Jayne Cleave recently joined the Library as Coordinator, Library Exhibitions and Programs. We spoke to Jayne to learn more about her work history, interests and her role at the library:
My career has taken me to some amazing organisations around the world. I started out in arts marketing, working at the Perth International Arts Festival and for a small consultancy in London. I then landed a fantastic role at Penguin Books UK, coordinating the marketing for their two travel guide brands, DK Travel and Rough Guides, before moving into a general marketing role for Dorling Kindersley. I spent five years at Penguin Books UK in London and was responsible for a couple of award-winning campaigns, however I found the profit-driven nature of publishing disheartening and realised I wanted to move out of marketing completely.
After some soul-searching and a move to Melbourne, I enrolled in a postgraduate Information Management course at RMIT University. The same week I started studying, I also started a position at the State Library of Victoria in a project management position and my passion for working in libraries began. My team worked with the Victorian public library sector and we delivered a range of strategic projects to support the delivery of library services and the development of the state’s workforce. It was a great job and one in which I found great fulfilment.
The birth of twins prompted a move back to Perth, a spell of maternity leave and some part time work in a small event management consultancy, whose main client and event was the State Library of Western Australia’s Disrupted Festival of Ideas. I was driven to return to work in a library and took up a position as Team Leader Programs at Fremantle Library, before being promoted to Library Manager after about 18 months. While at Fremantle I oversaw the move back into the new library space at Walyalup Civic Centre and two consecutive wins of the Library Board Award for Library Connect, a social work program in the library, and LibraryCraft, a statewide Mine Craft server for young people across Western Australia.
Despite the amazing team and impactful work I was involved with at Fremantle, I found full time work with small children to be an unsustainable arrangement. I worked briefly at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in a Business Manager role, before spying what looked like the perfect position at Curtin University’s newly reopened library – Coordinator, Library Exhibitions & Programs.
This new role is an exciting one! I am responsible for identifying and bringing together visual enrichment in the library, especially utilising the level 3 exhibitions space and display screen. This involves content development, which will include looking for opportunities to surface our collection, showcasing research, and encouraging students to reflect on their own experiences, and ultimately bringing that together to tell a story or explore a theme. I’m also looking at how best to use the equipment we have in an efficient and effective way, giving us a visually enticing space that has some flexibility to use as we need it without being too resource intensive. The other part of my role is supporting the events and programs that will be delivered in and around the Library, particularly in the lovely level 7 events spaces.
The main challenge of the role is that as a new position, there are a of lot unknowns around it in terms of what is achievable with the time and resources we have. This also makes it exciting and I’m looking forward to really exploring what’s possible in the spaces we have available. This is my first time working at a university, so there is a lot to learn about how to navigate Curtin University that is very new to me.
Unsurprisingly for a librarian, I read a lot, especially sci-fi and fantasy, and was a judge in this year’s Premier’s Book Awards. I enjoy running (slowly), yoga, cooking (while sipping on wine), helping out at my kids’ school, and looking after my old cat Mojo.
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