I have always wanted to work with children and naturally drifted towards children’s services when I started working in public libraries. When I decided to do the Master of Information Studies (MIS), it was natural for me to choose the Children’s Librarianship specialisation, for which INF505 Library Services for Children and Young Adults is a core subject. I have learned quite a lot about myself through this subject, and gained some insight into how to move forward in children’s programming at my library.

I have previously studied child development as part of my undergraduate degree, in linguistics and psychology. INF505 made me realise I should be applying that knowledge in my current work, and I particularly appreciated the exercise of completing the table created by Cerny, Markey, and Williams (2006, pp. 6-8), with the focus on library programming.

I appreciated the practical nature of this subject, with the assessment tasks all directly relating to my work in public library programming. Many of the learning activities undertaken for the blog posts were part of my professional development at work, such as the StarLAB Rover training, and the Book Week play review. Parts of the program of self-directed events for DiNovember that I developed for the first assessment have been approved to be implemented in our library branches this year.

I found much of the learning module content was similar to other subjects I have completed, such as INF519 Community Outreach, but contained different resources, providing me with a broader knowledge base. The repetition reinforced certain aspects of programming, such as the importance of marketing – something my library needs to improve. As I know my intended audience best, I intend to become more involved in the marketing of our programs, instead of leaving it all for someone else to consider.

I find reflective writing quite challenging, so struggled a little with the reflective component of the blog posts. I do not practise reflective writing as part of my work life, however that does not mean I do not reflect on what I do, and I consider myself a ‘conscious’ library practitioner (Jasper, 2006, p. 41). Most of my reflection occurs as verbal discussions with co-workers, and recently has been informed by my volunteer role as a Joey Scout Leader. In Scouting, we try to incorporate Do>Plan>Review> for every activity, emphasising that the Review stage is important, not just in program development and improvement, but in personal growth as well (Scouts Australia, 2018).

I also found writing blog posts quite challenging, and throughout all of the MIS subjects  I prefer the more scientific report style of writing to essays and reflections. I love researching community demographics and delving into the statistics, and have surprised my colleagues (including management) with in-depth information about our community. I intend to continue monitoring our community in such a manner, and become more involved with the research that informs our underpinning strategy and policies.

Overall, I found this subject to be one of the more valuable, and more interesting of the MIS course. Reflecting on my learning has provided me with more focus in my professional aspirations, and provided more avenues for future development.