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