Christmas Cheer - Joint Te Upoko/SLIS Christmas Dinner!

Mark your diaries now!

Come and join us for an early festive dinner at Keenan's Bar, 132 Lambton Quay, Wednesday 8 December from 5.30 onwards.
Map: http://bit.ly/aL3crk

*Bring along a Christmas decoration - feel free to unleash your creative energy!*

This year we're combining our festivities so please see below :
5.30: Drinks and nibbles in the main bar
6 - 6.30: SLIS AGM downstairs - SLIS members only
7pm: Dinner downstairs

Bar tab and nibbles provided

Investment : $20 for main course and dessert

Please RSVP to Merryn Hedley : merryn.hedley@xtra.co.nz by 24 November.
Please indicate what you plan to attend:
1. Drinks/nibbles,
2. SLIS AGM, and/or
3. Dinner.

Minutes of Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui regional AGM 2010

Kia ora koutou


With our second online AGM having been completed a week ago (I do apologise for the lateness in having the minutes and results out), I can say I think we're getting better at it.  I have noted that something we should really try explaining better is the legal jargon we use, for example, when to use the "abstain" response.  Anyhoooo, here they are:


~~~~~~~~~~


Minutes for the Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui regional AGM 2010:


Meeting opened online at 14:56pm Thursday 30th September.


Attendees: Claire Benson, Laurinda Thomas, Anne Anderson, Linda Hall, Tom Avery, Pauline La Rooy, Amanda Cossham, Kareen Carter, Julian Sutherland, Debbie Burgoyne, Charlotte Clements, Janet Upton, Kathleen Ann Reweti, Sylvia Kaa, Cherie Shum, John Hayden Stears, Carolyn Lyon, Jessie Moir, Jan McCarthy, Rachael Asi, Debbie Duncan, Janet McFadden, Gillian Ralph, Nola Millar Library, the American Reference Centre - US Embassy, the National Library, Scotts College, plus 4 others




Minutes of Previous AGM: - Do you accept the minutes of the previous year's AGM as a true and accurate record? Moved: Laurinda, Seconded: Hana = carried

• N/A Did not participate last year 68.6% (24/35)  
• Yes 31.4% (11//35) 
• No 0% (0)

Matters arising: No matters arising


Financial report for 2009/2010 activities: - Do you accept the Treasurers (financial) report for the previous year's activities? Moved: Charlotte, Seconded: Paddy = carried

• 100% accepted by attendees

Annual Report for 2009/2010 activities: - Do you accept the annual report for the previous year's activities?  Moved: Paddy, Seconded: Laurinda = carried

• 100% accepted by attendees

Election of committee members:
All nominees were successfully elected.

Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui regional LIANZA committee for 2010/2011:

Trish Beamsley (Te Rōpu Whakahau representative)

Gabrielle Hikaka (Te Rōpu Whakahau representative)

Laurinda Thomas - Regional Councillor

Hana Whaanga

Charlotte Clements

Tom Avery

Cherie Shum

Helen Naismith

Kathryn Oxborrow

Feedback from Question: "What events or speakers would you like to see, hear, or meet in the region?:

• Good question. Some more Hutt Valley events would be great. I'll need to think about this more
• Quiz night. Would be keen for another sesion on copyright and DRM
• events in the Hutt please.
  political discussion about real questions in the profession e.g. "value of being RLIANZA, versus qualifications". MIS vs teaching qual, teacher/librarianship. 
  a partnered event with SLANZA would be nice
• Maori
• Possible election themed meeting at the end of the year

Further comments:

• Really enjoyed LIANZA b'day at Film archive and Meet the Leaders keep it up
• Thank you very much to all the committee members for October 2009 - October 2010 for their work for us over the year. Much appreciated.
  

Sadly, we do farewell Paddy Plunket and Anne Thompson at this point in the minutes of the AGM.  We wish Paddy and Anne all the best and hope to continue to see them in the library and information management community.


Thank you to all attendees and visitors of our AGM.  And congratulations and a big huge welcome and thank you to the new standing committee members, Tom, Cherie, Helen and Kathryn!




Kia ora.


Hana

2010 AGM

The AGM for Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui is again being held online this year.

*yaaaaaay* I hear you say!

A new page on this blog has been added where all the relevant documents will be available to view and a link to the voting machine (known as SurveyMonkey) will be. On this new page, 2010 AGM, you will be able to:

• Remind yourself who the committee members are
• Participate in the online AGM and vote in the committee members
• Read the chair's (Paddy Plunket's) annual report for 2009/2010 activites
• Read the minutes of the previous year's AGM
• View Anne's financial report
• Tell us your thoughts (by commenting on this post, raising an issue in the voting procedure, e-mailing us individually and/or messaging us on Twitter)

Voting and discussion open from:

Thursday 30 September 2010 -- Friday 15 October 2010

Skip to vote now





We invite all members to participate in voting and discussions on the best way for Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui to promote and support the development of information professionals, knowledge transfer and information services in the region.

We would like to encourage and invite all and sundry (LIANZA members mainly) across the region to participate in this year's AGM.

Thanks so much!
Hana Whaanga (for Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui LIANZA)

Committee member profile's for 2010

Kia ora koutou


Well, another AGM is looming in front of us, and it is with great regret that we farewell two long-standing committee members from Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui; Paddy Plunket, and Anne Thompson.  Paddy and Anne have both been involved with the committee for a number of years and their energy, efforts, advice, conversation, opinion, organising skills and leadership, will be sorely missed by those that remain.


The committee members for October 2009 - October 2010 were:

• Paddy Plunket (outgoing chair)
• Laurinda Thomas (Regional councillor, continuing)
• Anne Thompson (treasurer)
• Gabrielle Hikaka (Te Rōpu Whakahau representative)
• Trish Beamsley (Te Rōpu Whakahau representative)
• Charlotte Clements
• Timothy Greig
• Hana Whaanga

It is with great pleasure that I can introduce FOUR new committee sprockets that have put up their hands to be voted onto the committee for this year's AGM.  Please put your hands together for....

Cherie Shum  

I have been working in libraries for about 10 years, starting with a small school library and then a large public library.  I am currently the Collection Development Acquisitions team leader at the National Library.

I am a registered librarian, graduate of the Aurora Leadership Seminar, a LIANZA mentor and an Associate member of LIANZA.

Tom Avery
I've been engrossed in the world of libraries and LIANZA since 2001. While working in public and academic libraries and studying for library qualifications, I've got to attend lots of great LIANZA events including conference, but also regional events and talks by international speakers. I'm nearing the end of my course and would like to put more into the LIANZA and library communities and make our community buzz. My latest role is in library systems so I'm naturally interested in gadgets and technology, but really I'm interested in how libraries can add value to their customers with these tools. Catch up with me on my blog or on twitter @wifilibrarian.

Kathryn Oxborrow
Hi, I’m Kathryn and I’m from the South Coast of the UK.  I started my library journey as a Library Assistant at Reading University Library and then I did my MA Librarianship at Sheffield University.  For the past nine months I’ve been working at the UK Department of Health as an Assistant Librarian, with involvement mainly with cataloguing and customer services. I’m about to start work at the National Library of New Zealand working as a Collection Management Librarian in the Legal Deposit team.  I’m very excited to get       involved with NZ librarianship.

and
Helen Naismith
My name is Helen Naismith and I have been working in the library profession for 33 years. I started as a young shelver at the Wainuiomata Public Library at the age of 16 then worked my way through several job changes to become a Cluster Manager here at the War Memorial Library today.


My experience is vast and varied having spent many years as a children's and young persons librarian, then in a more senior management role. I completed the NZLA Certificate and was in the very last intake of students doing this course through the Teacher's College in Wellington.


I have almost completed the MLIS papers and have a Diploma in Business from the Open Polytechnic. My interests are reading, dancing, jewellery making, gardening and swimming. I love working in the customer service area and am passionate about libraries, literature and information management.
I would consider it an honour to be part of the LIANZA committee and look forward to meeting everyone and working hard on the behalf of this fine committee.


regards Helen Naismith.

------------------

If you'd like to view the current committee's profiles, who are re-standing (Hana and Charlotte) or hold positions that don't need to be voted for (Laurinda - Regional Councillor, Trish and Gabrielle TRW Representatives), then you can view those here in last years profiles.  


They are last years, so just pretend that we're a little older and a little wiser now and have more strings to our respective bows.


UPDATE
Laurinda thought she'd update hers...


Kia Ora! I’ve been working in the library and information sector since 1998, starting off as a Library Assistant at Massey, then an Assistant Librarian at VUW, before tracking off an on OE to the UK, and working as Consultant for a Library Software company. Coming back to NZ in 2008, I took a role as a Knowledge Analyst, and am now Acting Director of Knowledge Management at the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology (soon to be the Ministry of Science and Innovation).


I joined the Te Upoko regional committee in 2002, and served as secretary from 2003-4. I rejoined the committee in 2009, and the 2009/10 year was my first as the LIANZA Regional Councillor for Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui. I'm now into the second year, and it's proving to be a great experience (see my report for the last year here http://wellingtonregionlianza.blogspot.com/2010/09/councillors-report-200910.html)


In my spare time, I love to poke around in bookshops, and am a big fan of the F1.

Join the Te Upoko region on the LIANZA website and win!

Earlier this year, LIANZA launched it's new website. After a few early technical problems, we've sorted out the major glitches and are making progress on getting the site into great shape for our members (see WAG for more information on this).

We want to make the new site a great place to go with an active community. To do so, we'd like to encourage you all to sign up to the website, and join the Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui group on the Communities page. We've noticed that lots of people have listed the region on their personal profile, but not joined the Te Upoko community group. Our aim is to have all our regional communications going through the website, so we'd like to get as many of you signed up as possible!

As an added incentive, we have $30 book vouchers for two people who join up to the Te Upoko community group between now and Friday 1 October - that's just over 1 week away! We'll randomly draw names from all the new people that join up. It only takes a couple of minutes to do so (instructions below).

We will contact the lucky winners personally, and post the results on the LIANZA website.

Good luck!

To create a new account:

1. Go to http://www.lianza.org.nz
2. Click on 'sign up' in the top right
3. Fill in your details, including selecting 'Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui' as your region. Remember, if you make your profile 'private' we can't count you!
4. Go to your email, and click on the link to complete your registration.

Once you have your account, join the Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui Group:

1. Click on the 'community' tab
2. Click on 'Find Groups'
3. Scroll down to 'Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui' and click on 'Request Membership'
4. Click 'join'. You should now see 'Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui' listed under "My groups" on the left-hand side.

Councillor's Report 2009/10

When I joined the LIANZA National Council last year, we set two strategic priorities - Communication and Advocacy. My first year as the Te Upoko o te Ika Councillor has been focussed on the first of these, particularly in getting out into the wider Wellington region to see library and information staff. As an Association, we haven't always done well at communicating all of the activities that we get up to, and yet we do so much. In going out to the region, I wanted to both let people know what we were doing and find out what members wanted us to do on a local level.

Over the first year, I visited the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Whitireia, Paraparaumu, Otaki and Waikanae libraries, as well as a couple of trips across to the Wairarapa to see librarians from across the district. In all my visits, I was heartened by the amount of goodwill that there was, and their interest in what LIANZA was doing.

While on these visits, I talked about having different areas of the region running their own events with LIANZA Te Upoko support. The philosophy of the current regional committee has very much been that we receive a capitation for all of our regional members, and we want them all to have the benefit of that money. There is a lot of knowledge waiting to be shared in the regional communities, and we want to enable that. Partly, this is pragmatic - we are not an association (or a profession) with scads of cash, so we must group together and learn from each other where that knowledge exists. Also, we are largely an association of volunteers, and as such we all have a limited amount of time and energy. In other words, in learning from each other, we make the most of the association that we're part of.

The Wairarapa group has been proactive in making this happen. They approached the regional committee about forming a 'sub-group' based on geography, in recognition of that need to get together as a group and develop professionally. They're now planning a weekend school for the region next year, and looking forward to the opportunity to both bring great speakers into their area, and showcasing all the best things about the Wairarapa to others.

Over the past year, I've seen the Association involved in a huge amount of "business as usual" including Professional Registration, Conference, Library Week, the LIANZA Children's Book Awards, Press Releases, calls for awards and committees (and facilitating those committees), and CPD as well as submissions on copyright, the Super City and National Archives. Then there are the one-off aspects such as the Centenary publication and events, MOUs with affiliated organisations, and the new Website.

Perhaps the biggest lesson for me as part of the National Council, is how much LIANZA manages to do with so little money, but with so much goodwill from those people who put in their time. During the early part of this year, I initiated a proposal to introduce a volunteer award, which I hope will be introduced next year. My hope is that we can recognise this work, and highlight to people that being a volunteer is rewarding personally and professionally.

In the coming year I hope to continue to visit libraries, particularly to talk about LIANZA's new strategic plan. In our more fiscally constrained times, it's essential that we identify what the most important things are for the profession and concentrate on achieving them, rather than spreading our resources too thinly over a large number of areas. I do think it represents a change for the association, but a positive one and a big step forward that I hope we can all embrace.

Best wishes,
Laurinda

Laurinda Thomas ALIANZA, RLIANZA
Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui Regional Councillor

Annual report 2010

LIANZA
The committee directions for this year were workshopped at the beginning of the year by the committee and activities for 2010 were organised around the focus of career planning and development, retirement planning and fun. 
These included:
*Professor Rowena Cullen's inaugural lecture: 'Why IT Matters: Your health and the public health'
*Guest appearances and sponsorship of a VUW Library studies orientation event
*Using Twitter for Librarians workshop
*A great Xmas dinner at Flying Burrito Brothers attended by 22 members
*8 weeks to Associateship
*BOK seminar
*Centenary Gala Event president present speeches, photos, cake and a showing of Aunt Daisy and the Dancing Cossacks at the NZ Film Archive.
*Meet the Leaders - a speed dating / knowledge workshop format
*Heidi Julien seminar on information literacy research and practice

A coaching/mentoring workshop is planned for October.

We are particularly happy to have supported the formation of a regional group in the Wairarapa with Sandy Green initiating the group. Laurinda visited and Sandy has brought groups over to regional events held in Wellington.

The Committee sadly farewells two pivotal members; Anne Thompson, who has been treasurer for five years or more, and Paddy Plunket who was the regional councillor and has spent the past year in the role of chair.
Laurinda, Charlotte and Hana are returning and Tom Avery is standing for election for the first time.
New committee members are always welcome and thanks to TRW reps Gab and Trish for their ongoing involvement in all events and committee work.

Gig review: Information Literacy with Heidi Julien

It's very very fortunate that we were able to arrange an evening seminar and discussion on Information Literacy with Heidi Julien on Wednesday evening.  Much appreciation and thanks must go to Philip Calvert, Dan Dorner, Timothy and anyone and everyone else in the SIM faculty and community who organised for Heidi to talk with us.

To my recollection, I've never attended a discussion on information literacy with a scholar before, and not to my surprise I found Heidi's discussion quite accessible.

Questions raised afterwards when discussion was opened, were very realistic questions, from the practitioners themselves, such as this bit of reality from a librarian at Victoria University,

"Can we call it something else?" [to lure them in] 

(verifying this for accuracy when Twitter is back up)


A great time was had by all, I'm sure.  And I managed to snaffle a colleague at my workplace away from apathy to make the venture into town with me!  Also, I finally met Tom Avery face to face, whom I've been communicating with on the Twitterverse, which was cool.  And of course, lots of networking was had by all.

I must mention that Tom raised a good question in his tweet:

"Is information literacy a social construct?"

(verifying this for accuracy when Twitter is back up)


A valid point that was seconded by others listening in.

One overriding and pertinent question Heidi posed to the group (of 35+) regarded the difference between scholarship in informaiton literacy and what practitioners are wanting out of the research.  Is the information researched usable?  Or is the gap between scholars and practitioners too big?

What are your thoughts?  Tell us what you think

Gig review: Meet the Leaders

Kia ora koutou!

Dude! I should've posted this a while ago, but here 'tis:

A big thank you to all involved - invited and attendees at the Meet the Leaders event on Friday evening.  It was awesome and with thanks to Ross Becker we have some fantastic photos of the event.

Chris Szekely, Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library

Sue Sutherland Deputy Chief Executive, National Library and Acting Director, National Digital Library

Mark Crookston, Senior Advisor, Appraisal, Archives New Zealand and Secretary, Wellington Branch Archives and Records Association of New Zealand

Anahera Mōrehu  Kaiwhakahaere Māori me Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa (Manager Māori and Pasifika Services), University of Auckland and Incoming Tumuaki, Te Ropu Whakahau

Gabrielle and I took part too...

while Laurinda was the bell-ringer looking on...

A great night was had by all.  Thank you to Gabrielle Hikaka and TPK for the venue and fellow committee members principally responsible for putting this together and holding it together on the night - Laurinda :)

Here's to a roadshow of this around the regions!

Peace out

Meet the Leaders

Kia ora koutou!


We have an exciting opportunity coming up for you to "meet the leaders" in the Wellington library and information management field.  Ever wondered how Chris Szekely got the top job of Chief Librarian of the Turnbull?  Or what Jane Hill is going to attack first in her role as incoming LIANZA president?

This is your chance to meet and ask questions of some of the leading names in the sector, all in one convenient location.

How does it work?

In order to meet all our leaders, the evening will run to a "speed-dating" format in small groups. Each leader will chat with 3-4 people at a time. When the bell goes (every 6-8 minutes), you move along! Have questions for our leaders? Bring them along. Feeling tongue-tied? Not to worry, we'll supply some starter questions for you. And be prepared for the leaders to ask you questions as well!

When is it?

Friday 2 July, 5.30pm for a 6pm start.

Where is it?

Te Puni Kokiri, 143 Lambton Quay, Wellington

Who are the leaders?

• Jane Hill, Manager, Wellington City Libraries, and incoming LIANZA President Elect
• Sue Roberts, University Librarian, Victoria University of Wellington
• Sue Sutherland, Deputy Chief Executive, National Library and Acting Director, National Digital Library
• Anahera Morehu, Kaiwhakahaere Māori me Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa (Manager Māori and Pasifika Services), University of Auckland and Incoming Tumuaki, Te Ropu Whakahau
• Chris Szekely, Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library
• Mark Crookston, Senior Advisor, Appraisal, Archives New Zealand and Secretary, Wellington Branch Archives and Records Association of New Zealand
• Susanna La Rue, Wellington Medical Librarian, University of Otago
• Moira Fraser, Group Manager, Information and Knowledge, Parliamentary Service

Please RSVP to laurinda.thomas@morst.govt.nz by Tuesday 29th June... aww hell you can e-mail her any time you like, just take up this opportunity!  Where else but possibly at a LIANZA conference would you get these people in the same room??


And all for you!


Those details again....:


"Meet the Leaders"
5.30pm - 7.30pm Friday 2nd of July
Te Puni Kōkiri - 143 Lambton Quay


See you there!

PUBLIC EVENT: Bob McKee on "Why Public Libraries Must Be Free"

Hey guys

Yes, there's been a bit of planning and discussion on this one, but Mike from the LIANZA office, Helen from APLM (Association of Public Library Managers) and Myself have managed to pull it together and finally, properly advertise this event!!

Who: Bob McKee the Chief Executive of CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) of the UK.  Pretty noteworthy person I'd say!  Here's a link to some info about him.

When: Tues 25th May 2010 5:30pm for a 6pm start with a 7pm finish

Where: Lecture Theatre 1, Old Government Buildings, Victoria University Law School, Entrance off Stout Street

Why? We felt that the Wellington Public needed to be informed of WHY PUBLIC LIBRARIES MUST BE FREE!

Be there, or be square.  Man.


Oh, and here's a reference list in case you wanted some pre-requisite reading on the subject (this list may be added to closer to the event):

• Closing the books on Libraries : Werewolf (division of Scoop?), written by Gordon Campbell
• Diligent Room post : Blissfully Ignorant : Library Charges, by Michael Parry @dannevirklib

UPDATE

The audio-visual of Bob's talk (starting with Laurinda's introduction!) is available here: http://bit.ly/aWkHRu

(cheers Mike - @lianzaoffice)

LIANZA's new website : a successful rebirth

After much discussion, consultation, debate and time, the refreshed LIANZA website is now live.  The launch was just five days ago, on Thursday the 15th of April with a public notice to the community being sent out on nz-libs the following afternoon.  A nice and exciting way to round out the working week I thought.

Michael Parry, aka Dannevirkelibrarian, was the first to put up a forum post, utilising the new website's functionality, which I thought was brilliant.  So brilliant in fact that I manage to comment three times.  See, it has been noted that there are a few kinks, and things lacking that are quite vivid in the new website.  And we're all a bit sad about it of course, us techno dudes and dudettes or whatever the cool term is these days.  Well the three people that have contributed to the site in the five days that it's been live, are a wee bit sad anyway.

I have to say that I think we, (ok, maybe some of us) had/have unrealistically high expectations for the relaunch.  I was too-ing and fro-ing between putting high hopes or high expectations there, but I went with the latter purely because it really is my expectations.  Hope's makes it a bit more emotive and lets just say here that I can't really get tooo emotive about a professional organisation, however long it's been around.  Anyway, the LIANZA office has approximately 6 staff, possibly 4 full-timers.  It's amazing that this redevelopment happened, and it's totally fantastic that it did.  I'm happy.

I'm quite stoked to say right now, that in this short post, I've managed to link to the new website and the information it contains (including social discussion between industry professionals) a total of four times!
That's quite cool, and it's already proving it's relevance.  I know I could've done that with the previous site's content, possibly even more so.... (rebirth kinks etc), but the fact that conversation and discussion is happening on the site already, is awesome.

Speaking of conversation and discussion and sharing, we now have a totally cool Twitter account.  Yes kids, that's right. Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui LIANZA is on Twitter!  Can I link to it again?  OK, sure, here goes :)

And here's the profile without doing an a href - http://twitter.com/teup0ko

If you're wondering what Twitter is all about, wow, have I got some news for you....!  Why don't we start with their about page on their website, that's always a good start.  Yes, that is slanted, ok, so how bout we look at this review I wrote of a twitter workshop Magalie of Wellington City Libraries and Twitter fame held last month?

Oh, and if you're with SLIS - they have a twitter account too - http://twitter.com/SLIS_NZ.

So come on and join us in the conversation!  We won't bite, I promise :-)

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 8

Week 8: Making the final touches

This week we'll be rounding up the last pieces of information and sending off your Associateship application. Some of you (me included!) might find this a high-anxiety week - have I done enough to answer the questions that the Credentials Committee wants answers to? Have I missed anything out? A final review, and the collation of all your materials should help you put your mind to rest.

Having put your personal statement away for a few days, take it out and give it another read over. Make any tweaks that help it to flow, or to highlight your achievements better.

Now, get yourself a big envelope, and assemble the following:
1. Your personal statement
2. The LIANZA Associateship application form
3. A cheque for $50
4. A passport-sized photograph
5. 4 copies of your evidence of written work (and a bibliography, if you have enough)

These needs to arrive at the LIANZA office by 31 MARCH 2010, so get down to your NZ Post shop asap!

Also, email your referees to remind them about the deadline for the referee's report - 14 APRIL 2010

Just in case you thought this was the last post - fear not! Now that you application is away, in a month or so we'll be looking at the presentation to the credentials committee.

But for now, you can take a breather and give yourself a pat on the back. This is a process of detailed and thoughtful self-examination, and it doesn't come easily to most of us. Many people will choose to never apply for an Associateship because of this. So, good on you! I hope to see you all at conference receiving your awards!

Best of luck,
Laurinda

Paul Reynolds - Valedictory Lecture

Reposted from NZ-Libs...

Valedictory Lecture by Paul Reynolds, Monday 22 March

Paul Reynolds is marking the end of his role as Adjunct Director of the National Digital Library at the National Library of New Zealand with a valedictory lecture on Monday 22 March, 5.15pm at Soundings Theatre, Te Papa. Entry is free.

Come along and hear Paul as he presents his thoughts on the emerging trends of the digital landscape, and how, in his view, institutions like the National Library and other GLAMs (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) partners can contribute to emerging learning and cultural commons.

Paul Reynolds is an Auckland based commentator and thinker on the topics of information access and cultural/techno change. He is a co-founder and joint managing director of McGovern Online, and has been or is currently a member of several advisory bodies and boards, including the National Digital Forum and Auckland Museum.

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 7

Week 7: Polishing and Professionalism

By now I hope you're all feeling like your application is beginning to take shape. We'll be completing the last piece and sprucing things up this week. So, let's get into it!

Part C looks at professional development and professional contribution. The requirements are:

(i) Self-development of professional perspectives and objectives through professional reading, Internet discussion groups

(ii) Continuing education through such activities as attendance at seminars and workshops

(iii) An awareness of professional issues

(iv) Knowledge of and/or participation in the work and activities of the Association, and other relevant organisations

You should have a good list of your activities from week 4. You might want to tie aspects together, for example, how has your self-development informed your awareness of the issues? Has this changed anything you've done or how you approach things? What are the professional issues that are most concerning to you, or that you're most involved with? What are your regular LIS must-reads or must-attends? How do you keep up-to-date? What about professional networks, either personal or association-based?

There are a range of thing that could be included under continuing education, so you may choose some highlights, or showcase a range of courses, workshops or seminars you’ve attended (some of these might fall outside of LIS, but be part of the sector you're in).

Once you've done that, take your whole application and give it a good thrice over!

1. Read it through for flow. Does it read well? Have you repeated anything?
2. Look at your formatting. Is there anything you could do to improve the presentation on the page, or make it easier for the credentials committee to identify how you fit the criteria, such as headings or new paragraphs to separate key points? Don't be afraid to use white space on the page and have an appropriate font size. Steer away from serif fonts or anything too flashy - they are more difficult on the eyes. Stick to a nice sans-serif!
3. Give it a good spell check and identify any sloppy punctuation. This can be very distracting to the reader.

Now is a good time to go over the checklist of things that you need to supply to the committee so that we can put everything together next week. Well done - you're nearly there!

Revalidating? Help is at hand!

Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui Region invites librarians and information professionals to a presentation on professional re-validation.

Presented by Janet Upton, Manager, Knowledge Leadership at Land Information New Zealand
5.30pm Wednesday 14 April
Nau Mai Room
Ground Floor
Te Puni Kokiri
143 Lambton Quay
Wellington

There is no charge for this event.

For catering purposes, please RSVP by Wednesday 7 April to: anne.thompson@natlib.govt.nz

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 6

Week 6: Showing off your skills

Management and planning responsibilities are the name of the game this week. Take out your notes from week 3, and remember as you're going through to think of management in a broad sense, since our job descriptions don't always use that word. This week's section is quite a chunky one, so get yourself a cuppa and a biscuit before you get going.

We're working through part B in much the same way as we did with part A. The tricky thing here I think, is to get down all the main points succinctly. Resist the temptation to exhaustively list every little thing you've done, but rather try to hit the high points. There are a couple of ways you could tackle this. You may want to start with a job where you demonstrated several of these skills and write briefly what your role and responsibilities were in the different areas. Or, you might choose one area and talk pick out a couple of significant examples from your working life. Or, if many of the examples are from the same project for example, you may want to talk about the project you worked on and describe the responsibilties you had within it.

Remember, they're looking for the following:
(i) Staff management
(ii) Financial management
(iii) Resource management
(iv) Implementing and managing of appropriate and/or innovative library and information services
(v) Initiating or contributing to projects or changes/improvements in existing services
(vi) Marketing services
(vii) Evaluating and implementing appropriate technologies
(viii) Planning own work and that of others, setting priorities and aligning with organisational goals and objectives

Don't worry if you don’t have experience of all of these, the application does state, "Some of the categories below may not be applicable to the applicant. This will depend upon the applicant's work."

While the emphasis is on seeing that you've had responsibility in some of these areas, if you can, pick out achievements you've had or show the impact that you've made as well. These show that you have moved into mastery of the area, rather than just competence.

Best of luck this week with your write-up. Next week we'll be looking at professional development and contribution - one of my favourite topics!

Finally - an apology for the lateness of this column. Despite my best intentions to get this out by Wednesday, events overtook me! I hope y'all have ploughed on ahead anyway!

Associateship Event - Cancelled

Unfortunately, due to a lack of RSVPs, we're decided to cancel our Associateship event this evening (4th March). We're hopeful that we'll run the session again, but perhaps towards the end of the year instead.

But never fear! We'll continue to bring you the Eight Weeks to Associateship series to support you on your application journey, so stay tuned in!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 5

Week 5: Telling your story


Congratulations - if you've made it this far you're well on your way to completing your associateship application! A lot of the hard work and thinking has been done, and now it's time to tell your story in the application process.


Take out your notes from week 2. We're going to start shaping them into your application. Although 1000 words can seem daunting, many of you will find that once you start writing it's an easy target to reach, so you will want to be fairly concise.


We'll focus on part A this week, which looks at "Practical knowledge and skills in providing library/information services", in particular "Competence and achievement in some particular aspect(s) of library and information services" and "a well–demonstrated understanding of the information needs of clients, and the delivery of services to meet those needs".


Firstly, you'll want to choose which aspect of library and information services you want to focus on for this part of your application. From your notes there might be a one very clear frontrunner (reference services, circulation or systems for example), or you may choose two or three where you can measurably demonstrate both competence and achievement.


For each area, briefly discuss your roles you've had, including levels of responsibility, and what higher level tasks were undertaken. From your list of achievements pick one or two, summarising the aim, implementation and outcome of each. You may want to select achievements or projects which tie into the second part, demonstrating a knowledge and delivery of service to, client needs. Also outline what additional work you do in this area to keep up-to-date or to spread your knowledge to others.


If you haven't addressed it in the first area (or maybe even if you have), you'll now want to demonstrate that you understand client needs, and can deliver services to meet those needs. Again, examples are the most informative, discussing the needs of your client base, how you keep abreast of their needs, what you've done to address these, and the outcome.


Don't worry too much at this stage if you find you've written quite a lot. We'll have a chance to revise and pare things down a little later. As you're writing up the next sections, you may find that many areas overlap, and that one example provides examples that fit several different criteria.


As you write things up, remember to take a little time to enjoy your achievements. Best of luck, and see you next week!

Thinking of applying for an Associateship? Let our panel show you how!

LIANZA Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui (Wellington) Regional Committee has organised an opportunity for you to hear more! We've brought together some inspiring Wellington librarians– Sue Sutherland who has served on the Credentials Committee and Moira Fraser, Rachel Esson and Kareen Carter who were the Wellington 2009 Associates – to tell you all about their experiences and why you too should apply to be a LIANZA Associate.

Where: The Moot Room, Level 3 Old Government Buildings, Bunny Street Entrance
When: Thursday 4 March, 5.30pm-6.30pm, nibbles & networking from 5pm.
RSVP: gabrielle.hikaka@tpk.govt.nz by Wednesday 3 March 2010

Gig Review: Victoria University SIM Orientation Wellington Fri 26 Feb 2010

Kia ora koutou!

Again, another great event that I'm glad I went to. Lotsa schmoozing and networking went on and met some cool people.

I did not attend the full day that all VUW SIM students attended (involved learning about research and logon's and passwords and all that unnecessary stuff), but I did join in at 3pm when we had guest industry professional speakers talk for 15minutes about how they got to where they are and what they love about what they do.

Guest industry speakers were:

• David Jones (aka DJ) as a representative from Te Roopu Whakahau. DJ is currently the Maori and Pacific Island's Subject Librarian at Victoria University and is doing a great job developing a Maori and Pacific island collection to be housed on the main floor of the central library at Kelburn Campus.
  
  
• Paula, representative from RMAA (Records Management Association of Australasia)
  Totally engaging and entertaining speaker, who says that
  "Building relationships and relationship management will be the most important skill to learn in the Master of Information Studies and your career." Amen!
  
  
• Rachel Esson (a personal favourite of mine), a LIANZA member, and currently head of Research and Learning Services at Victoria University's Library and on the TELsig committee (Tertiary Education Libraries special interest group)
  PLUG --> TELsig workshop 18th March and
  "How to make a difference" Conference in July
  

• Joanna of ARANZ (Archives and Records Association of New Zealand)
  Started at Fletcher Challenge, was there for 10 years and established their archives and now works as an archives and records management consultant and is also doing a Masters in "Maintaining and Sustaining Community Archives".
  
  Quote from Joanna: "Your education is preparing you to enter into any sector of the profession", and this was reiterated by Alastair Smith in closing the formal part of the day for the students.

And after the speakers, there was scones, cakes, fruit and non-alcoholic liquid to be consumed in the School of Information Management communal area! Fabulous afternoon, well-spent couple of hours out of my day. And by "spent" I mean, time, because it didn't cost anything to attend!

Your grand tour of the major centres was a success Timothy, congratulations. I thoroughly enjoyed this event.

H

Gig review: Twitter Workshop @wcl_library Thu 25 Feb 2010

Kia ora koutou

Just have to say that this was an awesome workshop and I'm glad that the committee decided to sponsor it. The workshop was held by and at Wellington City Libraries on Victoria Street. I got a lot out of it and am looking forward to more workshops that Magalie Le Gac, an enthusiastic staff member of Wellington City Libraries, facilitates.

The morning session focussed on learning the theory before getting into the application.

Such things covered were:

• How many people are using Twitter? It has a pretty fast growth rate. Here's some stats I found. There's a lot of people tweeting out there! Currently around 6% of the NZ population is on Twitter. 30 Libraries in NZ use Twitter at the moment.
  
  
• There are access issues for libraries in NZ to do with blocking the website. Particular problem for council's as two attendees at the workshop mentioned it was a problem where they worked.
  
  
• Uses for Twitter for Librarians:
  Online Reference
  Professional Development (sharing links to good articles)
  Monitoring library uses
  Disseminating information about the library
  Following useful Twitterers (e.g. @Te_Ara, @NLNZ, @citygalleryWGTN, @NZStuff)
  Marketing Tool
  
  
• Advantages
  
  
• Disadvantages
  
  
• Potential pitfalls
  
  
• Different platforms to use (other than twitter.com)
  Hootsuite
  igoogle gadget
  Tweetdeck
  
  

Now I didn't attend the afternoon session but I hear it was a good hands-on one using self-directed tutorials that Magalie had compiled earlier. Magalie actually included me in the email with the links to these so I could go through them and "self-direct" myself in learning about Twitter, but I think I'm good for now.

If anyone would like to share their experience of the afternoon session that'd be way cool if you'd comment on this post!

Hope you enjoyed it, and again, I'm really glad that LIANZA Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui decided to sponsor this event/workshop. Well worth it. Cheers Magalie!

Hana

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 4

Week 4: Talking about professional development and contribution

Welcome to week 4! This week, we'll be looking at your professional development and contribution in part C.

Although it may not seem like it, we all undertake development activities in one form or another. While it may seem like a long time since you did your library qualification, once you start to write things down, you'll be amazed at how much training and skill gathering you've done since then.

Let's go through each section of the application:

Self-development of professional perspectives and objectives through professional reading, Internet discussion groups: Most of us are subscribed to at least a couple of list-servs (NZ-Libs, SLIS-NZ, and so on), and have a few blogs that we follow. When noting these down, also think about what contributions you've made to these, such as blog comments or participating to an online discussion. How about professional reading - books, articles, journals, and links through to news stories? Also consider what you read in support of your job that may fall outside LIS and what what you learnt from these that helped you to do your role better. Did you feed these results back to a group, or implement what you'd read about? Did you find out about something in a different sector of LIS, that changed or widened your perspective? Did these change the way you think about the profession, or help you to set goals or objectives as a result? Were you able to feed that perspective back into your organisation?

Continuing education through such activities as attendance at seminars and workshops: Continuing education covers a wide variety of activities. As well as seminars and workshops (internally or externally), you may have done Certificates of Proficiency, attended Conferences, taken training in general skills to support your role (customer service, management, SharePoint, etc.), gone to lectures, taken an online course, or attended a LIANZA CPD event. If you've led training events, make a note of this too.

An awareness of professional issues: How do you keep up-to-date with professional issues, particularly in your specialty areas? You might demonstrate your awareness of professional issues through helping your work group understand the context and implications of changes or issues in the profession or outside, such as copyright, fee levying in public libraries, and creative commons licensing. Or you may be involved in working groups, discussion panels, or internal or external taskforces. Perhaps you read library journals from other countries or library associations?

Knowledge of and/or participation in the work and activities of the Association, and other relevant organisations: Do you understand what LIANZA does and how it operates? Perhaps you've been on committees, attended local CPD events, presented at conferences or weekend schools? Have you been involved in other organisations, like ARANZ, Te Ropu Whakahau, IFLA or the NZ Knowledge Management Network?

When you're jotting down your notes, use your workmates to jog your memory, check your old Outlook calendar appointments, or dig out those paper diaries.

Keep up the good work! This is the last of the 'note-taking' weeks - next week we get into the more serious business of writing up. Good luck til then!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 3

Week 3: Thinking about management and planning

The focus for this week is part B, where you get to describe your "management and planning responsibilities". This may feel easier for some of you than others! However, it's not a requirement for you to have been in a traditional 'management' role (and as the application form says "Some of the categories below may not be applicable…"), but you may have to think a little more laterally about the kinds of things you have managed.

Let's look through each area. Most of us can pick out one or two areas immediately where we've had experience. Grab your notes, and start jotting things down. For example:
· Staff management: If you managed staff, what was your role, how many people were in the team, were they were permanent or contract, full or part-time, professional, semi- or non-professional roles? What were your responsibilities? Were there performance reviews, salary reviews or even (gulp), disciplinary responsibilities? Were there some things you achieved or supported your staff through, of which you are especially proud of? Perhaps a change management process or a difficult time financially for the organisation?
· Financial management: Have you looked after a budget or had responsibility for the money? Perhaps you managed the binding budget, ensured you kept inside the budget for shelvers or collections, or presented a budget for a project or your department.
· Resource management: This could cover aspects such as managing the upkeep of the collection, maintaining a particular subject or reference collection (physical or virtual), or perhaps the upkeep on the library system or website.
· Implementing and managing appropriate and/or innovative library and information services: Have you started up a new service? It might be an onsite or virtual service that's offered through the website. How about library blogs to keep people up-to-date (internally or externally)?
· Initiating or contributing to projects or changes/improvements in existing services: Are there key areas that you've streamlined? Maybe you've made something faster, more efficient, less prone to mistakes or more cost effective. How about changes in the way the library is organised, or what different roles do?
· Marketing services: What have you done in the way of promotions? Do you send out newsletters to target groups, run the library's Library Week programme, or designed posters to target a particular service? Perhaps you've written up promotions for the local newspaper or library website?
· Evaluating and implementing appropriate technologies: Have you had something automated, changed library systems, or made live reference services available online to customers? How about an online reference tracking system, or making the catalogue mobile-friendly?
· Planning your own work and that of others, setting priorities and aligning with organisational goals and objectives: If you've managed people, how did you set their priorities, and make sure that they're consistent with the goals of the organisation? Do they know what the organisational goals are? How do you prioritise your own work, and how does it contribute to organisational objectives? How do you go about long- and short-term planning for yourself or your team?

There is a lot to think about in this week's task. If you're having some trouble, try taking out the work 'management' and replace it with 'supervision' or think about what you 'look after' in your role. Sometimes we don't think of what we do as being 'management' in the technical sense.

Also consider what you've done outside of work - have you been a treasurer for a SIG? Run a professional committee? Helped to run a weekend school? These activities all contribute to your professional development and your 'management and planning' experience.

Good luck, and talk to you next week!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 2

Week 2: Starting on the detail

This week we're focussing on Part A, which talks about your "Practical knowledge and skills in providing library/information services". As we work through these areas, the idea is to make lots of notes as they come to mind. These notes will form the basis of your application, which we'll start to write up formally in a couple of weeks.

So, here's what they'd like to know about:

(a):
(i) Competence and achievement in some particular aspect(s) of library and information services
(such as circulation services, book selection, collection development, cataloguing, reference and
information services, response to community/user needs, specific services, e.g. Bi/multicultural,
young persons, outreach, special needs, archives, records management, research, user surveys,
etc.).
(ii) A well–demonstrated understanding of the information needs of clients, and the delivery of
services to meet those needs.

Let's start with part i. Sometimes, when you're so close to what you do everyday, it's hard to recognise it as a 'competence', so take out all those job descriptions that you collected last week and give them a read through. What kind of jobs has your library career been characterised by? Are there one or two areas that you'd consider a speciality, or has it been a more of a mixed bag? What did you enjoy doing the most, and where did you feel the greatest sense of achievement? You can pick a few areas if you think you have strengths in several places.

Once you've got your list of competences, for each one, ask yourself
· What were my greatest achievements in that area? It could be a new system of training you devised, a way of making your workflow more efficient, a particular promotion that got lots of good feedback from clients or staff or finding a specialised need and filling it. Take out your performance reviews, and see what you've achieved over the years.
· What other activities have I done in support of this area? Have you done a course or attended training, read specialist magazines, presented at conference, received an award (internal or external) served on a related SIG or working group?
· How do I know that I'm good at this? Perhaps you're the go-to person in your area, you've trained others, or provided support or advice to other libraries. Take out your performance reviews again, and look at your managers comments. How did they say you did the job?

Part ii is about looking at the needs of your clients, and how you deliver a service that fills those needs.
Firstly, think about your clients. These might be your colleagues, your customers, the public, and other libraries. What are their top priorities when they come to the library, or ask you to provide a particular service? Are they looking for speed, efficiency, customer care…? How do you contribute to those needs?

Ask yourself:
· How do I know what my clients want? This might be informal feedback, formal requests, or surveys.
· What areas of my role impact on the stakeholders I serve? Is it speed, efficiency, good knowledge of the library or resources, or doing my role in a thorough way?
· Have I been able to improve on these areas?
· What feedback have I received? Have I had comment on the service, internally or externally? How about positive feedback from a manager or customer? You might be able to see a tangible change, such as increased visitors, or more users of a particular service, or something less tangible, such as a decline in complaints, a better working environment or quicker turnaround time. Or perhaps you know what you're doing works because of your repeat customers!

Hold on to these notes! Again, you might like to keep them close by in case you think of additional ideas during the week. Until next week, happy associating!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 1

Welcome to the "Eight weeks to Associateship" series.

2010 is a great year to apply for an associateship. It's the 100th anniversary of LIANZA, and what better way to celebrate than by recognising your achievements and seeing how far you've come?

The aim of this series is to break the process of applying for an associateship up into easy chunks, a little bit each week. You may also want to find yourself a buddy or mentor (maybe your manager, another applicant, or a person who has their associateship already). It's always good to have someone to bounce ideas off.

Week 1: Gathering yourself

There are three tasks to do this week:

1. Read through the associateship documentation


2. Start assembling your evidence


3. Decide on your referees

Step 1: Read the documentation
The application process is well documented on the LIANZA website. Have a good read of the definition and requirements to make sure you fulfil the criteria, as well as reading the Information and Application form to see what kind of information you need to supply (you may want to read this one twice!) Also take a look at the Guidelines for Referees - this should help you choose who you'd like as your referees.

Step 2: Assemble your evidence
Evidence here is not just the 'publications' that you might include with your application, but also the documents that will jog your memory as you write everything up. That could include your CV (new and old), job descriptions, performance reviews, certificates or notes from training courses, as well as documents that you've written in the course of your job. During the week, keep a notebook next to your desk and jot down any other 'evidence' that comes to mind, for example committees you've been on, awards from inside or outside your institution, achievements you've been particularly proud of, and so on.

3. Choose your referees
The associate application requires reports from three referees. Think about who might be suitable as you're reading the Guidelines for Referees, and choose these early on. You may want to approach them first to explain the process and see if they are willing. The referees reports have a later deadline than the associateship application, but do make sure that you give them plenty of time to write up the report.

While the first week requires a bit of hunting around for documents and brainstorming, next week we'll get into the nitty gritty of addressing the Application Form - one step at a time!