New beginnings (redux)

So I’m hoping to put my history of numerous scrappy postgraduate blogs into the dustbin of history by settling down into this new blog for the long haul. Having a permanent librarian position to reflect on will probably help, this time!

I chose the title “Querying Libraries” to signal a sense of critical engagement with my own progression as an information professional, as well as the broader conversation around librarianship and information management. There is always a time and place for cheerleading our profession on, but there should be an equally urgent compulsion to continually question the directions our current discourse is steering us towards.

I’m also hoping to provide coverage of professional librarian events in Melbourne and ease myself into the habit of writing reports or reflections on them. There is an increasingly thriving scene of forums, talks, and other professional events in Victoria – I think it’s important that the conversations sparked at these events reach beyond the walls of their immediate venues.

So who am I, anyway? You can find out stuff about me here, but my LinkedIn profile is probably the best place to look. I only just started my first full-time librarian position three weeks ago (!!!), so my adventures as a brand new medical librarian are defining my life at the moment.

Like many fellow librarians, my background is in the Arts. I wrote an Honours thesis on Orientalism and early 20th century Chinese revolutionary history. This was followed by a Masters in Information Management and two years of ARC research into the impact of digitisation technology on archival management. Anyway, enough of my life story – maybe I’ll flesh this out another time.

To (hopefully) whet your appetite, here are some blog posts I have planned for the near future:

• My first month as a librarian – what is life like as a hospital librarian?
• Reflecting on the joint ALIA Victoria / VALA conference “SoundBites” forum I helped to organise
• Looking back at themes emerging from my recent talk at the State Library presenting my digitisation/archives paper
• I will review The New Professionals Toolkit by Bethan Ruddock, a handbook for new librarians (like me!)

Also, it seems the birth of this blog has been well-timed to coincide with #BlogJune (2014 edition!). It’s an initiative that kicked off on Twitter encouraging information professionals to (very!) actively blog throughout June each year. So yay for that!