Alumni profile

Ella Rohde-Condon is a Senior Collections Officer at La Trobe University’s Borchardt Library.

Ella holds a Bachelor of International Relations from La Trobe University, and is a member of the class of 2010.

There’s a case to be made that it was destiny for Ella to study at La Trobe. A number of her friends and family studied here, leading her to become well acquainted with the campus prior to commencing her studies.

“My life long best friend was already studying here, my older sister and her husband studied here, my cousin studied and lived at Glenn College, and another cousin was a lecturer here,” Ella said.

I guess you could say La Trobe has always been in my blood.

Throughout her time at the University as both a student and staff member, Ella has made it an objective to take advantage of the plethora of opportunities on offer. During her degree, she studied for an entire year on exchange at the University of Washington, describing the experience as the “best thing I’ve ever done”. The year on exchange unexpectedly ignited the idea of being a librarian within Ella. 

“The campus I was on had the most beautiful library I’d ever seen. That’s where I realised a Librarian was a real job I could make happen,” she said. 

After graduating, Ella set about making that realisation a reality. After completing a Master of Information Management, she immediately started a role in La Trobe’s Borchardt Library. Here, Ella has continued pursuing chances to further her career and personal progression.

“I have taken as many opportunities to try out new things as I can, and this included acting as a Senior Collections Officer for almost a year before the job was officially advertised,” she said.

“Along the way, I’ve also acted in the Discovery and Subscriptions Services team, and even did social media a couple days a week for a bit too. You could say I get bored easily and always look to be learning something new.”

In her current role as a Senior Collections Officer, Ella and her team are tasked with providing all non-recurrent resources. 

“We order, process and catalogue these resources, and if any of the digital things aren’t working, we are the ones who fix it,” she said.

“We receive a lot of donations for the library which need to be processed as well. I currently have a stack of books from the 1850s sitting on my very dusty desk, waiting to be put in the catalogue and then to go onto the shelves.”

While La Trobe has been a crucial step in Ella’s career, she admits she has aspirations outside of the University, though she says that it would be hard for her to leave.

“The Library is a really welcoming place and while career wise I would like to be involved with things we don’t do here, it is very hard to imagine leaving such an inclusive and social work place,” she said.

“[My] dream job is probably something to do with maps, or just working in an important cultural institution – State Library, British Library [or] Smithsonian. I have lofty dreams.”

For now, Ella is content with her role within the Borchardt Library. In the immediate future with the Library, she hopes to apply her time to digitising the extensive collections and to spread the message on what there is on offer. 

It’s not widely known that La Trobe graduates are entitled to receive generous offerings as part of the alumni benefits program. The program includes opportunities for lifelong learning and career development, as well as access to exclusive experiences and discounts on health and wellbeing services.

As an alumna and a library employee, Ella is an expert on the benefits that the library offers as part of the program.

“[Library membership is] free for all graduates and former staff. Once you’ve joined, you can access a list of databases from any computer you wish,” she said.

“There are also additional databases available to alumni if you come in to a campus library and log in to a computer. As for physical items … you can borrow up to 10 at a time. 

“Considering most unis don’t offer any outside library access to databases for alumni, what we offer is pretty amazing.”

Find out more about the benefits in joining the library here.

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Last updated: 9th April 2026