My ideal job would be an associate university librarian, because I love helping other people, learning, and books. This position also contains the main aspects that I aim to have in a job, which are: a sense of purpose and meaningful contribution to society, as I would be helping students and teachers with their learning; being a part of the education and academia sector, because I love learning new things; and that it has a salary that would enable me to become financially independent.
Moreover, since the associate university librarian position would not be available immediately after the completion of my master’s degree (as it is a more senior role), I would like to be a university librarian in order to build up the experience required for that role.
In addition, I want to be a university librarian, so I can financially support myself while I pursue my aspirations of writing and publishing my own books, because only 2% of all authors are able to actually make a career writing their own books, so the odds are even lower for writers beginning their careers. Additionally, the salary of an author is not stable (dependent on the popularity of their books), thus meaning being an author while not doing a second job, is not financially secure. Hence, I am choosing the pathway of being a university librarian because it is still related to things I like, such as helping others, books, and learning, and also because I have heard that it provides a great work-life balance.
Figure 4: La Trobe university (2022) la-trobe-librarian-pt1.jpg [screenshot], La Trobe university website, https://careers.pageuppeople.com/533/caw/en/job/563599/associate-university-librarian-collections-and-researcher-services?source=IND
La Trobe University associate librarian
Figure 5: La Trobe university (2022) la-trobe-librarian-pt1.jpg [screenshot], La Trobe university website, https://careers.pageuppeople.com/533/caw/en/job/563599/associate-university-librarian-collections-and-researcher-services?source=IND
La Trobe University associate librarian
Figure 6: La Trobe university (2022) la-trobe-librarian-pt1.jpg [screenshot], La Trobe university website, https://careers.pageuppeople.com/533/caw/en/job/563599/associate-university-librarian-collections-and-researcher-services?source=IND
La Trobe University associate librarian
Figure 7: La Trobe university (2022) la-trobe-librarian-pt1.jpg [screenshot], La Trobe university website, https://careers.pageuppeople.com/533/caw/en/job/563599/associate-university-librarian-collections-and-researcher-services?source=IND
La Trobe University associate librarianLink to La Trobe University associate librarian job information (the link has expired because the position has already been given to someone):
La Trobe University Librarian positionThe La Trobe university associate librarian of collections and researcher services job is responsible for creating plans, processes and structures for improving the university’s teaching and research resources; representing La Trobe at library industry and charity events; leading services revolving around evaluating patterns in popularity for research tools, digital conversion of physical resources, training researchers, preserving digital materials and research data management; and providing recommendations to the University librarian on the general future plans of the Library and matters of academic research and collections (La Trobe University 2022)
The skills and experience required for this position include outstanding knowledge of the international progress, standards and trends in research and research libraries, especially regarding research collections and services – as well as having a high level of expertise in advising the library on these matters; having a good record for shared responsibility and collaboration towards a senior leadership team; shown one’s ability to lead and establish highly motivated specialist teams from different areas pertaining to the special and cultural collections, libraries and archives, as well as one’s capability to demonstrate the value of the library to the rest of the La Trobe university and for helping the organisational growth of the library; excellent social and communication skills with previous experience in developing and maintaining professional relations with other significant cultural institutions, libraries and archives, negotiations and managing sales relationships; and a postgraduate qualification with major senior management and leadership in a tertiary educational institution (La Trobe University 2022). The qualification needed to work in a university library like La Trobe’s would be to complete an accredited postgraduate ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) course.
The skills and experience that I currently have for this position include: the completion of my secondary studies (Year 12), 5 years volunteering as a library monitor at my high school’s library and being a part of their book club, 1 year working with the green team club in year 12 (which achieved a 5-star ResourceSmart school, and thus demonstrates my teamwork abilities) and a Library captain role in Year 12.
My plan for obtaining the postgraduate ALIA accredited qualification required would be to complete the RMIT Bachelor of Information Technology so that I can apply to the entry level 2 for the Master of Business Information Systems (with a library specialisation) at Monash, which would enable me to complete the master’s degree in 1.5 years instead of 2 years. In total, my tertiary education plan to attain the ALIA accreditations to become a librarian would take 4.5 years.