This November we share our first ALIA WordPress Blog GLAMR Professional Profile Interview.

In October, ALIA Students and New Graduates Group, Social Media Coordinator (Twitter) Rhodora Spring (AALIA) interviewed Nell Fraser, Library Coordinator from the Melbourne Art Library.

📚 Question 1:

I came to librarianship from a background and interest working with social history collections and museums. My first professional job was working in the digitisation team at the National Library, which gave me an introduction into how a large library functions and the different roles that go into a library on that scale. Later, I had a short tenure (filling in for long service leave) at the Research Library of the National Museum. Compared to the size of the National Library, I loved working in a very small team at the Museum, which was responsible for all aspects of running the library and caring for the library collection. I had a wonderful supervisor who helped me develop a lot of librarianship skills on the job and made me consider a career in librarianship. Following this, I studied and graduated from the Graduate Diploma of Information Management at the University of South Australia.

📚 Question 2:

I haven’t thought about myself as having a librarianship career or even a career. I just do things that I am passionate about.

📚 Question 3:

The importance of sharing and shared resources became more important than ever – sharing support, sharing stories, and sharing. MAL began not because I was interested in running a specialist library, necessarily, but because I was astounded that such a service didn’t already exist and thought it was a vital gap to fill.

📚 Question 4:

Hopefully it’s an opportunity for people to follow their interests and contribute to a collective project, rather than being stuck in a particular role.

📚 Question 5:

Our small but growing collection of artist books from local artists. It’s great when people come into MAL with books that they’ve handcrafted or authored.

📚 Question 6:

Follow your interests, don’t think about it as a career.

Thank you to Nell for the interview!

📌If you have any questions about MAL send them to Nell at:

hello@melbourneartlibrary.org.au

📌Visit in person:

Melbourne Art Library

619/37 Swanston St, Nicholas Building, Melbourne

📌Online:

Website: https://melbourneartlibrary.org.au/

LinkedIn: Melbourne Art Library

Facebook: Melbourne Art Library

Instagram: Melbourne Art Library, Naarm

#GLAMR #SpecialLibraries #Victoria #ALIASNGG #ALIASNGGWordPress #GLAMRProfessionalProfile

Photo by Rhodora Spring (2022) ©️

Photo by Rhodora Spring (2022) ©️