My experience with the City of Tea Tree Gully Library was a memorable and insightful few days. I really didn’t know what to expect when I first walked through the doors to start out work experience. I have to admit I was a little nervous and overwhelmed with all of the information and paperwork that was given to me on the first day. At the time I didn’t realize how different everything is behind the scenes and the sheer amount of work that needs to be done to keep the Library running smoothly. There were numerous jobs that needed to be done and you only spent an hour or so doing each job before you changed over. By doing this I got to try out a number of different jobs like customer service desk (CSD), story time, shelving, information desk, working in the chute room and I even got the opportunity to go on a bus run.

By Day 2 I was a lot more relaxed when I arrived for the day; the welcoming and friendly staff probably had a lot to do with that. I quickly learnt that working in the library was going to be a lot of work, but I knew even then that it was going to be a great experience worth having. At the end of each day I left the library with new experiences, skills and unfortunately aching muscles.

By the end of the week I had become accustomed to the daily routines and was sad to see my time come to an end, but was overcome with happiness that I had completed the work experience and learned a lot of useful skills along the way. I think one of the most important things that I am going to take away from this experience is learning what everyday work life is like.

Written by work experience student – Alannah