that I will be urging students to connect to. This is what lead to my presentation, “Connections and Collaboration,” on my final day exploring the connections between SLV librarians and TLs and ways we could collaborate to get students and staff to use the SLV resources. Overall, my placement at the SLV not only met the goals I set for myself, but gave me clarity in my professional position, resources connections and opportunity for future collaboration.

References

Hass. The Australian Curriculum (Version 8.4). (2017). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass