Community of Practice

CSCN Community of Practice 2022

 

What is it?
This event is organised by the CAVAL Customer Services & Collaboration Network (CSCN). These CSCN Community of Practice events are an opportunity to meet your peers from other University and TAFE libraries, make connections, and learn from others how they navigate the ‘new beginnings’ of returning to on-campus work.

Who should attend?
If frontline services are directly relevant to your work, you should consider attending. CSCN Community of Practice events are for practitioners – the people actually doing the work. You don’t have to be a particular HEO/HEW level, work in a particular unit, or have a particular title or qualification, but you should come along prepared to fully participate.

What if someone else from my institution wants to attend?
There are no restrictions on how many people can attend from any Member institution or Victorian TAFE library. With these online sessions we are also not capping the number of participants. If you attend from an institution which is not a member of CAVAL, there will be a small fee to attend the event.

Note: Due to the setup of Zoom events, you need to register with the email address you will access Zoom from on the day of the event. In order to access the ticket type of your institution, please make sure this is your work email.

What IS the ‘new normal’?

Tuesday 24 May, 11.00 – 11.45am AEST

In a series of lightning talks, library frontline services staff share their stories of the current time of 'new beginnings', as we increasingly return to on-campus work. The lightning talks will come in a mix of live presentations and video recordings. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions.

Sam Cairns, Library Service Officer, The University of Melbourne

Sam is currently working as a Library Service Officer at the Southbank Library, the University of Melbourne. He has previously worked at the University of Wollongong Library, and most recently as a Senior Library Officer: CALD and Indigenous, at Wollongong City Libraries. He is completing his Master of Information Studies and has degrees in both music and philosophy.

Comparing the confidence of public and academic library users: reflections on reopening

This lightning talk will reflect on the differences between public libraries and academic libraries during COVID-19, particularly in the confidence of users in navigating library spaces, collections, and systems. This reflection is based on Sam’s experience moving from Wollongong City Libraries to the Southbank Library at the University of Melbourne in January 2022.

Heidi Butters-Stabb, Senior Learning Librarian, La Trobe University

After a first career as a lawyer, Heidi changed tracks to retrain as a librarian, working in school and public libraries in north-east Victoria before joining La Trobe University’s Albury/Wodonga campus library in the collections team. Now the Senior Learning Librarian with responsibility for the Law School, Criminology and Crime, Justice and Legal Studies, her two careers have combined to create a Law Librarian.

Long Distance Law Librarian

During 2021, it didn't matter that the Law Librarian worked 300km from the nearest law student. Now that students are returning to face-to-face classes - but the librarian is still 300km away - what are the new ways of working for the librarian and the academics and students they support?

Steven Tapping and Emily Russell, Librarians, RMIT University

Steven has worked and gained experience in numerous libraries and archives including stints at the ABC, Victorian College of the Arts, New York Public Library, and Monash University and is currently a Librarian in the Information Literacy team at RMIT University. Thrown into the deep end of online teaching at the beginning of the pandemic, exploring ways to improve the facilitation of teaching and education online has been his most recent area of focus.

Emily has worked in both public and academic libraries. Whether it is facilitating an information literacy workshop for students or helping public library customers improve their IT skills, Emily's favourite part of being a librarian is teaching. Recently she completed a Graduate Certificate in Learning Design from Queensland University of Technology to keep up with the shift to online learning in Higher Education.

Can you concurrent? Accelerated changes in library education [PDF] 922KB

We have recently experienced an infiltration of some new common language in our workplace: concurrent, hybrid, blended, or simultaneous teaching. These words have largely taken on a new meaning in our libraries and universities. What was once a relatively niche teaching arrangement has now emphatically arrived at your local academic library. Hear about the learnings, prospects, and challenges of this new model of teaching and how we can build our skills in this space for better library education.

Tanya Trebilcock, Bridget Smith, Marnie Sier & Stacey McGregor, Senior Learning Librarians, La Trobe University

Tanya, Bridget, Marnie, and Stacey work at three different campuses: Bridget and Tanya at Albury/Wodonga; Stacey at Bendigo; and Marnie at Bundoora, so together they have a combined knowledge of library services in small, medium, and larger campus libraries. A positive outcome that resulted from COVID is that the group now work more with colleagues and students based on different campuses, and have a better understanding of these campuses. The four colleagues work on the library desks; answer queries via Library Chat, phones and emails; present classes; prepare online resources; and work on various groups and committees. For the whole period of COVID up until Easter 2022 they also prepared the roster for most of their front facing services.

“I can do that”

This lightning talk tells the story of rostering at La Trobe University Library during COVID and the flexibility, teamwork, upskilling, and resourcefulness required.

Angela Kopelis, Coordinator, Library Services, RMIT University

Angela has over 25 years of library experience working across TAFE, specialised, and public libraries. In 2014, Angela joined RMIT as Loans Co-ordinator but her current position is Coordinator, Library Services. She has a keen interest in Customer Experience/User Experience and Information Literacy.

From a Physical to Digital Service [PDF] 447KB

COVID-19 has created havoc globally, and the Library sector was not immune to this. During lockdown, libraries closed their doors to physical spaces and face to face services, and where possible moved services online to stay connected and support students with their studies. After 2 years of working from home RMIT will introduce their new service model - Concierge to Ask the Library.

Tara Eldrett, Library Frontline Services Supervisor, Federation University

Tara has been working at Federation University since 2018, starting out as a casual and now being a Supervisor of their frontline team. Tara started making fun videos on a whim during lockdown in 2020 to advertise the services the library still had available for students, and they became pretty popular and well-liked so she continued to make content like the video they are sharing today. Special thanks for assistance with this video goes to Casey Bolton, Courtney Allingham, Kelly Hartwig, Lucie Akers, Melinda Ly, and Sarah Tweed.

The New Normal: A Documentary

Frontline services team members at Federation University have composed a satirical video on how they have needed to adjust to the new work standards in their library spaces.

Changing ‘inaccessible’ to ‘accessible’ for our students

Thursday 26 May, 2.00 – 2.45pm AEST

A number of speakers will share their experiences of creating, utilising, and redeveloping accessible library services across TAFE and University libraries. The presentations will be followed by an informal Q&A.

Clare O’Dwyer, PhD Candidate/Library Manager, RMIT University/Melbourne Polytechnic

Clare is a proudly Autistic qualitative academic scholar, who brings her Autistic gifts which include pattern recognition, data pattern recognition, creativity, hyper empathy, kindness, and compassion to her research aims. She possesses skills in librarianship, management, organisational change, economics, information management, arts management, organisational psychology, data analysis, research, financial analysis, and project management. In addition, Clare is a strong leadership professional and a PhD candidate focused in phenomenology/ university library use/ international students/ cross-cultural dimensions/ Nvivo coding from RMIT University.

How do Autistic students experience a university library? An Autistic PhD student perspective [PDF] 919KB

As an Autistic PhD Candidate and Senior Library Manager, this presentation aims to raise awareness of neurodiverse student needs. It will highlight the good, the bad, and the opportunities for university libraries to deepen their understanding of Autistic experiences of their services.

Megan O’Brien, Library Environment & Experience Team Leader, Swinburne University of Technology
@_MeganOBrien_

Megan is the Library Environment and Experience Team Leader at Swinburne University of Technology where she is responsible for library frontline services across 3 library sites. Prior to this Megan was Assistant Manager, Site Services (New Service Models), at the University of Sydney where she worked on the implementation of a number of innovative services including a Makerspace and a Peer Learning Advice team. Megan’s main areas of interest are customer experience and process improvement.

AccessAbility Equipment Show and Tell [PDF] 406KB

As a University of Technology, Swinburne is committed to providing students with the equipment and technology required to ensure they can excel in their studies. Megan will showcase some of the equipment the library loans to students living with a disability or medical condition, will discuss the collaborations required to make the service successful, and talk about some of the obstacles encountered in delivering the service since reopening campuses.

Andrea Hurt, Senior Librarian, Library Services and Spaces, The University of Melbourne

Andrea is the Senior Librarian, Library Services and Spaces, Baillieu Library at The University of Melbourne. With over 30 years’ experience, she has grown up in academic libraries. Andy is focussed on the user experience and creating supportive, friendly, safe, and inclusive library spaces. She is a lover of social media and digital communication and is also the Library Social Media Coordinator.

Sensory environments: designing equitable spaces for students [PDF] 8.59 MB

What role can a library play in creating sensory supportive spaces on campus? As part of a project, we upgraded rooms in our libraries, offering adjustable study spaces. Through this project we became aware of the needs of our diverse student cohorts, and how simple changes can make a big impact on student experience. When it comes to sensory spaces, flexibility is the key.