or the amazing places a library degree can take you

I began my library graduate diploma at Curtin University in 1997and completed it in 2000. After vowing not to do any more study, I returned to Curtin in 2001 and hope to have a master's degree in information management, from Curtin University, Department of Information Studies midway through 2003. Next year is an important in my life because I have been selected as the Australian Botanical Liaison Officer (ABLO) at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London) for 12 months. I am the first librarian, the first marine botanist (my doctorate was on red seaweeds), the first person from a university and the seventh woman ever to take up the role. During the twelve months at RBGKew, I will start work on a 25-year project, Taxonomic Literature Cryptogamia (TLC) a bibliographic database of non-flowering plant information. TLC will provide short biographies on all authors, information on their plant collections and a descriptive bibliography of their works.

Since the 1930s, an ABLO has been appointed annually to work at the Herbarium, RBGKew, Charles Gardiner, the Government Botanist, WA was the first ABLO in 1937 and this position has been held subsequently by many prominent Australian botanists. The ABLO services botanical enquiries from Australian and New Zealand sources, particularly but not exclusively from botanists working in State and Commonwealth herbaria, using the facilities at Kew, the Natural History Museum, London, and where necessary, other European herbaria. These enquiries may involve using the plant collections, archive collection and library collections. For more information on the ABLO and how to access information through the position visit http://www.ea.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/about/training/ablo/index.html.

I am taking a leave of absence from my part-time position as information resources officer, East Metropolitan Health Service: Population Health Unit and from my work as research fellow with Curtin Business School, Curtin University. Both of these positions have allowed me to build up my library research skills and will make the work for TLC much easier. At the end of the 12 months I will return to both positions and start applying for grants to assist in making TLC a reality.

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