I have enjoyed an interesting and challenging career, with many diverse opportunities to work in the corporate sector, the public sector and currently the academic sector.
While my initial career journey started at the University of Natal, where I taught German, I moved continents and careers to become a librarian in Australia. I worked mainly in the field of business and legal information, with some of the larger accounting and law firms, including Coopers & Lybrand and Freehill Hollingdale & Page.
Overview of my academic career
The overview of my academic life presents the synopsis of my education qualifications, employment record, academic service, industry consultation work, as well as the grants and awards I have won.
My academic career currently focuses on three main areas: Teaching, Research and the Australian ePortfolio Project.
Teaching and learning
In 2000 I was invited to join Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in the School of Information Systems, where I have been directly involved in the Master of Information Management program for several years. Following administative changes at QUT, the program leading to qualifications in library and information management, the Master of Information Technology (Library and Information Science) now sit in the School of Information Technology in the Faculty of Science and Technology. The subjects I am teaching in 2009 include Professional Practice, Evidence Based Practice and Law Librarianship: Legal Research. I had great fun running an international Summer School on evidence based library and information practice (EBLIP) at the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart, Germany in 2008.
The high quality of my teaching has been recognised through a number of awards, including the QUT Vice-Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award for Team Teaching, won jointly with my colleague Helen Partridge, and a number of Faculty awards for teaching innovation. In 2007, Helen and I were selected as QUT's nominees for the Carrick Award for Teaching Excellence (Team Teaching).
Research
Since 2006, I have been Project Leader for the neXus study, which has examined the issues associated with the library and information services (LIS) workforce in Australia. The project was born from the fundamental belief that there was a nexus, a deep connection, or indeed a series of connections, between education, curriculum, recruitment, retention, training and development that was necessary to sustain and develop the LIS workforce in Australia. The project has focused on both individual LIS workers (neXus1) and LIS institutions (neXus2). Support for the project has been provided by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and National and State Libraries of Australasia (NSLA). Details about the neXus project can be found in the LIS workforce area of the ALIA website.
Australian ePortfolio Project
In 2007, I was asked to become Project Leader of the Australian ePortfolio Project (AeP), funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC). I have overseen Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the AeP project, which has been a very stimulating and exciting period in my career. The AeP website presents details of the project, including the AeP Symposium held in February 2008 and the AeP2 Symposium held in February 2009. The AeP project team hosts an ePortfolio community of practice on the ALTC Exchange (ePortfolio Practice Group).
