Awards

VALA STUDENT AWARDS 2008

Each year, the VALA Student Award is presented to one student from RMIT University and one from Monash University, in recognition of outstanding achievement in postgraduate information-technology-related courses.

RMIT University

The 2008 VALA student Award for a student at RMIT University goes to Alice Fahey.

The top student at RMIT in the Graduate Diploma in Information Management, Alice told us that she would have to say that she fell into libraries/information management. She started working as a Customer Service Officer at Darebin Libraries towards the end of her Arts Degree (Linguistics and Japanese). It was only half way through a second undergraduate degree (Speech Pathology) that she decided she might actually prefer a career in libraries.

She chose to do the Graduate Diploma of Information Management at RMIT because she wanted to study face-to-face rather than online and the course seemed to have a practical focus. She really enjoyed the breadth of the course and thinks it provides great preparation for work in a variety of library and information management contexts. She believes that enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff and classmates were also one of the most valuable aspects of the course.

At this stage she is not exactly sure what she hopes to do in the future. She has loved working as a customer service officer in a public library but she is also looking forward to getting stuck into the more technical behind-the-scenes tasks in her new job at Deakin University.

Congratulations, Alice!

Monash University

The 2008 VALA Student Award for a student at Monash University goes to Esmae Boutros.

Majoring in Librarianship and Recordkeeping and Archiving, Esmae achieved 5 High Distinctions, 4 Distinctions, and one credit. Some time ago, she undertook a BA degree at Monash in Linguistics and Physiology.

For her the Master of Information Management and Systems degree has provided the context for the importance of all the administrative and conceptual tools that she has gathered over the years for the management of data and information. These skills have been necessary to complete the tasks she has been set in employed or voluntary situations, and for effective survival from day-to-day. It not only gave her the 'why' for the 'what', but also gave her a passion to keep on the cutting edge of 'how'.

Currently Esmae is Assistant Registrar at Donvale Christian College, where she is responsible for the availability of accurate information regarding the number of students coming into and leaving the school community at any point of time. Such information is necessary for strategic thinking, budgeting, employment of academic and support staff, resource management, and the fulfilment of governance obligations.

In the past, she has worked as a Legal Secretary, with the primary role of creating, capturing, organising, and selectively pluralising records of legal (or illegal) actions. She managed an Intranet to promote collaborative relationships and sharing via a centralised repository for documents and work spaces. She has also worked as Executive Secretary to the Director, Research and Development, World Vision Australia.

At some point in the future she would love to play a role in the preservation and dissemination of valuable records that cannot currently be accessed. She also wants to see libraries hold their own in the provision of quality information by the discerning use of past experience and new technologies.

Congratulations, Esmae!