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.

Gluten Free: An Info Lit Presentation

Information Literacy was a challenging class for me. It took about six weeks before the readings, lectures, and concepts began to solidify. The group assignment for Info Lit was a great way to bring all the threads together at the end of the semester. I worked with Uti and Alisa to deliver an "educational event" (supposedly for young adults, at a public library) that would help the attendees learn the basics of gluten-free cooking.

We chose our topic because we had noticed an increasing number of people are coeliac, yet the ins and outs of cooking for someone with a gluten intolerance are not well-known. Presenting the basics of gluten-free cooking - selecting ingredients, choosing a recipe, and following a recipe - fit nicely into several aspects of information literacy.

From the report:

"Active learning strategies were guided by the theoretical framework made up of selected frames of information literacy (C. Bruce, 2008) and the GeST windows (M. Lupton, 2008), as well as faces of informed learning appropriate to the context and the content delivered. Faces of informed learning that were identified as relevant to the educational event included the sourcing of information (second face); processing of information (third face), and the wisdom, or seventh face."




As part of our "team effort" presentation, Alisa, Uti and I taught the class through a brief lecture, an activity, and a cooking demonstration. I had some help from Andrew (orange shirt) and Andre (green shirt) as I put together a gluten-free dish, Almond Asparagus Quinoa.

Following our presentation, several people told me they felt confident they could make the dish themselves, even those who hadn't eaten quinoa before that night. To me, this indicates that our information literacy session was a success. Additional feedback was very positive, and our audience was impressed by how much we were able to fit into our 30-minute teaching session.

The educational event was held on May 25, 2012.

Observation: Special Collections

As part of my practicum in November/December 2011, I shadowed the music librarian at the State Library of Western Australia. I have always been interested in becoming a subject specialist or a librarian who works with a special collection, and wanted to observe what skills and knowledge are required in that type of role.

I first viewed theThe WA State Library's music collection on a tour, as part of the 5th New Librarians Symposium. The collection is one of the largest in the country, with over 70,000 scores available for loan, and not all of it is on the shelves. In addition, there are books and recordings on vinyl and CD.

The music subject specialist, Allison Fyfe, was very patient as she showed me how to search the catalogue, locate items in the stacks, and check that all the parts of a score had been returned. It is not as simple as checking things off on a list. A background in music and the Romance languages is desirable,  as the scores are often titled and catalogued in other languages, with parts of music labeled klavier, not piano.

When a patron needed a score that wasn't on the shelves, Alison would put in a request for someone to pull it from the stacks. I was surprised that this process only took place twice an hour, and even more surprised that most people were content to wait. My customer service training balked at keeping someone waiting, but I'm sure it is more efficient for staff to perform retrievals at set times of the day.

Allison has come by her considerable knowledge through studying music throughout her life. I observed her responding to a patron's request by humming the answer. I can certainly appreciate the specialist knowledge and research skills needed to fill this position - you never know what a patron may ask.


Allison Fyfe has since retired.