Student placement benefits ALC Library

ALC Library is pleased to be hosting TAFE student Mingli Wang for a work placement over seven weeks. Mingli is studying Library and Information Services to obtain Australian qualifications having already worked as a librarian in Xiamen University Libraries, Xiamen, China. We’re incredibly lucky to have such an experienced student working with us, and Mingli has been enthusiastic in applying his skills to an audit of the Lattke collection.

The Lattke collection belonged to Professor Michael Lattke and Dr Irmtraud Petersson. The books are primarily theological, with a small selection of literature retained from Dr Petersson’s library, and original manuscripts and files from Professor Lattke’s work. The donation of this material coincided with the relocation of the library from North Adelaide to its current location in the city, and due to the timing, this collection has remained uncatalogued until now. Mingli’s first task has been to check the titles in the collection against the ALC Library catalogue, identify any duplicates, and note any significant information on books in the Lattke Collection.

Mingli has already applied his significant skills to improving efficiency of his workflow on the project we assigned. After discovering numerous duplicate entries in the initial books checked, Mingli developed a custom webform to streamline the cataloging process.

During his work Mingli is also starting the process of sorting the books audited into better groupings for assessment by the small working committee of research and academic specialist for final assessment and recommendations on the Lattke Collection’s management.

A huge thank you to Mingli for taking on this substantial task and for being such a cheerful and helpful addition to our library team.