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!
