On the 7th of June 2019 I was delighted to be invited to give a webinar to the wonderful library staff at Bond University as part of the library's professional development series. Bond University was my first role working in a library, and it was lovely to see my former colleagues, catch up a little, and talk about international opportunities in librarianship. Miss that team very much!

1. 5 0 0 0 MIL ES O U T O F
MY C OMFORT ZONE
Joanna Hare
Associate Librarian for Research and Instruction
Duke Kunshan University
joanna.hare@dukekunshan.edu.cn
ONE LIBRARIAN'S E XPE RIE NCE OF WORKING OVE RSE AS:
A PROFE SSIONA L DE VE LOPM E NT TALK FOR
BOND UNIVE RSITY LIBRARY

2. 8 years bookselling experience
MA Info Mgmt (2012): University of
Technology Sydney (UTS) and Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
Technical Services Officer at EBSCO
Publishing
Reference / Faculty Librarian at Bond
University
Background

3. Hong Kong

4. City University of Hong Kong

6. Faculty librarian
Marketing Coordinator
Media Librarian and CityU Rep on JULAC
Committee on Media
Participant in government-funded JULAC project
on Information Literacy
Hong Kong Libraries Connect co-founder and
coordinator
City University of
Hong Kong
KOWLOON,
HONG KONG

7. Kunshan, Jiangsu, China

8. Duke Kunshan University

10. Associate Librarian for Research and Instruction
Faculty member
Faculty council, Computing committee,
Academic advising
Supervise library assistants and student helpers
Projects: Environmental Film Festival, building
photography archive
Duke Kunshan
University
KUNSHAN, JIANGSU,
CHINA

11. Skill sets
FOR AN INTERNATIONAL ROLE
Patience, enthusiasm, perseverance, flexible
Not that different, but need to adapt
(WeChat, VPN)
Biggest area of development. Non-
Aus/Western centric, move towards critical
librarianship

12. Unexpected challenges
But also, the interesting stuff
BANKING
HEALTH
FAMILY
COMMUNICATION (NOT ONLY LANGUAGE, BUT
CULTURE)
LOSS OF CONTROL
REDUCED CULTURAL CAPITAL
NEVER-ENDING ONSLAUGHT OF NEW

13. What I've learned...
RESILIENCE
LEARNING LANGUAGES IS COOL
CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION
HEALTH IS NUMBER ONE
EXPERIENCES NOT NECESSARILY GOOD OR BAD –
EVERYTHING A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY

14. ALIA > Select a region > International
Hong Kong Library Association
Library Association of Singapore
For Academic Library opportunities try searching job
pages of any international or English-language
university in a non-English speaking country
Titles of LIS jobs vary across borders. This list of
keywords can help in your search:
http://inalj.com/?p=1892
Resources
For international job
seeking

15. Digitise your film and music collections
Scan and store ALL paperwork and store securely online (passports,
graduation certificates, medical records, tax file number)
Get a password manager (recommend: Dashlane)
Consider subscribing to a Virtual Private Network service: not only to
overcome restricted internet but general regional blocking (you cannot watch
ABC iView outside Australia!)
Join your local public library to use their digital collections (eBooks,
magazines)
Be sure you know where you are enrolled to vote, or register as an absentee
Preparation
For leaving Aus

16. Thank you
JOANNA HARE | DUKE KUNSHAN UNIVERSITY
@maybe_sparrow
8 Duke Avenue, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China
joanna.hare@dukekunshan.edu.cn