To start my work experience at the Nundah Brisbane City Council Library, I met with the librarian in charge of to discuss library routines, the library's school holiday program and work place health and safety considerations.
We negotiated my hours and discussed the school holiday program which comprises story telling, craft activities, and a pantomime. Then most of the meeting was spent discussing work place health and safety. Brisbane City Council Libraries have a Zero Harm policy. This involves being on the look out for hazards, doing lower and upper body stretches before beginning work, using flexible rostering in smaller libraries to ensure rotation from 'front-of-house' duties such as circulation desk, to roving service and 'back-of-house' duties. The LIC explained the risk of carpal tunnel and repetitive strain injuries; and demonstrated strategies and equipment for minimising risk, e.g. shelving tool, time limits on shelving activities.
It is interesting that despite the importance of work place health and safety issues, this topic doesn’t seem to be explicitly covered in any of the units offered in the Master of Education (Teacher-Librarianship).
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I decided to take an outward looking approach to teacher-librarianship, connecting our students to the world outside school. The local Council library seemed an excellent place to start. Initially, I thought establishing links with the library would supplement our limited non-fiction collection. Completing 20 hours of work experience at a BCC library raised my awareness of the wide range of resources and services available through BCC libraries.