Name: Bridie Flynn

Position: Library Technician, Picture Collection

Qualification: Diploma of Library / Information Services, Swinburne TAFE

Organisation: State Library of Victoria

Previous positions:

Casual Customer Support Officer, Bayside City Council Library Service

Casual Library Technician, Swinburne University, Hawthorn Campus Library

What’s great about your job?

They're cliches but - the variety in tasks and the people. Particular to this job though, is coming to such a gorgeous building each day and working with historical and contemporary art. Lucky, who me?

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

Finding illustrations from Kaz Cooke's children’s books: The Terrible Underpants and Wanda-Linda goes berserk in our collection. Although, our bus trip to the storage centre in Ballarat is coming up...

Describe a typical day at work.

Could be: taking pictures to our photographic studio to be shot for copy orders; a desk shift in the Heritage Collections, Newspaper or La Trobe reading rooms; original marc cataloguing; updating our register of acquisitions; putting new material in archival storage boxes; answering phone or email enquiries on our collection and copying service; helping choose material for the collection; researching pictures…

What do you find rewarding and challenging about your job?

Transforming collections of material into nicely stored and safe pieces of history. Helping people find pictures of things that are dear to them. Learning more about Australian history.

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

An interest in history and art. Respect for historical material. Customer service skills, phone manner, face to face etc you speak to the public a bit. Computer skills really useful. Being meticulous and liking to keep records (there is a paper trail for everything). Plus, the usual library skills like catalog and internet searching, cataloguing and filing. 

Home - Upcoming Events - Career Options - Learning Institutions - Workplaces -  People - Salaries - Media - Working Overseas - Top 10 - Using this wiki