Resume and Key Selection Criteria Workshop, Melbourne - August 2013

Last Wednesday night, information management students and graduates from around Melbourne gathered at RMIT University's Swanston Library to hear from leaders across libraries, archives and records agencies. The audience heard more about these dynamic environments and found out how to prepare resumes and selection criteria statements that will help them gain employment in their chosen sector.
Katherine Gallen from RMIT University Archives used industry case studies and her own career experiences to give students and jobseekers valuable tips on how to secure their first information management role.

Hugh Rundle from Boroondara Library Service outlined some of the career opportunities for students and jobseekers in the public library sector today. He also helped demystify position description statements, and gave advice on how to write responses to key selection criteria that get results.

Kim Tairi from Swinburne University of Technology Library gave valuable insights into current directions for academic libraries, and discussed the important role creativity has to play in their future. She also took a 'plain English' approach to what it takes to impress a selection panel when writing to key selection criteria.

Continue

23 Moble Things - Starting really soon!

Have you heard of the 23 things?  How about the 23 Mobile things?  This updated course is a great way of learning new skills, and new things about old skills. 

So what is the NZ/Australian Cohort for 23 Mobile Things all about?  Read on.

What are the 23 Mobile Things?

1. Twitter
2. Taking a photo with a mobile device:  Instagram / Flickr app / Snapchat
3. eMail on the move
4. Maps and checking in: Foursquare
5. Photos + Maps + Apps: Historypin / What was there / Sepia Town
6. Video: YouTube and screencasts
7. Communicate: Skype / Google Hangout
8. Calendar
9. QR codes
10. Social reading: RSS / Flipboard / Feedly / Goodreads / Pocket
11. Augmented reality: Layar
12. Games: Angry Birds / Wordfeud
13. Online identity: FaceBook and LinkedIn
14. Curating: Pinterest / Scoop.it / Tumblr
15. Adobe ID
16. eBooks and eBook apps: Project Gutenberg / Kindle / Overdrive / Bluefire / Kobo, etc.
17. Evernote and Zotero
18. Productivity tools: Doodle / Remember the Milk / Hackpad / any.do /  30/30
19. File sharing: Dropbox
20. Music: last.fm / Spotify
21. Voice interaction and recording
22. eResources vendor apps
23. Digital storytelling

You can view the 23 Mobile Things on the official blog here -http://23mobilethings.net/wpress/the-things/

What is this NZ/Australian cohort all about?

simple; it is just establishing a group of librarians in NZ and Australia who are keen to do the 23 Mobile Things at the same time. This cohort will give us mutual support and contact with each other so that we can learn together and keep each other motivated. Hopefully it will help you grow your own personal learning network (PLN) and have fun and great collaborations throughout the course!

Who can take part?

Anyone! This is not limited to New Professionals, but is open to anyone who would like to take part - whether newer or older to the profession. I have just put the contact form on the New Professionals blog as that is a place where I know many people will find it. We are creating another blog specifically for this NZ/Australian cohort that will be the hub of our conversations and connections. So please sign up and let's all learn from one another and have fun playing with mobile technologies! Over 250 people have signed up already; this is going to be such a fantastic group to be a part of :D  (It's mainly NZ'ers at the moment so come on Australian's sign up!)

What do I need to take part?

• Access to a mobile device (e.g. iPad, tablet, smart-phone, etc...) - if you don't have one yourself, you could borrow one or use the PC applications to understand the general principles.
• Time to dedicate to investigating the 23 things - it seems most people are keen to do 1 Thing a week so you can dedicate as much or as little time as you need to exploring that thing and engaging in chatting and collaborating with others on the course.
• Willingness to collaborate, experiment, and support each other - it's going to be fun!

How do I sign up?

So you're keen? Great! Here's what you have to do to get involved:

•  fill in the contact form on the blog
• vote in the poll for best time-frame for the course
• share the news with friends/colleagues

·         follow our twitter account @anz23mthings or the hashtag #anz23mthings

I'll be in touch as we create a blog as a hub for the group, a Facebook group (if you are keen) and organize some online real-time events such as Twitter chats and Google+ hangouts so that we can chat and collaborate. It will also give us an opportunity to put into practice what we have been learning!

We are hoping to start with Thing 1 the first week of May. If the course runs for six months (approximately 1 Thing a week), it will finish at the end of November. 

So what are you waiting for? Sign up today and we will be in touch again a bit closer to the date.

If you want more information please don't hesitate to email me (Kate) atmailto:skeetakate@gmail.com.nospam (take off the no spam) or on twitter at@katejf.

Abigail Willemse (NZ) and Kate Freedman (NGAC) (AUS)

Continue

Keeping in touch: the way you want

Librarians have a long tradition of communicating via email lists. We're one of the oldest professions (but not the oldest!), and we've been on the internet for longer than most. The rise of social media has just served to add to the number of ways we like to talk to each other, and we're keen to explore all of them.

Ahead of the New Librarians Symposium in September, we asked you how you like to keep in touch with ALIA new graduates. Here's what you said:

(Click to view larger image)

We asked this question on the blog and Facebook, so it's hardly surprising that many of you preferred using those media in which you answered the question. But it's important to remember that many of you also chose more than one option, so really a range of communication methods seems to suit you best.

Across both surveys, about 15 percent of respondents mentioned an interest in communicating with us via Twitter. We don't have our own Twitter stream at the moment, but given the overwhelming success of new librarians tweeting for #tweetaugust, we'll keep it in mind. Don't forget that ALIA has its own Twitter stream to keep you up to date with both national and international library news.

Online communication is really just a placeholder for when we can't interact in person. We're holding more and more face-to-face events each year across the nation. If you're in Brisbane, next up is the Queensland Newgrads event on 24 August. And in September, new librarians will flock to Perth for the exciting experience of NLS5. Don't miss out!

Continue

How do you like to keep in touch with ALIA New Grads?

The ALIA New Graduates group has a variety of channels to reach out to new graduate librarians all over the country. We have our long-running ALIA email list, this blog and a Facebook page. We love to meet you face to face, but when that's not possible, tell us where you like to hook in.



Thanks for your feedback!

Continue