Library skills

I have been a student of librarianship and a professional librarian for ten years, and have functioned in casual positions and more recently as a contractor. During this time I have experienced several work environments, and have acquired skills in most professional areas, including:-

• Completed Diploma of Information Management - Librarianship at the University of N.S.W. in 1991, qualifying for admission to ALIA.
• Reference work, with active and enthusiastic involvement.
• Inter-library loan duties, including making use of systems such as ILANET and the TAFE Dynix system to facilitate document delivery.
• Training library users in the effective use of library facilities, and training and coordinating fellow staff in some procedures.
• Promoting library services to potential and present users, and conducting sustained promotional campaigns for particular library services.
• Indexing and descriptive cataloguing, including completing large indexes and cataloguing large numbers of items.
• Acquisitions budgeting, sourcing and purchasing.
• Cataloguing (using AACR) and classification (using DDC), having developed confidence and capability with relevant systems and procedures.
• Day-to-day running of libraries, with extensive experience both as a sole librarian and as a member of a library team.
• Using a wide range of user and developmental software in various computing environments.
• Customer service, as an enjoyable adjunct to more specific professional skills.

Research skills

I have completed large and complex bibliographic research projects, and edited large numbers of articles requiring further research before re-submission, and as a consequence have developed a range of research-specific skills:-

• Production of large research projects, including performing all of the research required to achieve them.
• Making use of various bibliographic skills and procedures.
• Utilising numerous information resources such as the internet, proprietary databases, print-based and CD-ROM indexes to locate and retrieve information.
• Selection from numerous available resources to maximise information imparted for minimum effort in information retrieval, as required in some research situations.
• Writing and formatting research for publication.

Communication skills

As an information worker, I have been aware of the need to disseminate information, on top of the need to locate and source it. I have accrued numerous communicative skills in several capacities:-

• Functioning capably and confidently in customer service roles.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Writing and editing, having also been selected on merit to perform as an editor.
• Good facility with internet web page design and HTML markup.
• Linguistic training, including recent training in Mandarin Chinese speech and writing.

General service and personal skills

Diverse skills which my work experience may not directly indicate, but which have nevertheless been developed as a result of my experiences:-

• First Aid training
• Strategic thinking
• Personal responsibility
• Professional integrity
• Administrative service skills
• Organisational skills
• Ability to work under pressure, and to meet deadlines.
• Teaching/training skills