KAROLINA IVANIŠEVIĆ

PRVA GIMNAZIJA SPLIT (The First Grammar school)
TESLINA 10
21 000 SPLIT
CROATIA

About me:
I am 28 years old. After one year of living and working in London in order to improve my English, I finished a five-year study of Information and Library Science in Zadar in Croatia and gained the title of master of Library science, specialized in digitizing. I started working in the school library in Split in November 2011. Split is the largest city in Dalmatia. It is situated at the East coast of the Adriatic Sea, centred around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its bay and port. With a population of 220,000 citizens and a metropolitan area numbering up to 349,314.

Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and the second-largest city of Croatia.

About school:
We are a four-year grammar school focusing on modern and classical languages. Our 673 students achieve exellent academic results and show keen interest in a variety of subjects, preparing them for university studies. Our over 50 staff members teach subjects ranging from Humanities (Croatian, foreign languages, classical Latin and Greek, history, philosophy, ethics, logic, sociology, psychology, religious education), IT, PE and Arts to Sciences (mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, geography). The school also offers different extracurricular activities such as sports, creative writing and journalism, drama, photography, volunteer work.

We have modern classrooms with 30 computers, biology and chemistry cabinet. Each classroom has an LCD projector, cabinets with audio devices, books and dictionaries for foreign languages and all teachers use portable computers. Schools headmaster is Marijan Puljiz.

About library:
The library was founded in 1992. Its collection consists of titles that are in function of language teaching and classical fields. The library has a valuable collection of historic rarities. Since 1993. it is registered by the Regional Bureau for the Protection of Cultural Monuments as a cultural heritage for preservation.

Today we are using computers, Internet and multimedia to access any content for school. Our objective is to provide our customers with prompt and accurate information about the amenities that interest them and help them to develop their creativity potential and to use their gained knowledge.

1. How long have you been a member of the library circus? (eg, the first library experience, first job in the library, etc.)

University education gave me a wide range of theoretical knowledge, but also insight into the practical aspects. My first library experience was during the practice work in a public library as a part of my first year on the University 2005./2006.. Since then I worked in many different libraries during my education and after my graduation I worked in an elementary school and my current job is in this high school in Split, Croatia.

2. What has driven you to look for / accept a job in the library area? (your motivation)

I have always been a huge book lover and combined with my passion for technology, this makes it a perfect job to me. I enjoy working with customers, particularly with students in the school library. My one year of internship in Elementary School helped me acquire desirable experience in working with children through workshops and lectures that I did in each class based on the Curriculum for school libraries in Croatia.

 3. What are your responsibilities and how has your opinion changed as most clearly?

As a school librarian in charge of the entire library, I have many chores. This includes developing book collection, online catalouging, organizing it on shelves and preservation. I also participate in all the important school events, cooperating with other teachers. I organize many workshops or lectures with students and make posters about important events. I have also formed a group of students interested in librarianship in order to develop literacy skills and encourage reading.

Knjiznica (School Library)

4. What kind of role does Social Media play in your life? What does it offer for your work?

Like many other people I use social media, preferably Facebook. It helps me a lot to improve social interaction by staying in touch with friends and relatives I know in real life. It is a brilliant use of the web, it has many of the features as well as the platform and news feed and that’s really beneficial. It helps me a lot with my work as well. Even though I tend to avoid giving away too personal information and uploading too many personal photos, because it is common for our future employers to check out our profiles in order to collect as much information about potencial employees. As far as my colleagues, I prefer talking to them through Facebook group „Knjižničari“ (meaning Librarians) where I can get all the neccessary information and where we help each other with different advice and ideas.

Since I’m currently working in a school library there is much controversy regarding students’ use of Facebook in a library at school. My opinion is that it should not be completely forbbiden, since the Internet browsing is already censored while we use CARNET (Croatian Academic Research Network) connection and students’ computers are censored for all the inappropriate content. I try to make my library a comfotable, attractive and modern place as much as I can, so I allow them to use Facebook and other social networks while I unobtrusively monitor their behaviour and they appreciate it. Not only do they come to the library to relax and chat during the break, but they also use it to gain some knowledge, share information and help each other.

So to me, social media is crucial to use as a tool to expand my social and professional network.

 5. What priorities will emerge for the future development/evolution for your job/ the library you work for?

My future professional ambition is to work in a multicultural environment and explore different approaches in Librarianship. I am very passionate about Information literacy, digital libraries and the future of Information science. I am very much looking forward to new opportunities in the same field and I hope to fulfil my desire for long life learning.