CSCN Community of Practice 2021

Digital Literacy Skills for Staff and Students

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 each other about how the institutions currently approach Digital Literacy Skills for both Staff and Students.

Who should attend?
If digital literacy skills 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.

Wednesday 25 August, 10.00 – 10.45am AEST

Today we will be joined by frontline staff who will share their experiences of digital literacy skills initiatives at their institutions and how they have informed their practice as well as connected them virtually during the current pandemic. The presentations will be followed by a facilitated Q&A led by Ange Jenkins from Federation University Australia. We will use the Zoom chat for the Q&A. We also hope that the shared stories of fun/interesting ways to stay in touch/connected during lockdowns will create a discussion and generate further ideas of how we continue to stay connected, so please bring your own story to share with others.

Tara Eldrett and Samantha Bur, Library Frontline Services Officers, Federation University Australia

Tara Eldrett is a Frontline Services Officer who has been working at Federation University since 2018 after working for 15 years as a disability support worker.  

Samantha Bur has 16 years of experience in University Libraries, with 13 years as a casual at Monash University Gippsland, and later Federation University Gippsland. In 2018 Samantha began working at the Berwick Campus of Federation University, where her current role is Frontline Services Officer.

Digital Dexterity – a Frontline perspective

Samantha and Tara will share their personal digital dexterity journeys through an internal digital dexterity project at Federation University. This narrative will include how their digital dexterity skills improved through the project and how it impacted them in their roles.

Thursday 26 August, 10.00 – 10.45am AEST

Today we will be joined by two groups of presenters who will speak about digital literacy skills initiatives implemented in order to assist students at their institutions. The presentations will be followed by a facilitated Q&A led by Kimberley Ferriere from Monash University. We will use the Zoom chat for the Q&A.

Emma James, Library Officer, Giorgia Galli, Library Officer, and Victoria Hadjimichael, Library technician, Melbourne Polytechnic

Emma James is a library officer with a decade of experience in customer service and a background in multimedia and digital design. She has been with Melbourne Polytechnic for five years during which time she has collaborated on a number of student and solution focused projects that aim to improve the library user experience. Emma takes great pride in her work and welcomes the unique challenges that customer service presents, particularly during these unprecedented times.

Giorgia Galli completed a Diploma of Library and Information Services as a mature aged student in 2009. It is now almost eleven years since she began working as a Library Technician at Melbourne Polytechnic. Most of that time Giorgia has been on the circulation desk with periods of time in the Resource Unit. She especially enjoys working with the diverse student cohort she encounters in the library.

Victoria Hadjimichael is a Library Technician who has worked at Melbourne Polytechnic for the past 31 years as a front line staff member.  She has worked at various campuses, but has been based at the Prahran campus for the last few years.

Melbourne Polytechnic “We Care” Calls

During the lockdowns of 2020, Melbourne Polytechnic’s Library and Learning Skills teams partnered to implement a new outreach service model to support 'at risk' students. The aim was to ensure students were aware of the learning skills support available to them remotely. The Learning Skills team provided evidence-based data of the students at risk and frontline library staff made 1000 “We Care” outbound calls to students with identified literacy and numeracy support needs. As a result, early indicators have shown a 12% increase in the number of Learning Skills consultations with students.

Meg Weller, Librarian (Scholarly Information Services), and Jennifer Murphy, Educational Services Librarian, Victoria University

Meg Weller has been in a variety of technician and librarian roles at Victoria University for over fifteen years. For the last couple of years she has been Education Services Support and Special Collections Support Librarian in the Scholarly Information Services team.

Jennifer Murphy is the Educational Services Librarian at Victoria University, Melbourne, where she provides leadership, innovation and expertise in the development of library and information services to support the University’s learning and teaching activities. She is interested in the connections between teaching and research, and how collaborations within institutions lead to a positive environment for students.

Digital Citizenship Study Essential

An overview of the Digital Citizenship Study Essential. This one hour Librarian-facilitated student session introduces students to the concept of digital literacies which are the skills and tools that underpin professional practice in the 21st century. Activities include a self-evaluation of skills through an online quiz, short Librarian presentations, and exploration of digital tools.