I've been home now for just over two weeks and I'm still longing to return to the different world of Vietnam. In the interest of not repeating myself, instead of creating a whole new piece for this post, I have edited the report I composed for general consumption at work. Please note, as this was written for work I haven't gone on and on about the holiday component of my trip. Please don't interpret this to mean I didn't have an awesome holiday, because I did. Maybe one of my best, and I have every intention of going back soon. Now to the report.

It all started some time last year when I mentioned I was thinking of visiting Vietnam as a component of a Grad Cert in tertiary teaching and learning. Some one suggested I put myself forward to work on a new project aimed at promoting and improving cross cultural staff development between our Australian campus and our Vietnam campus. This resulted in an opportunity for me to spend two weeks working in Saigon South, Vietnam in October 2010. My role there was a train the trainer type role focusing on knowledge gained on teaching and learning through my course.

I found Vietnam to be an amazing country. The first two of my four weeks there was spent in holiday mode. I traveled from Hanoi to Saigon via trains and planes. On the way I discovered unbelievable restaurants, made some friends, did some shopping and saw some very picturesque sights.

Once in Saigon the holiday was over as they say, it was time to get to work for the next two weeks. Our Vietnam campus is located in District 7, an area full of new developments. The location itself is absolutely spectacular. Full of shade from the heat and tropical plants swaying casually in the breeze. The Saigon South manager took me on a tour of the campus. It is home to tennis courts, a basketball court, and an outdoor soccer field complete with bleachers and a large indoor sports gymnasium. When I jokingly asked where the swimming pool was, I was told that it due to be built soon. Gulp! Any one would feel privileged to be spending their days working or studying here! I know I did.

My main task here was to convey some of the ideas learned from a recently undertaken Grad Cert in Learning and Teaching. My focus was the student engagement, motivation and active learning. A colleague would arrive during the second week to tackle other areas.

Our library in Vietnam is in the process of moving towards an organizational structure will implementing subject librarians, who will offer research skills classes.

I feel I gained a lot from the opportunity to work in another country, another culture even for a short time. I have a greater appreciation of the challenges faced by librarians working in other cultures and under different political systems. It also gave me a valuable opportunity to gain some understanding of the Vietnamese culture. I think this new cultural understanding will allow me to see things in the future in a different light.

Vietnam is subject to various restrictions regarding accessing social media, which we in Australia have grown used to utilizing for marketing and collaboration purposes. Sometimes our Vietnamese colleagues also face lengthy delays in receiving books and other media as a result of blockages by customs for detailed inspection of content (Acquisitions). Aside from these barriers the Vietnamese librarians must also conduct their business while speaking a language that, to them, is a second language, English.

While processes and work flows in Vietnam are sometimes quite different from those in Melbourne, I found this library to be a very attractive work environment. While always very professional, the librarians were both friendly and welcoming and most of all very eager to learn and collaborate.
My time in Vietnam allowed me not only to gain some insight into the professional culture and issues associated with providing a library service in another country, it also afforded me the opportunity to build professional relationships and the opportunity to gain some insight into the Vietnamese social culture. I very much appreciated this opportunity and look forward to returning to Vietnam soon either professionally or personally.

When asked what I learned from this experience I find it very difficult to narrow it down to one or two things. I learned a lot about my self and my abilities and tolerances. I discovered some of the subtle differences in the culture and in the people between Vietnam and any other country. Primarily I discovered some new friends and a longing to go back to Vietnam.

Intro: Ok, how bad am I? I just came across this blog post see below that I wrote in August just before I went overseas. To maintain some sort of logical I'm going to post that one now and then compose a post overseas round up after that.

So here it is:

It’s almost August and I’m getting excited. Its Tuesday today and on Saturday I am off to Vietnam. I’ll be spending 2 week sight seeing, shopping; sipping cocktails by the pool, learning about a new culture then 2 weeks delivering train the trainer type sessions to university librarians in Saigon. I’ve spend the last weeks thinking about student engagement, motivation and active learning (plus scaffolding, learning outcomes, blended delivery methods) for one session and factors involved with 'Staying current with information literacy' for another session.

Aside from the tasks I need to complete I am also looking forward to gaining a better understanding of the culture and any associated cultural issues. Normally working in a different country would present problems of language (I only speak English) but this campus is English speaking which is great for me but may be quite difficult for the students from all over Asia who’s first language will not generally be English. Overall this will be an excellent opportunity to carry forward some of the knowledge I have gained so far from the teaching and learning certificate I am half way through.

Unfortunately I haven’t yet completed the course ‘Internationalizing the curriculum’. That's happening next February. This experience may provide me with some useful insights to consider.

Note from the last post

Sorry about the bad vid placement and hope the new template colour doesn't startle you too much. I felt cold and thought this would warm me up a bit ;)

Promoting library's with cool videos

Well excitement in the new technology group waned a bit there for a while, but its coming back now. I’ve just finished reading a brilliant book, that I’m reviewing from a journal. The books called ‘Library videos and webcasts / By Robinson , Thomas Sean Casserley’. Its part of a series called ‘The Tech Set’. Funny how that reminds me of a facebook group ;) Well this book is brilliant, I really enjoyed reading it and learned heaps! I wasn’t overly into the subject but as the book was free in exchange for the review the book lover in me couldn’t resist putting my hand up for it. Ok, so this book tells the some what competent amateur (me) how to do everything from choosing the camera and obtaining buy-in from financial stakeholders (or higher ups as I sometime like to call them) to writing the script and how best to ensure your unprofessional actors (library colleagues) won’t do a Nancy Pearl and turn up in twin set and pearls. There’s even a section on marketing your video creation and assessing it’s success with tools like YouTube statistics and Google Analytics. It also provides heaps of online support and points you towards examples of fun and interesting library promotional video’s.

Ok so enough about the cool book but some subject. Check out some of these video’s. I think my Favorite is the New Spice, study like a scholar. It really makes me wanna go to this library....and eat sandwiches?

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Second fav is 'Conan the Librarian'. I sometime want a sword too!!



and finally 'Why you gonna call?' The looks on the faces of the library customers are priceless (even if it is set up). Love the New York City library touch too. Very realistic.



How are you promoting your library?

Short n Sweet

I'm forced to write an assessed (and closed) blog for a course I'm doing right now so I'm a little blogged out right now. Although I did come across these links in my researching travels recently.

I know this lot are not new, they’ve been round for ages but I’m finding the following blogs particularly interesting right now so maybe you will too

Librarians Matter – heaps on VALA right now.



Information literacy meets Library 2.0 – scroll down and check out the Prezi presso on Google search tips. I could actually see using this in the classroom.


And finally check out this You Tube vid. I can see the little red guy running around my library maybe with a little screen for customers to type in a call number. They can escort students to their call numbers. Although they’d be cuter if in the shapes animals. A cute beagle, a Cheshire cat, maybe a green frog which hops…


Cheers

Long time between posts

Sorry! I know its been ages but I'm here now. Mainly because lots of exciting things are happening and I thing my brain may just explode if I don't write them down.

1. In February I went to a leadership Institute at Thredbo. Work kindly sponsored me and I got heaps out of it. Most importantly, I think anyway, I made loads of great friends from all around Australia and New Zealand. I've kept in touch and hope to continue this with regular catch ups with those living in Melbourne, via face book chats and email and the occasional conference catch up for every one else. Another thing I took from this week was focus. They suggested creating some personal career goals and thinking about where we want to be with our career in say 3 - 5 yrs. Then coming up with strategies for achieve our goals and getting us to where we want to be career wise. I hadn't really done that for a while and found my career aspirations have changes. A lot. I pretty much am where I wanted to be 5 years ago. But back then I didn't really know what was out there. Now the world much bigger. I got a lot more about of this course than that but that's all I want to share for now.

2. In March I started the second (of 4) subjects for my course, Grad Cert in Tertiary teaching and learning. This is the implementing subject. We're to identify an "issue" with our current teaching methods and then come up with a curriculum innovativation to fix it. ie. my classes bore the students. solution, make the sessions more engaging. It doesn't have to be a completely new ground breaking innovation, just ground breaking for me. I've flicked through more text books, journal articles, conference papers than I care to admit .. boring! But what has been interesting is taking to my colleagues about how they conduct their classes. (I'm aware not every one thinks librarians taking information skills classes is teaching and I'm not sure what my feeling on this are but for this purpose I'm just using the work teaching). I've spoken to librarians form RMIT, other universities (this is where my new professional contacts came into play) and friends from past jobs. Every one has such very different ways of doing things and I've made notes of all of them. That little exercise for me was better than attending 20 conferences. It would be sooo good if librarians shared more. But this is an on going event so maybe more later. Needless to say I'm really enjoying this subject. maybe because I can see the relevance of what I'm learning so clearly.

3.I'm off to Vietnam on holidays in September. Going with a girl I just met who's a friend of a friend. Why is that worthy of space in a mostly work related blog you ask ? Well I'll tell you. Because at the end of my 2 weeks of travelling from Hanoi, via the hill side tribes in Sapa and the brilliance of a night cruise through Howlong Bay, then on to Denang via whey (I know I spelt that wrong) and Hoi An, then on to Hoi Chi Minh City I'm going to work for 1 or 2 weeks in our Vietnam campus. Doing what you ask? I really don't know yet. But I gather if it's for 2 weeks, undertaking some info lit's with the students will be on the cards. If for 1 week possibly ordering, working on the ref desk, who knows? I'm Really exciting and over whelmed by my holiday and the working in a foreign country bit.

for context I'll add another point
4.I'm also house hunting, have been since mid January with little luck. Since selling my flat I've been staying at my parents place. Nuff said.

Ok that's it for now. More thoughts as they happen.