Bankstown Library

Bankstown Library and Knowledge Centre reopened earlier this year, moving across the street to prime real estate in the middle of Paul Keating Park. As a result, they have hugely updated their services, and have succeeded where a lot of libraries fail.
Many upgrade their stacks without upgrading their general seating and desk space, but Bankstown has not fallen into that trap. There is always plenty of room to sit, no matter what the time of day. Not to mention that they all have a great view, and are extremely comfortable.
My favourite feature is the large wall of plants that lines the staircase. It is absolutely beautiful!

Elisabeth Doucett "What They Don’t Teach You In Library School"

This book serves as a practical guide in going from theory to practice, namely from student life to that of a librarian. While a lot of it is common to any industry, such as how to handle unruly people or unrealistic expectations of your career, there are a few pockets of wisdom unique to the library industry.

Encouraging the reader to look beyond their own library and form a sisterhood with another library, the idea is to both take lessons from each other, for the betterment of your job and yourself. Through this relationship, you can improve your management, programs, and marketing, amongst other things, and it gives tips and tricks in how to achieve this.

The advanced chapter contains a healthy dosage of business-like attitudes, from networking to teamwork, which are important in practically any career, as well as how to analyse trends and handle figures.

Although I really enjoyed this book, I think a lot of it is common knowledge if you’ve worked before, whether it is the community, hospitality, retail, or another industry. It is rather hefty, at $38 on a Kindle, let alone a hard copy, and I’m not sure it earns the price-tag. Check it out at your local library, but a new-job guide and an ALIA journal probably cover the same amount of content, and would be just as digestible.

Organising Resources

School can be daunting.

As a student (not that teachers are exempt here), you are going to receive a lot of information throughout the year, for a variety of different subjects which can be further divided up into specific workloads. Arranging that inefficiently or inappropriately can often lead to trouble.

We're fortunate as modern students to see that a lot of (and sometimes all) our content is delivered through e-resources, which means that nothing can ever truly get lost, and there is always a back-up (or, there really should be!)

Before school even starts, decide on what format you will be arranging your hard copies by, and stick with it. Whether it is a folder and notepad, display folders and textbooks, have it all prepared from your very first lesson so you don't have to rearrange these things later.

Of course, there are a few simple rules that you should abide by. Use plastic sleeves on all printed work, or at the very least, for those handouts you will be referring to all throughout the term or semester. It only takes one sleepy morning of not putting your drink bottle lid on properly that has the potential to ruin things. Even if you have soft copies that you can print out the moment you get home, to have to print and rearrange things more than once is wasting valuable time that you could be revising the said information instead.

Remember that you probably aren't going to get a copy of every piece of information your teacher shows you, especially in regards to presentations, so take notes. Get down the main concepts, keywords, and links, so you also have something to further research later. Even if you do end up getting a soft or hard copy of it in the end, it is good practice to maintain your physical writing skills. It also makes sure that you are trying to comprehend the information as you receive it if you have to decipher it, and stops your mind from wandering too far from the given topic.

In regards to soft copies, it also pays to be dilligent in your organisation. If possible, have a dedicated USB for your course. At the end of every day, copy it to your private drive at school, your home computer, and a general storage external hard-drive. It also doesn't hurt to store copies online or in the cloud, i.e. in your email, or through a program like Dropbox. This makes sure that all your files are current, and that you will always have a back up in case of malfunctiong or lost hardware, not to mention damage of your home or school.

Create and label a folder with the name of your over-all course, and further make a folder for each unit. From there, I have found it best to arrange information in folders that are labelled according to the week, and the possible topic of that week, for example, "Week 7 MARC introduction". When you receive e-copies of some information, make sure that the file name is labelled accordingly. Teachers will often give you PDFs with a title like, "Introduction", so edit it to make sure it includes either the basic unit name or the specific topic or concept, where you can easily associate it with the over-all course unit.

It is also quite handy to rename the file including a brief status of what you have had or are going to do, i.e. "Introduction to cataloguing (print)", "Web Page Timetable (printed)", "Learning Presentation (summarised)".

Depending on how you learn, you won't necessarily have to print everything, but some people find it easier based on their learning styles. If you have found success with the VARK learning style analysis of yourself, then you'll be very aware of how you best learn. For read-writer learners and visual learners, it is often best to have a hard-copy of the work that you can interact with. However, if you have the money, it may be worth investing in a good tablet. Many programs allow you to highlight, mark, and scribble in the margins.

Revision is the act of going over your unit notes, and it excludes homework. Try to spend at least an hour a week revising each subject, and it is best if that isn't done in a huge chunk. Aim to revise at least six days a week, at least ten minutes a day. There are exceptions to this, of course, but this should be your basic weekly outline. If Monday is too hectic because you run from school to work, then try and make Tuesday a more intensive revision night.

Do your revision first, which can be as simple as rereading the latest handouts. After your allocated time for that unit is up, tackle the corresponding homework, weekly exercises, or assessment, which should hopefully enforce everything that you have just read through.

Best of luck for the new school year! To look at my resource format for this year, click here.

Burwood Library & Ultimo TAFE Library

Burwood Library re-opened last week, and I finally got to check it out on Tuesday. It looks pretty fantastic, if still a little loud due to the large amount of students, who often socialise more than they seem to study. I wish they'd gotten a room in the same way as the children did.

Regardless of my personal complaint, they have used to the space really well. Everything has room to breathe compared to the cluttered old library. They seem to have more books than before, which is absolutely amazing! (Or maybe everyone suddenly returned books I haven't come across).

The view from the second floor, which is mainly for adult fiction, is my favourite. You can see the bridge that goes over the train tracks, where we park just right on the other side.

I found some great books to borrow, and I also managed to lengthen my to-read list.

 

This is another post about Ultimo Library. Picture 1 is their amazing science section, which I was drooling over a little (erm, again). Pictures 2 & 3 are purely about computers and programming, and what is pictured here only goes up to 5.7, as the collection continues onto the other side. I am amazed. This is the biggest programming section I have seen in my life.

There are so many library books (books about libraries, I should say), that I want to check out, and I pictured a few of them below, including the stack that I ended up borrowing.

I also want to comment on the puzzle that they have set up. A communal puzzle in an adult environment is amazing, and I think they are awesome for making this available.

 

Burwood Library Is About To Re-Open

Burwood has become a bit of a dull place since the library closed down. It's left me feeling rather empty and limited in my choice of books.
Despite being small previously, they were jam-packed with interesting reads that I hadn't come across anywhere else. Often World Cat will tell me I can pick up that book at 1) Burwood, and 2) Melbourne or possibly London. I love World Cat.
However, I am very pleased to announce that they are opening up again tomorrow at the crack of dawn (I wish). 9am.
Here's a sneak peak of the glorious outside. Isn't it big?! I am glad they are working with a bigger premises.
Burwood Library previously had the problem of limited seating. During busy months, like the lead up to the HSC, it is impossible to get a seat. Half the time I could sit on an inobtrusive part of the floor, but stusents usually clsim these places too.
It looks like that has been solved, and then-some.
I eagerly await to visit sometime soon for a nice look-around.

Posters

For great bookish posters, head over to Scholastic here. I also found some interesting other blogs through poster searching, including Forbidden Planet and Lost & Found Books.

Library Studies Update

One week until school starts!

To prepare, I am finishing off my little Dewey Decimal study notes (as of writing this, I am up to 710, which is Civic & Landscape Art. I am learning something new every single day!) I've been using a mixture of Wikipedia, the page here, and this site, as reference.

Our printer has a little bit of a temperment... It will print 100 pages fine for me, as long as I don't ask for colour or anything fancy, and for Peter, it will print barely half. I think it is a little bit spiteful. I am full of praise for it, and Pete prints something expecting it to fail. I think it is a living thing that doesn't want to be disrespected. (Magic Toaster, anyone?)

I was also browsing library books (that is, books ON libraries) on the web, somewhat disappointed that we don't actually have textbooks for this course. Don't worry though. I found something to amuse myself. Added to my order were these two books, links in order here and here. And I added this one to my wishlist.