Career Spotlight: What I do as Learning Resource Coordinator

February 1, 2024

Rebecca Robinson
Learning Resource Coordinator for the Lloydminster Catholic School Division

First of all, tell us a bit about your current work and how long you’ve been at it.

I am the Learning Resource Coordinator for the Lloydminster Catholic School Division. I have been in this position for 18 months.

The Lloydminster Catholic School Division includes six schools: one K-2 school; one French Immersion K-7 school; three K-7 schools; and one high school (Grades 8-12). I work out of the Division Office in the Learning Resource Centre, which holds teacher reference materials including books, board games, manipulatives and other educational items!

I am responsible for purchasing all the books for all the school libraries, textbooks across the Division, renewing eResource subscriptions and setting up teachers’ and students’ accounts and all the teacher resource materials. I spend a lot of my day responding to teacher inquiries for resources, ordering books and materials, and supporting school library technicians with weeding and updating their libraries.

Fun fact: the City of Lloydminster is a bi-provincial city, the city is incorporated by Alberta and Saskatchewan with a single municipal administration. Although we only have one school on the Saskatchewan side of the border, all schools in Lloydminsters follow the Saskatchewan curriculum!

What drove you to choose your career path and how did you go about getting your job?

My first job was as a Page for the Newmarket Public Library for a couple years when I was in high school and absolutely loved it, especially shelving upstairs in the Children’s and Young Adult sections!

During my undergraduate degree, I worked at the King Township Public Library in a variety of roles including Technology Assistant, Local History Researcher and Summer Reading Club Program Presenter.

After I got my MLIS, I went back to work at the King Township Public Library as a Special Projects Library Assistant for a few years.

Due to my fiancé’s job, we were relocated to Lloydminster, AB/SK. I worked as a Program Coordinator for the Lloydminster Learning Council Association, a non-profit organization for Adult Education and Family Literacy. The work was very collaborative with other community agencies and organizations, which allowed me to make a lot of great connections in the community.

I was a member of the Lloydminster and Area Early Years Coalition, we worked on bringing 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program to Lloydminster. I worked closely with the woman who was my predecessor in my current role. When she left to become the director of the Lloydminster Public Library, she encouraged me to apply to her old position! It really highlighted the importance of networking and making connections in our field.

What kind of education and experience did you need?

This job requires a Master of Library and Information Science degree. My previous job experiences in the library-world have definitely helped me refine my collection development skills. As well, I learned a lot about the Saskatchewan Curriculum so that I could better tailor the school libraries’ collection to support it.

At the end of the day, a lot of librarian skills we’ve learned through schooling and jobs (hard and soft skills) make librarians very resourceful and adaptable to many different types of jobs!

What kinds of things do you do beyond what most people see? What do you actually spend the majority of your time doing?

I spend a lot of time replying to emails. There are a lot of teachers and admins that contact me! On a typical day, the first 90 minutes are spent replying to emails. After that, I do some Collection Development, whether that involves reading some reviews, purchasing materials etc.

I am also very fortunate to work with a wonderful, Library Cataloguing Technician, who does the cataloguing for the entire Division. We collaborate on discussing projects for the Library Department, and goals. We are constantly discussing how we can make the school libraries more student-friendly for example, more browsable, more reading advisory tools and easier for them to access what they’re looking for.

What misconceptions do people often have about your job?

I think a common misconception that also applies to a lot of librarians is that I am just sitting at my desk reading books.

I read a lot about books, like their reviews, but I really don’t spend much time actually reading them myself. I’m so thankful for resources like Novelist, that help us to learn a lot about books.

Another common misconception is that I work a lot with students. Other than doing some class visits for different eResources, I don’t spend much time with students!

What are your average work hours? Typical 9-5 thing or not?

My position is considered part-time and I have a set number of hours to work for each school year (August to July).

On an average week it’s 8am-2pm, however it depends on what projects I am working on or if there is anything special happening.

The beginning and end of the school year are definitely the busiest and most hectic!

What personal tips and shortcuts made your job easier?

Because of my limited time at work, I try to be as productive and efficient as possible when I am in the office.

I have an agenda where I write my meetings, important dates as well as my daily to-do lists. Once I’ve gone through my emails, it is easy to get overwhelmed so I try to break it down and take it bit by bit. I also have lots of sticky notes on my desk for bigger projects to work on, or ideas to consider for the future.

When I feel overwhelmed, I try to remind myself that at the end of the day, it’s not a life or death situation if a resource arrives a day or two late.

What’s the worst part of the job and how do you deal with it?

Hands-down my least favourite part of the job is reconciling my corporate credit card at the end of the month! Because I do so much purchasing, my list of transactions are so long, so it feels like it takes an eternity to find all the receipts and code them to the proper budget line. I am trying to be better about printing off my receipts right away and filling them as they come up, but I find it very tedious and time consuming.

What’s the most enjoyable part of the job?

I love that each day is different!

The type of requests from teachers, admin change based on the grade, level of students and their needs.

I really love reference or readers’ advisory questions. I especially love growing and expanding the Learning Resource Centre’s collection based on the needs of the teachers. In particular, we recently started a VOX Books collection which has been well received by our Kindergarten teachers as a non-screen time activity.

We are also growing and updating our English as an Additional Language (EAL) section to help satisfy common material requests from teachers.

In addition, I love helping to grow the school libraries’ collections, because it is really important to me that each student is given the opportunity to see themselves reflected in the books on the shelves and that the school library is a welcoming, fun space that encourages them to read for pleasure!

How do you stay current in your field?

I subscribe to School Library Journal, they have a really great book review section. I also try to stay current with “trending” books on Bookstagram and BookTok, attending the Bibliovideos webinars from the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, being part of Facebook Librarian & Teacher groups, and attending the Ontario Library Association’s Superconference!

What advice would you give to those aspiring to join your profession?

Network like crazy!

Attending conferences or events will help you to connect with people in the field for future employment.

Be open to new experiences and outside of your comfort zone.

Don’t worry about imposter syndrome, or doubting yourself in your new role, you’ll quickly realize that many people are in the same boat and trying their best!