Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa LIANZA President, Kim Taunga, recently attended a five-day IFLA Asia Oceania Regional Workshop and Pacific Libraries meeting at the National Library of Thailand in Bangkok.

The IFLA 2022-23 presidential theme or call to action is Libraries: Building a Sustainable Future. The IFLA Asia Oceania regional workshop focused on building a stronger and more sustainable library field and the kaupapa was to stimulate action at the local, national and regional level. 

There were more than 50 delegates from 28 countries representing several types of libraries at the Bangkok workshop. Kim made some good connections particularly with the president and vice-president of PIALA Erlinda Naputi and Roland San Nicolas PIALA Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives, and Museums and with colleagues from Vanuatu, Fiji, Singapore, Australia, Mongolia, Nepal, India, Malaysia, Phillippines, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

Claire McGuire from IFLA reported back from COP27 in Egypt, with interesting feedback in relation to libraries,  You can view her COP27 presentation on accelerating climate empowerment by partnering with the cultural sector.

Regional delegates also attended  a seminar at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP), one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations, on the role of the library and information sector in achieving UN goals in the Asia-Oceania region.  Clare Thorpe, Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) vice president spoke about ALIA’s stretch Sustainable Development (SDG) targets for the sector to achieve by 2030. The American Library Association (ALA) SDG taskforce is  led by Loida Garcia-Febo, ALA past-president

Next week, two librarians from the Pacific Libraries Network will be panellists at  DevNet 2022 in Auckland. LIANZA President-elect Richard Misilei is speaking on the panel and Winston Roberts, IFLA Asia-Oceania Regional Chair is supporting the event. Kim and Richy are looking forward to hosting our Pacific visitors and continuing conversations on the SDGs and libraries. 

At the IFLA Asia Oceania Regional Workshop, delegates also discussed how countries in the region are represented on the Library Map of the World, which includes SDG library stories. 
 
LIANZA has been active in promoting the SGDs with articles,, submitting library stories to NZ's Voluntary Review 2019. The association was represented at the SDG Summit in 2019 at the Universtiy of Auckland. In early 2021 over 300 people attended a webinar on libraries and the SDGs co-hosted by IFLA and LIANZA. This webinar included an address by Loida Garcia-Febo and five speakers from the region, including LIANZA past president Paula Eskett, shared stories, successes and challenges. Paula led an SDG workshop at LIANZA 2021 Conference and continues to support and advocate for the SDG work and connections to libraries.  LIANZA also supported the collation and publishing of SDG Stories from Asia and Oceania booklet in December 2021 and recently shared learning about climate action from the IFLA WLIC 2022.

A meeting is planned in February to discuss how LIANZA can support the IFLA Library Map of the World. Committing further resource to this initiative  will be considered by LIANZA Council as part of finalising the association's strategic plan in 2023.

The SDGs will also be discussed at the LIANZA Forum on climate action next week, which aims to begin a conversation about the role of libraries and the climate crisis.

Resources
Presentations from the event are available from the IFLA repository. 
Photos from the event are available from IFLA’s Flickr stream.
Read more about the workshop on IFLA news site. 

Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre is the city’s gathering place – an architectural and social landmark designed as a welcoming heart in the centre of  Ōtautahi Christchurch. It opened in 2021 and the name Te Pae draws inspiration from several phrases in Te Reo Māori:

Te Pae Maunga – our mountain views. The source of origin and central to the land and people. Mountains are a key element of the Southern landscape, just as Te Pae is a central point within the city.

Te Pae Whenua – the vast plains we inhabit. With strong ties to mountains and the rivers and plains they create, it is only natural this influence can be found in the building’s design, where shapes and lines represent the contours of the Southern Alps and braided rivers of Canterbury.
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Te Pae Tangata – a place to meet and converse. To talk, to be hosted, to share, entertain and inform, for Christchurch, Te Pae is a gathering place.

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Please complete this form by Tuesday, November 8 to tell us why you want to be involved, what you will bring to this work, and what you think LIANZA 2023 needs to achieve for the sector.

The first committee meeting will be held via Zoom in December.

If you have any questions please email Ana Pickering, LIANZA Executive Director at ana@lianza.org.nz.

LIANZA takes great pleasure in announcing this year’s professional recognition awards, which include one honorary life membership. This is the first time since 2015 that an honorary life membership has been awarded by LIANZA Council.

The professional recognition awards will be presented at the LIANZA AGM on November 24.

• LIANZA Honorary Life Membership: Anahera Morehu (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei)
• LIANZA Fellowship: Te Paea Paringatai
• LIANZA Associateships: Philip Miles and Siong Ng
• LIANZA Letter of Professional Excellence: Adele Hewlett

We would like to thank the LIANZA Credentials Committee, chaired by Laurinda Thomas for their work and recommendations.

Philip Miles is awarded a Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa LIANZA Associateship.
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Philip is currently the Simplification Lead, Connected Communities, for Auckland Council.  He is an active and engaged member of LIANZA and has served as chair of the LIANZA Hikuwai regional committee. He has been the Hikuwai regional councillor on the LIANZA Council, since 2019.

Philip has contributed to Library Life Te Rau Ora, led a webinar on digital inclusion activities in New Zealand, and has appeared on Radio New Zealand to talk about the LIANZA SLANZA Tertiary Grants and workforce planning.
In his current role as Simplification Lead, he led the work to ensure processes and policies were updated for the removal of library fines. He ensured staff had consistent processes and information, so customers had the best possible experience.

As Digital Solutions Lead at Auckland Libraries, Philip managed multiple library systems, the development and upgrade of the Auckland Libraries app and worked with partners to design and install the technology requirements for new builds and refurbishments such as Te Paataka Koorero o Takaanini Community Hub. 
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Philip is an able communicator, who is trusted by his colleagues, provides sound advice, and is generous with his time. As one referee commented, “Philip’s librarianship is as evidence-based as it is kind”.  ​

Siong Ng is awarded a Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa LIANZA Associateship.
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Siong is currently the library manager at Carey Baptist College in Auckland. As the library manager, Siong is involved in a wide range of library activities, including purchasing in print and electronic formats, managing the e-resources, budgeting, developing and delivering information literacy resources, team leadership and managing archives.   In Siong’s current role she has developed a self-paced information literacy course for her students, implemented an online repository for the college’s dissertations, and gained funding to progress digitisation of archive collections.

Siong was president of the NZ Chapter of the Australia Zealand Theological Librarian Association from 2015-18. She has been published in the American Theological Library Association Journal and the Journal of Academic Librarianship. She has presented at the ATLA, IFLA and ANZTLA Conferences.  In 2021, her chapter on strategic planning was published in Volume 2 of ATLA’s Theological Librarian’s Handbook. 

Siong has been a recipient of the Nora Bateson and Paul Szentirmay Scholarships, and is a committed learner, actively looking for ways to develop her knowledge and skills and share these with others. 

Adele Hewlett is awarded a Te Rau Herenga o Aotearoa LIANZA Award of Professional Excellence. 

Adele is Timaru District Council Libraries Manager. Her creativity, innovation, and energy for change and community connection are described by her nominators as inspiring. She is an early adopter of new innovations, who connects with others and brings them on the journey.

Since starting as libraries manager in 2018, Adele has identified multiple opportunities to increase the library services offered, engage with the community, and remove barriers. This was especially apparent over the last few years in the COVID environment. Adele took these challenges in her stride and set about providing much needed and appreciated support. The community focus that Adele and her team have developed gives connection, enjoyment, and value on many levels.

Adele’s enthusiasm and rapid pick up of new services is demonstrated by introducing a Short Story Dispenser, Storytime Pods, a Family workstation, Assistive Technolgy, Humanware resources for people with low vision, and by offering weekly device sessions, offering Skinny Jump and Stepping Up, removing fees and charges, and starting up STEM activities. Adele also spearheaded the adoption of the self-issue and RFID. In making these changes, Adele has raised the local profile of libraries across the Timaru District and most importantly, engaged library staff, Council staff, stakeholders, and local business leaders along the way.

In 2019 Adele entered the Timaru District Libraries in the Ara Business Excellence Awards where they won the Innovation and Technology section. This was followed up again in 2021 when they were finalists, and in 2022 winning the Supporting Local and People’s Choice awards.
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Adele has worked hard to successfully engage with and improve working conditions and salaries for library staff. She is focused on encouraging staff to work collectively as one team, regardless of which library they work in, build resilience in the workforce and in providing a great service and meet the needs of a diverse community.

Readers all over the country recently took part in the annual Together We Read program, the biggest digital book club in New Zealand. This unique community program, facilitated by OverDrive, allows readers to enjoy the same eBook for two weeks through their public library and connect with others across the country. This year, anyone with a library card was able to borrow Nikki Crutchley’s thrilling, Ngaio Marsh Award-shortlisted novel ‘To the Sea’ during the program that ran from October 3-27.

More than 100 libraries across New Zealand offered the title through the Libby app, and librarians were thrilled to be able to offer a title by a local author. “Being able to feature a local author with such a brilliant novel is exciting for us and all of our library partners offering the program,” said Malcolm O’Brien, Regional Manager for Australia & New Zealand at OverDrive. “Especially because we were able to have an event with Auckland Libraries in conversation with Nikki Crutchley to kick off the program.”

The virtual event allowed readers to ask questions, interact with Nikki Crutchley and enjoy a lively bookish discussion. Alison Fitzpatrick, Reading Engagement Specialist for Auckland Libraries, described the event as a “hugely enjoyable experience.” In addition to the virtual event, readers were able to engage in conversation around the book via an online discussion board.

The goal of Together We Read is to create a shared community experience for readers, while helping libraries generate more interest in their digital collections. Together We Read also serves as a window for patrons to discover new titles and authors, especially local ones like Nikki Crutchley.

For Nikki Crutchley, having her book part of a program uniquely created for libraries was a perfect fit. She described in an author letter to readers, “Libraries – both public and school – from the very beginning, have to me been a place of solace and somewhere I can feed my imagination.”

Together We Read New Zealand is a community program offered annually by OverDrive, the leading digital platform for ebooks, audiobooks and magazines, and the creator of the award-winning Libby app.
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For more information visit togetherweread.com/nz.

 L to R: Lawren Matrix (Child and Youth Practice Lead, Auckland Council), Maatakiwi Wakefield (Māori and Multicultural Services, Christchurch City Libraries), Rā Steer (NZLPP), Mere Mclean ( Kaihono Te Reo, Mātauranga Māori, Whakatāne District Council), Siren Deluxe (Manager Operations, Kāpiti District Libraries), Jasmin Ratana (Pou Whiria Māori Information Librarian, Whanganui District Library), Kay Huia (Ringa Tohu Services Supervisor, Hamilton City Libraries), Heather Furniss (Community Engagement Librarian, Matamata-Piako District Libraries), Dan Beck (Senior Librarian Content Development, Auckland Council), Amanda Bond ( Facilitator National Capability, Services to Schools, National Library), Usoaliitaua (Danny) Tiata (Customer Experience Outreach Services Team Leader, Upper Hutt Libraries), Isabella Stainthorpe (Engagement and Learning Support Team Leader, University of Canterbury), Simon Whitlock (Librarian, Far North District Council), Carla Jeffrey (NZLPP), Jewels Edwards (NZLPP), Katharine Treasure (NZLPP), Lewis Brown (NZLPP) 
 

NZLPP's Whiria te Tāngata, kia toitū te mātauranga - officially kicked off in the last week of September, with a mihi whakatau led by Ruki Tobin that followed the tikanga of Te Atiawa and Taranaki whānui.

This project aims to further the goals of the library sector to become more sustainable. Twelve new kākaho – library sustainability champions – from across Aotearoa met for a three-day workshop in Wellington to introduce them to the New Zealand Partnership Programme's (NZLPP) four project workstreams and gave them a chance to network and create connections. The kākaho were selected from across Aotearoa’s library sector following an Expression of Interest process in August. 

The four workstreams are: 

• Mātauranga Māori - as the foundation for this project and with the focus of this mahi through a strategic lens for the organisations taking part  
• Workforce capability - implementing the sector workforce capability framework developed through NZLPP 
• Data, research and evidence - implementing the sector data, research and evidence strategy developed through NZLPP 
• Collective Impact – exploring a cross-sector partnership model that focuses beyond the sector and addressing the enablers for communication and collaboration.

The kākaho will continue working on this mahi for the next eight months and will be reporting back to the wider sector on the different learning opportunities. 

KIM TAUNGA (LIANZA PRESIDENT) INSPIRE, ENGAGE, CONNECT AND ENABLE

An IFLA WLIC is a very different proposition from any library conference I have ever attended. There are a dizzying number of sections, sessions, streams, and pre-and post-conference activities to attend. Sessions can also be accessed in any of the seven official IFLA languages.

We set up a pre-conference Zoom hui for those from Aotearoa who were attending. I am grateful to Winston Roberts, National Library of New Zealand and Chair of the IFLA Regional Division Committee for Asia Oceania, for giving us first-timers the benefit of his wisdom on navigating and getting the most out of the congress. I flew back to Auckland the day before the Public Libraries NZ Forum and went straight to Christchurch to speak on a panel with the National Librarian, Rachel Esson about the congress. The Public Library Manifesto, UN Sustainable Development Goals, indigenous language revitalisation, mis and disinformation and our influence on and in the IFLA Asia -Oceania region were some key themes for me.

The congress itself was themed around the IFLA Strategy 2019- 2024 ‘Inspire, Engage, Connect and Enable’ and it hit the mark in all four quadrants. Many parts of the congress are still resonating and revealing their relevance for me as the current current LIANZA president and as a member of the library and information profession. I intend on sharing more through my president’s column this year. There was a myriad of people to meet and connect with. It was gratifying and validating to meet both Patty Wong, the immediate past president and first Asian American president of the American Library Association (ALA), and Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Ozada the current and first Pasifika president of ALA.

As the first Pasifika presidents of LIANZA, Richy and I felt honoured to meet them both. Richy has connected Lessa to our LIANZA Pasifika Information Management Network (PIMN) executive aiga and we will talanoa in the coming weeks to support each other in things Pasifika and librarianship.

A lunchtime kōrero with the librarian from Saudi Arabia who was at the congress presenting their Public Library of the Year entry was interesting from project and political points of view. It was great to meet and renew connections with librarians from Australia and members of the very active IFLA Section, Library Buildings and Equipment. 

My favourite keynote session was Helen Shenton from the Trinity College Library. She spoke about the conservation and reimagination of the Book of Kells exhibition. There is lots of information online about this major project but to hear Helen speak about the visceral and emotional response that can only be experienced by being physically present with the Book of Kells, was inspiring and thought-provoking. Especially in light of the pandemic journey, the world is on and the question of how we make our heritage collections accessible for a variety of audiences.

​A final inspiration was the FAIFE (Freedom of Information and Freedom of Expression) sessions which spoke to the “ethical foundation of why we are librarians” and how we must make informed, ethical and accountable choices in our work, every day.

RICHY MISILEI (LIANZA PRESIDENT-ELECT) MORE THAN A BUILDING

​Where to begin! Firstly, it was very special for me because I’ve never been to the Northern Hemisphere and to be physically standing on my Irish whenua, was a moment I truly cherished. And to do it with my wife and daughter, and colleagues from New Zealand, made it even more unique. People have asked me what Dublin is like and I’ve said that it felt somewhat like home— in terms of the landscape and the weather, only we don’t have the centuries of history that they have. For me being a Samoan boy from South Auckland this was mind-blowing!

My number one, non-negotiable tick-box historic place to see in Dublin was the Trinity College Library and its Book of Kells. Both were astounding! And it made me think, if the builders of the library, or the authors/ illustrators of the Book of Kells, would ever have imagined that they would be leaving such a deep and profound impact on the world? This has been my train of thought for the past few months, seeking things that are long-lasting and not just a ‘buzz’ of the moment. Nothing wrong with the latter. It’s cool, but it is also fleeting. So, as I went through the conference, I looked at things from this point of view – is the content of this session expressing a long-lasting, positive impact, or is it just a nice ‘buzz?’

The winner of the IFLA Systematic Public Library of the Year Award went to Missoula Public Library, United States. Their building was great. State-of-the-art integrated and ‘flash’! But when compared to the Saudi Arabia nomination… let’s just say that the library building in Saudia Arabia (called Ithra meaning enrichment) looked like the Avengers Tower from Marvel. However, as we all know, new builds become old buildings and sometimes they become ‘not purposeful’ as societal needs change. What really made the Missoula Public Library impactful was their honouring of the indigenous people. Unfortunately, I missed the name of this American Indian community, but I was blessed to hear that such an institution would be honouring the indigenous people of the area first and foremost. New, flash buildings are great and needed, but honouring the people, that’s where the true, long-lasting impact occurs!

Another session that stuck out for me was ‘Empowering Library Leaders and Diversity Worldwide’. Four leaders from four different library systems shared their leadership experiences. But something that Christine Honold of Germany said resonated with me, “People should see themselves in libraries”. This was almost the exact sentiment our National Librarian, Rachel Esson, said in another session, about New Zealanders’s seeing themselves in our National Library. I’m not someone who wants diversity for the sake of diversity. But I do know the impactful value of people seeing themselves in an institution or our National Library. I’m not someone who wants diversity for the sake of diversity. But I do know the impactful value of people seeing themselves in an institution or organisation to be able to relate. And I can proudly say how in Aotearoa New Zealand, it is something we’re very aware of and working towards!

ERICA RANKIN (LIANZA PAST PRESIDENT) TAKING COLLECTIVE ACTION ON THE CLIMATE CRISIS

​I was very lucky to have the opportunity to attend the amazing WLIC in Dublin. While very excited I was also somewhat apprehensive at the idea of travelling to the other side of the world where many COVID restrictions had been lifted, unlike New Zealand at that stage. I must have been an interesting site on the long-haul flights with most of my head and face obscured by a face mask, eye mask, and noise cancelling headphones. But I did manage to arrive in Dublin (and leave again) without getting COVID.

The first day of the congress focused mainly on business meetings and I attended both the Asia Oceania Regional Division meeting and the Libraries Buildings and Equipment section. This gave me a good insight into the mechanics of the organisation of IFLA, the business conducted by these committees and sections, and how enriching these groups are. Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa’s Winston Roberts chaired the Asia Oceania session and acknowledged the strong support this work gets from New Zealand.

One session that I found very powerful and still resonates with me was the keynote speech from former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Titled The Challenge of the Climate Crisis she set a very real and clear challenge to libraries in the 20th century, referencing the very recent climate conference in Berlin where the Secretary General of the UN stated that “We have a choice: collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.” She said she assumes that librarians are on the side of collective action. She identified 5 levels of injustice in the way that the climate crisis has come about. That the poorest countries are hit earlier and more ferociously, gender injustice, intergenerational injustice, the injustice of the different pathways to development in different regions of the world and the injustice to nature herself. She challenged librarians to identify the ways in which we can rise up and be part of the collective challenge to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet and to encourage people to talk to each other more and more about the climate crisis.

​How can we create an enabling environment to start this vital conversation? These and other questions hit home with the audience of 2000 people from 200 countries at the congress. She shared a phrase used by her friend Archbishop Tutu, who described himself not as an optimist but as a “prisoner of hope” and the assertion that in many ways we all now have to be prisoners of hope in this difficult world, because “hope brings energy.” Mary ended her address with the assertion that we can choose our collective response to the climate crisis, to choose collective suicide or choose to be prisoners of hope and find in that the energy to be resilient. She left us with a quote from Nelson Mandela, “it always seems impossible until it is done.” So, I am sharing her challenge with all of you. How can we take meaningful collective action? And do you choose to be a prisoner of hope? ​

​ANA PICKERING (LIANZA ED) THE ROLE OF LIBRARIES IN A WORLD ON FIRE

​In late July news headlines focused on climate extremes. ‘Drought will shrink UK food crops’ and ‘NZ floods: hundreds evacuate as ‘atmospheric river’ brings deluge’. As Erica has mentioned, the opening keynote at the congress focused on the challenge of the climate crisis and was given by Mary Robinson. She shared a recent warning from António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, that half of humanity is in the danger zone from floods, droughts, extreme storms, and wildfires, throwing out a gentle challenge to librarians to take collective action.

I followed a climate and sustainability theme over the next few days. Insights on the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals were shared by David Donoghue, former Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations, at a panel session How the SDGs can Change Your Life. David was involved in writing and negotiating the SDGs and declared that “libraries are in a privileged position in helping communities achieve sustainable development goals.” Patrick Paul Walsh, the vice-president of education at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network shared open-source courses at the SDG academy and librarians from South America and Africa shared their own stories of engaging with the sustainable goals.

The last keynote was Climate, Conflict, and Community: The role of libraries in a world on fire delivered by Michael Peter Edson, a digital cultural strategist. He started with the proposition “How millions of bold librarians will help save the world by inventing a unique new form of global activism in response to the climate crisis”. We know that awareness of the climate crisis is high, but action is low. We know that the global library and information sector has the tools, the resources, the knowledge, the trust, the real estate and the collections. How are we trying to make these do something important and consequential in society? What are we doing?

There are around 2.5 million libraries in the world and hundred tens or hundreds of millions of librarians and information specialists in probably every community on earth. What shall we do? Michael challenged us to think about how librarians can create information access and community action that will help communities survive in the climate crisis. “We can all sit back and tread water and think about the difficult idea but as soon as you decide as an individual or a workgroup or an institution to say something in public it is a completely different game. Working in safe, slow incremental ways will not enable us to get over this Big Frikin’ Wall”.

I thought back to the first day when Mary Robinson said that the single most important thing we can do is talk about the climate crisis - opening up the conversation. How can libraries encourage people to talk more about it, how can we use knowledge to motivate people to take action? How can digital technologies help solve humanity’s grand challenge? How can libraries help bring hope into this conversation? Let’s start talking.

A couple of small steps for back home:

• Come to a consultation hui in October on the draft LIANZA strategic plan and bring your ideas for advocating about climate change.
• Sign up HERE if you want to join with other library and information professionals to begin talking about how we can take collective action on the climate crisis.

A couple of resources:
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How to be a craftivist – the art of gentle protest by Sarah Corbett
Green Ideas series published by Penguin
IFLA’s Get into SDG Action Week guide  

The new Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories Curriculum will be rolled out in schools across the country from Term 1, 2023. It establishes studying the histories of Aotearoa New Zealand as a key learning for all students in Years 1 to 10. One key element is a focus on local history and local stories. For libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organisations, this is an opportunity to connect with schools, highlighting taonga that will assist teachers to bring history to life in the classroom.
 
There are initiatives occurring over the country to assist teachers and ākonga (students) and the ways some library and heritage services are supporting these new curriculum changes are highlighted in this article.

SERVICES TO SCHOOLS AND TOPIC EXPLORER
Samuel Beyer is the Project Manager Curriculum at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa. He works with the Services to Schools team to support access to a range of teaching and learning resources, including  Lending Service for schools, Tuia Mātauranga, Te Kupenga: Stories of Aotearoa, and Topic Explorer. Topic Explorer helps ākonga find quality, curated resources on a range of topics. Each topic features a carefully selected set of national and international resources, including websites, images, videos, books, and more.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s history has been a big focus of Service to Schools recently and the team has looked at their collections to see what resources already meet the needs of the new curriculum and where the gaps may be. They are working with other areas of the National Library, including the Alexander Turnbull collections, and also Archives New Zealand, and Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision to identify relevant collection items that could be digitized and made accessible to schools.
 
Local libraries are important to this discussion as the curriculum requires students to explore their local history, and this means access to local curation sources is needed.
 
Samuel says, that while schools are going to be working with the new curriculum from 2023, they don’t need to embed everything straight away, but will have three years to implement it into their overall school curriculum. To support this implementation, he encourages libraries to think about a traffic light framework and take a planned approach to identify and make available collection items that could support the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum:

• Green light – look at what collection items are already easily accessible by schools, teachers and ākonga
• Orange light - what relevant collection items could be digitized and made accessible relatively easily?
• Red light – what useful collection items could be made more accessible but will take more effort or longer to do so?

 
“We’ve just started providing professional development in the history curriculum area to support library staff,” says Samuel. Part of this is unpacking the curriculum for them and what it might mean for resourcing. While focused on school librarians, this professional development is also open to public librarians.
 
Samuel says that with the new curriculum there are clear indications of the key knowledge that schools will be covering. It provides a road map of how libraries can be approaching this area. “I think any local library could discuss this with their local schools and see what their resource needs are.” But he encourages taking a planned approach, working out what you have the capacity for, and working alongside others in this area such as schools, local museums, and possibly iwi. 

SERVICES TO SCHOOLS - ANYQUESTIONS AND MANY ANSWERS
Another valuable resource to support the new curriculum is the AnyQuestions/Many Answers service provided by the AnyQuestions team managed by Services to Schools at National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.
 
AnyQuestions is an online chat service offering help to students with their questions on weekdays from 1-6pm, supporting them develop their digital literacy skills in the process.
 
The Many Answers site guide inquirers to where resources are and are developed based on the questions being asked of the AnyQuestions chat service, with over 200 curated topics on the site.
 
Amy Jacob is responsible for managing this service and the local library partnerships that support the service. Seventeen public libraries partner with Services to Schools to run AnyQuestions and Many Answers, and SLANZA is an associate partner. There are close to 200 staff involved from Wellsford to Invercargill and all staff receive a two-day introductory training and then a yearly refresher training.
 
Included in Many Answers are topics related to New Zealand histories which provide a general overview of the topic. The AnyQuestions Histories Programme focuses on themes in the new curriculum and local resources.
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AnyQuestions Histories Programme
The AnyQuestions Histories Programme consists of three projects that involve creating entries that introduce students to local information sources, explain how to access them, and help students develop information literacy skills, which will support them to think critically about the past – a key feature of the Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum. These entries will be published on the AnyQuestions website.
The three projects are:

• Many Answers Regional Resources Project: This project involves partner libraries developing local Many Answers entries for 9 of the 10 Ministry of Education areas.
• Auckland Libraries Many Answers Project: This involves the development of multiple Many Answers entries based on each of the curriculum themes to cover Tāmaki Makaurau. 
• SLANZA Many Answers Project: This project involves school librarians developing entries for Te Tai Tokerau. They will also be running user-testing workshops with students and conducting an impact study. This project is funded by one of the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Project (NZLPP) strategic partnership grants.

The entries will bring local collections to one site. Students can decide how they will use the information based on what they’re learning at school. “We’ve encouraged libraries to work out what relationships they already have, such as with iwi and through councils, to help develop their knowledge of information sources, especially on mātauranga Māori,” says Amy Jacob. 

AUCKLAND LIBRARIES
Thanks to NZLPP funding, Auckland Libraries partnered with the Auckland History Initiative and the Services to Schools AnyQuestions team on a recent project to publish entries on the Many Answers platform. The entries link content from the Auckland Libraries’ heritage and published collections with topics covered in the curriculum in a format that makes local history content more accessible.

A subsequent project will create local history resource kits to support teachers in the delivery of curriculum topics. The work on the Many Answers content specific to the Auckland area is largely finished after a comprehensive audit of collections. A group of Many Answers operators trained by the Services to Schools team completed entries aimed at Year 7 and 8 students.

The Auckland Libraries Mātauranga Māori Unit, headed by Teri Ta’ala, are partners in this work. Erica O’Flaherty, Manager for Heritage Collections at Auckland Libraries says that conversations with the unit’s Poukōukiri Rangahau Māori are key to understanding how best to gather and select iwi-specific historical material appropriately.
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“We’ve asked ourselves how we work in a way that makes sure that we meet the objectives of the project – and that we balance traditional knowledge frameworks with contemporary perspectives to develop research resources that deliver an accurate view of the Auckland context, where multiple viewpoints exist, such as the North Shore, where there is multiple Iwi with diverse historical perspectives,” says Erica. “The Mātauranga Māori unit supports how we engage in an appropriate way with Māori history and inform decisions on things that are important for this project.”

“We’re doing this work alongside wider GLAMMIR sector representatives in the region and the NZ History Teachers Association. Those relationships have been useful to us to make sure we know who is doing what and that we’re supporting each other.”

Auckland Libraries also have a partnership with Auckland University and Dr Linda Bryder, from the Auckland History initiative, which supports students over the summer trimester to research aspects of Auckland history. The research topics undertaken by the students connect to Auckland Libraries’ heritage collections and build relationships with Iwi and GLAM communities.

Auckland Libraries are already getting inquiries from teachers looking for resources for next year, despite the period of three years given by the Ministry of Education to embed the resources.

SCHOOL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND AOTEAROA - SLANZA
​In addition to SLANZA’s partnership with Services to Schools in Te Tai Tokerau, SLANZA is involved with two Kāhui Ako pilots in Cambridge East (Te Kāhui Ako o Te Oko Horoi) and in Nelson (Waimea Kāhui Ako). These are both website development projects that will include regional professional development (PD) opportunities. This project is also funded by an NZLPP strategic partnership grant.

“A key role for school librarians is to support curriculum learning in the classroom. School librarians are in an ideal place to find the information to help teachers on the new history curriculum,” says SLANZA President Sasha Eastwood.
“All of our SLANZA regional committees will be looking at running local PD sessions to bring all the GLAMMIR sector together, so they know about what resources are out there. We’re in an ideal position to be a bridge between schools, museums, public libraries, iwi, records, archives and marae.”

SLANZA is currently working with the Ministry of Education to look at how school librarians can be supporting the new history curriculum further.
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One area where there is no pilot or partner project is in the Tairawhiti area. Services to Schools are working on how they can make sure there is no gap in the local history content in this area.

KA MUA KA MURI - PALMERSTON NORTH CITY LIBRARY
In June 2022, Palmerston North City Library held an event “Ka Mua, Ka Muri”, meaning walking backward into the future, where heritage groups and historians offered resources and information to give teachers the tools to be able to teach the new curriculum. Groups included the New Zealand Rugby Museum, Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom, the Manawatū Journal of History, and Te Pae Matauranga o Rangitāne.

Around 70 teachers from 24 schools attended. Organiser Virginia Warbrick said they recognised there were a lot of groups in the community with huge expertise in history so wanted to introduce them to teachers who may not have a history background.

Melissa Day is a teacher at Te Kura o Wairau in Palmerston North who attended the event and commented, “We're looking at local history and this is giving us some idea of how we can go about teaching local history, instead of just the overarching New Zealand stories.”

The library also coordinates the ‘Back Issues’ series of the Manawatū Standard – a weekly history-focused feature. They coordinate local writers to share different aspects of local history, with a strong visual element, and a recent focus on topics useful to local teachers in support of the new curriculum.
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A pilot project led by the library called ‘My Migration Story’ is a recent addition. It matches primary school teachers with members of the local branch of the NZ Society of Genealogists with the general premise, “Can you teach other people’s migration stories if you don’t know your own?” The primary goals are to: learn how to use historical research tools and databases to determine a teacher’s own ancestors who were born in/or migrated to Aotearoa, use newly designed visual tools to help tell stories about their whānau’s migration story to and within Aotearoa, determine the location of family burial sites, and strengthen the connection to whenua and place.

TE KĀHUI AKO O TE OKO HOROI - INVESTIGATING HISTORIES
Kirsty Wyndham is the school librarian/inquiry broker at Cambridge East Primary school in the Waikato. Kirsty is part of a SLANZA pilot programme in partnership with the Te Kāhui Ako o te Oko Horoi (Cambridge Community of Learning) to enhance the role of school librarians and showcase the impact an effective school librarian can have within their school. One of the goals of the programme is to provide a kete of historical resources on Cambridge and its surrounding areas.
 
A prototype website has been established in collaboration with the local museum and Iwi. This will provide teachers, kaiako, librarians and learning assistants within the kāhui ako with valuable and carefully selected local primary and secondary resources to support ākonga to be critical thinkers and understand their local past.
 
The website is based on three local themes: Shaping of a Landscape, King Taawhaio & Kiingitanga, and Building of a Town. More themes will be added over time. There are also links to historical information on local schools in the area.
 
The website provides multi-media links to podcasts, videos, paintings, images, biographies, and books covering local and national primary and secondary resources. These resources are all linked to Aotearoa New Zealand's histories and based on: Understand (big ideas), Know (contexts) and Do (inquiry practices). Teachers have access via a link to well-known resources from Digital NZ, EPIC, Papers Past, National Library, and Te Ara Encyclopaedia of New Zealand.
 
It is the beginning of a model and a journey where all parties involved can explore, discuss and debate together.

TE ARAWA STORIES - TE AKA MAURI ROTORUA LIBRARY
Te Aka Mauri’s focus has been on providing an engaging website as a resource to tell local stories and history. “You’re telling the stories of local iwi so our relationship with them is important – iwi are already partners in this information, and we work with a Mātauranga Māori advisor on this,” says Abigail Wharne Heritage and Research lead at Te Aka Mauri.
 
Te Aka Mauri is the custodian of the Great Te Arawa Stories (GTAS) website. GTAS contains a collection of stories about people, places, and events that are applicable to Rotorua and to the people of Te Arawa. It was developed by Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru Education Trust to introduce learners to Te Arawa stories, encourage user education skills, support inquiry learning, and inspire the exploration of existing resources.
 
“We’re working hard to improve access to our Māori resources, by ensuring pathways to this knowledge are informed by a Māori worldview. We are at the early stages of engaging with users to identify barriers to access. It has been a confronting, but a hugely necessary, first step in what we know will be an ongoing journey.”
 
Aural as well as written content on the site is informed by eight values: identity, diligence, relationships, innovation, wellbeing, scholarship, humility and values. “These are the values that guide Te Arawa learners,” says Abigail. Ultimately the GTAS content will be migrated to a new site.
 
“One of the things we’ve learned is that teachers value having pathways into information based on the curriculum, so we’re keeping the values and timelines but looking at how we can incorporate the structure of the curriculum as another pathway into those stories on the new site.” There will also be downloadable resources that teachers can use to support the stories on the site. During one feedback session, a teacher explained how they had been searching for a resource like this for years: high-quality narratives from a trusted local source.
 
Pathfinder handouts have been developed for different ages on the local history books available and the library is one of the partner libraries supporting the Many Answers regional project by providing links to Te Arawa and Rotorua history.
 
“The hardest thing to do was to limit the resources we included as there’s so much, we could have included,” says Abigail. The framework and training provided by the Many Answers project were very helpful in doing this.
 
MORE RESOURCES:
NZ History Teachers Association:
History curriculum content, view this link. 

How a UK programme has demonstrated the wide-ranging benefits of partnering public libraries with higher education institutions. Hot on the heels of a new online public engagement toolkit for library staff, we catch up with Marge Ainsley, the independent evaluator for the Engaging Libraries programme to find out more.

A pioneering public engagement programme in the UK has demonstrated how partnering with higher education institutions (HEIs) can bring multiple benefits for participants, library staff and academic partners. With civic engagement a priority for both HEIs and public libraries, it’s the perfect time to explore the benefits of partnerships.

CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ENGAGING LIBRARIES?
The Engaging Libraries programme ran from 2016 until the end of 2021 and was funded by Wellcome and Carnegie UK, and joined by the Wolfson Foundation for the second phase. Public libraries across the UK worked with HEIs to collaboratively develop and deliver public engagement activities focused on health, society, and culture research. The ultimate goal was to energise people about academic research, to make it more accessible and relevant to people’s lives. I joined the programme as an independent evaluator in 2019 for its second phase, which involved 16 projects across all four nations of the UK, with 14 public library services and 57 partners across both academia and cultural/community organisations.

The community gardens and māra kai of local libraries in Ashhurst and Highbury, set up alongside community groups and volunteers are a wonderful example of community engagement in the Manawatū.

Ten years ago, when Ross Meads started working in the library of the small, rural town of Ashhurst just out of Palmerston North, there had been a desire for a community garden where produce, fruit, herbs, and a flower garden could be established. Ross worked with RECAP (The Society for the Resilience and Engagement of the Community of Ashhurst and Pohangina Inc) and volunteers to set up the community garden in the large lawn area next to the library and began māra kai, gardening for food. A blessing and official opening were held in 2014 and it’s grown from there.

Everyone is encouraged to take what they need from the garden, and RECAP run education programmes to help share their knowledge about growing produce and composting.
Another great service is the seed libraries where the focus is on sharing seeds around the community for free. All the Palmerston North community libraries have sharing tables or a sharing shelf outside, where people frequently drop off or take excess fruit and vegetables. ​

I can literally throw something on the shelf, and it’s gone in 30 minutes,” says Ross. There are no questions and no judgements about taking the produce. “We’re probably supporting 50 families a week here now and food parcels have become a regular feature as the need in the community has evolved over time.”

“The heart of libraries has always been community. The development of our māra kai project is a reflection of what’s happening in our communities and the needs and demands there – it started off slowly but now it’s taken off with people lining up for māra kai and taking part in activities. A library should always be a mirror of what’s happening in the community, and this is,” says Ross.

Palmerston North Libraries have worked alongside different groups to meet kai demands in their communities. These include Environmental Network Manawatū, RECAP, Let’s Grow Highbury, Awapuni Community Gardens, Community Harvest, Massey University, Just Zilch rescued food, Manawatū Food Action Network, Growing Gardens and Communities, Te Whare Koha, Pataka Kai 4412, Whakapai Hauora Maara kai, SupaGrans, Plant to Plate, and many more people willing to pass on kai from their vegetable gardens. ​

Te Pātikitiki Library in Highbury has a smaller community garden area but has plans for a much bigger development. They will work alongside local iwi – Rangitaane, Highbury Whānau Centre, community, volunteers, and Let’s Grow Highbury to develop a large area between the library, sports fields and community centre.

Niki Burtenshaw, Team Leader Community Libraries, says there is empty space in Monrad Park adjoining Te Pātikitiki library that the Parks and Logistics Unit, Palmerston North City Council have welcomed them to develop. “We want to have rongoā planted in these gardens providing a home for native flora and fauna, as well as a site for harvesting fruit and vegetables.”
“It will be a food forest, te wao nui a Tāne, maintained in a sustainable way,” says Niki. “The model we aspire to is Hua Parekore”. This model uses an organic framework and incorporates kaitahitanga, whanaungatanga, manakitanga and whakapapa. The aim is for community to come together and learn aspects of growing kai through each other, sharing knowledge and skills.  
“There are multiple community groups and a large refugee population in the area, that want to support this project alongside the enviro groups we’ve already been working with. It will be developed by the community for the community.”
In mid-October, an event to celebrate the beginnings of the food forest - te wao hua - and share in the hand-over of 4412 Kai Resilience Strategy is planned. The strategy was created by Manawatū Food Action Network and enables communities to grow kai.
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To thank you for your time, all survey contributors will go in the draw for one of three $100 book vouchers. ​