Committee member profiles

Kia ora koutou,

Your Wellington Regional Committee members are here to connect you to likeminded individuals in the region's library and information community through events, blogging, communication and networking. We've had an interesting year with some committee members assisting from another country, while others had to take time away to start a family.

The committee members for July 2008 - October 2009 were:

Charlotte Clements, Chair

Paddy Plunklet, Outgoing LIANZA councillor

Laurinda Thomas, Incoming LIANZA councillor

Anne Thompson, Treasurer

Gabrielle Hikaka, Te Rōpu Whakahau Representative

Trish Beamsley, Te Rōpu Whakahau Representative

Gael Lamont

Meg Cordes

Timothy Greig

Hana Whaanga

and Fiona Rigby.

Sadly, Gael Lamont, Fiona Rigby and Meg Cordes will not be continuing their dedicated work with the committee in the forthcoming year.

We are giving you guys of the LIS/LIM community, brief biography's of each returning committee member, so that you can decide for yourselves if we're worthy of continuing to work at connecting Wellington's LIANZA members together. First up,

Charlotte Clements
Kia ora koutou. My library career spans three decades starting in public library services and moving into tertiary education libraries after gaining my teaching qualifications. I am now managing a team at the Victoria University Library. I joined the LIANZA Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui regional committee at the end of 2006 after gaining sponsorship to attend the LIANZA Conference, and have chaired the committee for the past two years. I plan to step away from chairing but would like to remain on the committee.

Paddy Plunket
My library career has been spent nearly entirely in special libraries and mostly as a manager of teams and services. Right now I’m managing a team at the Parliamentary Library. I joined the SLIS committee ten years ago, and have served as convenor of that committee for four years. In 2007 I joined the Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui as the regional representative on LIANZA council.

Gabrielle Hikaka
I am one of 2 Te Rōpū Whakahau (TRW) representatives on the current Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui Region Committee. My focus for the Committee is about bringing TRW & LIANZA in this region together. In my career I have worked mostly in special libraries mainly in the Government sector and all of them here in Wellington. I am currently the manager of Te Puni Kōkiri Library.

Ngā mihi, Gabrielle

Anne Thompson
Anne has been on the regional committee for a few years now, filling the role of treasurer and knowledge basket. Anne works at the National library.

Timothy Greig
Kia ora my name is Timothy Greig and I am currently the senior tutor in the LIM Programme at Victoria University's School of Information Management. I have my own blog at timothygreig.com.
"I'm interested in librarianship, game design, information architecture and some other stuff".
I have a strong research (and personal) interest in video games and emerging technologies for collaboration, and learning.Having now attained my library qualification, and inspired by recent exposure to the School of Architecture and Design, and current shift into teaching and academic support, I'm aiming to continue to study to further develop my skills in the area of Information Architecture and User Experience Design. (info on Tim avail. @Linkedin)

Hana Whaanga
Kia ora my name is Hana and I am one of the younguns on the committee. I have been on it for about 14 months and have spent the majority of that communicating from another country (Perth, Australia). My library career thus far has consisted of mainly lending and acquisitions work in University libraries, a little bit of all-rounding in small health libraries, and I'm currently trying out Public Libraries (Hutt City Libraries) on for size. I enjoy being on Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui's regional committee because of the opportunities it brings, the networking, the friendships, encouraging others to get enthusiastic about our profession, and generally like playing around with techie stuff (a'la this blog).

Trish Beamsley
Kia ora! I began my career in libraries working as a part-time Circulation Library Assistant at Victoria University in Wellington in1995 while completing a BA in Education and Women’s Studies. Awarded the ‘Whaia I te Kahurangi Parliamentary Library Scholarship’ in 1997, I subsequently graduated with the MLIS in 1999, (Class of ’98) then moved into the world of newspaper indexing and cataloguing in the Database section of the Parliamentary Library until I migrated across the road (literally!) into a Research Librarian position in the Alexander Turnbull Library in July 2000.

In December 2005 I transferred across from the Alexander Turnbull Library to the National Library Reference Services Team into the position of Senior Reference Librarian, Maori Subject Specialist, a role that I really enjoy as I not only have my own collection but I also get to work with the Turnbull Collections as well as some very talented and knowledgeable colleagues.

I have been a member of Te Roopu Whakahau since 1995, (serving on Nga Kaiwhakahau in 1998-1999) and I am half of the Duo that has been representing TRW on the Te Upoko o Te Ika a Maui (Wellington Regional) LIANZA Committee since August 2008. As such I am gaining a lot of insight into the machinations of the people behind LIANZA which is quite fascinating and stimulating! I am in the process of professionally registering and will reserve my opinion about that (apparently it is quite work-intensive!) until I have had experience of it first hand.

I live in Porirua with my partner, David, our 7 year- old daughter Emillie and our cat Tammie Possum.

Nga mihi,
Trish

Laurinda Thomas
Kia Ora! I’ve been working in the library and information sector since 1998. I started off as a Library Assistant at Massey University Library in Palmerston North, before deciding to start my MLIS by Open Learning in 2000. In 2001 I moved to Wellington to take up a position at Victoria University of Wellington Library as an Assistant Librarian. For a complete change of scene, I then took off to London in 2004, where I worked for Endeavor Information Systems (now ExLibris) as their European Implementation Consultant, training and implementing the Voyager ILS at libraries across Europe. I’ve been back in New Zealand since August 2008, and am currently working for the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology as a Knowledge Analyst.

I was first encouraged to join LIANZA by a former Library Manager who sent me to conference as a Library Assistant - a transformative experience! I joined the Te Upoko regional committee in 2002, and served as secretary from 2003-4. I rejoined the committee in 2009, and am privileged to be Regional Councillor for Wellington.

The Importance of Professional Networking – Conversations at the Gurteen Knowledge Café

David Gurteen specialises in conversations, and I had the opportunity to have a few with him while he was in Wellington last month. As a self appointed minder during part of his visit I managed to arrange for us to walk together from his hotel in Cuba St. to the Chapman Tripp offices where he had agreed to run a Knowledge Café for members of Te Upoko o Te Ika a Maui, the New Zealand Law Librarian’s Association and the New Zealand Knowledge Network. The walk took about twenty minutes and although we didn’t talk about anything particularly profound, I found our exchange delightful and edifying.

I suspect that my response to our chat was more about the fact that we were two human beings engaged in a common activity and sharing our thoughts, rather than the fact that he was an expert in the field of Knowledge Management and the creator of a number of knowledge sharing innovations. After experiencing the Knowledge Café itself I was even more convinced that the value of the evening came from the sense of vitality we found in talking to people about the things we care and are curious about than the brilliance of the technique.

David explained that he came up with the Knowledge Café format after recognising that members of his London based knowledge management group were getting more out of their post meeting get together in the pub than they were from formal presentations (or “death by power point” as he described them). Participants at a knowledge café sit in small groups at a table discussing a single, often provocative question. After 15 minutes some of the participants move table and some stay put. After three of these changes the entire group sits in a big circle and the facilitator asks “now who would like to start the conversation?” and a further ten to fifteen minutes is spent talking as a large group.

The question for our Café was “why is professional networking important, and how can we do it better?” I didn’t get a definitive answer to this question, but I did get a strong impression of how a range of people think about their professional networks, and why they value them. Like many good conversations we strayed well away from the central topic. Particularly rich veins included the use of twitter in networking and why this is fantastic/terrible, and how to foster more meaningful face to face conversations at work.

Having members of NZLLA and NZKM as well as Te Upoko really enriched the conversation, and I enjoyed the range of perspectives presented. One of ideas that impressed me was that good professional networking can be between professions as well as within a profession, and there is much to be gained from the cross pollination of disciplines and our different world views - and that Knowledge Cafes seem a perfect way to facilitate that!

I’d like to give a big thank you to the people who helped support the evening including Robyn Emett and Alistair Jenkins from NZLLA, Julian Carver and Janita Stuart from NZKM, Moira Fraser who got David Gurteen to agree to the idea, and Chapman Tripp for providing a stunning venue.

Here is a slideshow of us enjoying pre café networking: http://bit.ly/14XykC
You can read more about David Gurteen and Knowledge Cafés here http://www.gurteen.com

Paddy

Out and about - Upper Hutt

On 17 September, I took a trip once more out of Wellington "central", this time to visit library staff in Upper Hutt. As always, Wellington's topography provided me with some interesting weather conditions for the drive up (fog this time)!

My host for this visit was Debbie Duncan, who delighted me by immediately responding to my email asking if I could come to visit. Talking to the staff at the Upper Hutt Public Library, I explained how I came to be involved in LIANZA, what my role was as the regional councillor, and what LIANZA is currently up to. I also had a great informal chat over coffee with some of the library staff about professional registration. Barbara's column in Library Life came up again as we discussed the revalidation journal, and activities that can count towards it. The more I talk to people about revalidation, the more I realise the importance of talking about the process - it makes it much less scary, especially since we do activities all the time that can contribute to our journals.

I also had the privilege of taking a tour around the library and hearing about the programmes that the staff run. Even though it was just after opening time by this point, the library was filling up quickly with under-3's getting ready for story time, and I was staggered at the thought of getting 1000 people through the door every day.

My thanks to Debbie and the team for letting me come and speak. I continue to get heaps out of these visits, and I'm looking forward to the next one!

** Would you like me to come and visit your region or library? Please email me. **

Out and about - Wairarapa

One of my priorities for being Regional Councillor, is to get out of Wellington "central" and out to other parts of the region to talk to our members, and see what we can do to make LIANZA more relevant for them.

So it was great to be able to organise a visit to Masterton on September 10, which nicely coincided with the quarterly meeting of Wairarapa librarians. Alli Smith, the LIANZA Executive Director, kindly agreed to accompany me, so we made a delegation of two over to the sunny side of the Rimutakas.

We were hosted by the Sandy Green at the Masterton Public Library. The visit gave us a chance to talk about LIANZA's current activities, in particular professional registration, continuing professional development, and the update of the LIANZA website. Being around 1.5 hours from central Wellington, we had a good discussion about the possibility of initiating events in the Wairarapa, how the Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui Council could provide support, and using existing expertise in the region to create professional development opportunities. Barbara's recent President's column in Library Life discussing her experience in running journal revalidation workshops, got some good feedback and enthusiasm for using the idea locally.

After indulging in the great spread that had been put on, Alli and I were taken across the road to visit the Wairarapa Archive. The Archive has a staggering 90% approval rating in the region, and is well used and supported by everyone from school children on up. We had a fascinating visit with Gareth Winter the Archivist, and instead of the anticipated 2 minutes to 'pop our noses in', we spend a great 45 minutes listening to fascinating stories of both the region, and the great local support for the archive.

My thanks to Sandy, Gareth and all the Librarians that we met in the Wairarapa for your hospitality!

** Would you like me to come and visit your region or library? Please email me. **

Regional Councillor's Report to the Region - August 2009

LIANZA Council met for a full day in Wellington on 11 August. This was the first face-to-face meeting of the 2009-2010 Council.

Key items that were discussed:

Governance Structure
· after analysis of survey results and Council discussion is was decided that there was not a clear mandate to implement all the changes in the discussion paper, significantly the changes to regional councillor roles and Te Ropu Whakahau representation.
· The following will be drafted as motions to be put at the AGM
o Formal adoption of the draft purpose statement
o Vice-President to be disestablished and a President-Elect role established.
o That the role of Treasurer be changed to that of a Council appointed Accountant/Financial Advisor

Institutional Membership/Fee Structure
While the FTE model was agreed as a fair way to establish fees, this needs more work on scenarios and modelling. A small group will be set up to carry on with this work.

Strategic Direction
Council continues to work on our key strategic goals of Advocacy and Membership Services. Regional Councillors will have two specific actions around membership & engagement to focus on for the coming two months.

In particular, I'll be focussing on going out to visit different parts of the region over the next couple of months. We'd like to know how we can get all the different regions that make up Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui more involved in LIANZA. Part of that will be looking at making sure we've got some great communications channels, so everyone knows what's going on in the region. Please contact me if you'd like me to come and visit you!

Professional Development Plan
Work on the 2010 plan is progressing. Please continue to feed ideas on possible CPD through to me or direct to Maree Kibblewhite.

Penny Carnaby - National Librarian
Penny joined us and discussed issues at the National Library. Over the next 18 months Penny will be "on the road" a lot. Would this be a chance to have her join us for a Regional meeting?

Other items of interest
Work on the redevelopment of LIANZA's online presence continues with the establishment of a small working group to drive this forward.

Please feel free to contact me if you've got any questions or feedback.

Laurinda