Janette Birdsall - Talk on Her Library exchange at Oxford

Janette Birdsall returned at the end of April to Waipukurau Library from her 8 month exchange trip to Oxford, England.
Whilst there, Janette was Team Librarian at Oxford Central Library. In return, Waipukurau Library hosted Oxford Librarian, Isabelle Kleinknecht.
During Janette’s eight months at Oxford Central she took advantage of many professional networking opportunities presented to her, including:
Attending County Book Selection panels
Book selection at Holton
Assisting with an author visit
Working on a Mobile Library
Working at a branch Library

Janette sought out opportunities to present Library displays and observe work colleagues in their specialist areas.
She attended the ‘ONE TEAM’ Conference and Oxfordshire County Induction and found these to be very stimulating, focused, thought provoking events.
Janette’s biggest challenge as part of her position at Oxford Central was the responsibility for a Foreign Fiction Collection, a new concept for her. She feels this challenge would have been more enjoyable if she had spoken another language….another goal, Janette?
As a winning participant of the ‘One Team’ Conference, Janette had the opportunity of planting two Oak trees at Strathfield Brake, a lining reminder of her time spent in Oxfordshire County.
There was some time for travel too.

Janette, was surprised by ease of travel to Europe, took advantage of this. She enjoyed short trips, sometimes with her flat mates, to places she only dreamed of visiting.
She could not get over how old the building were in Europe. Her favourite place was Prague where she would love to spend more time.
In Janette’s words, “The high point of my exchange was the blending in with a hugely diverse culture.”