Usha Chand, migrant and pacific peoples adviser attended New Zealand Diversity Forum on Sunday 22 -23 August 2010 held at Christchurch. The Forum covered issues around community living, education, youth and minority.
Some highlights were :
Getting to know staff from the community organisations and agencies working with migrants and refugees in South Island eg. Refugee Services Aotearoa, Settling In, Settlement Support, Human Rights Commission, Office of Ethnic Affairs, Christchurch Resettlement Services, Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce, Hagley Community College, Peeto Learning Centre, Shakti Ethnic Women’s Centre, Canterbury Refugee Council and NZ Police
- Hassan Ibrahim, Refugee Education Coordinator, Ministry of Education’s session on how NZ Curriculum framework supports refugee education. Some of the challenges for Muslim students and their families in NZ schools are: age of the students, different teaching system, number of students in a class, length of stay in NZ, teacher-student expectations, concept of respect, social integration with peers and peer pressure, exposure to historical drama. Accurate community mapping by schools and resulting strategies to help distinct student needs leads to successful outcomes for students and the school.
- Mia Northrop’s session on her Vindaloo against violence campaign. Mia, a social media expert from Melbourne, used Face book to mobilize 17,000 people across the world to show support for the Indian community to go dining at 400 local Indian restaurants on a given night. Media coverage of a spate of attacks against Indian students in Australia prompted her to do something that was effective yet did not require too much money, time or lots of people
-Graeme Innes, Australia’s Disability Discrimination and Race Discrimination Commissioner is a lawyer, mediator, and human rights campaigner for 30 years and was the first Chair of Vision Australia, Australia’s national blindness agency. He delivered his message of ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ (i.e. do not campaign against one another) through 3 stories: the year the blind got to vote via secret ballot in Australia, meeting and working with Sharon, a sex change gay and Keith, blind, competitive House captain in a school
-Hana O’Reagan, Member of the Maori Language Commission and Kairahi at CPIT, talked of how important it is to feel comfortable with who we are and identifying where we belong. As examples, she talked of how when she was growing up, different people’s perception of who she was differed from her perception of herself as a Maori. At primary school, she got called a ‘nigger’ whereas at a Maori Girls boarding school she was a ‘honki’
-youth group issues presentations called “little things matter.” The issues highlighted were education, diversity and importance of communication between communities.
http://www.slideshare.net/nzhumanrights
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
New Zealand Family History Fair, Hamilton, 16-18 July, 2010
Shona Lewis and Marie Hickey, attended the first NZ Family History Fair in Hamilton, representing the Auckland Research Centre, Auckland City Libraries as exhibitors. It was organised by the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, who the Auckland Research Centre has a close relationship with.
Article from Shona Lewis -
It started off on the Friday, with registrations, and the setting up of exhibition stands, followed up by the NZSG AGM meeting. In the evening, the Governor General, Anand Satyanand, and Mayor of Hamilton Bob Simcock, attended the opening ceremony and dinner with a full Maori welcome.
The Fair started on Saturday morning with seminars being run throughout the day over both days of the weekend. Marie and I alternated between looking after the stand and attending seminars.
We had probably the best position right at the entrance to the exhibition hall and right next door to the main NZSG stand; which meant we attracted a lot of exhibitors.
Our stand was decorated with posters and flyers of our Family History events, and leaflets promoting our Family History collections, as well as a few promoting Specials and the Library as a whole. We had a Powerpoint presentation running on loop on the datashow, which showed off our digital library and what sort of information could be found within, and again, slides of our posters about our FH events.
The datashow proved very successful at pulling people into the stand, and allowed us the opportunity of being able to do live demonstrations on the other laptop of how to search on our digital library. On Saturday morning alone, I managed to find a total of SIX ancestors for researchers - immensely satisfying!
The seminars were of good quality - they covered all different topics and were relevant for the beginner right through to the more experienced researcher. As I often present to the public these days, it was of interest to me to watch the different presenting styles. Of value, too, was getting insight and inspiration of what might prove useful for future family history lunchtime sessions.
For me, personally, the most useful tip I learned was to use a different colour folder, box etc, for each branch of my family tree, and to start a new folder for each member of the family once they got married. That way you can tell at a glance which branch they belong to. Useful, as my personal research has got so large, its become quite hard to manage.
The Fair closed at 5pm on Sunday - and was extremely successful. Well in excess of 1000 people visited the Fair over the two days, and its hoped that it will be held again in two to three years time.
Article from Marie Hickie -
I recently attended the inaugural New Zealand Society of Genealogists Family History Fair which was held at Te Rapa.
The week-end included a series of talks lasting about ½ hour each and there were stalls showcasing a variety of exhibitors – Auckland Research Centre included.
I managed to attend three talks over the course of the week-end, these were about Archives New Zealand, Resources in Australia and Unusual New Zealand resources. The talk on Archives New Zealand and Australian resources were very interesting.
Shauna Hicks reminded us that there are virtually no central records for Australia so it is necessary to know when the state came into being and how it was governed prior to that date as the records would be located at the appropriate archives. Graham Langton spoke about the popular records such as wills, pre 1920 army personnel files, passenger lists, notices of intention to marry etc and how Archives New Zealand works. Robyn Williams’ talk on unusual New Zealand resources stressed that you should also “think outside of the box” with your family history research and looking at alternative sources such as school magazines/histories, church/local histories, gazettes etc to get a more rounded view of life in the times of your forebears.
One of the highlights was the Who do you think you are? Presentation by Jan Gow at the official dinner on Friday night which highlighted the family of the Topp Twins – Jools was present as were her parents.
A thoroughly but busy week-end.
Article from Shona Lewis -
It started off on the Friday, with registrations, and the setting up of exhibition stands, followed up by the NZSG AGM meeting. In the evening, the Governor General, Anand Satyanand, and Mayor of Hamilton Bob Simcock, attended the opening ceremony and dinner with a full Maori welcome.
The Fair started on Saturday morning with seminars being run throughout the day over both days of the weekend. Marie and I alternated between looking after the stand and attending seminars.
We had probably the best position right at the entrance to the exhibition hall and right next door to the main NZSG stand; which meant we attracted a lot of exhibitors.
Our stand was decorated with posters and flyers of our Family History events, and leaflets promoting our Family History collections, as well as a few promoting Specials and the Library as a whole. We had a Powerpoint presentation running on loop on the datashow, which showed off our digital library and what sort of information could be found within, and again, slides of our posters about our FH events.
The datashow proved very successful at pulling people into the stand, and allowed us the opportunity of being able to do live demonstrations on the other laptop of how to search on our digital library. On Saturday morning alone, I managed to find a total of SIX ancestors for researchers - immensely satisfying!
The seminars were of good quality - they covered all different topics and were relevant for the beginner right through to the more experienced researcher. As I often present to the public these days, it was of interest to me to watch the different presenting styles. Of value, too, was getting insight and inspiration of what might prove useful for future family history lunchtime sessions.
For me, personally, the most useful tip I learned was to use a different colour folder, box etc, for each branch of my family tree, and to start a new folder for each member of the family once they got married. That way you can tell at a glance which branch they belong to. Useful, as my personal research has got so large, its become quite hard to manage.
The Fair closed at 5pm on Sunday - and was extremely successful. Well in excess of 1000 people visited the Fair over the two days, and its hoped that it will be held again in two to three years time.
Article from Marie Hickie -
I recently attended the inaugural New Zealand Society of Genealogists Family History Fair which was held at Te Rapa.
The week-end included a series of talks lasting about ½ hour each and there were stalls showcasing a variety of exhibitors – Auckland Research Centre included.
I managed to attend three talks over the course of the week-end, these were about Archives New Zealand, Resources in Australia and Unusual New Zealand resources. The talk on Archives New Zealand and Australian resources were very interesting.
Shauna Hicks reminded us that there are virtually no central records for Australia so it is necessary to know when the state came into being and how it was governed prior to that date as the records would be located at the appropriate archives. Graham Langton spoke about the popular records such as wills, pre 1920 army personnel files, passenger lists, notices of intention to marry etc and how Archives New Zealand works. Robyn Williams’ talk on unusual New Zealand resources stressed that you should also “think outside of the box” with your family history research and looking at alternative sources such as school magazines/histories, church/local histories, gazettes etc to get a more rounded view of life in the times of your forebears.
One of the highlights was the Who do you think you are? Presentation by Jan Gow at the official dinner on Friday night which highlighted the family of the Topp Twins – Jools was present as were her parents.
A thoroughly but busy week-end.
POW! The North Island Children’s and Young Adult’s Librarians Conference
Juliana Austen, Children’s Advisor, Teri Ta’ala and Dave Tucker attended the POW! North Island children’s and young adult’s librarian conference in Rotorua on 22-23 July 2010
One of the key learnings taken from the conference was that “Kids are reading more, writing more and creating more but in different way.”
The curriculum & the library, presented by Tracy Dyett RNZLIANZ Curriculum Services Librarian
This is an article from Juliana Austen
Tracy outlined the different way students are approaching research in their schools. She explained the “inquiry approach” to learning concepts, which takes an integrated approach involving values and competencies. Resources must reflect the path of a questioning approach, emotional engagement, student choice, authentic real life purpose, challenges and reflection. Books may include fiction and non-fiction on many aspects of a topic including science, art, images, poetry, myths and legends. For online resources, the National library “services to schools” provides quick links and integrated searches to the National library’s databases.
Check it out at: http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/
Tracy’s presentation can be viewed at:http://www.scribd.com/doc/33685504/The-Curriculum-the-Library
Gifted children and reading, presented by Rosemary Cathcart.
This is an article from Teri Ta’ala.
A recurring theme at the conference was the ability of libraries to provide an escape from the outer world in this case for gifted children.
I would hope that all children’s librarians value their younger patrons enough to be aware of and cater to their varied needs. According to Rosemary, gifted children can feel marginalised by the educational system and perhaps even by wider society, and libraries (and great librarians) can amongst other things, provide a place of refuge for the gifted child.
Possibly the library’s most valued customers, gifted children are precocious readers and would give any summer reading programme a run for its money. A gifted child often begins reading before school, reads widely and is capable of becoming deeply absorbed in a particular passion. A great librarian may offer the kind of access to information that a gifted child is desperate for and the library can become a place to exhaust a consuming interest.
Being aware of the needs gifted children can help the library build a repertoire of books around their advanced abilities, our extensive knowledge of our collection can be essential for this. The recommended reading age of books can be misleading for example, when catering to the gifted child. They may also suffer from other problems such as dyslexia or dyspraxia.
Libraries may want to establish a rapport with local schools to work together in introducing their gifted children to the library. Rosemary recommends then harnessing the creativity of the gifted child by giving them books to review or asking them to help with recommended reading lists.
For further reading, see the articles at the REACH Education Consultancy website.
http://www.giftedreach.org.nz/index.html
One of the key learnings taken from the conference was that “Kids are reading more, writing more and creating more but in different way.”
The curriculum & the library, presented by Tracy Dyett RNZLIANZ Curriculum Services Librarian
This is an article from Juliana Austen
Tracy outlined the different way students are approaching research in their schools. She explained the “inquiry approach” to learning concepts, which takes an integrated approach involving values and competencies. Resources must reflect the path of a questioning approach, emotional engagement, student choice, authentic real life purpose, challenges and reflection. Books may include fiction and non-fiction on many aspects of a topic including science, art, images, poetry, myths and legends. For online resources, the National library “services to schools” provides quick links and integrated searches to the National library’s databases.
Check it out at: http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/
Tracy’s presentation can be viewed at:http://www.scribd.com/doc/33685504/The-Curriculum-the-Library
Gifted children and reading, presented by Rosemary Cathcart.
This is an article from Teri Ta’ala.
A recurring theme at the conference was the ability of libraries to provide an escape from the outer world in this case for gifted children.
I would hope that all children’s librarians value their younger patrons enough to be aware of and cater to their varied needs. According to Rosemary, gifted children can feel marginalised by the educational system and perhaps even by wider society, and libraries (and great librarians) can amongst other things, provide a place of refuge for the gifted child.
Possibly the library’s most valued customers, gifted children are precocious readers and would give any summer reading programme a run for its money. A gifted child often begins reading before school, reads widely and is capable of becoming deeply absorbed in a particular passion. A great librarian may offer the kind of access to information that a gifted child is desperate for and the library can become a place to exhaust a consuming interest.
Being aware of the needs gifted children can help the library build a repertoire of books around their advanced abilities, our extensive knowledge of our collection can be essential for this. The recommended reading age of books can be misleading for example, when catering to the gifted child. They may also suffer from other problems such as dyslexia or dyspraxia.
Libraries may want to establish a rapport with local schools to work together in introducing their gifted children to the library. Rosemary recommends then harnessing the creativity of the gifted child by giving them books to review or asking them to help with recommended reading lists.
For further reading, see the articles at the REACH Education Consultancy website.
http://www.giftedreach.org.nz/index.html
Monday, July 5, 2010
Round Table on Information Access for Print Disabilities
Anna Biazik, Library assistant from Leys Institute attended three sessions at the 2010 annual conference: think globally, act locally! on 23-25 May 2010.
Preconference tour: Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB)
The conference delegates visited the RNZFB faciliaties in Auckland. The tour included the presentation of departments by staff:
- Equipment services: viewed tools supporting everyday life of RNZFB members; from large print calendars to talking calculators and a machine recognising colours of clothing.
- Adoptive communications: JAWS, electronic magnifying glasses, programme STAR (learning Braille);
- Recording studio
- Library: circulation process; burn cd on demand facilities
- Adaptive technology: computer training for members
The vist was very rewarding as staff guided us and responded to questions. The most impressive for me was the Recording studio where we could observe life recording of latest issue of The Listener into DAISY format.
I would recommend a visit to RNZFB to MIS students as it is worthwhile to get familiar and see for yourself what DAISY is, circulation in the Library, recording issues, collage books, JAWS and electronic magnifying glasses.
Trend of DAISY playback device in the world
Mr Hiromitsu Fujimori, represnting PLEXTALK, presented the session updating on news regarding DAISY format and devices. Thanks to the cooperation between the company PLEXTALK and libraries, customers can enjoy news, books and magazines delivered through DAISY players.
There is a range of devices to suit customer's preferences, from small to big examples, from simple to more sophisticated functions.
In general, DAISY players gain popularity with customers as the device can play many formats including DAISY.
PLEASED: Victoria Public Libraries Enhancing Access:
PLEASED: Public Library Accessibility for Disabilities was programmes with a purpose to increase access for people with disabilities. The lesson learned from this programme:
Assess the needs of:
- people with disabilities, also aged customers
- caregivers
- staff
Regarding
- access issues (physical building, carpark, handrail)
- equipment
- training for staff and customers
- ongoing help and assistance for staff and customers
- staff disability awareness
This presentation really reminded us about the necessity of staff awareness of disabilities. It would be useful to include this element in customer service training in public libraries.
Libraries Building Communities: Accessibility needs partnerships
The presentation focussed on social inclusion an dpartnership between public libraries and organisations supporting people with disabilities. The success recipe seems to be an establishment of book clubs / reading groups as social outings, with focus on the market group and cooperation of supporting organisations. The feedback gained from users:
- library as a place to be and meet friends;
- disability becoming less difficult to deal with
- becoming self sufficient, more independent
The presetner read a very moving feedback from a customer saying that the book group saved his life as he considered other ways of ending his life. The programme was financially supported by libraries and government agencies.
This presentation made me aware also about the fact that print disability is not only blindness, but also sight impairment, or being unable to hold a book beacuse of Alzheimer, or perceptual disability.
We all shoul dremember thet Large Print books do not solve the problem as people with cataracts, glaucoma and dyslexia will not benefit from LR. There should be a wider selection of availble material for them, like audio books in DAISY format for example.
One upon a Library: NVDA and the Aotearoa People's Network Kaharoa
APNK presented a story on access improvements for people with print disabilities. Based on a customer's suggestions, APNK computers are equipped now in NVDA: Non Vision Desktop Access. Click on the link to read further about this project.
I also recommend that you watch this short presentation.
For this project, the APNKK was awarded with the Extra Touch Award, presented by the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand. The award recognises outstanding contribution towards an improvement in access or service to blind and vision impaired people and was presented to APNK for their addition of "Magnifying Glass and NVDA software to the PCs they make available in public libraries up and down the country
Monday, May 10, 2010
Waikato/Bay of Plenty weekend school
Jan Rivers, customer services librarian for Mt Albert Libraries attended the Waikato/Bay of Plenty weekend school in Whitianga on 30 April - 2 May 2010.
Attendees were from libraries including Taupo, Otorohanga, Tauranga, Whakatane, Te Kauwhata and Hamilton and they gathered together for a packed programme. The programme was divded into short segments (30 mins) for each presentation which showed how much could be learned in such a compact timeframe, a high energy mini conference.
I was invited to talk for Auckland City Libraries about Developing a Search Strategy. This search strategy is the same that is delivered as part of the reference interview training.
Rodney libraries also presented a paper on Value Managmeent of Volunteers. I was impressed by the demonstrations by librarians of freeware to create a virtual library tour (Wintec Library), online user education (Tauranga Public Library) and a kete for getting your local history and communities online. The kete included audio and video stream input from participants.
Thames library gave a great example of experiences running incentive based reading programmes for adults. Joan Gibbons from Wintec talked to us of the need to take our own responsibility for including Maori content, rahter than always depending on our Maori colleagues, illustrated by children's picture books with Maori knolwedge concepts as a vehicle for understanding.
Phillippa McKeown Green from the University of Auckland shared a great cheat sheet for finding free music, particularly sheet music, on the internet.
A LIANZA professional registration journal workshop captured participant's learnings from the weekend.
Attendees were from libraries including Taupo, Otorohanga, Tauranga, Whakatane, Te Kauwhata and Hamilton and they gathered together for a packed programme. The programme was divded into short segments (30 mins) for each presentation which showed how much could be learned in such a compact timeframe, a high energy mini conference.
I was invited to talk for Auckland City Libraries about Developing a Search Strategy. This search strategy is the same that is delivered as part of the reference interview training.
Rodney libraries also presented a paper on Value Managmeent of Volunteers. I was impressed by the demonstrations by librarians of freeware to create a virtual library tour (Wintec Library), online user education (Tauranga Public Library) and a kete for getting your local history and communities online. The kete included audio and video stream input from participants.
Thames library gave a great example of experiences running incentive based reading programmes for adults. Joan Gibbons from Wintec talked to us of the need to take our own responsibility for including Maori content, rahter than always depending on our Maori colleagues, illustrated by children's picture books with Maori knolwedge concepts as a vehicle for understanding.
Phillippa McKeown Green from the University of Auckland shared a great cheat sheet for finding free music, particularly sheet music, on the internet.
A LIANZA professional registration journal workshop captured participant's learnings from the weekend.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Te Rōpū Whakahau hui ā tau
From 17-20 March 2010 Judith Waaka and Anahera Sadler attended the Te Ropu Whakahau hui a tau at Onuku marae in Akaroa.
The venue was stunning and the manaakitanga of the home people were amazing!. One of the unique things about TRW hui a taui is that they are hosted on marae and we get to experience the culture, stories and history of the local iwi. All of the sessions were delivered in the whare nui "Karaweko".
The conference theme Te Pataka o Rakaihautu - Nga hua o te whenua - Nga hua o Tae me nga uri o Tangaroa, was about presenting traditional knowedge and values in a modern setting. This is the major conference in the area of Maori and information management, and the learning's from the hui will assist us in implementing practical and productive service enhancements for our customers.
I was interested in the Kai Tahu Reo Revitalisation session as it provided some background into the decline of te reo Maori in the South island and suggested ways of increasing te reo Maori. In terms of ACL's Pumanawa project I learned that te reo Maori revitalisation is best achieved by targeting families and not individuals.
The cultural mapping project was about the identification and recording of cultural resources and activities of Maori communities. I was particularly interested in this session as it used traditional knowledge with modern techology to create a valuable resource for both the iwi and the government.
He mihi miharo tenei ki nga whanau me nga hapu o Ngai Tarewa me Ngati Irakehu. Ka Mau te wehi.
The venue was stunning and the manaakitanga of the home people were amazing!. One of the unique things about TRW hui a taui is that they are hosted on marae and we get to experience the culture, stories and history of the local iwi. All of the sessions were delivered in the whare nui "Karaweko".
The conference theme Te Pataka o Rakaihautu - Nga hua o te whenua - Nga hua o Tae me nga uri o Tangaroa, was about presenting traditional knowedge and values in a modern setting. This is the major conference in the area of Maori and information management, and the learning's from the hui will assist us in implementing practical and productive service enhancements for our customers.
I was interested in the Kai Tahu Reo Revitalisation session as it provided some background into the decline of te reo Maori in the South island and suggested ways of increasing te reo Maori. In terms of ACL's Pumanawa project I learned that te reo Maori revitalisation is best achieved by targeting families and not individuals.
The cultural mapping project was about the identification and recording of cultural resources and activities of Maori communities. I was particularly interested in this session as it used traditional knowledge with modern techology to create a valuable resource for both the iwi and the government.
He mihi miharo tenei ki nga whanau me nga hapu o Ngai Tarewa me Ngati Irakehu. Ka Mau te wehi.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Somerset International conference for librarians and teachers 2010
Andrew J Stark, Head of library services and conference director for Somerset College writes an overview of the 2010 Somerset internatioanl conference for librarians and teachers, held recently on Queensland's Gold Coast.
The conference was, again, a tremendously successful two day event with activities and presentation on both days receiving extremely positive feedback. With Somerset International Conference being the academic precursor to the Somerset College Celebration of Literature Writers' Festival, it made March 15 - 19 a truly literary experience for everyone involved.
Conference Monday brought together 7 international recognised presentations who provided an inspirational insight into their areas of expertise. While all quite different in their areas of speciality, each presenter's paper resulted in delegates receiving a highly informative and global exploration of issues related to literacy, literature, research and the role of libraries in the 21st century. All presenters complemented the 2010 conference theme Reading Locally, Learning Globally: creating a universal experience and highlighted to those in attendance the need to understand the gloval implications of our profession, but no at the expense of local knowledge and resources.
Workshop Tuesday exceeded all expectation with the event being completed booked out. These informal sessions reflected the conference theme exceptionally well and I offer sincere thanks to all involved. Clearly, there is a real need for such workshops and networking opportunities being made available for librarians and teachers.
For your interest and reference, the conference presenters' papers are available for you to read online. I would like to extend to you an invitation to refer to these professionally challenging documents, to share their ideas with your colleagues and to consider and reflect upon teh issues raised by these experts in their fields.
Andrew J Stark
Head of Library services and conference director
Somerset College
The conference was, again, a tremendously successful two day event with activities and presentation on both days receiving extremely positive feedback. With Somerset International Conference being the academic precursor to the Somerset College Celebration of Literature Writers' Festival, it made March 15 - 19 a truly literary experience for everyone involved.
Conference Monday brought together 7 international recognised presentations who provided an inspirational insight into their areas of expertise. While all quite different in their areas of speciality, each presenter's paper resulted in delegates receiving a highly informative and global exploration of issues related to literacy, literature, research and the role of libraries in the 21st century. All presenters complemented the 2010 conference theme Reading Locally, Learning Globally: creating a universal experience and highlighted to those in attendance the need to understand the gloval implications of our profession, but no at the expense of local knowledge and resources.
Workshop Tuesday exceeded all expectation with the event being completed booked out. These informal sessions reflected the conference theme exceptionally well and I offer sincere thanks to all involved. Clearly, there is a real need for such workshops and networking opportunities being made available for librarians and teachers.
For your interest and reference, the conference presenters' papers are available for you to read online. I would like to extend to you an invitation to refer to these professionally challenging documents, to share their ideas with your colleagues and to consider and reflect upon teh issues raised by these experts in their fields.
Andrew J Stark
Head of Library services and conference director
Somerset College
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Webstock 2010 conference
Ben Yuan, web publisher from digital publishing team attended the "Webstock 2010" conference at the Town Hall, Wellington 18-19 February 2010.
Webstock is a premier web conference in NZ. In 2010, this two-day conference featured 24 internationally recognised key speakers. Topics were across today's web industry, focusing on web design, mobile application, web usability and open data. Attendees included web developers, user interface (UI) designers, user experience (UX) experts and project managers. Each presentation was about 40 minutes.
A number of presentation were worthwhile and beneficial undertaking for me. The following highlights a few:
Web design that grabs people - Scott Thomas
The first day started with Scott Thomas, Design Director of Obama Presidential campaign 2008. He emphasised the importance of simplified design to improve user experience and showcased the methodology for building website informaiton structure based on mission's architecture. Scott talked about creating designs that deliver clear and consistent messaging and elements between web and print channels. After Obama's success, Newsweek said "Obama is the first presendential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand"
Brian does the Andrew Sisters - Brian Fling
Brian Fling, mobile design expert, talked about mobile web development. The presentaiton gave some useful indications of the future web applicaiton on mobile devices. Brian listed that 56% generation Y (people born 1976 to 2000) own iPOD in US and mobile is atrillion dollar industry which equals the grocery industry. His talk also painted a bright picture for mobile web applications that looik great on iPhone/iPod and other devices. Follow Brian Fling on Twitter.
Security-centered design: exploring the impact of human behaviour
Chris Shiflett, a founding member of Analog, gave a fresh view of creating secure online user experience. IN this presentation, security was not just referring ot programming security, it's really about to understand how people think, so the production won't let people feel unsafe. Chris showed some real world examples to demonstrate meeting expectations is a fundamental of good security. Also this is an interesting example to show off the social media security issues. Follow Chris Shiflett on Twitter or take a look at his blog.
Continuous refinement and data driven dynamic personas - Sebastian Chan
Sebastian Chan, the head of digital at the Powerhouse Museum, presented how Poerhouse Museum tweaked content production on the fly based on web analytics and custom metrics. This presentation is my personal favourite and a number of tips could be applied to ACL website. Seb walked through a real cultural website and demonstrated how Google Analytics data was used to identify main target audience. The segmentation of visitors data then became the driver to continuous refine the content of the website. Follow Sebastian Chan on Twitter or follow his Powerhouse Museum blog.
More information about the conference is on the official website
Amazingly, instead of showing email contacts at the end of their presentation, all key speakers are having Twitter accounts. So, we can see how widely social media is being used in today's life.
Webstock is a premier web conference in NZ. In 2010, this two-day conference featured 24 internationally recognised key speakers. Topics were across today's web industry, focusing on web design, mobile application, web usability and open data. Attendees included web developers, user interface (UI) designers, user experience (UX) experts and project managers. Each presentation was about 40 minutes.
A number of presentation were worthwhile and beneficial undertaking for me. The following highlights a few:
Web design that grabs people - Scott Thomas
The first day started with Scott Thomas, Design Director of Obama Presidential campaign 2008. He emphasised the importance of simplified design to improve user experience and showcased the methodology for building website informaiton structure based on mission's architecture. Scott talked about creating designs that deliver clear and consistent messaging and elements between web and print channels. After Obama's success, Newsweek said "Obama is the first presendential candidate to be marketed like a high-end consumer brand"
Brian does the Andrew Sisters - Brian Fling
Brian Fling, mobile design expert, talked about mobile web development. The presentaiton gave some useful indications of the future web applicaiton on mobile devices. Brian listed that 56% generation Y (people born 1976 to 2000) own iPOD in US and mobile is atrillion dollar industry which equals the grocery industry. His talk also painted a bright picture for mobile web applications that looik great on iPhone/iPod and other devices. Follow Brian Fling on Twitter.
Security-centered design: exploring the impact of human behaviour
Chris Shiflett, a founding member of Analog, gave a fresh view of creating secure online user experience. IN this presentation, security was not just referring ot programming security, it's really about to understand how people think, so the production won't let people feel unsafe. Chris showed some real world examples to demonstrate meeting expectations is a fundamental of good security. Also this is an interesting example to show off the social media security issues. Follow Chris Shiflett on Twitter or take a look at his blog.
Continuous refinement and data driven dynamic personas - Sebastian Chan
Sebastian Chan, the head of digital at the Powerhouse Museum, presented how Poerhouse Museum tweaked content production on the fly based on web analytics and custom metrics. This presentation is my personal favourite and a number of tips could be applied to ACL website. Seb walked through a real cultural website and demonstrated how Google Analytics data was used to identify main target audience. The segmentation of visitors data then became the driver to continuous refine the content of the website. Follow Sebastian Chan on Twitter or follow his Powerhouse Museum blog.
More information about the conference is on the official website
Amazingly, instead of showing email contacts at the end of their presentation, all key speakers are having Twitter accounts. So, we can see how widely social media is being used in today's life.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Marketing Management (offered by University of Auckland – Short Courses)
Greg Morgan, service planning & enhancement management manager attended a short course at University of Auckland on Marketing Management.
Steve Bridges is something of a NZ marketing practice guru. That said, he is an American who has had considerable experience as an academic as well as generalist marketing consultant. Steve migrated to teach the first university marketing course in this country in the early 1970s (at Victoria) and was for a time professor of marketing at Massey University. This two day course aims to give participants an overview of sound principles and practice that would normally take about 70 hours of teaching and learning time.
The course objectives were:
Real marketing, however is the down to earth business of identifying and satisfying customers' needs and wants at a profit. In a library context better language might be, solving customers' problems "profitablity". It follows that true marketing is a consumer-customer or client-centric activity.
And it is a philosophy. Ghandi:
"The customer is the most important visitior on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. She is not an interruption to our work - but the purpose of it"
We explored case studies of how (negatively) organisations sometimes copy the form but not the substance of marketing and when (postively) the marketing manager acts internally as both consumer's advocate and integrator. Advice is absolutely to seat the small stuff, to invest in client-friendly practises and to treat staff too as customers.
The course looked at the component parts of a maketing plan, and this section was full of illumination. I really enjoyed working through hypothetical cases:
Do we understand customer behaviour? Do people's apparently rational answers to surveys really connect with the true feelings and emotions? Do we assume that humans are happy decision makers? The reverse is true - we don't like making decisions and avoid or subvert them. How do customers make choices? How can we in the way we relate to customers reduce or eliminate the anxiety they feel around deciding whether to use our services?
Negative customer feedback is especially valuable to the development of relationships that build detractors who care into loyal customer-advocates. In taking a quick look at market research we reviewed the pros and cons of tools such as focus group interviews, telephone surveys, mail surveys, door to door and web based surveying. We thought about how to make research pertinent, ethical and cost effective.
The course rounded off with sections on branding, marketing communications and social media. Each session was relevant to library service, and to an organisation which has for a long time put resource into understanding the library related preferences of users as well as non users.
Superbly presented and accompanied by carefully selected references to further reading and online resources, this course was just right for me at this time. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of my current role. Further more, it left me confident that I actually know a bit more about marketing approaches than I might have thought. After all, as customers we are epxerts of our own experience.
Steve Bridges is something of a NZ marketing practice guru. That said, he is an American who has had considerable experience as an academic as well as generalist marketing consultant. Steve migrated to teach the first university marketing course in this country in the early 1970s (at Victoria) and was for a time professor of marketing at Massey University. This two day course aims to give participants an overview of sound principles and practice that would normally take about 70 hours of teaching and learning time.
The course objectives were:
- to learn or refresh the basic principles of marketing
- to enable us to critique our own organisation's approach to marketing
Real marketing, however is the down to earth business of identifying and satisfying customers' needs and wants at a profit. In a library context better language might be, solving customers' problems "profitablity". It follows that true marketing is a consumer-customer or client-centric activity.
And it is a philosophy. Ghandi:
"The customer is the most important visitior on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. She is not an interruption to our work - but the purpose of it"
We explored case studies of how (negatively) organisations sometimes copy the form but not the substance of marketing and when (postively) the marketing manager acts internally as both consumer's advocate and integrator. Advice is absolutely to seat the small stuff, to invest in client-friendly practises and to treat staff too as customers.
The course looked at the component parts of a maketing plan, and this section was full of illumination. I really enjoyed working through hypothetical cases:
- trying to picture distinct customer segments
- creating a hypothesis for each (what is the particular problem they'd loved solved? teh benefit they would like?)
- thinking about appropriate marketing mix of products and/or services to deliver a solution of new customer benefit.
Do we understand customer behaviour? Do people's apparently rational answers to surveys really connect with the true feelings and emotions? Do we assume that humans are happy decision makers? The reverse is true - we don't like making decisions and avoid or subvert them. How do customers make choices? How can we in the way we relate to customers reduce or eliminate the anxiety they feel around deciding whether to use our services?
Negative customer feedback is especially valuable to the development of relationships that build detractors who care into loyal customer-advocates. In taking a quick look at market research we reviewed the pros and cons of tools such as focus group interviews, telephone surveys, mail surveys, door to door and web based surveying. We thought about how to make research pertinent, ethical and cost effective.
The course rounded off with sections on branding, marketing communications and social media. Each session was relevant to library service, and to an organisation which has for a long time put resource into understanding the library related preferences of users as well as non users.
Superbly presented and accompanied by carefully selected references to further reading and online resources, this course was just right for me at this time. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of my current role. Further more, it left me confident that I actually know a bit more about marketing approaches than I might have thought. After all, as customers we are epxerts of our own experience.
Monday, December 21, 2009
NZCCM 2009 conference
David Ashman, our preservation manager attended the "NZCCM Annual Conference" at the St Columba Centre, Ponsonby, 22-23 October 2009.
David Reports:
As the current President of the NZCCM and a member of the organising committee, this years’ conference held more responsibility for me than in previous years. This proved to be both rewarding and time consuming.
From an organisers point of view the conference was an outstanding success. In my view, there were three elements that made this so:
- a reliable, committed and enthusiastic organising committee that shared the load and took responsibility for getting tasks done;
- a fabulous venue/location – the St Columba Centre on Vermont Street, with a wonderfully helpful and unflappable manager;
- an eclectic range of speakers that included artists, curators, architects, managers and of course conservators.
The theme ‘Conservation In Public’ was inspired by the work of John Holden who released a publication last year called ‘It’s a material world: the importance of conservation and its place in the wider culture.’ You can also check out the video on you tube.
There were 14 presentations over one and half days, covering a wide variety of subject matter.
Catherine Smith, a conservator from
Dean Whiting talked abut the interconnectedness between communities, the past and conservators. He described how beneficial the development of community skills had been when working on conservation of marae. As with Catherine, he raised many questions and suggested we explore ways of working collaboratively alongside the communities that are concerned with the materials being cared for.
Phillipa Tocker, Executive Director of Museums Aotearoa, invited us (NZCCM) to work together to raise the profile of conservation as a core function.
Kate Roberts, whilst Manager of Service Delivery at Puke Ariki was involved in the design of three major exhibitions showcasing the history of Taranaki and displaying the collections of Puke Ariki. During this beautifully illustrated presentation she spoke of the challenges of engaging the local audience in their own troubled and complicated history.
Our other keynote speaker, John Holden, gave an hour long presentation that came to us via a video link from the
In addition we had presentations that included, an art curator on the subject of “Arts knowing disintegration: Contemporary art and wilful decay”; an architect on “Issues of Authenticity in NZ Built Heritage Conservation”; an artist presenting from the front (without PowerPoint) in a very entertaining end to the first day on the subject of “B-Sides & Rarities; How to Look at the back of a Painting”. Conservators talked about their experiences in
The message I took from this conference was that now is the time to forge ahead, building on the excellent work already begun, to tell the wider community what conservation is, why it is important and how we can work together to create a future shaped by our past.
So all in all an extremely full, interesting and inspiring conference augmented by an AGM, organised visits and the all important conference dinner.
I would like to say thank-you to Sue Cooper for her support and encouragement during the year of planning and organising and to the rest of the Lead Team and Jayne Gutry for supporting me and two members of my team to attend this conference.
Damen Joe, from the Preservation Unit, both attended the conference, here’s what Damen had to say:
I thought the variety of topics was great, and easy for me, as a relative new-comer, to understand what they were talking about. That was also balanced by some more technical talks and discussions, and John Reynolds' talk which was great to introduce a more lateral take on conservation practice.
Paper highlights were… Lizzie Meek's, Kate Robert's, Dean Whiting, Ute Larsen and Camilla Baskcomb, and John Reynolds… and more, I'm sure!
I really appreciated being able to see and hear from such a wide variety of speakers who had some interest in conserving cultural materials. Working in the library, primarily with paper means that my concept of conservation is somewhat limited. Hearing people talk about topics ranging from the Antarctic hut objects, to Museum practice, to the more technical piupiu talk, allowed me to see how the area of conservation is an extremely wide and continually innovative area to be in. This was evidenced by the questions after floor talks, which gave a sense of the community and willingness to share knowledge. While in some ways, (due to my inexperience), I was more of a spectator, I enjoyed participating in the conference, and look forward to continuing to learn more in the area.
Catherine Perry wrote
One of the highlights of the conference for me was the chance to go on a tour of the Auckland City Art Gallery building site with the architect and guilder foreman. It was interesting to hear the architect's ideas, and see the realities of how the old parts of the building are being married with the new. The tour was enhanced having heard a number of papers at the conference concerning architectural conservation. Whether you are conserving a book or a building, the concerns and challenges can be similar, just on a different scale. It was great to be able to get a glimpse into other areas of conservation, particularly architectural conservation.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
National digital forum
Keziah Singleton, digital collections coordinator attended the National Digital Forum in Wellington on 23/24 November 2009
NDF stands for National Digital Forum - a coalition of museums, archives, art galleries, libraries and government departments working together to enhance electronic access to New Zealand’s culture and heritage.
The National Digital Forum runs an annual conference, bringing together people working with digital collections. The conference attendees primarily come from the GLAM sector (GLAM stands for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums). This year’s NDF conference was held in
I came away from the conference thinking about three key concepts: finding content; connecting content; and how technology could have a personality.
Finding Content
How we can make our digital content (like the photographs in Heritage Images Online) more easily found? One of the most important factors in finding information is content metadata. Content metadata is information like titles, creators, subjects and locations which in an ideal world would be attached to every digital object. Unfortunately there are plenty of objects out there with insufficient content metadata. One way to improve the metadata is to allow members of the wider community to add information about objects (a process similar to tagging). This is known as user-contributed metadata. Digital NZ presented a session about tools they are developing to allow user-contributed metadata to be added to their records. At the moment they are working on location data – providing a map where users can pinpoint locations associated with the object (and leave comments explaining why). If users add information to Digital NZ’s ACL-sourced records, we would have the option of importing that information back into our own databases.
Connecting Content
Another way to make our digital content more easily found is to improve the connections between our separate objects. This means finding ways to reduce the divisions and differences between all the databases, tools and portals we are producing. This concept generated a lot of discussion but no answers.
One suggestion was to improve the consistency of our policies and the way they are explained, especially around the ability to reuse content. At present most institutions lock their content down and publish a variety of statements restricting re-use – even though a lot of the content is actually in the public domain. Lewis Brown from Digital NZ called very passionately for a global change to all our policies on reuse, but other attendees disagreed (also passionately). There was however general agreement that we could all at least provide more plain English information about what exactly is permissable and what is not – and we could develop a consistent lexicon and iconography, so that users receive this information in a standard format.
Reflecting personality in technology
Daniel Incandela from the Indianapolis Museum of Art opened the conference with a call for us to allow our technology to “reflect a personality”. The museum’s website has a range of content produced by many of the museum staff – by engaging staff they give ‘personality’ to the site. They also aren’t afraid to try different ways of showing information about the museum and their collections – here’s one example. Daniel argued that institutions can be far too conservative and unwilling to take even small risks. He showed us some videos he made for the museum which at the time of filming seemed hugely risky, but now just seem like interesting videos!
Nina Simon from Museum 2.0 expanded on this theme, talking about the importance of creating a conversation with your audience – by all means ask questions, but it’s even more important to actually care about the answers! And we heard about the National Library of New Zealand’s experiments with Twitter. NLNZ use Twitter to send out ‘teaser’ tweets which link back to items in their digital collections. Another example of how taking a risk can engage audiences in new ways.
NDF 2009 was challenging but rewarding. Thanks ACL for sending me.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Claire Scott, community librarian of Grey Lynn Library also attended the LIANZA conference. Following are her posts:
From the opening keynote address by Sir Tipene and Hana O’Regan, it seemed that the conference would indeed be all about people. As chairman of the Ngai Tahu Trust Board, Sir Tipene led what became one of the most significant Treaty settlements in 1998. It was only natural that daughter Hana would inherit some of her father’s passion for Treaty issues and identity politics. She completed her MA with a thesis about Maori tribal identity, and this later became the subject of her first book. Together Sir Tipene and Hana discussed the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and the practicalities of accurate and comprehensive transference over time. What is lost is often immeasurable, but in the case of Ngai Tahu, and Maori people in general, clearly it is language.
ePortfolios
Another extremely interesting presentation which focused on people was the Australian ePortfolio Project by Associate Professor Gillian Hallam of the Queensland University of Technology. ePortfolios enable tertiary students to track their personal development while also keeping their body of learning in an employer-ready format. While all QUT students have access to t he ePortfolio platform from PebblePad in the
Social media
Also about people was Brenda Chawner’s presentation on social media. Brenda is in the mid stages of undertaking research into the use of social media by information and communication professionals. She compared her 2007 survey results with those taken earlier this year which showed some predictable advances in the uptake. For example, in 2007, 57.5% of respondents read blogs at least once a week (5.4% - never, 12.9% - wrote their own blogs). In 2009, 70.4% of respondents read blogs (4.1% - never, and 20.2% - write their own). With regard to social networking, in 2007 only ¼ of respondents had any kind of profile and many faced institutional barriers. In 2009, this number has jumped to 84.4%, and a number of respondents now actually use their social networking profile for business purposes rather than facing barriers from their employers.
Most people saw the advantages of maintaining a social networking profile as enabling them to keep in touch and connected, as well as being able to present a human side to their commercial profile. Drawbacks included issues such as being time consuming, a loss of privacy, and a lack of face to face contact. Others cited a poor quality of information while some felt pressured to keep their profiles up to date. In addition, some organisations find themselves represented unofficially by unauthorised staff. However, not many places of employment have yet developed a policy regarding social media.
Customer education programme
Kim Clayton from Wellington City Libraries presented a very informative session about the revamp that WCL recently undertook of their customer education programmes, To ensure a clean slate, they started back at the very beginning and asked both themselves whether they were meeting the needs of their customers, and they asked their customers what they wanted to learn. As with public libraries everywhere, key barriers to finding this information involved gaining access to customers, budget constraints, and staffing issues. In the end they surveyed 100 customers and the result was universal – what the customers want are one-on-one sessions rather than group classes. They want the information when they need it, and not before.
Implications of providing a service such as this are, of course, numerous. Firstly, staff need to be fully trained and competent with all of the tools that they are required to demonstrate. Staff are the key point of difference. But how do you train over 200 staff to be experts? Wellington City Libraries did this by having their information team promote a “database of the fortnight” with three to four questions. Managers committed to ensuring that staff had the time and access to participate, and the project received very good feedback from staff. The questions have become a new tool, useful in training new staff.
In addition, simple business cards were created which included popular topics such as “My Gateway” (account access) and which were blank on the reverse in order for staff to add notes or key tips for the customer to remember. These are available at all sites for staff use, and are an inexpensive and effective tool for customers to take away with them.
The point of need was also pre-empted with the use of “mini-expos” – a staff member with a laptop out in the library at high peak times demonstrating various things in the body of the library and available for questions and assistance. The next step is to move this out to the branches where both the needs and the peak times are different. But a complete coverage of the network is seen as a vital part of getting this right for customers.
Children's bookshop
Finally I would like to comment on the present by John McIntyre of the Children’s Bookshop in
To meet a man so passionate about books was very warming, and his passion for children’s and teen literature has made me want to read it again for the first time since I worked as a school librarian.
IAML conference
Marilyn Portman, music librarian attended the IAML conference on 5-6 November 2009 in Wellington.
What is IAML??
IAML stands for International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres. This is an organisation that promotes, encourages and helps to facilitate projects in music bibliography, music librarianship and information science at an international and local level.
The New Zealand branch meet every year for a conference and AGM. This year it was held in Wellington at the Massey University and also at St Paul's Cathedral and I had the pleasure of meeting with colleagues and fellow music librarians from around the country.
I will share a couple of sessions that were or real interest.
Session one: Music in the school curriculum
speaker Vicki Thorpe, Music advisor, faculty of Education at Victoria University
Vicki covered the NZ Curriculum 2007 and the Arts and the NCEA requirements for music. She looked at the current issues and challenges for music education in N.Z. Changes to the NCEA 2011 were explained and general changes in music education explored in line with rapid changes in technology. There are big issues in NZ music education at primary level especially with no more arts advisers in primary schools and a great lack of teacher knowledge and skill in the arts. Issues facing secondary schools lie with the teachers having to be very adaptable and figure out whether they want formal or informal learning, inside or outside of the classroom. Where and how does music learning actually happen?
http://arts.unitec.ac.nz
http://www.tki.org.nz/e/community (arts kete)
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz (learning areas/achievement objectives)
Session two: Focusing on copyright - the RIANZ perspective
speaker Campbell Smith, CEO of RIANZ
What is RIANZ??
It stands for Recording Industry Association of NZ. It is a not-for-profit organisation who represents the rights of the recording industry as a whole.
RIANZ works alongside PPNZ(Phonographic performances of NZ) and APRA (Australasian Performing Rights Association) however, what is becoming evident is that confusion reigns with the number of different licences required and there are moves afoot to unifying the licences to make a more efficient and logical model.
What does RIANZ do?
What is IAML??
IAML stands for International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres. This is an organisation that promotes, encourages and helps to facilitate projects in music bibliography, music librarianship and information science at an international and local level.
The New Zealand branch meet every year for a conference and AGM. This year it was held in Wellington at the Massey University and also at St Paul's Cathedral and I had the pleasure of meeting with colleagues and fellow music librarians from around the country.
I will share a couple of sessions that were or real interest.
Session one: Music in the school curriculum
speaker Vicki Thorpe, Music advisor, faculty of Education at Victoria University
Vicki covered the NZ Curriculum 2007 and the Arts and the NCEA requirements for music. She looked at the current issues and challenges for music education in N.Z. Changes to the NCEA 2011 were explained and general changes in music education explored in line with rapid changes in technology. There are big issues in NZ music education at primary level especially with no more arts advisers in primary schools and a great lack of teacher knowledge and skill in the arts. Issues facing secondary schools lie with the teachers having to be very adaptable and figure out whether they want formal or informal learning, inside or outside of the classroom. Where and how does music learning actually happen?
- Libraries are in a key position to be able to provide support and resources for teachers and students in their life long musical learning. By having a varied and interesting collection of music at their library, a whole new world can open up to them that they may not have known existed.
http://arts.unitec.ac.nz
http://www.tki.org.nz/e/community (arts kete)
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz (learning areas/achievement objectives)
Session two: Focusing on copyright - the RIANZ perspective
speaker Campbell Smith, CEO of RIANZ
What is RIANZ??
It stands for Recording Industry Association of NZ. It is a not-for-profit organisation who represents the rights of the recording industry as a whole.
RIANZ works alongside PPNZ(Phonographic performances of NZ) and APRA (Australasian Performing Rights Association) however, what is becoming evident is that confusion reigns with the number of different licences required and there are moves afoot to unifying the licences to make a more efficient and logical model.
What does RIANZ do?
- maintains the NZ charts, gold/platinum sales
- controls ISRC (same as an ISBN number)
- Runs the NZ music awards
- Polices piracy
Now we are in the digital world
The recording industry is commercially unstable at present and income is declining. The major contributing factors are file sharing and RIANZ have been looking at ways to approach this problem. They would like to work with the ISPS to have a staged approach as they feel the user has a right to due process. The ISP would send out issue notices to infringers, basically educating them and pointing out legal down lad avenues and then if behaviour hasn't improved would suspend their account.
RIANZ would like to have a three pronged appropach to their business:
- gain legal certainty for the protection of rights
- Education of users - go into the highschools and teach about intellectual property
- stop sulking! look at new opportunities to sell content to generate income. Come up with more ways and means of getting music into users hands.
RIANZ and libraries;
RIANZ have basically buried their heads in the sand when it has come to libraries and pretend that we don't have music. However, they are keen to talk and explore different options. There is the "Authors Fund" that compensates authors for having books in libraries, why couldn't there be a similar thing for musicians?
IAML(NZ) are very keen to spear head dialogue with RIANZ and so hopefully this will bear positive fruit for libraries and musicians alike in the future.
Thankyou to Auckland City Libraries for enabling me to attend this conference
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Report from sessions at LIANZA conference
Judith Waaka also attended the LIANZA conference - here is an article about some of the sessions she attended.
“He tangata, he tangata, he tangata”
Acknowlege the past, embrace the present and advance the future.
LIANZA conference 2009 opened with keynote speakers Sir Tipene and Hana O’Regan, the father and daughter duo presented a humorous and personalised approach to the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. The banter between the two really captured the audience.
They spoke about both the processes and tools used to transmit knowledge from pre-European times to early settlement of the British through to post treaty times. Traditionally knowledge was shared through oral traditions such as mōteatea, karakia, stories and practises like maintaining tribal boundaries, survival and whakapapa. There were a number of comparisons made about the relationship between the accelerating extinction of languages and loss of traditional knowledge.
Traditional knowledge was once used as a means for physical survival as whānau, hapū and iwi in terms of food, shelter and warfare. In modern times we use our knowledge to maintain the survival of our identity as Māori people for things like proving our traditional land use rights and mana whenua.
From “We shall remain” to “Operation teen book drop”:new national indigenous library services initiatives
Presented by Loriene Roy and Scott Alan Smith
This presentation was really enjoyable as it focussed on Indigenous library services.
Loriene and Scott spoke about We Shall Remain, a series of DVD’s about American Indian history. I’ve put in a suggestion for purchase for the DVD series and I’m looking forward to requesting it when it comes in!
Of particular interest was the event kit for libraries which gave a number of tips on developing indigenous library events and programmes, relating the events to the libraries collections. The event kit is available in pdf format.
Ngā ūpoko tukutuku – Advancing the future
Our own Collections Librarian – Māori Teri Ta’ala was one of the presenters for this session. Participants were asked how we could develop the Māori Subject Headings faster. Suggestions were made about hiring someone full time to work on the project and looking at other funding avenues to resource the project rather than relying on just LIANZA, Te Rōpū Whakahau and National Library.
Another question raised was about the scope of the project and whether it should be broadened allowing te reo Māori access to everything in the library. The general consensus was that most agreed to the broadening of the scope, however they weren’t sure if it was achievable
I enjoyed the workshop as it gave me a better understanding about where the project is up to and what the constraints are to completing it.
“He tangata, he tangata, he tangata”
Acknowlege the past, embrace the present and advance the future.
LIANZA conference 2009 opened with keynote speakers Sir Tipene and Hana O’Regan, the father and daughter duo presented a humorous and personalised approach to the intergenerational transmission of knowledge. The banter between the two really captured the audience.
They spoke about both the processes and tools used to transmit knowledge from pre-European times to early settlement of the British through to post treaty times. Traditionally knowledge was shared through oral traditions such as mōteatea, karakia, stories and practises like maintaining tribal boundaries, survival and whakapapa. There were a number of comparisons made about the relationship between the accelerating extinction of languages and loss of traditional knowledge.
Traditional knowledge was once used as a means for physical survival as whānau, hapū and iwi in terms of food, shelter and warfare. In modern times we use our knowledge to maintain the survival of our identity as Māori people for things like proving our traditional land use rights and mana whenua.
From “We shall remain” to “Operation teen book drop”:new national indigenous library services initiatives
Presented by Loriene Roy and Scott Alan Smith
This presentation was really enjoyable as it focussed on Indigenous library services.
Loriene and Scott spoke about We Shall Remain, a series of DVD’s about American Indian history. I’ve put in a suggestion for purchase for the DVD series and I’m looking forward to requesting it when it comes in!
Of particular interest was the event kit for libraries which gave a number of tips on developing indigenous library events and programmes, relating the events to the libraries collections. The event kit is available in pdf format.
Ngā ūpoko tukutuku – Advancing the future
Our own Collections Librarian – Māori Teri Ta’ala was one of the presenters for this session. Participants were asked how we could develop the Māori Subject Headings faster. Suggestions were made about hiring someone full time to work on the project and looking at other funding avenues to resource the project rather than relying on just LIANZA, Te Rōpū Whakahau and National Library.
Another question raised was about the scope of the project and whether it should be broadened allowing te reo Māori access to everything in the library. The general consensus was that most agreed to the broadening of the scope, however they weren’t sure if it was achievable
I enjoyed the workshop as it gave me a better understanding about where the project is up to and what the constraints are to completing it.
Monday, November 23, 2009
More on LIANZA conference
Gail Daley, team leader collection development team attended the LIANZA conference.
“Take a walk on the wild-side”: library service at the margins. The challenges of prison librarianship. Susan Smith and Judith Wenborn.
I wanted to go to this session because ACL has an arrangement with the Auckland prison under which we donate withdrawn books, and I was interested to know how the service works and if there is any more we can do.
The librarians work within an environment of strict security. They can’t take in cellphones or cameras and have to get permission to have a USB drive. Anything that could be turned into a weapon is forbidden, so no jewellery or pencil sharpeners – pencils have to be sharpened with sandpaper.
Except for Christchurch the prison librarians around New Zealand all work alone, and resourcing is minimal. With very small budgets they rely on donations and loans from local and other libraries.
In Christchurch the library service is offered to over 1200 men on two different sites. In the main jail the prisoners are locked up for a minimum of 21 hours a day which makes the material they get from the library really vital to them. With so many hours locked up, visits to the physical library in the prison are very limited and the service is mainly delivered by way of a printed catalogue the men can choose from. But many prisoners often need to identify books visually, so it is better if they can visit the library rather than request through lists
They have books in the physical library and also photocopy legal documents, crosswords and magazine articles.
Legal information about parole boards etc is much sought after. Murder mysteries are popular. There are a number of restrictions on material and access to the internet and the catalogues of the National and public libraries is only allowed through a librarian.
They supply hunting magazines but won’t photocopy ads for guns. They don’t supply erotic material – although the prisoners can watch anything free to air on tv.
The librarians try to gauge a prisoner’s level of language and reading skills and what their interests are. They try to develop individuals as readers and will put together special interest reading lists.
Prisoners don’t like anyone else knowing what they have asked for – for instance, in a group situation librarians must be careful to talk in general terms rather than mention a specific title or author that someone has ordered. In Christchurch they run the library service with a large exchange of material between Christchurch jail and Christchurch City Libraries. This can be recreational reading, or can be study related. Material they are always seeking includes graded readers, youth interest magazines, Pacifica material and graphic novels.
Books are requested and sent to the jail as a loan. In the last two years they have borrowed 800 items and lost only two.
The librarians see their work as one means by which prisoners might be able to make a better life both in prison and when they are released. They will sometimes help a prisoner get membership of a public library on release based on a good borrowing history and behaviour when inside.
Access to the library service is a privilege. General behaviour often improves overall when prisoners have wider access to library material. If prison staff are not supportive it is very difficult to deliver an adequate library service so it is important for the librarians to develop a relationship with staff.
The prison library service is undergoing a review, so they are uncertain what the final outcome will be.
ACL has been sending selected donations to Auckland prisons for several years but there could be an opportunity to lend more material and develop a closer relationship with the prison library service.
“Take a walk on the wild-side”: library service at the margins. The challenges of prison librarianship. Susan Smith and Judith Wenborn.
I wanted to go to this session because ACL has an arrangement with the Auckland prison under which we donate withdrawn books, and I was interested to know how the service works and if there is any more we can do.
The librarians work within an environment of strict security. They can’t take in cellphones or cameras and have to get permission to have a USB drive. Anything that could be turned into a weapon is forbidden, so no jewellery or pencil sharpeners – pencils have to be sharpened with sandpaper.
Except for Christchurch the prison librarians around New Zealand all work alone, and resourcing is minimal. With very small budgets they rely on donations and loans from local and other libraries.
In Christchurch the library service is offered to over 1200 men on two different sites. In the main jail the prisoners are locked up for a minimum of 21 hours a day which makes the material they get from the library really vital to them. With so many hours locked up, visits to the physical library in the prison are very limited and the service is mainly delivered by way of a printed catalogue the men can choose from. But many prisoners often need to identify books visually, so it is better if they can visit the library rather than request through lists
They have books in the physical library and also photocopy legal documents, crosswords and magazine articles.
Legal information about parole boards etc is much sought after. Murder mysteries are popular. There are a number of restrictions on material and access to the internet and the catalogues of the National and public libraries is only allowed through a librarian.
They supply hunting magazines but won’t photocopy ads for guns. They don’t supply erotic material – although the prisoners can watch anything free to air on tv.
The librarians try to gauge a prisoner’s level of language and reading skills and what their interests are. They try to develop individuals as readers and will put together special interest reading lists.
Prisoners don’t like anyone else knowing what they have asked for – for instance, in a group situation librarians must be careful to talk in general terms rather than mention a specific title or author that someone has ordered. In Christchurch they run the library service with a large exchange of material between Christchurch jail and Christchurch City Libraries. This can be recreational reading, or can be study related. Material they are always seeking includes graded readers, youth interest magazines, Pacifica material and graphic novels.
Books are requested and sent to the jail as a loan. In the last two years they have borrowed 800 items and lost only two.
The librarians see their work as one means by which prisoners might be able to make a better life both in prison and when they are released. They will sometimes help a prisoner get membership of a public library on release based on a good borrowing history and behaviour when inside.
Access to the library service is a privilege. General behaviour often improves overall when prisoners have wider access to library material. If prison staff are not supportive it is very difficult to deliver an adequate library service so it is important for the librarians to develop a relationship with staff.
The prison library service is undergoing a review, so they are uncertain what the final outcome will be.
ACL has been sending selected donations to Auckland prisons for several years but there could be an opportunity to lend more material and develop a closer relationship with the prison library service.
LIANZA conference
Heather Stone, service line lead attended the LIANZA conference in Christchuch on 12-14 October 2009. Following are some notes from the sessions she attended.
The librarian as a bookseller: empowering the profession to take their knowledge to the reader
I have a confession: I decided to go to the session because it looked interesting, rather than good for me. I am so glad I did – John McIntyre, children’s bookseller from Kilbirnie was simply inspiring.
He talked about getting out from behind the counter and engaging with the customers in the library.. He talked about the importance of building this relationship as a vehicle to share your passion, know-how and experience to ‘sell’ customers books. He hammered home the point that it doesn’t matter if these books entertain, inspire, inform or educate –the important thing is that the books we recommend meet our customer’s needs.
He said librarians can make a difference in people’s lives and then to convince us read the autobiographical piece by children’s author, Gary Paulsen. It was a great session.
Customer education: what's the point?
Kim Clayton and Rebecca Waechter from Wellington Public Library gave an overview of WP's revamp eighteen months ago of the customer education programme. With little literature available on this subject for public libraries, they undertook a survey of 1000 customers across 12 branches. In a nutshell the results were overwhelmingly in the favour of one on one lessons which were short in duration (15 minutes), topics determined by the public rather than by library staff, and delivery taking place when required by the public. The confidence of staff in the delivery was pivotal in the success of the lesson. Customer education has been revamped to reflect the results e.g one on one mini expos of resources taking place within the library at peak times using a television screen and a computer so members of the public walking by can also see it.
Revitalising the library and the self serve generation
Joanne Smith from Hobsons Bay Libraries, Victoria, Australia was awarded the Margery C, Ramsay Scholarship by the Library Board of Victoria. Joanne's presentation highlighted her research on the changing face of customer service in this self serve age. Libraries have to adapt the design, and layout of the building and opening hours to reflect community needs. By selecting technology that offers the same or better service than staff can, staff can be redeployed to engage more with customers. In addition, librarians need to move from having a gatekeeper and 'book police' mentality to a customer centric position. Joanne's lecture resonated with the ACL customer centric focus.
The librarian as a bookseller: empowering the profession to take their knowledge to the reader
I have a confession: I decided to go to the session because it looked interesting, rather than good for me. I am so glad I did – John McIntyre, children’s bookseller from Kilbirnie was simply inspiring.
He talked about getting out from behind the counter and engaging with the customers in the library.. He talked about the importance of building this relationship as a vehicle to share your passion, know-how and experience to ‘sell’ customers books. He hammered home the point that it doesn’t matter if these books entertain, inspire, inform or educate –the important thing is that the books we recommend meet our customer’s needs.
He said librarians can make a difference in people’s lives and then to convince us read the autobiographical piece by children’s author, Gary Paulsen. It was a great session.
Customer education: what's the point?
Kim Clayton and Rebecca Waechter from Wellington Public Library gave an overview of WP's revamp eighteen months ago of the customer education programme. With little literature available on this subject for public libraries, they undertook a survey of 1000 customers across 12 branches. In a nutshell the results were overwhelmingly in the favour of one on one lessons which were short in duration (15 minutes), topics determined by the public rather than by library staff, and delivery taking place when required by the public. The confidence of staff in the delivery was pivotal in the success of the lesson. Customer education has been revamped to reflect the results e.g one on one mini expos of resources taking place within the library at peak times using a television screen and a computer so members of the public walking by can also see it.
Revitalising the library and the self serve generation
Joanne Smith from Hobsons Bay Libraries, Victoria, Australia was awarded the Margery C, Ramsay Scholarship by the Library Board of Victoria. Joanne's presentation highlighted her research on the changing face of customer service in this self serve age. Libraries have to adapt the design, and layout of the building and opening hours to reflect community needs. By selecting technology that offers the same or better service than staff can, staff can be redeployed to engage more with customers. In addition, librarians need to move from having a gatekeeper and 'book police' mentality to a customer centric position. Joanne's lecture resonated with the ACL customer centric focus.
Friday, October 16, 2009
SLANZA conference [School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa
Annie Coppell, Reference Librarian - Teens and AnyQuestions National Service Coach recently attended the biennial SLANZA conference at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch between 28-30 September 2009.
Overall impression of the conference? It was great. The workshops I attended were all helpful/intriguing/inspirational. The keynotes were inspirational and thought-provoking (well, I’m sure Derek Wenmoth was – but we missed it, unfortunately got held up). The organisation was smooth. The dinner was fun (although no dancing – which saddened some attendees, but not me). For each session there were way more than one workshop I desperately wanted to go to – sometimes 4!!! This isn’t usually the case at conferences, I’ve found. Congratulations to the organising committee, workshop presenters, and keynote speakers.
Day one: challenging...
Keynote – Suzette Boyd, from Melbourne, asked challenging questions – are we revolutionary or evolutionary? Have we told others what we – as librarians – are capable of.
Workshop One: the challenge – teaching information literacy skills to high school students with a 5-7 year old reading level!
Workshop Two: the challenge – presenting! Anthea, the AnyQuestions Manager, and I presented the research by Core Ed on how AnyQuestions does help teach information literacy skills to our students.
Day Two: fun…
Keynote: ‘The learning brain’ – so many people missed this session because of this title – but it was one of the best conference keynotes I have ever heard! Neuroscience translated into English and made understandable, and memorable.
Keynote: Brian Falkner – basically, reading stops your life from sucking. How true is that!
Day Three: confrontational
Workshop: Libraries in a web 2.0 environment – ie making your library services 2.0.
Workshop: searching – oops, the sites AnyQuestions uses most – like google & Wikipedia – were not flavour of the month in this session…
Keynote: Denise L’Estrange Corbett – her life story.
Speech: MP for Christchurch on behalf of the Minister of Education. A lesson in how not to engage with your audience. I feel she might have been sucked in by the promise that a bunch of school librarians wouldn’t be that horrid.
I made a lot of connections at this conference. People I’ll be staying in touch with and, hopefully, working with over the coming months.
Overall impression of the conference? It was great. The workshops I attended were all helpful/intriguing/inspirational. The keynotes were inspirational and thought-provoking (well, I’m sure Derek Wenmoth was – but we missed it, unfortunately got held up). The organisation was smooth. The dinner was fun (although no dancing – which saddened some attendees, but not me). For each session there were way more than one workshop I desperately wanted to go to – sometimes 4!!! This isn’t usually the case at conferences, I’ve found. Congratulations to the organising committee, workshop presenters, and keynote speakers.
Day one: challenging...
Keynote – Suzette Boyd, from Melbourne, asked challenging questions – are we revolutionary or evolutionary? Have we told others what we – as librarians – are capable of.
Workshop One: the challenge – teaching information literacy skills to high school students with a 5-7 year old reading level!
Workshop Two: the challenge – presenting! Anthea, the AnyQuestions Manager, and I presented the research by Core Ed on how AnyQuestions does help teach information literacy skills to our students.
Day Two: fun…
Keynote: ‘The learning brain’ – so many people missed this session because of this title – but it was one of the best conference keynotes I have ever heard! Neuroscience translated into English and made understandable, and memorable.
Keynote: Brian Falkner – basically, reading stops your life from sucking. How true is that!
Day Three: confrontational
Workshop: Libraries in a web 2.0 environment – ie making your library services 2.0.
Workshop: searching – oops, the sites AnyQuestions uses most – like google & Wikipedia – were not flavour of the month in this session…
Keynote: Denise L’Estrange Corbett – her life story.
Speech: MP for Christchurch on behalf of the Minister of Education. A lesson in how not to engage with your audience. I feel she might have been sucked in by the promise that a bunch of school librarians wouldn’t be that horrid.
I made a lot of connections at this conference. People I’ll be staying in touch with and, hopefully, working with over the coming months.
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