Justine Hanna has worked in public libraries for over 15 years in the areas of Information Services, Community Development, Reader Development, Local History, Adult Literacy, and Outreach and Programs. She has a Masters in Librarianship from Charles Sturt University (Australia) and is a founding member and the inaugural President (2017-2019) of the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) organisation newCardigan.
During 2020 Hanna developed a podcast called Literary Elixirs where she talks to authors, librarians and local foodies about their favourite books and foods. She also co-developed the Melbourne Library Service podcast Dear Reader, and the newCardigan podcast CardiCast.
She is currently Manager, Library Service Operations at Geelong Regional Library Service (Victoria) and talks to ArtsHub about what her job entails.
How did you become a librarian and what prompted you to do so?
I had returned from living in the UK for five years, where I was working in hospitality running restaurants, and was at a bit of a loss as to what I wanted to do with my life. I had a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), but didn’t really want to pursue an academic career and I had had enough of hospitality for a bit. I was looking at job ads and saw one for a library role, so I thought, ‘Hmmm, maybe that’s for me, I like reading’. (This is a terribly common reason to become a librarian, I wish you actually got paid to read!) So I popped up to my local library and chatted with the librarian on duty who essentially sold me on the course at Monash University.
I enjoyed the Graduate Diploma and was lucky enough to get a job at the uni library as a casual customer service officer. Once I graduated, I applied for various roles in public libraries and became the Community Development Librarian at Boroondara Library Service. I wanted to work in public libraries as that seemed to me to be the space where I could make the most impact supporting community. I was lucky in that first role to be able to deliver some wonderful programs, such as the English Conversation Club, Women in Business Forums, Pop Up Libraries among others.
From there I have moved to other library services and a variety of roles, all of which I have loved and particularly when I get to make a difference. Highlights include the Dear Reader podcast at Melbourne Library Service and setting up the Seed Library and Little Library projects at Moonee Valley Libraries.
Currently I am Manager, Library Service Operations at Geelong Regional Library Corporation and, while I am a little more removed from the program development and community interaction I used to do, I still get to make a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of my community, as I now support library staff to deliver our services across the region.
A major project I was able to be part of last year was bringing in a new Library Management System, which involved a lot of project management and change management and was a fabulous challenge for me, not least because it was a successful implementation!
What’s your average work day like?
So hard to say what an average day is like, as they all tend to be different! Lots of meetings and emails usually, but I can be at multiple locations in a day. Sometimes I may be meeting with stakeholders about a grant opportunity, or discussing program planning with my team and other organisations involved, or working with our courier company to ensure items move around our 20 physical libraries and three mobiles smoothly.
I could be writing up a policy or procedure for consultation with the wider team or be drafting a report on customer experience metrics to our executives.
I directly oversee operations of eight of our libraries and often I will be meeting with my team discussing their library and any improvements/training/staffing/building works etc… I also regularly work on a number of different projects concurrently and so will be jumping from one thing to another depending on priorities. Rarely these days do I get to spend much time ‘on the floor’, but occasionally I will be able to do so and it’s a great reminder of why I do what I do – to keep the doors open and the services running for our community.
What are some of the misconceptions of being a librarian?
We definitely don’t sit around reading all day! I have managed to be paid to read only rarely in my time as a librarian – that was when I was working on the Dear Reader podcast and we were interviewing an author and I had to read their book and had run out of time, so was reading on work time! Sometimes when I was running a book club as part of my role I wouldn’t have read the book (shock horror!) so I would just wing it! I don’t think anyone ever guessed!
We are also quite a diverse cohort, not the quiet introverts of the old movies, but loud and fun community-driven people who want to create the best experience for our members and the wider community and support their needs – whether that is literacy and learning, entertainment or just a quiet(ish) place to hang out for free and feel welcome.
We love Google; we are not in competition, but use it as a great tool to support our communities’ needs.
There’s a misconception we are only helping you to find books … we get such a wide range of enquiries, from how to pay rates or pet registrations, to queries about printing. One of my favourite questions ever was: “How many unclaimed bodies are there in Melbourne?” from an artist who was interested in starting up a program supporting funerals for those people who were not going to have one. It turns out it is around five a year, so not enough for him to get the grant/interest, but a really interesting bit of investigation on my part to figure out who to ask!
Books still feature, of course, but we now also have 3D printers, Cricuts, sewing machines, VR headsets and so many other items to support our community to learn and create.
If you had to hire someone for your job, what would you look for?
I would want them to be a people person as it is all about the people, whether that is staff or community. It is important that they be kind and curious. I would want them to have a customer experience lens on their work and understand that the health and wellbeing of our community is at the heart of what we do. I would also look for someone highly organised – with so many different projects and people to support, time management and workload management is key. Understanding the importance of libraries to a healthy community is also something I would look for.
Read: So you want my arts job: Manuscript Assessor
What are the pros and cons of your job?
Pro – Getting to do awesome things!
Con – Not enough time to do all the things I want to do as well as I want to do them.
Pro – Creating a positive impact in my community through my work and being able to borrow all the books I want.
Con – Not having enough time to read them before they need to come back as someone else wants to read them!
Pro – Meeting great people who are in the community and also working to support community.
Con – Sometimes being seen as a safe space is difficult as we do welcome everyone in the community through our doors and, sadly, there are many people in our community who are struggling with a variety of challenges. Often we can help; sometimes we can’t.
See more So you want my arts job articles.
