Since I have been reporting on Minzah’s experience at Urbis, I got to thinking about some other ideas for reporting how my past students are going. I think it’s excellent to hear about a current student, but even more worthwhile to hear how they have gone on their journey since they left my workplace.
I’d like to introduce to you Vanessa Lastrina, a 3rd year RMIT student, who undertook her work placement with me a year ago. Here’s what she has to say about her progress over the last year…
Wow! It has been a year already since I did my placement at Urbis, what have I been up to since then?
Urbis allowed me to undertake some library experience and gave me an insight as to how information is stored electronically. In this new information age, it is vital to have both physical and electronic methods of storing information that can be accessed by necessary staff at any time.The last placement I undertook was at Latrobe University- School of Public Health where I worked at the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group Library. I was a little disappointed with this placement as my interests lie in web and database development as well as working with organisational documents stored electronically. However, I was prepared to have an open mind and learn about the library sector and how it differs to the corporate sector. I learnt how to construct a ‘real’ thesaurus with all health related terms and words as well as undertake a stocktake in the library of all the Health Issues Materials such as articles, books, reports, conference papers, etc. I also was able to use a few different medical databases called Procite, Medline, etc as well the library catalogue where we were required to enter or edit records. During my time at Latrobe University I observed that Academics do not have a structured working environment compared to those working in a corporate environment.
I am currently undertaking another placement at the Department of Education- Victorian Education Channel; they are located in the Information Technology Division of the Department. The Channel provide links to online resources for school students, teachers and principals, these links/websites have been recommended and reviewed by educators. I have been able to work in an environment where my interests lie and have been able put my studies to practical use. Towards the end of placement, I have been able to catalogue websites for primary school students and add metadata to them using the Dublin Core Metadata Elements, I was able to participate in forum and discuss what student learning means to mean, I have been able to observe the working of the Department’s new Intranet called the Ultranet and their upcoming information portal called eduGate which will provide a central gateway to information systems and allow for collaboration and sharing knowledge. Currently, I am amending a particular part of a website called the Website Tool Kit, which has quite a lot of redundant and unnecessary information. I have the opportunity to edit and then publish the site using the Education Channel’s Web Content Management System
The activities I have undertaken during placement have been very interesting in learning and understanding about different organisations. Their restructure of web content and the purpose of information management in an organisational and educational setting to cater for all user needs, has provided very useful insights and application of theory into practice in the real world. (Vanessa Lastrina)
Thanks for your thorough update Vanessa, you have certainally started to up your learning and it’s great to hear you using all the library terms such as Metadata, Dublin Core, Portals, Intranets and Ultranets. It sounds like you have quite a varied experience by coming to a private company like Urbis, then going to a University and then working for the Victorian Government. I am curious to know where you will end up at the end of this year. Please keep us in touch.
Are my readers enjoying this element of collaboration?? I’d love you to make a comment and let me know about your thoughts…
