Blogjune Day 6 - Our castle and our keep.

Today's question: Why do you live where you do?

Today's song:

I moved to Canberra in October 2016. It's now the city where I've lived the longest since first moving away from my home town of Melbourne in 2006.

At the time, it was the right place for me. After living overseas for a number of years, moving back to Melbourne didn't feel right for me. I wasn't ready to live in a big city yet, but at the same time I was keen to move back into the cultural sector. Canberra is small, yet has many cultural institutions - perfect!

It's also not the first time that I thought about moving to Canberra. I very seriously considered moving there in 2008, but the time was definitely not right for me, and Canberra was also a very different place back then. I'm glad I didn't - my life would have been very different if I had.

But in 2016, the timing was absolutely right. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to step into some great job opportunities. I've enjoyed a moderately active social life, it's so easy to get around (especially if you have a vehicle) and I love how close it is to parklands and the bush, if I just want to escape the urban environment. Of course, even the urban setting here is pretty magical at times with the local birdlife saying hello every morning.

I also live in the inner suburbs. The main reason for this is because I always wanted to be cycling distance from work, and right now I ride about 25 minutes each way every day. My whole life, I've always preferred inner-city living over a house in the 'burbs - I like being close to the action - though Canberra is unlike most other cities in that sense. Much of the action happens in little pockets here and there - more often than not in one of the suburbs rather than the city. So, I'm getting to the point where I'm ready for a change - somewhere with a yard for a garden, and room to be creative and make noise without disturbing neighbours with adjoining walls.

So, I'm moving!

We've been planning the move for a little while now, but in two weeks I'll have vacated my little apartment where I've lived for the past four years. It's an odd feeling, especially given all my complicated memories of this place through that time, but I'm looking forward to some new adventures.

Blogjune Day 5 - Now though we're all here, we're not all there!

Today's question: What have you learned about yourself as the result of the pandemic?

To get us in the mood, let's sing along to this modern classic:

This current pandemic (and I feel like I need to keep reminding everybody that it's still going) has challenged me in new ways - in particular, adjusting to working-from-home conditions when required.

The thing that actually surprised me was: I really don't enjoy working from home.

There were plenty of things that I missed:

• A comfortable work environment with adequate heating / air conditioning, lighting, and insulation from outside noise (such as leaf blowers and 7am-4pm construction work).
• Regular social and work-related in-person interactions with colleagues. Whether it's getting somebody to sense-check an idea or piece of work, chatting about common interests, or taking a break to wander down to the cafe together, it's these interactions which can make all the difference in a workplace.
• The variable nature of a standard in-person job, whether it's at your desk, in a meeting room, attending a presentation, travelling to different sites.
• Interacting with clients and visitors in person - professional relationship-building takes a whole different skill-set when you're doing it via email or teleconference, and I realised that I'm much better at connecting with people when I'm looking them in the eye.
• Space in my domestic relationship. I'd only moved in together with my partner a couple of months earlier, and was still adjusting. Cohabiting whilst working at home full-time could be a challenge, and we needed to find ways to work around one another.
• The ability to physically leave work at the end of the work day. My work space was my home space, and as much as I tried to create effective boundaries, I realised that I was not actually good at this. The simple acts of switching off the computer at the end of the day, turning off the light and leaving the room - never happened.
• The commute to and from work. I realise that I'm the outlier on this one, but riding my bike to and from work has been a constant for me over the many years that I've been working, and removing that from my daily routine had an impact.

Of course, I realise that there are plenty of people who really enjoyed working from home, and that the pandemic finally created the opportunity for them to find new and productive ways of working that worked better for them.

And of course, during the current pandemic, we need to uphold measures to keep each other safe.

But to choose to work at home in physical isolation is just not for me. Even when, in the past, I've worked on personal projects, I've almost always done this in a non-domestic space, such as a cafe, library or public park.

I enjoy moving through a living world of people, whether it's travelling through the chaos of traffic, dancing in the thrum of a crowd at a live music performance, sitting amongst an engaged audience at the theatre or in a conference session, watching a library reading room full of people searching, studying and delving into their work. I love watching people, observing each person's unique traits, and then getting to know and understand them through their through their stories and questions.

I've often considered myself something of an introvert, but the thing that I really learned about myself is that I actually thrive on being in proximity to others as we continue to move through this world.

Blogjune Day 4 - Though you're miles and miles away, I see you every day...

Today's question: How important is an online presence for an information professional?

But first! Today's song to set the tone... press play and read on.

As today is my nominated, the rules dictate that I must first answer these questions three:

1. What do I currently do for a living?

I am the Marketing Coordinator at Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, located close to the heart of Canberra's CBD. I've been there for three months now, in a maternity leave backfill role. Like my previous communications and marketing roles, my work is primarily involved in delivering online communications, such as web content, electronic direct marketing and and social media. It's a great mix of writing, editing and proofreading, and I'm constantly learning a lot, especially when I collaborate with designers and, lately, web developers. I also find that these kinds of roles allow me to work across many sections in the organisation, as well as a cross section of the community and stakeholders, and in doing so, I build a broad understanding of what my organisation does and how people can best connect with the organisation.

2. What three words would I use to describe my role?

Connection, community, stories.

3. What is my biggest achievement to date - personal or professional?

It would have to have been in September 2006, when I made the decision to move by myself from Melbourne to Darwin, to take on my first professional role at Charles Darwin University. It was the first time that I challenged myself well and truly out of my comfort zone, having never lived away from Melbourne until that point. Had I not made that decision, and developed both professionally and personally through that experience, I might not have made other consequent decisions that have continued to create lifelong memories and professionally valuable experiences. It taught me to be comfortable taking risks, push through the challenges, and not to be discouraged by failure. It made me a better person.

And now, for the main question... the importance of online presence for information professionals.

It's interesting that I mention 2006, because it's the year that Twitter was born. When I moved to Darwin in September, the Twitterers was still a little-known entity. However, for me, it was all about the biblioblogosphere - the world of library bloggers. It was then that I encountered Libraries Interact - self-described as 'a thali of library treats', it was an online hub for library bloggers - many of whom I still connect with to this day - and some of whom are still blogging for #blogjune! For me, as a new librarian living a relatively professionally and socially isolated life in Darwin (though, to be fair, the local librarian network was incredibly active and supportive!) the biblioblogosphere was a lifeline for me to connect with librarians around Australia and the world through our blogging. So, in that context, an online presence was incredibly important!

Jump forward five years to 2011, and I took something of a hiatus from the library world online. I was frustrated with aspects of the professional sector, and was exploring new opportunities and adventures. It was strangely easy to disconnect from the library-related online channels - though I still remained socially connected through blogging (particularly a year of video-blogging around Asia!). It wasn't until 2016 that I started reconnecting with the library world, on my return to Australia after living overseas on and off for years, and found that the online library world was now all over the Twitterverse.

For me, Twitter was for connecting with the professional world, and Instagram was for connecting with my personal world. I maintained my Facebook account only to stay connected to a number of close online communities that I participate in. Twitter, in particular, was an intense channel for immersing ones self in multiple parallel and interconnecting conversations all at once - particularly in unpacking central professional principles, and challenging the status quo. I loved it, but it could also be overwhelming at times, being swept along in the virtual wave of radical ideas. When this was good, it was amazing. When it was bad - it was horrid. For me, it reached breaking point amid the height of the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, which in itself was the low point in a series of personally challenging events. I had to switch off, and whilst it was hard to resist switching off at the time, two years later I feel little FOMO or a need to really engage in this channel.

So, to answer the question - yes, information professionals need to understand how to manage an online presence. This is the world we live in, and if we are to understand this world of information-seeking behaviour, then we need to learn by doing and interacting. As a new professional, this was essential in making my mark in the professional world and connecting with my peers. But now, more than 15 years on, I'm quite happy to stand back and prioritise other aspects of my life. I do still stay connected - after all, I'm still writing here - and the thing that I 'currently do for a living' is primarily about maintaining an online presence for my organisation. But I also know when to switch off, and maintain a comfortable balance.

For the most part, I'm content (pun intended) to post semi-regularly on Instagram to remind my networks that, yes, I'm still here, life is good, and I hope that you're all doing well too. However far it seems, we'll always be together in electric dreams.

Blogjune Day 3 - Teach them well and let them lead the way.

Day three's #junequestion is a doozy: What is the most important thing to teach new librarians?

Continuing yesterday's retro musical interlude, let me set the mood...

Maybe Whitney Houston is onto something. Perhaps the most important thing to teach new librarians is to learn to love themselves - the greatest love of all - but probably not.

So back to the question. This feels like a variant on the usual, 'What's something you wish they'd taught you in library school?' or 'What new things do new librarians need to learn as part of their training?' After all, it's an ever-changing field, and we need to lean into that change.

In terms of the most important thing? My feeling is that it comes down to the principles and ethics that are at the heart of the profession.

There's one in particular that strikes a chord with me, above all others: The understanding that libraries are not neutral.

To be honest, I've always had an issue with this phrase - not the underlying message, but the way that it's presented, in opposition to the traditional idea that libraries should be neutral.

We don't identify with what we're not, but rather by what we are. So we need to start accepting that libraries are inherently political. And so are librarians.

To facilitate access to culture, knowledge and information in society is a political action.

To decide which information does and does not go into your collection is a political action.

To set guidelines on which groups can and can't use your library spaces is a political action.

To decide which cultural festivals you do and don't celebrate in your library is a political action.

To waive or uphold a library fine is a political action.

To choose which words you use to describe your collections is a political action.

To decide the terms by which people can or can't enter your library space is a political action.

To manage your library teams - and the ways you support them through pandemics, restructures and ever-changing times - is a political action.

To decide which collections you digitise and make available to the world online - and which collections you don't - is a political action.

And so on.

As much as librarians claim that they are no longer exhibit gatekeeper behaviour with your collections - you still do. All the time. And it makes a difference.

Libraries are political. Library work is political. Librarians are political.

New librarians need to realise this, and ask themselves: How will you choose to behave in your day-to-day duties, knowing that your actions will have a political impact on your library community, and the ways that they access information, gain knowledge and build their worldviews.

What could be more important than that?

Blogjune Day 2 - On inspiration

Today's question: Who inspires you?

So, to get us in the right frame of mind, let's start with the silky smooth falsetto tones of Peter Cetera...

Now that we've got that out of the way, I must say that I hate hate hate the idea of people being 'inspiring'. So often, we use this label to describe somebody who manages to achieve something extraordinary - particularly if it's something that we can't see ourselves doing ourselves.

It might be somebody who's managed to forge a successful career to the point where they have a secure six-digit salary. Or somebody living with a disability who has still managed to achieve success in some form. Or somebody who's defied expectations, and taken the path less taken to follow their dreams and find personal satisfaction.

I've certainly crossed paths with these people, and I've felt... something. I don't know if it's inspiration, or perhaps jealousy or resentment. Because the reality is that, generally speaking, they are just people. Not worthy of putting on a pedestal as being extraordinary. In most cases, they worked bloody hard - and a bit of privilege never went astray as well.

Because there are also many many more people who also work bloody hard, but never see the same level of success.

So, who inspires me? For me, personally, it's those closest to me who see the best in me and actively encourage me to do more and to do better, especially when I doubt my own capacity. They know who they are - I don't need to name them.

And in return, I try to do the same for others. Goodness knows we all need some positive encouragement from each other from time to time.

Blogjune Day 1 - Some useful advice.

I almost didn't sign up for BlogJune this year. Not that I'd necessarily forgotten that it was June... nor that I was lacking in things to write about. Whilst I find blogging to be a valuable exercise in reflection, it also feels a little like screaming into the void.

However, the wonderful Kathryn Greenhill has created #JuneQuestions, which has posed a question for each day of the month. Whilst the exercise encourages participants to take on one of these questions, I quite like the idea of having a shared prompt for these kinds of blogging exercises, so I aim to try to answer them all, and maybe reflect on others' answers.

So, the first question of the month: What is the most useful advice you have had from a mentor?

Firstly, I've never been one for following advice from mentors... I'll certainly listen to people describe things that have worked for them in their situation, and I definitely feel like mentorship relationships are more about sharing experiences of challenges and successes (and failures), and finding strength and encouragement through those shared experiences. But no mentor is going to have the perfect solution for their mentee / protege.

However, there was one particular moment that has stuck with when I was catching up with a former colleague over a coffee. At the time I was experiencing some level of frustration with work and career planning for the future. I knew exactly the kinds of jobs that I was good at and enjoyed doing - but such jobs were rare and extremely competitive with some substantial cultural barriers to employment. At the same time, there was plenty of work available that I was very capable at, but struggled with and didn't necessarily enjoy at the best of times.

Describing this to my (unofficial) mentor, they said to me, 'Maybe the right job for you is the one that you haven't thought of or found yet.'

It wasn't 'advice', per se, but they were absolutely right. Since I started working in the library and information sector, there has been so much emphasis on the status connected with holding a specific job title, and even though I've managed to finally shrug off the anxiety of being a 'real librarian', there are elements of this attitude that had pigeon-holed my approach to job seeking and career planning.

Over the past nine months, my focus has shifted away from a specific job title, level, or the idea of 'professionalism' that it implies, and instead looking at:

• What kind of organisation do I want to work for? In what sector?
• What can I tell about the people who currently work there?
• Are there any roles on offer there that I could do?
• What exact work does that role entail, and would I be able to do it well and enjoy it?
• What working relationships are involved in that role, and with whom (both internal and external)?

This kind of approach has been huge in opening up the way I see the range of opportunities available, and encouraged me to apply for jobs that I would have otherwise not considered (including the job that I'm currently in).

It's also encouraged me to be open to suggestions from my peers. On several occasions, people who I know and respect have approached me about considering jobs that I wouldn't have otherwise considered, but think that I would be good in them. And it's an important reminder that I'm not always the best judge of what would be a good job for me - sometimes there are others that see my skills and strengths much better than I see them in myself. It takes a leap of faith to say 'yes' to those situations, but so far I haven't regretted it.

We don't talk about COVID (no no no...)

Today, in The Australian Capital Territory, we had the highest number of cases reported since the peak of the Omicron wave on 19 January. And it will probably be even higher, if the recent trends of Thursday reporting the highest number of the week continues.

ACT COVID-19 Update – 23 March 2022

💉 COVID-19 vaccinations
◾ Aged 5-11 years (1 dose): 79.8%
◾ Aged 5-11 years (2 doses): 38.7%
◾ Aged 5+ years (2 doses): 96.7%
◾ Aged 16+ years (3 doses): 72.0%

🦠 COVID-19 case numbers
◾ New cases today: 1,314 (653* PCR and 661 RAT) pic.twitter.com/V12jlEBPYy

— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) March 23, 2022

Not that it's really a topic of discussion anymore. Welcome to the latest stage of the pandemic - where many have simply stopped talking about it. 

It wasn't always this way. We've been through many different phases of our relationships with COVID-19, which we've been very much engaged with and responded to. Whether it's mask-wearing and sanitising, providing contactless services, limiting our travel interstate (or indeed beyond our immediate neighbourhood), getting vaccinated and then our booster shots, and limited our workplace interactions with people who are unvaccinated.

We've gone through a long list of interventions, which has limited and in some places successfully (if temporarily) eliminated the spread of COVID-19. We've been vigilant, attentive and responsive - particularly in our workplaces and in our daily interactions with each other in the community.

But at some point over the past month, it's kind of... stopped.

Since mask-wearing became optional, it was almost like engaging with the risk of COVID-19 is also now optional. And my observations from attending moderately large-scale events, such as markets and live theatre/music performances, is that the majority of people won't take up that option.

I mean, yes, I get it. We'd all rather pretend that we're now in a post-COVID world. But we're not. We are still living in a global pandemic with widespread local transmission. We currently have a dominant strain that is more than four times as infection as the original. Thankfully, due to vaccinations, we've been able to limit the incidence of hospitalisation and death, but this is a strain that is not susceptible to immunity from previous strains, and often breaks through in cases where the person is vaccinated and boosted. And then there are the elderly and immune-compromised who are still at a very real risk of serious illness and death.

One thing that's also really struck me is that, in the last few weeks, there are more people that I know who have caught it, than in the previous two years. It's here, and it's hitting people who are within my social circles.

And yet, many of us are strangely blasé about it now. We've done all we can. Apparently we can't keep living like this, and we certainly can't go back to the lockdown days of 2020 and 2021.

So, this is what it means to live with COVID-19. It means that COVID-19 is something that happens to somebody else - until it happens to us. It means that the best thing we can do is try to live our best lives and keep our fingers crossed and stay quiet, because god forbid we should try to be proactive and ready for the next necessary intervention.

Nope.

I want us to keep talking about COVID. I want us to be able to have candid conversation with our colleagues, our clients and stakeholders, about what we can all do to maximise each others safety. Not just some standard words about adhering to government guidance - but an actual conversation to acknowledge and address people's fears about what it might actually mean to be 'living with COVID'.

I want businesses who are, understandably, keen to get their customers and audiences back through the door, to take responsibility for the safety of their workers and communities. Let's stop trying to avoid our duty of care by saying 'oh, we'll let you decide what's best for yourself' - take the initiative to say, 'here's how we're taking care of your health and welfare'.

I want dance schools to take a duty of care so that I can feel confident to go into a room with 30 other strangers, and hold their hands, knowing that we've all had a frank and open discussion about how we're going to keep each other safe.

And that goes for you too, conference organisers! If you're going to invite hundreds (or thousands) of people to a physical venue during a pandemic, then your messaging about COVID safety needs to be front and centre. There are a few upcoming conferences on my radar, and from what I can see, this is not adequately being addressed.

I do understand that this stuff is hard, but we've been doing it for the past two years, and communication is essential for managing any kind of relationship. So, let's keep talking about it.

And if we don't feel comfortable talking about it, we need to ask ourselves why. Is it because in doing so, we might be acknowledging that we're taking risks by opening up - risks that we're not ready to accept yet? But that's another conversation for another time...