Name: Liz Burke

Position: Associate Librarian (Reader Services)

Qualification:

Master of Information Management & Systems, Monash University (2000)

Bachelor of Letters, University of Melbourne (1996)

Bachelor of Social Sciences (Hons) (Library & Information Services) (1988)

Organisation: The University of Western Australia

Previous positions:

Reference & Information Services Librarian, La Trobe University Library

City Campus Librarian, Victoria University of Technology

Liaison Librarian, Faculty of Social Sciences & Communication, RMIT

Reference Librarian, Phillip Institute of Technology

What’s great about your job?

The opportunity to travel. While at La Trobe I had my first opportunity to travel overseas for work. I went to London in 2004 to attend a conference and visit a variety of libraries and learn how they were rolling out a service we were just implementing, and I gave a conference presentation in Auckland, New Zealand in 2005. In 2007 I attended a conference in South Africa, my first trip to the African continent.

What’s the most fun experience you’ve had at work?

Packing up the whole library to move to a newly renovated building. We had the chance to throw out lots of junk and re-arrange things in the new space.

Describe a typical day at work.

I meet with a lot of people, sometimes as a group and sometimes individually. I walk around the beautiful campus grounds at the University of Western Australia, visiting the 8 subject libraries we have. I read and respond to a lot of emails. I write reports and other documents.

What do you find rewarding and challenging about you job?

The opportunity to try out new services and technologies and work out how we can make best use of them to improve our library services. We want to trial instant messaging next year. We’ve set up and use a blog to gather feedback from library staff on a variety of issues. I’ve been investigating Second Life to see if there’s a place for our library in this virtual world.

What are the personal skills & attributes that you need to do this job?

Strong organisational skills. People skills – negotiation, conflict resolution, ability to give feedback, diplomacy. Curiosity. Ability to adapt to change. Leadership. Team skills – being a team member and also building and developing teams. Strong communication skills – written, interpersonal, verbal.

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