Special Libraries and Secondments

I have had a number of responses to do with Special/Government Libraries and secondments - mainly about why they don't offer them.

The top reason are the lack of staff in special libraries and therefore the limited room to move around and limited opportunities to move into vacant positions.

It would be interesting to see if special libraries would utilise an opportunity to exchange staff with other similar libraries/departments. I participated in a secondment with CSIRO back in 2002. I was still employed by QUT and paid through the QUT payroll. CSIRO was invoiced for my pay at the agreed rate that their position was advertised at. My leave still came through QUT and my super arrangements did not change. Perhaps this is an avenue others might want to look into but perhaps vice versa, e.g. a special library staff member coming to work in a university library. I suppose the only problem would be the replacement of staff - but then does this not lead to further opportunities for either those working in the organisation or those trying to get their foot in the door.

On a side note, I was reading one of my parenting magazines recently and they had an article on blogging kids. This involved parents keeping blogs about their childs/children's development. I'm not sure if I'd want personal information going up on a blog, but perhaps it's a nice way of keeping a diary that your child may refer to when they are older.

Sidetrack During Research - Overseas Secondments

Whilst researching for my scholarship, I came across the following book that is proving to be quite interesting. Although not directly related to my research, it does raise some interesting points.

The book:

Author: Thompson, Anthony.
Title: MEILLEUR, Mobility of Employment, InternationaL, for Librarians in EURope : professional staff exchanges and secondments between libraries in Western Europe : a survey of opportunities and difficulties / Anthony Thompson.
Published: London : Library Association, 1977.
Description: 68 p. ; 30 cm.
ISBN: 0853656606

I was very much interested in the difficulties encountered through overseas secondment opportunities. Obstacles listed include:

• Qualifications: lack of equivalence and the problems of status in the receiving library;
• Insufficient knowledge of foreign languages;
• Insufficient knowledge of the foreign country and its library system;
• Foreign exchange and different standards of living;
• Cost of travel;
• Accommodation: including home for family, and schools for children;
• Social and health insurance;
• Schools of librarianship: harmonisation of training;
• Library associations: no agencies for fitting persons to jobs;
• Governments: discrimination in the public service, based on nationality;
• Libraries: not special vacancies for libraries, no funds to pay foreign employees, no prescribed length for exchanges;
• Lack of imagination and of appreciation of the value of working abroad;
• Advantage not taken of existing cultural agreements between countries and of twinning between towns.

I'm wondering if anyone out there who has participated in an overseas exchanges/secondment would like to comment on any of these obstacles. Are they still the same? Have things improved? What are the advantages of going abroad?

Questions for Library Technician Secondment Participants

Have come up with a series of questions that I'd like answered for my research. If you are a library technician and have participated in secondments and can answer some or all of these questions, please contact me http://alia.org.au/~suthmann or use the comment feature of the blog:

• What benefits did you gain through participating in a secondment?
• What was the application process for your secondment?
• Were you working at a higher level or at the same level? If it was the same level, what was the rationale behind this?
• What challenges did you face during your secondment?
• What challenges did you face after completing your secondment?
• Did your organisation encourage you to participate in secondments? If so, how did they do this?
• Was the secondment internal to the organisation or external?
• In your organisation are there many secondment opportunities for library technicians? If not, why do you think this is so?
• In your organisation are librarians offered more secondment opportunities then library technicians? If so, why?
• Would you return to study if it increased your opportunity at gaining a secondment?
• Have you ever applied for a secondment and was not successful? Do you know why?

If you are interested in the outcomes of my research and think there are some questions that should be asked, please also contact me with your feedback!!

Old but New!

As mentioned in a previous post, I have returned to my substantive position as Document Delivery Assistant at QUT Gardens Point Library. I have not been in this position since May 2004, so it is almost like starting over again.

In my conference paper I presented at the 2005 ALIA Library & Information Technicians Conference neXt - Multi-Skill Me: Secondment Opportunities and Challenges at QUT Library , I mentioned that one of the challenges of secondments is returning to your substantive position, as sometimes the secondment position is much better than your original one. This is the case for me returning to document delivery. This is not to say that I don't enjoy document delivery, it is just that during my secondments I was continually learning new things and working at a higher level. I suppose the challenge is gone - although I am re-learning my document delivery tasks, it is like "been there done that."

However, I am not looking at this as all being negative. Yes I am re-learning old tasks (which makes it somewhat new); yes I'm working at a lower level - but I am looking at an old job with new, more experienced and knowledgable eyes. Hence, I'm in a position to suggest changes or question why things are being done certain ways. Although if someone can tell me an easy way of doing this without upsetting the apple cart - I'd be much appreciative.

So although I return to document delivery with some disappointment, I am still grateful for having had the opportunities that I've had over the last 1 and half years. I've grown as a person and an employee. And in reality, lets face it, with 4 weeks to go until I'm on maternity leave, could I have learnt another position??!! Or should I be thankful that I've come home to document delivery and can concentrate on what motherhood will bring - another secondment 8-) Although with this one I can't return to childless state - and at this stage, nor would I want to.

Another Policy

Thanks to those who have contacted me offering their assistance with my research. It's greatly appreciated.

I was forwarded another policy during the week:

Western Australia Public Service
http://www.wa.gov.au/opssc/files/publications/standards%20April%202001.pdf

Thanks, Noelle for forwarding that to me!!

Secondment Policies and more!

Happy new year to all!!

Here are a list of policies on secondments that I have found doing web searches and through replies from people I have contacted:

• http://www.admin.utas.edu.au/hr/staff/sd_policy.html University of Tasmania
• http://www.uq.edu.au/hupp/index.html?page=25304&pid=25173 University of Queensland
• http://www.mopp.qut.edu.au/B/B_12_06.html Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
• http://www.pers.mq.edu.au/pmh/17/1704.html Macquarie University
• http://policy.cqu.edu.au/Policy/policy.jsp?policyid=230 Central Queensland University (USQ)
• http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/poldoc/lwop-sec.htm University of NSW
• http://www.unisa.edu.au/policies/policies/hr/HR21.asp University of South Australia
• http://www.scu.edu.au/admin/hr/policy/sec_8/8_5.html Southern Cross University
• http://www62.gu.edu.au/policylibrary.nsf/0/bcd7f211508cabd54a256be200636e11?opendocument Griffith University (within Uni), http://www62.gu.edu.au/policylibrary.nsf/0/7b00f2a01dad84da4a256bf80063f414?opendocument (external to uni)
• http://www.education.tas.gov.au/admin/hr/policies/recruitselectandstaffmove/secondment.htm Department of Education Tasmania
• http://www.hr.unimelb.edu.au/trans-and-sec/ University of Melbourne

If you know that your organisation has a policy on secondments and it is not listed above, please contact me and I'll add it to the list. Or if your organisations policy is listed there but it is wrong, please let me know: http://alia.org.au/~suthmann