On the Floor at the WA State Library

At the close of my first library conference, the New Librarians' Symposium (NLS5), I plucked up the courage to ask Steve McQuade if I could come back to WA and work with him at the State Library. Happily, he said yes, and in November/December 2011, I spent two weeks doing fieldwork in Perth.

Working with clients

When the children's section has a book totem and costumes, you know you're in for a seriously fun morning. I helped out at story time, where we read Hattie and the Fox - my first Mem Fox book. We sang songs as well, but some of the kids were more interested in playing dress-up or running around the play area. At the end of story time, we handed out stickers.

I really liked that The Place, as the children's area is called, is its own space. The parents don't have to worry that their child is being too noisy or disruptive, and everything is set up for kids to enjoy themselves - books, toys, child-sized chairs and bright colours.

Working with the team
Even though I was only at SLWA for two weeks, I joined up to its fledgling Yammer community. I liked the options for attaching files, links or people to posts. It baffled one of the older part-time librarians, who wanted to know what all this “activity” in her inbox meant.

When I explained that it was a daily digest and she could safely delete it and just read it on Yammer instead, she got even more confused. (Many Yammer postings were copied from emails in the first place, so there was a lot of overlap.) How was she supposed to keep up? How would she know what was important? Would it be compulsory? These are all valid questions, but I didn’t have any answers for her, aside from skimming the posts to see what was of interest. It will be interesting to see whether Yammer is used in my first position, and how another team might use it to communicate. Aside from email and Yammer, team meetings brought everyone up to speed.

The staff were fantastic: very welcoming, eager to help, and willing to answer my questions about working in the library. I didn't feel like a fifth wheel at all, and I was sorry to leave. There are so many great programs and events at SLWA, including exhibitions, the book cafe, story time and Better Beginnings.