camille heckley

This was a graduate contract role at SLV following on from a stint of work placement as part of my Information Management studies the previous year. This contract had me assisting the Acquisitions department with processing a backlog of donated materials. Using Libraries Australia and WorldCat databases I located useable records for each donated book and loaded those records onto the SLV system, preparing the books for cataloguing and end processing. As a result of this work, the department was able to exceed its KPI's for this project and fast track items which would otherwise have spent undetermined time in storage, into the collection, bringing the Donations side of the Acquistions department into sharper focus. During this period I also worked within the Monograph Acquistions team on processing invoices, preparing newly arrived books for cataloguing and general data entry tasks as required. This contract directly led to my achieving full time employment at State Library of Victoria and was an excellent starting point for my career in the library industry.

This role comprised of daily acquisition to the library database of serials and newspapers, maintaining and updating bibliographic records, relocation of items within the library, processing of invoices, following up on unreceived materials with publishers and vendors as well as dealing with written and phone inquiries from current and potential vendors. Regular project work was also a feature, usually involving large serial collections donated to SLV. Attention to detail was a must, as was an ability to communicate with a variety of stakeholders, including fellow department staff, wider library staff, publication vendors and publishers , organisation representatives and members of the public. Excellent phone manner, written communication and inter personal skills were vital.