July 2011: Personal Learning / Work Experience

I am pleased to note that I have had more work experiences in Library settings. For five weeks, I replaced the Head of Library (the only TL in a team of four library staff) at a large secondary school in Melbourne, with 1400 students. This experience gave me insight into the level of commitment required from the TL as a leader and the manager of the library, which is a focal centre for the whole school community. I quickly realized the importance of establishing positive communication with all sectors of the community, including library staff, teachers, students and school leaders. As Head of Library, these alliances were essential for support when staffing and student management issues arose. The prompt dissemination of information about new resources and staff orders, was a time consuming aspect of the role. In addition to being present for circulation desk duties, general library organization, cataloging and ensuring timely processing of new resources were  priorities. I enjoyed teaching Literature to a small group of international students and creating a Winter reading brochure for publication on Moodle, in the school intranet.