Staff Profile 

Linda Duncan

Looking back over 36 years of my working life, I realise that as well as now being one of the oldest members of staff (!), I am also someone who has witnessed a lot of changes.

I started working at 18 years of age at the Frankston Public Library.  Computers had not been invented and all procedures were manual which made for labour-intensive tasks.  This created lots of employment for school leavers. I remember cards with punched holes on the sides being sorted with knitting needles to extract information about the overdue books and also remember gluing plastic book jackets in a confined space and ending up very dizzy. There was no Occupational Health and Safety then. 

Society’s roles were very gender specific. Girls were really only able to choose between teaching, nursing or secretarial work. There was absolutely no career advice. I remember thinking how narrow and rigid life choices seemed for women.  (My mother had to resign from her job when she was getting married. She was 19!)

I then worked for 1 year at Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne, trundling up Elizabeth Street on the tram as the City Loop hadn’t been built.  Again, all procedures were manual including a huge card catalogue which had to be carefully maintained. Occasionally the cards would be dropped all over the floor and it would take days to reinstate order.

The following 10 years I spent raising my 2 daughters at home going through the usual ups and downs which all parents experience.

I decided to start a TAFE library course and spent a crazy 4 years studying, working 2 part time library jobs and looking after my kids.  Life was very busy but I had lots of energy and managed somehow. Childcare wasn’t available so I made my own informal arrangements with my neighbours.

This was the time when computerisation was being implemented throughout society and I had a lot to learn.

In 1991 I was employed in a library job at Oakleigh High School but this only lasted 2 years as the school was closed as a result of the “Kennett Debt Reduction Era” (1992-1995). During this period 350 Victorian schools were closed and 7,000 teachers were made redundant. I often wonder what happened to all the graduates who couldn’t secure teaching jobs.

I was finally very fortunate to secure a job at Lyndale Secondary College where I stayed for 18 years.  It was a large multi-cultural school of 1300 students in North Dandenong. I particularly enjoyed being exposed to over 50 nationalities, languages and cultures. This was also the time when I started working on Saturday mornings as a librarian for the Victorian School of Languages, a job which I held for 11 years.

 I arrived at Scoresby Secondary College ten years ago when I was appointed as the “Resource Centre Manager”.  When I first started I kept wondering where all the students were as Scoresby SC was 80% smaller than the Dandenong school but I immediately appreciated the more intimate environment where both the students and staff knew one another.  It is still obvious to me that this makes for a safe, supportive school where students aren’t overlooked and creates a sense of belonging – so important to adolescents.

I have certainly seen a lot of changes in the world over the years, some good and some not so good but change is something we all have to cope with and adapt to. Let’s hope that the current pandemic of 2020, although having many truly devastating aspects, will also bring about some positive changes that we can look back on in the years ahead.

Mrs Linda Duncan

Manager - Resource Centre