Meredith’s Career Progression

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will note that I post interviews given to my previous library students or staff. Meredith started with us at Urbis in December 2007 and I sent her an interview that shows the consolidation of her educational and work experience and how she’s putting her past and current experience to work at Urbis. 

Jill - Welcome to Urbis Meredith, can you tell us a little bit about yourself

Meredith - Well, to start with, I’m really pleased to be working with you here at Urbis. I guess I’ve taken a fairly indirect path to get here, via a range of admin roles and English teaching, but I’ve always been been interested in finding out information and organising it for others. These general interests led me to enrol in the Graduate Diploma in Information Management at RMIT and I’m due to complete my last two subjects in the first half of this year. Jill - So, you are studying at RMIT, what have you learnt from some of the courses at RMIT and then applied to the workplace?

Meredith - I’m really glad I enrolled in the RMIT course as it’s provided me with a good overview of information management issues, concepts and standards (and what many of those acronyms and jargon words mean!). I’ve gained confidence in learning new software, researching unfamiliar topics, ascertaining end-user needs and tailoring information. The group projects develop time management and teamwork skills and help you get to know other students - and I’ve met some really great people. The course can’t prepare you for everything because there are so many potential work environments for students to move into. However it does introduce you to networks such as professional associations and industry blogs, which you can access to develop specific areas of knowledge. The work placement program offers an opportunity for hands on experience and also helps you to discover what kind of work environment you more likely to be suited to.

Jill - It’s ideal that you have worked before in a planning company (name the place)?? and then for Melbourne City Library in their Planning Library (your experience is uniquely matched to our library), are there any similarities you are seeing at Urbis, compared to the other two organisations?

Meredith - Well, I worked with Coomes Planning, a small planning company in a temporary admin role for a few months before I started studying information management. This was a small business environment where staff pretty much looked after their own information resources and documents, according to their work areas. I became aware of the kinds of projects, resources and documents used in the planning industry. Later when I worked in a short-term role assisting in the Corporate Library at the City of Melbourne, the range of resources was considerably wider, given the size of the organisation and the breadth of Council interests and activities. The library was also unique in that it was an information resources centre for Council staff, but was managed by the Yarra-Melbourne Library Corporation as part of the network of public libraries in the cities of Yarra and Melbourne. It was a great to learn practical ways of keepng up to date with information resources on a very broad range of subject areas - such as, setting up subject profiles with publishers for alerts on upcoming releases, using topic-based email lists, and building an accessible and frequently updated library intranet page so staff can find information easily themselves. This was especially helpful for staff who were located in other buildings or sites and couldn’t just drop in to see what was available. Now I’m here at Urbis where there are interstate offices and a diversity of business units and resources, but the Librarian and Knowledge Management team are based in Melbourne. There is a small physical library for the general reference books and serials here, and more recently, final copies of planning and property reports are being included too (see response below re shelving!). Email is a convenient means of communicating with library staff, and the intranet is a major source of centralising information. It’s a constantly evolving process, and I think the next version of the intranet (with a search facility) is due to be launched soon.

Jill - Our library has a range of shelving systems here, I think there are about four (4) distinct systems, what is this teaching you about classification systems and special libraries?

Meredith - As a general comment, special libraries aren’t static - they reflect the organisation they serve (and all the changes they have undergone, or may occur in the future!) They need to be end-user focused in order to be viable, so the library staff here have had to work out how to categorise a diverse range of resources so other staff can access what they need. As I’ve discovered, Dewey classification isn’t the full picture, although it is useful for cataloguing general resources. However it doesn’t work as well for the planning and property resources which are more easily located by municipality or regional area. So the library is split up into different sections, and once you get used to that, it does become initutive where things are likely to be. Clear shelf labels and signs are really important (many thanks to my predecessor, Katy Li!) Fortunately, shelving space is not an immediate concern, and there’s still room for multiple copies of some items, and also for a fiction book swap. In the future, it may be necessary to reassess what the physical library should contain and how it should be catalogued - especially in the interstate and overseas offices.

Jill - What sort of technologies are you interested in? And what do you think you will learn at Urbis in that regard?

Meredith - I’m not a real techie-type (eg. don’t have an i-pod or digital camera, and didn’t know the difference between GIS and GPS - shock/horror!) but at the same time I’m curious about technology and Urbis is a great place to see what is available and how it enhances business services and facilities. I went to a presentation recently by a new business unit in Urbis and saw how virtual reality (3D modelling) is being used to explore planning proposals. Really amazing! I’m also interested in intranet development and the Knowledge and Information Management team here have done a lot of work to make the breadth of Urbis information resources accessible via portals on the homepage. They’ve also developed a project summary database which is linked to resources in the library catalogue - so staff can find out information independently. I attended a brainstorming session a few weeks ago to help with the intranet search keywords (ie. yellow stickers all over the wall!) I remember doing something similar in a class about thesaurus-building at RMIT. I’ve also had some involvement with archiving procedures and can see how document management is an integral part of a general information strategy. So, in a nutshell, there’s lots to see and learn!

Jill - Anything else you’d like to share with us

Meredith - Well, I’ve been here at Urbis a couple of months now (sorry to take so long to get these answers back to you, Jill!) It’s a dynamic and ever-changing environment to work in and I’d encourage anyone interested in information management to make the most of any opportunities to work in a special library environment. Thanks Jill.

Thanks Meredith, you sound like you are enjoying your work at Urbis and have benefitted from being involved in many activities, including those that preclude to the Intranet. It shows what skills library and information can bring to a role/company. Keep enjoying what you are doing and learning and your last semester at Uni !