Happy Library Week to you all!

[ving]

Just thought I'd do a bit of sharing about whats been happening at work this week :)

Every year at apporx this time is Library Week. Its a time to promote the various public (and other) libraries in our communities and as per usual Rockdale Library has fully taken advantage of this.
We always have a ripper of a program running to promote the library and its services... but more to get people to the library that have never been here!

this year we have a french chef doing a cooking demo. this has already happened and we got a full house for it! :D he did 2 dishes, one main and one dessert... which we got to taste! YUM!
yesterday we had a morning tea in the libray with huge slabs of cake with tea and coffee... like the pied piper we attracted them from far and wide :)
today we have a Manga workshop with a proffesional artist showing his work and giving a lesson on "how to"... it was booked out ages ago! and a "special guest" performer coming to story time ( lots of sugary cake for the kids to make them hyper! :D
tomorrow we have a martial art/dance session called "capoeira" wich should be spectacular!
and we finish on friday with a ballroom dancing lesson... :cool:

what a week!!!
I am going to be exhausted come friday :)

[ballaratdragons]

Gee David,

Come Monday you will be back to normal. In here all day and getting paid by the Rockdale library for doing so! LOL

[ving]

LMAO!
paid to post her? I like it!

[silvinator]

Sounds like great fun David :D By the way, I heard something on ABC newsradio about how libraries are accepting cookies and biscuits (or something along those lines) for late books instead of paying a fine, just for the month of May or June (can't remember which). Is this true? The library spokesman said that you will be greeted with a smile from the librarian if you return all your late books, though I think that bit won't be true :P

[ving]

its funny you should say that silvie, the chances are that you wont be greated by a librarian with a smile... in fact the chances are you wont be greated by a librarian at all.
It seems the trend in public libraries at the moment is to make them less top heavy and so alot of positions formerly filled by librarians are now being filled by people of lesser qualifications.
Its all to save money you know. :)

as for the cookies, well this is the first i have heard of this! we certainly dont do this :(

I want cookies damn it!

[rowena]

cookies definatly at accepted at the uni library i work at too! in fact you can't even pay your fine at the library, you have to go to australia post to pay it!

mind you we have the big morning tea on tomorrow! should be goodlie! :)

[Librarian64]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread. I'm from Adelaide and I couldn't get any work there after finishing my studies. This was largely because all the public libraries were staffed by library techs with only one head librarian for each council. Some library workers had no quals of any kind. There were no vacancies anywhere in Adelaide which meant I had to leave my home of 30 years and move to NSW. The upside is that I got my first gig in an academic library, it's a management position of 2 small libraries and I live somewhere that has clear skies for astronomy.

[ving]

That said John, you dont need to spend years studying to loan out books and shelve them. The majority of staff here are pretty much "check-out chicks" for want of a better term. Public libraries, thanks to the likes of John Stanley are more like department stores at the moment and have lost thier original purpose. "if a book doesnt go out, then what use is it?" our manager once said. We are becoming les and less the custodians of knowledge and more and more a Dymocks where you have to return the item after you finish with it...

theres good and bad though. We use statistics to justify our existance, and by incorporating retail themes to our library we have doubled loans statistics. Our budget rose a little from this and it makes getting outside funding easier.. :)

[Librarian64]

Yes ving agreed. Cootamundra TAFE library was originally joint-use with the town library. I used to have to do a few hours desk duty and felt like I was working in a supermarket. I hated it too. 10 Mills and Boon in/Ten Mills and Boon out! 5 Patricia Cornwall and 5 Koonz in/10 Stephen King out etc etc...ad infinitum. I'm glad we moved out and TAFE saw fit to build a dedicated campus library. The Cootamundra public library was/is excellent and out stats Wagga by quite a bit, but it wasn't really my thing.