April 2022
April. What a trip….
April was an unusual month. If the report below seems light-on it’s because I was away for 10 days out of 30. There were the highs: 4 days recreation leave and 3 days public holiday. And lows: one week at home with COVID-19. But although this was disruptive and set my work back, good things worth reporting still happened. A BIG thank you to Sarah Howard for stepping in while I was away.
Library Spaces
The 24×7 building access trial started with good uptake and little disruption. Spaces were also very busy during normal opening hours. My job was to make sure senior leaders within the University were aware that Library spaces PUMPING and were THE places where students wanted to be.
Staffing Annoucement: Library Leadership Team
Following an external recruitment process, Bruce Munro was announced as the incoming Manager Library Service at Kelvin Grove Library. Bruce is currently the Manager, Client Services at Southern Cross University and has undertaken previous leadership roles at UNSW and University of Sydney. Bruce will take over from Caroline Dunk who has graciously and expertly led the KG team, and also been the Service Manager for Enquiry Services, during an eventful and challenging 16 months. I would like to personally thank Caroline for everything she has done whilst in the role.
QUT Digital Collections
The QUT Digital Collections featured heavily this month, with photos from the collection being used in several QUT Social Media posts. The photo of James Alexander Robinson (a former teacher at Queensland Teachers Training College and Commander of the 26th Australian Battalion during World War II) sparked a lot of interest and Jill Rogers was interviewed on ABC Radio about the photo and the story behind it. Thanks Jill for your work in promoting the collection. You can read the story about James Robinson on the QUT News site.
Texta Book Club
I had a lot of fun co-hosting the Texta Book Club with Renae Belton (Engagement Officer, QUT Art Museum). The book (which was Anita Heiss’ new book “Yarrudhanggalangdhuray”. Renae and I will host another three Texta book club events this year. If you love talking about art and books with friendly people, with a glass of free wine or juice thrown in, then come along to the next book club event, which is on 12 July. The book is “Bewilderment” by Richard Powers. Just don’t request it from our collection yet as I haven’t finished it 😉
I met with:
- Stacey Jeffery Hannam, the new QUT Indigenous Strategy Project Officer
- Elizabeth Kerr, Director, Chancellery
- Mark Directors, Learning Environments and Technology Service (LETS)
- The Education Portfolio Leaders Group
- Helen Hooper, University Librarian, James Cook University
- Constance Weibrands, University Librarian, Edith Cowan University