Well I have been a bit slack of late!
Truthfully I have been flat out but I really have not done enough on the scholarship front. At work we are in the process of reviewing the weekend rosters, which has been fairly hectic PLUS I had 5 days of interviews in the month of April! ICK!!
Anyway back on track I have just booked in visits to Casuarina and Brisbane Sq in early May. Visit the blog in a fortnight for pics and my thoughts on both sites.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Visitors arriving when the new library opens in 2013 will be confronted by an airy atrium filled with touch-sensitive computer screens and regularly changing exhibitions. Voluble group learning will take precedence over hushed reading rooms.
"The number of books we loan out and reference inquires we receive is sliding. We can all use Google and with discounts on Amazon, three-for-two offers in Waterstones and Tesco discounting every Harry Potter book, many of us have the means to buy books. We need to make the library more of an experience. Our role will now be less about transactions with users and more about aiding their transformation."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/03/libraries-architecture-birmingham
Alexander McCall-Smith, author of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series: "Whatever changes may occur in the way in which read about the world, libraries remain absolutely central to the life of a nation. Libraries house our knowledge and our culture; they are beacons of light in a difficult world."
Irvine Welsh, novelist: "[It's] an audacious and compelling initiative which promises to redefine and modernise the entire notion of public library services, and in the process create the greatest public information resource in Europe ... Writers will love it, and so will readers."
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Doesn't this sound great!
A partnership between the American Library Association and the National Baseball Hall of Fame encouraging people of all ages to build their information literacy. Perhaps one day we could look at something like this with the AFL.
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/publicawareness/campaign%40yourlibrary/sponsorship/stepup/stepup.cfm
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The library is closed for 2 days and I've gone mad already! Well I'm mad enough to dye my hair purple anyway!!
Couldn't I have just read a book you ask?!...well yes...but I was handed this fishy challenge by workmates and despite the fact that I am very un-girlie when it comes to hair and have not tried to colour my hair for probably 15+ years I have gone purple.
Actually I quite like it so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Caroline Springs is a purpose built suburb and the library/civic centre has been built in a landmark building which is central to the leisure centre, shopping centre and a secondary school. It also features an number of environmentally sustainable design features. The School uses the meeting spaces for teaching and although the library is fairly quiet during the day it is brimming with noise and youth in the afternoons/evenings.
The library offers RFID technology, DIY issues (the returns module has been recently turned off) and self serve PC bookings. There is no actual circ desk, the Council Customer Service staff operate a traditional desk just inside the main door and the library staff work from a small/mobile info desk in the centre of the library, although on my visit and on previous visits staff generally floor-walk rather than stay at the desk.
At a recent SLV presentation the Manager said during his presentation that the library was "too busy to offer quality customer service after school" to be honest this mortifies me! To stand up in a room of 200 people (which may have included his own staff) and say that they do not provide quality service due to the quantity of customers is so sad.
Quality customer service should be a never ending quest, when any member of the team (let alone the manager!) feels that the service is below par they should be rallying the troops and realigning the resources to lift themselves out of the funk and make positive changes. I sat at the front of the audience longing for him to stop talking and have the opportunity to speak to his staff....something to add to my "things to do"
Looking at the physical space of Caroline Springs it is an unusual space as it is long and thin, it includes a cafe at one end, a youth gaming zone, PC area and a children's library which has been creatively separated from the main library. At the end facing the shops there is a foyer space which is currently under-utilised, my suggestion would be to turn it into a gallery space come quite study area, as that is something lacking from the library.
There is good way finding signage near the main entrance, and signage on the bay ends. The collections although traditionally arranged ,blend a good mix of front facing and spine-out shelving.
The space is light and bright with a positive energy.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
At my presentation I talked about my fish tank of fame and a number of people asked me about it later.
Last year we undertook a motivational leadership workshop of the FISH! philosophy: Play, Be there, Make their day & Choose your attitude.
The fishtank came about as a way of recognising and celebrating success. Staff can nominate eachother to be "Groundbreaking Goldfish", "Shameless Starfish" or "Humble/Hardworking Hermit Crabs".
Those nominated get their name in the tank along with the reason. The tank is just above the workroom copier so everyone gets to see it.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
This morning was the ceremonial sod turning (yes that is actually what they call it!) for the new library at Altona North.
In attendance the Mayor, Ministers, Councillors, Council Officers (lots of big wigs)
Notable absences??? Library staff, who didn't get an "offical" 
invitation (we just work here!) and somehow got the wrong time.
We did arrive in time for photos and cakes - just missed the speeches...perhaps we got it right after all!!
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Had already registered an interest in Lianza 2009 but have just noticed that they are calling for speakers. Abstracts are due in mid-May so will have to start working on that in between my visits this month. Very exciting!!
http://www.lianza.org.nz/events/conference2009/
Friday, April 03, 2009
The postie delivered my ALIA membership today. 
Since attending Dreaming08 in Alice Springs I have been thinking about joining ALIA and last week, when stewing on finishing my presentation, I decided to do it.
Today the paperwork and funky little pin arrived, I added it to the badges on my work lanyard.
The pack included the last 2 copies of inCite which I hadn't had a good look at yet. The Jan/Feb edition (p23) contains Alli's article about our Hot Rod event at Altona Library YAY! and the March edition (p16) contains an article about Casuarina, Darwin City Council's largest library.
I had been looking for a potential visit that was somewhere other than the east coast and this it! Casuarina is a refurb rather than a new build and contains both self serve and collection grouped in themed "living rooms".
Can't wait to see it, I will have to contact them next week.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Today I gave my first official presentation relating to the scholarship. Pretty intimidating in the SLV in front of almost 200 people but I think I did OK for a first timer.
The last time I presented in front of such a large crowd was when I was roped into attending a school assembly to present some summer read certificates.
I was encouraged by the fact that the 3 speakers before me covered some of the same themes so I was confident that I wasn't saying anything too outrageous that would get me into trouble.
During the first presentation Beck from Frankston accidentally knocked her glass of water all over my shoes, as we were in the front row we couldn't jump up to do anything about it so we just sat there sniggering like school girls.
After that the most I was worried about was that I would slip over in my squelchy shoes so the accident was a great ice-breaker really.
Khanh & Maria did a wonderful job as my cheer squad!
I was really enthused by some of the presentations and am now doubly excited about visiting Brisbane.
The last time I presented in front of such a large crowd was when I was roped into attending a school assembly to present some summer read certificates.
I was encouraged by the fact that the 3 speakers before me covered some of the same themes so I was confident that I wasn't saying anything too outrageous that would get me into trouble.
During the first presentation Beck from Frankston accidentally knocked her glass of water all over my shoes, as we were in the front row we couldn't jump up to do anything about it so we just sat there sniggering like school girls.
After that the most I was worried about was that I would slip over in my squelchy shoes so the accident was a great ice-breaker really.
Khanh & Maria did a wonderful job as my cheer squad!I was really enthused by some of the presentations and am now doubly excited about visiting Brisbane.
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