Day 3 - The rest of the month of #yamatterschallenge

Okay, so I've got a lot to get through in this post, so I'll get straight to the results:

Read Muslim Oz

Unsurprisingly, Randa Abdel-Fatah got a lot of love in this category. Possibly because there still aren't a huge number of other high profile Australian YA writers from Muslim backgrounds...

1st: Does my Head Look Big in this? - Randa Abdel-Fattah
2nd: When Michael met Mina - Randa Abdel-Fattah
3rd: Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia - Various

Middle Grade:
Equal 1st:
A Different Dog - Paul Jennings
Wonder - R. J. Palacio

Completed Trilogy:
1st: "Every" series - Ellie Marney
2nd: Lumatere Chronicles - Melina Marchetta

Read Asian Oz
1st: Laurinda - Alice Pung
2nd: Freedom Swim - Wai Chim
Equal 3rd:
Little Paradise - Gabrielle Wang
Preloved - Shirley Marr
Rules of Summer & The Arrival- Shaun Tan
Weirdo - Anh Do

Historical:

1st: Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Equal 2nd:
If blood should stain the wattle & Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies - Jackie French
Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park
Rose Under Fire - Elizabeth Wein

Invented Worlds

Equal 1st:
The Curse Workers series - Holly Blacke
The Medoran Chronicles - Lynette Noni
2nd: Crown of Glass series - Sarah J. Maas
3rd: The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien

Collaborations:

(By this point, I'm getting lazy and just copying-and-pasting it out of my spreadsheet!)

Equal 1st:

Begin, End, Begin. A #Love OZYA Anthology

Illuminae - Kaufman / Kristoff

Let it Snow - Green / Johnson / Myracle

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - Green / Levithan

Zeroes - Westerfeld

Starts with an S

Equal 1st:

Sabriel - Nix

Sister Heart - Sally Morgan

Spark - Craw

Equal 2nd:

Shield - Craw

So much to tell you - Marsden

Songs that sound like blood - Thomas

Stranger than Fiction - Colfer

Saving Francesca - Marchetta

Indigenous Oz YA:

1st: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf - Kwaymullina

2nd: Sister Heart - Sally Morgan

3rd: Becoming Kirrall Lewis - Harrison

Multiple POV:

Equal 1st:

Feeling Sorry for Celia - Moriarty

Finding Cassie Crazy - Moriarty

Equal 2nd:

Dreaming of Amelia - Moriarty

The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie - Moriarty

Same Universe:

Equal 1st:

Six Impossible Things - Wood

Wildlife - Wood

Cloudwish - Wood

Equal 2nd:

Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda - Albertalli

Song of the Lioness Series - Pierce

Rainbow books:

1st: Clancy of the Undertow - Chris Currie

Equal 2nd:

Words in Deep Blue - Crowley

Frankie - Plozza

The Hate U Give - Thomas

Happily Ever After:

Equal 1st

Words in Deep Blue - Crowley

Isla and the happily ever after - Perkins

So, you're probably wondering which titles and authors had the most mentions overall across the whole month? I'll have some more results tomorrow.....

Day Two: More #yamatterschallenge statistics

So, I'm definitely starting to regret tallying these results, but I've gone past the point of no-return, so here goes...

Auto-buy Author:

So, if we go purely by book title, the equal-first winners are:

Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
In-between days - Vikki Wakefield
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Every Breath - Ellie Marnie
Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi

However, if we consider that this category is about the author, then if we count the total number of books posted by author in this category, we get:

1st: Margo Lanagan
2nd: Tahereh Mafi
Equal 3rd: Vikki Wakefield and John Green.

Villains:

Predictably, Fantasy and Dystopia dominated this category...

Equal 1st:
Young Elites series - Marie Lu
Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer

Equal 2nd:
A Court of Mist and Fury - Sara J. Maas
Chaos Walking Trilogy - Patrick Ness
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Yellow books:

Most people focused on the cover art, and the yellowest of all was...

1st: Bro - Helen Chebatte

Equal 2nd:
Clancy of the Undertow - Chris Currie
I'll Give you the Sun - Jandy Nelson
Yellow - Megan Jacobson
Zeroes - Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti

Maps:

Obviously, Fantasy ruled this category...

1. Lumatere Series - Melina Marchetta
2. Cracks in the Kingdom - Jaclyn Moriarty
3. Harry Potter (Marauder's Map) - J. K. Rowling

Cross Fan Shipping

1st: Harry Potter (which we can thank HP fanfic for inspiring such talents as Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare...)

Equal 2nd:
Frankie - Shivaun Plozza
Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley
Summer Skin - Kirsty Eagar
The Diviners - Libba Bray
Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas

Siblings:

1st: I'll give you the Sun - Jandy Nelson (and I am so glad that this came out in front!)

Equal Second:
Fangirl - Rowell
In the Skin of a Monster - Barker
Words in Deep Blue - Crowley
Three Dark Crowns - Blake

Most reread:

This one was the most difficult to identify - there was such a strong and wide range of books posted on this day, that rarely did any book get posted more than once. There was one, though, and it was Harry Potter!

Squad Goals:

It seems like there's nothing like harrowing conditions to rally young people together!

1st: Tomorow Series / Ellie Chronicles - John Marsden
2nd: The Tribe Series - Ambellin Kwaymullina
Equal 3rd:
The Sky So Heavy - Claire Zorn
Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer

Pretty in Pink:

As with Yellow Books, this category focused on the colour on the cover.

1st: Summer Skin - Kirsty Eagar. This came out a mile ahead of the others!

Equal 2nd:
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
Queens of Geek - Jen Wilde
Green Valentine - Lili Wilkinson
Under rose-tainted skies - Louise Gornall

LGBTQIA+

The equal-first places here are two of my favourite reads from the last year, and I'm glad we don't have to pick which one we liked better!

Equal 1st:
The Sidekicks - Will Kostakis
The Flywheel - Erin Gough

2nd:
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Equal 3rd:
Tell me again how a crush should feel - Sara Farizan
You know me well - Nina Lacour and David Leviathan

Kissing books:

Four books came out ahead in equal first place - and one of them didn't have the word "kiss" in the title!

Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins
Frogkisser - Garth Nix
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Two Boys Kissing - David Levithan

Political Books

I have to confess, I haven't read most of these, so they're going straight to my to-read list!

Equal 1st:
When Michael Met Mina - Randa Abdel-Fattah
One True Thing - Nicole Hayes

2nd: Noah's Law - Randa Abdel-Fattah

Equal 3rd:
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Graphic Novels:

There was a wide range of graphic novels and comics posted in this category, and the only book to come out ahead was Ms Marvel, specifically the series that debuted in 2014 with Kamala Khan taking up the titular mantle. However, books by Mariko Tamaki also featured strongly in this category.

So, that's 18 days down - thirteen to go! I'll give you the rest tomorrow, and the final results on Sunday! :)

Day One: from #YAmatterschallenge to #blogjune

So, it's June again! But, unlike the last few years, I'm already in the swing of "doing a bit of something online every day"... yes, I've been participating in the YA Matters Challenge.

For the uninitiated, the YA Matters Challenge is a bookstagramming challenge that was set by SLV's Centre for Youth Literature. Each day in May, participants post an image on Instagram based on a set daily theme, and use the hashtag #yamatterschallenge (and #yamatters and sometimes #loveozya).

Our #YAmatters conference is only a month away, so to celebrate we’ve decided to run a little #bookstagramchallenge for #May2017! We hope you’ll join in with our #YAmatterschallenge, starting Monday 1 May. (You could even sneak a bit of #LoveOzYA in there too, if you’re feeling crafty.) We can't wait to see what you come up with! 📚📚📚#bookstagram #bookish

A post shared by Centre for Youth Literature (@centreyouthlit) on Apr 26, 2017 at 4:00pm PDT

I took on the challenge, and posted every day, but also followed the #yamatterschallenge hashtag to see what other people posted. What ensued was a fantastic celebration of YA literature that I have come to love, along with recommendations for books that I have yet to read.

But as the month came to a close, I started to think... what if I decided to table up statistics for the books that people posted? Which title and authors would come out on top? Would any surprise me?

So, I foolishly scrolled back to Day One of #yamatterschallenge, and it didn't seem too daunting a task. I did cheat a bit, and have counted a few books as a series (most notably Harry Potter). But then people started posting pictures of piles of books, and I'd gone too far to quit.

Now, I've recorded all the books for the first 16 days of the challenge, and there are a total of 592 titles!! Which, really, is not that surprising, seeing as the hashtag was used for a total of 920 posts (as of Thursday evening).

Here are a few interesting stats so far...

Day One - One-word Title. 

Equal top picks were:
Cracked - Clare Strahan
Illuminae and Gemina - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Lirael - Garth Nix
Spark - Rachael Craw
Stolen - Lucy Christopher
Zeroes - Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti

Day Two - Pages to Screen

In first place was Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta
Equal second:
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
Tomorrow When the War Began - John Marsden
Equal third:
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
Me before You - Jojo Moyes
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Day Three - Favourite Fictional School

So, wayyyy out in front here was Hogwart's, from the Harry Potter series.
But in a strong second place was the Jellicoe School from On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, with Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy coming in third place.

Day Four - #LoveOzYA

So, throwing out some love for Aussie YA literature:
First: Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley
Second: The Sidekicks - Will Kostakis
Third: Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology - Edited by Danielle Binks

Day Five - Outer Space

So, it'll be no surprise to see that Illuminae came out a clear first, with Gemina coming in third. Let's just count them together as The Illuminae Files in this case so that we can share the love...

Second: The Starbound Trilogy - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Equal Third: Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil and Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

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So, that's all I'll share for this post. Once I've finished tabling all the results, I'll also share the dataset for other people to do cool stuff with, if they so desire. :)

But for now, I need to go crunch more numbers.. probably for a few days. :( In the meantime, if you have any predictions on which YA books and authors will be the most popular overall, then feel free to post them in the comments!

Once were New Grads: Part IV - Matthias and Jennifer

Finally, we've reached the last instalment of this series, and to finish up, I contacted two people who, like myself, were absolute newbie new grads at NLS 2006 - Matthias Liffers and Jennifer Creese.

Back then, in 2006:

They both started their first librarian jobs in mid-2006, Matthias at the University of Western Australia and Jennifer at the University of Queensland, and this was their first New Librarian's Symposium.

...and now:

Ten-and-a-bit years later, Matthias has had a varied career, recently finishing up as Coordinator, Research Services at Curtin University, and returning to UWA as a Library Manager (Science) - "I have come full circle!" Jennifer, on the other hand, is currently taking a break from libraries. "I'm using the research skills I learned in my training and experience to complete a PhD in Anthropology and work as a consultant professional Historian."

On how NLS 2006 influenced their expectations of their future career path...

Matthias recalls the opportunities that came from networking at NLS: "I met a handful of excellent people who have been great contacts in the ten years since." Eventually, the convenor of the New Graduates Group roped him into becoming the WA Coordinator, which started him on the "slippery slope" of volunteering for ALIA. "The skills and experienced I gained volunteering for ALIA has led directly to my career success."

Jennifer found that attending NLS helped her build confidence as a new graduate, and realise that "new grads didn't need to be quiet little workplace "babies", and that we could make opportunities, take initiatives and do significant new things." She was able to take this attitude back to her workplace - "it got me into lots of new opportunities within my institution, even outside the library, that I'd never have been assertive enough to try for before."

On the recurring issues for NewGrads, and how NLS has addressed these and continues to do so...

Matthias notes that, ten years ago, there were many predictions that tech skills were going to be important for librarianship, and having seen the changes in emerging technology over this time, he acknowledges that this has largely become true. Not only that, but digital literacy is a serious issue right now. "It's not just 'tech' skills we need any more, but we also need more expertise in the social issues that arise with technology, such as privacy and challenging copyright laws that were written last century."

Jennifer feels that new graduates are coming into a field where professionalism, and the professional network, is going to be more important than it ever was. "I think the NLS of the future would best serve new graduates if it encouraged and enabled partnerships and collaboration as much as possible, and really established presenters and attendees as professional experts." Though she also adds that the conference dinner should still be a total party.

On their own career's pathways and possibilities...

Both Jennifer and Matthias have had their share of twists and turns in their ten-year career path so far. "I certainly didn't expect I'd jump to the other side of the academic fence!" Jennifer explains. "I think NLS was my introduction to the idea that not only do librarians have the ability to say something and make a contribution, but also have the skills to support it in an evidence-based rigorous manner. That was probably the main push that got me first into evidence-based research on what I was doing professionally, and then developed that love of research that saw me jump to academic research when the opportunity came up."

Matthias also admits that his career has taken a few strange paths over the years, ranging from non-librarian work to taking leaps of faith, such as moving overseas without a job to go to. "Sometimes the leaps paid off, sometimes they didn't, but they all gave me valuable experience. There's more to being a librarian than 'Being a Librarian' - there are jobs for people with our skills in all sorts of different places.

Jennifer also notes the value of her skills as a librarian being complementary to her research work - "having been a librarian makes me a better researcher, and having completed the research experience I hope I'll be able to come back to libraries with better abilities to connect our practice with what our clients do, and to ensure our practices are well-grounded in evidence."

Finally, some advice to new graduates in the library and information industry...

Matthias: Don't be afraid to rock the boat. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Don't be afraid to fail. Share your successes. More importantly, share your failures. Librarianship can be a very conservative profession and it's up to you to shake things up and and bring fresh ideas. Crusty, old managers like me are going to need your joie de vivre.

Jennifer: Increasingly, libraries and librarians across all sectors are going to be on the front lines of the fight for knowledge - whether you're a public, academic or corporate librarian, it's a crucial time for knowledge to fight disinformation, prejudice, "alternative facts" and Google Syndrome. And you're going to have to do it with less support, less funding, fewer staff and a constant need to justify your profession and even your position, over and over again. Be brave, be confident, be proactive, be flexible and be rigorous!

---

And what better way to finish up?! If you're a new graduate reading this, I hope you're feeling inspired and emboldened. I'd encourage you to register for NLS8, but it's recently sold out, so if you haven't, then you're already too late. And if you, like me, were once a new grad, I hope that this has also provided you with an opportunity to reflect on your own pathways, recall our hopes and dreams for the future when we started out, and perhaps tap back into that inspired motivation that has led us to where we are, and into our future careers.

Once were New Grads: Part III - Trevor and Gemma

So, here with are with Part III, featuring Trevor Mackay and Gemma Siemensma, who I first met at NLS2006, and then had the pleasure of working with on the organising committee of NLS4 in 2008.

Back then, in 2006:

This was Trevor and Gemma's second NLS, having both first attended the event in 2004 in Adelaide. They both graduated in 2005, but were certainly no strangers to the library world - before landing their first librarian jobs, Gemma had been working in libraries for seven years, and Trevor for eight years. In 2006, Trevor was one year into his librarian job, and the convenor of the relatively-newly formed New Graduates Group. Gemma was a base-level librarian in a health service.

...and now:

Ten years later, they have both worked their way up their respective sectors to a management level. Trevor is now the Branch Manager for Sandringham and Hampton libraries and Community Support Library. Gemma is still in a hospital library but as the Library Manager.

On how NLS 2006 influenced their expectations of their future career path...

Trevor remembers the impact of networking with other new graduates and industry leaders. "NLS was such a wonderful opportunity to be introduced to larger conferences in a non-intimidating environment. It certainly introduced me to the wide world of libraries and showed me what was going on, giving me the confidence to successful apply for the Aurora Leadership program."

Gemma, on the other hand, already had a plan long before NLS, which was quite simple: "to have my manager's job when she retired."

On the recurring issues for NewGrads, and how NLS has addressed these and continues to do so...

Trevor observes that expectations from library clients have certainly changed over the years - particularly from digitally-literate millennials, and that this poses as a challenge when many colleagues have trained as librarians in the pre-digital age.

From Gemma's perspective, the workforce is even harder to get into now than it was ten years ago. There is much more contract work and less stability, and so many people are competing for the same jobs. "I also think there is less opportunity at the basic level of Librarianship, although there are certainly opportunities at the higher end if people are willing to move for jobs, which isn't always possible." She also thinks that NLS is much more about networking, being visible and being in spaces to get one's name out there. "I get the feeling you have to be very career minded to get a job at the lowest level, to get you into librarianship as a career.

On their own career's pathways and possibilities...

Gemma attributes much of her career success to her involvement with committees and advisory groups. "Basically, ALIA involvement opened up so many networking opportunities, and a chance to learn new skills, such as organising events, charing sessions, and approaching vendors for funding." From here, the opportunities grew, and now, Gemma sits on two advisory committees and one group committee with ALIA, as well as another Health Library Consortia Management Group. "I feel like I am learning all the time and I get back just as much as I put in. From this, my passion grew and I have continued wanting to be involved in the profession at a higher level rather than as a bystander." She also recognises that such involvement also opens doors at work. "Much of what we do is outside the traditional health library role. Our jobs have evolved, and are now more concerned with making inroads into departments and having a direct impact. Some of these things have taken years to implement, but they are now coming to fruition and the library is looking amazing!"

Trevor also mentions the opportunities that professional involvement created. "My involvement with ALIA and as part of the NLS 8 organising team provided some fantastic opportunities to develop skills that I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to in the position I was working in." It has also provided him with the opportunity to present at different events and a build a wider network of colleagues.

Finally, some advice to new graduates in the library and information industry...

Trevor: Take every opportunity - as much as possible - to say "yes" to projects at work, to develop skills so you can discover areas that you would like to work in.

Gemma: Network and get involved - it really opens so many doors, which you may not see for years, but they will be there. Basically, put up your hand and say that you'll give it a go. Volunteer. And write to get your thoughts out there, even if it's just a small thing in Incite (the ALIA magazine). It's amazing where these things can lead...

Stay tuned for the fourth, and possibly final, instalment of this series... and to find out about how to get involved with ALIA, have a chat with your local friendly State / Territory Manager...

Once were New Grads - Part II: Adrianne and Alyson

For my second instalment of this series, I've managed to contact both of the co-convenors of NLS 2006, Adrianne Harris and Alyson Dalby. Having both pursued quite diverse and non-traditional career paths, I asked them to reflect on the past ten years since convening NLS.

Back then, in 2006:

Having both graduated from their qualifications in Library and Information Management three years earlier, Alyson was managing the History of Medicine Library at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, whilst Adrianne was a Knowledge and Project Consultant in the Staff Development Unit at UNSW, running a small special learning and development and career support library for university staff.

Now, 10 years later:

Adrianne left UNSW in 2016 after almost twenty years working there, and now runs her own small business focussing on supporting people making career choices and applying for jobs. "I never went into a traditional library role but instead have used the skills and knowledge gained by studying and participating in ALIA events and groups a lot over the past years. My friends still call me a 'librarian' and I secretly love that."

Alyson now works in Copenhagen as a Team Manager, Data Readiness, Regulatory Affairs, LEO Pharma. "In English, this means that I'm managing a team of new graduate pharmacists on a data migration project for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company in Denmark." She has also maintained connections with NLS over the years, particularly as a member of the ALIA New Generation Advisory Committee, and as an ALIA Director who served as mentor to the organising committee in 2015. She will be speaking remotely at this year's NLS, as one of the Keynote Speakers.

On how NLS 2006 influenced their expectations of their future career path...

Alyson recalls being quite inspired by the huge variety within the profession. The following year, she made the shift from special libraries to academic libraries, and imagined a very traditional career path where she would move up the ranks through a large organisation. "At the time I believed that in 10 years I would be managing a department in a university library." Instead, she found herself jumping between organisations as she sought new knowledge and challenges. "I found I got bored more quickly than I had expected, and needed really challenging roles. I believed that one could fain really useful skills and experience working for vendors, the private sector, even working for ALIA (as in, being paid by them, rather than doing it for free!) This opened up possibilities for me - but also created limitations, because my non-traditional career path was sometimes challenging to explain.

For Adrianne, what NLS did was to clarify that she didn't actually want to work in a library, but to utilise librarian skills and approaches in any work she did, and to share that with her colleagues. "I did think I might end up working in a special library, and I guess I did for a while at the uni. I was highly energised by the conference and the skills and topics we explored work well with most jobs and industries."

NLS also whetted Alyson's appetite for further involvement in professional associations. "Being a convenor of that conference really opened my eyes to what I was capable of. When we ran NLS there wasn't much structured support available from ALIA, so we had to figure out a lot of stuff on our own. Our success there probably directly contributed to my confidence in creating the International Librarians Network with Kate Byrne and Clare McKenzie. That DIY feeling is really powerful, when it works!" 

Alyson also started studying for a MBA; "I loved the project management aspect of NLS and wanted to know more about the legal and financial aspects. I joined the ALIA board because I wanted to use the corporate governance skills I learned in my MBA. The decisions weave in and out of each other."

On the recurring issues for NewGrads, and how NLS has addressed these and continues to do so...

As a New Graduate, Adrianne had attended the ALIA National conference and tried to find sessions appropriate to new librarians, but didn't have much luck. "I was looking for new professionals and some of the topics were a bit over my head. I felt so little surrounded by the big wigs of the library world." Since then, she feels that some things have changed, but would like to see NLS continue to cover some of the basic skills that new graduates still require. "We had an advanced networking session at out NLS where everyone learnt to walk with a plate of food, glass of drink, and be able to shake hands or swap business cards - core skills that you just don't get taught in Library school! I also like new professionals to have a space where they can grow and try things out without the State Library of NSW / QLD etc. judging interactions and behaviour."

Similarly, Alyson isn't sure that professional issues have changed. "Some of the flavours have changed - we don't talk about MySpace anymore, thank god - but the broader issues haven't. New grads still struggle with moving from education to practice, and being supported to do so. They still struggle with trying to bring all their exciting new ideas into conservative workplaces. I think that the wider adoption of social media tools has allowed new grads to communicate and collaborate with a wider audience, so there are some more possibilities there, but generally speaking I don't see much difference in professional issues. And I see that reflected in the programs of NLS events over the years - it feels (to this old timer) like it's the same topics over and over again, but that's because the issues haven't been resolved yet."

Advice for new graduates in the library and information industry...

Both Adrianne and Alyson stressed the importance of networking, collaborating with one another, and using the energy generated at events such as NLS to create solutions and overcoming professional barriers. "I'm not sure how many of those attending NLS realise how closely it came to being shut down," explains Alyson. "It was only due to the engagement and activism shown by a group of new grads that NLS continues to be run by ALIA. We saw ALIA as not "them" but as "our" member organisation, and it was out responsibility to ensure it reflected our needs - no one else was going to do this for us."

So, Alyson's advice to New Grads? Do it yourself. Or, even more succinctly, do it. Don't just watch. "If you enjoy NLS, if you think it's valuable, ask yourself what you can do to ensure that it's run again, and again. One caveat to this is that you don't actually have to do it yourself, and really, you shouldn't. You should do it with other people. Find people that are better than you at something and collaborate with them. But still: do it."

Similarly, Adrianne's advice has always been the same since 2006: network, network, network. "Join ALIA, volunteer and develop skills quickly that you can't in your currant job, build strategic alliances and capture your competences and successes."

Finally, as a Bonus Convenor Question, I asked what vital piece of advice they would give to the current organisers, now that NLS 8 is less that three months away...

Adrianne: The conference is looking terrific and before you get too much closer to the conference, take a step back and reflect on what you have learnt and achieved so far; you will be amazed and energised! Then don't forget to do it again a few weeks after the conference. You have done an amazing job and you need to capture your achievements before you forget the details of them.

Alyson: Make sure you give yourself some time to stop and just watch. Watch a room full of people talking to each other and know that you facilitated that. Oh, and when it's over, I know you're going to be tired, and probably grumpy. You're probably going to hate each other and want to never see another librarian again. But after a few months' break, come back. Ask what's next, and dive back in. The profession needs you!

In case you needed a further reminder, registrations are now open for the New Librarians' Symposium, held in Canberra this coming June.

Once were New Grads - Part I: Me

Since my last post looking back at the New Librarian's Symposium in 2006, I've managed to get in touch with a number of delegates, and ask them a few questions about their experiences as a New Grad back then, and how it's perhaps influenced their career that has ensued over the past ten years.

So, while I wait for their responses *subtle hint!* I thought I'd interview myself for starters...

What were you up to when you attended NLS in 2006?

I was less than three months into my first professional role, as a "Liaison Support Librarian" at Charles Darwin University. I was about to graduate from my librarianship qualification, and took the leap, moving from Melbourne, where I'd lived all my life at that stage, to Darwin. So, it was a steep learning curve on both a professional and personal level. It was my first NLS, and I'd known that I'd wanted to go for a while, through being active on the New Grads Group listserv, which was quite busy back when Facebook was still a new thing and Twitter was yet to take off.

What are you up to now, ten years later?

Now, I work as a Reference Librarian at the National Library of Australia - a place that's been on my radar as a place that I've wanted to work at for at least eight years. It's taken that long to get my foot in the door in an entry-level professional role, and in the meantime I've had a varied career working across most sectors within the library industry, and related roles in the international government and non-profit sector. After NLS 2006, I was asked to join the team for NLS4 as their Marketing Coordinator, which was a lot of fun, though it also had its stressful moments.

How did your experience of NLS 2006 influence your expectations of your future career?

As a fresh graduate academic librarian, I honestly didn't have a lot of clues about what I was meant to be doing. Some of the papers held provide a bit of a wider context for the work that I should be doing, and best practices that I should be aiming for in my services as a librarian. I was also pretty optimistic about my career path, and networking with new graduates and industry leaders certainly emboldened my optimism for the future.

How have New Grad issues, and the nature of an event such as NLS, changed in the past ten years?

I say I was optimistic - that, unfortunately, wasn't always the case. It was a tough industry to succeed in back then, and it still is now. Back then, the focus seemed to be much more on more traditional delivery of library services and career progression, whereas nowadays, there is a much wider focus on the GLAM industry, which I think has made the scope of the program - and the target audience - much wider. Back then, we'd have two concurrent streams. This year, there are five, which I think is awesome. Especially considering that, in early 2008, we didn't even know if the event would continue beyond that year!

How would you describe your own professional Pathways and Possibilities over the past ten years?

It's been a long and winding journey. I've done a lot of diverse and interesting work, which has made me come to realise the wide scope of possibilities that the Information Industry has to offer. My NLS experience - which led to a lot of ALIA volunteer - played a big part of that, especially in all the connections that I made along the way. If I hadn't met Kate Davis, she wouldn't have encouraged me to pursue a career with the National Library all those years ago, and I probably wouldn't be where I am now. Similarly, if I hadn't met Romany, Kate and Susanne who have all worked in International Development, then I wouldn't have had my own overseas adventures in that field.

That said, in some ways, I still feel like a New Graduate, because every new job that I've done has been vastly different from the previous one, and therefore its own learning curve. And whilst I've accumulated a vast range of skills and perspectives, I'm not entirely sure if I've really "made it" as an information professional yet. (Financial security and job satisfaction plays into that in a big way - and rarely go hand in hand.) But I feel I'm on the right path, so that's something.

Having transcended the New Grad status, what words of wisdom would you pass on to the next generation of New Grads?

Never forget your initial reasons for pursuing a career in this industry - whether it's sharing a love of reading, helping people with technology, wrangling data sets, researching history, handling heritage artefacts, or just quietly sitting in front of a computer and classifying books all day. Figure out exactly how you want to be spending your time, and do what it takes to get that job. It may be competitive and tough to get there, but don't settle for a job in another sector that doesn't interest you as much - it'll just make you bitter and miserable, and that doesn't help anybody. Also, be patient. You won't figure it all out straight away, but you can have some interesting adventures on the way.