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Who Got the Job? March 2021

3/3/2021

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Photo credit: Eilish McHugh-Smith
Meet Christopher Meech, new Head Curator Publications at the Hocken Library, a position advertised in LIANZA Kōrero last year. Christopher comes to this role from the Waitaki District Archive after 20 years in libraries.

Kia ora Christopher and congratulations on your new role!

I appreciate that you have only just started in this new role but we are wondering if you have any blue sky goals lined up for the publication collection at the Hocken?

Hocken Collections has an impressive published collection which has been professionally cared for over the years. It will take some time to get to know the strength and subtlety of the collection. 
Some of my personal strengths are around digital materials and I hope to use these to progress Hocken processes in dealing with born digital and digitised publications. We need to share the collections more widely and meet community and researcher expectations for digital delivery. 

How does this new role differ from your work at the Waitaki District Archive?
Having just started at Hocken a couple of weeks ago I’m still getting to grips with what the new job entails. My work at Waitaki Archive was very broad. It’s a small institute with diverse and eclectic holdings relating to Waitaki, so I was able to do a bit of everything. As Curator of Archives at Waitaki Archive I was responsible for the management of archival, photographic, oral history, manuscript and published collections held by the archive. 

Hocken Collections is a considerably larger, older and better resourced institute, it is a research library in a university setting. My current role is responsible for the published collections which includes serial, monographs and maps. Hocken’s collecting mandate broad and geographically includes Aotearoa/ New Zealand, Pacific Nations, Antarctica and early Australia where it relates to Aotearoa/New Zealand. I manage a dedicated and skilled team of four to achieve this end.

Can you share with our readers a little about your library background and how it led to this role?
After a lifelong interest in information systems and libraries I was fortunate to find a job as a Library Assistant in the reference section at the University of Otago Library in the newly constructed Information Services Building in 2001. The building was thronging with activity and the sound of concrete cutters filled the air. I completed a MLIS while working for the University and then applied for and was successful in gaining a position as Reference and Heritage Librarian at Oamaru Public Library in 2008. I really enjoyed working with documentary heritage and special collections such as the Janet Frame collection of foreign language titles at Oamaru Library. When the opportunity arose for a new Curator of Archives at Waitaki District Archive I applied and was appointed. The role of Head Curator, Publications at Hocken came up and I thought it was an opportunity too good to miss!

You’ve been in the deep south for 20 years now, do you have a special attachment to the area?
The light falls across the land in a special way in Murihiku. You can see it in the art created here and in the languid summer evenings. I feel fortunate to have spent the last 20 years bathed in this light. I’m also lucky to have a broad network of friends and colleagues living in this region and beyond.

Finally, any tips for our readers on acing a job interview?
Job interviews are a formal process which one doesn’t always have much experience at. To succeed at an interview and to ease your own nerves the best thing to do is to prepare. There are many printed and online resources to support job interview preparation, I have found The Secrets to Getting a Job by Philip Garside, very helpful.

Thanks Christopher and best of luck in your new role!
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LIANZA Presidents Meet the Minister

3/3/2021

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L-R Rachel Esson, Erica Rankin, Anahera Morehu. Photo credit: Cellia Joe-Olsen
Last week I had the opportunity, along with Rachel Esson (in her capacity as DIA official) and LIANZA President, Anahera Morehu, to meet with the Hon. Jan Tinetti, Minister of Internal Affairs, who also holds the ministerial portfolios of Women and Associate Education. The intention of our visit was to make her aware of LIANZA, its purpose and strategic vision, in other words, who we are and what we do, and more importantly, what we can do for her. Of course, while LIANZA represents the whole sector, we work with more specialists associations (Te Rōpū Whakahau, PLNZ and SLANZA)  to achieve the best outcomes for libraries.

While very aware of how lucky I was to have this opportunity, to meet and make a personal connection with the Minister on behalf of our association, I had been just a little nervous at the thought. From the moment that we were ushered into her office, it became obvious that we were among friends. The glass display cabinets lining her walls were full of colourfully displayed children’s picture books and she greeted us with warmth and genuine interest. She is passionate about literacy, equity and social justice and by extension, books, reading and libraries.

Topics discussed were, among others, LIANZA’s role as the lead library professional association, providing professional support to the whole library and information sector, well placed to be her main point of contact for connection, information and support regarding all things library. Of course, she was already aware of the NZ Libraries Partnership Programme and we discussed the way in which LIANZA is a key partner, working with the National Library in the delivery of these initiatives. The importance of schools being able to easily access library services. She was very interested in how libraries contribute to learning and is was keen to learn more about the range of options possible in this space. She was also interested to get an idea of the ratio of male to female staff working in libraries! 

Long story short, the meeting was a great success and it really felt like a positive foundation for the future. We were all so absorbed in the conversation that we totally forgot to ask the Minister if she would indulge us with a photo of LIANZA’s current and Immediate Past President and President-elect, with the Hon. Jan Tinetti, in front of her wonderful picture book-filled shelves in her office in the Beehive.  Luck would have it that Cellia Joe-Olsen was able to take the picture above to mark the occasion!
​
Erica  Rankin
​LIANZA President-elect



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IFLA RSCAO Asia-Pacific webinar on Libraries and the SDGs

1/3/2021

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Winston Roberts and Felicity Benjes from the National Library report back on the recent SDG webinar that saw attendees come together from across the Asia-Pacific region.
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Image credit: Loida Garcia-Febo
 The two-hour webinar was hosted by LIANZA, at the National Library of New Zealand, for the IFLA Regional Standing Committee for Asia and Oceania (RSCAO) – it was the latest in the series of annual seminars accompanying the mid-term business meetings of RSCAO.
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Guest speakers from the USA, Singapore, India, Fiji and New Zealand were in the line-up. There was a lively discussion in the ‘question and answer’ session.

Over 270 registrations were received, one third from New Zealand and two thirds from a wide range of countries across the region. Participants were welcomed by LIANZA President, Anahera Morehu, according to traditional indigenous Māori protocol, as (virtual) guests. Tina Yang, IFLA RSCAO chair briefly introduced the webinar, and offered a closing summary of key messages.
Here is a personal perspective on the webinar from Felicity Benjes, a staff member of the National Library of New Zealand and standing committee member of IFLA LSN section.

I confess, I didn’t know much about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) other than that they existed and that New Zealand was involved in contributing to them, so when LIANZA offered a professional development webinar on libraries and the SDGs, I jumped at the opportunity to learn more.

The presenters were informative and inspirational. Keynote speaker, Loida Garcia-Febo (USA) outlined how the SDGs were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by the year 2030. The 17 interlinked global goals serve as our “collective blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.”

I was expecting to hear how these were being achieved at a very high-level, perhaps describing international leadership and inter-government support programmes. In reality, the stories told by Loida and the other speakers were grass-roots examples which brought to life the way libraries are contributing in very real ways to the SDGs through serving their communities.

There was a project to save bats in Alaska, salary negotiation boot camps for women in New York, the recording of stories, voices and traditional clothing of the Punjab community in Auckland. Professor Ramesh Gaur told us of the Accessible Online Book Library in India which provides free access to over 1 million books for people with visual impairment. Those were just a few of the inspiring practical examples reported.

Gene Tan challenged us with his ideas for a brave new world inspired by Singapore’s response to COVID-19. Libraries shouldn’t just be limited to physical facilities and books which aren’t always accessible by everyone. Instead, consider a wallpaper of books placed on the side of a bus shelter or park bench where each book spine is enabled with a QR and AR code. Each title would be available digitally, for instant download, wherever the people are. He also proposed a ‘Spotify-inspired’ library model where users receive a customised library experience.

A common thread across the speakers was the advocacy which can be done from within libraries in their local context - it is not just big, well-funded libraries which can contribute to achieving the SDGs; the work of smaller, lower funded libraries is equally vital.

Another message repeated throughout was the importance of building partnerships and working together to address, and more successfully achieve, the SDGs. Libraries need to keep thinking outside the box to find new and innovative ways to empower their communities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been used as a driver for change in libraries around the world and Paula Eskett proposed one of the results is that people are potentially replacing the book as the primary branding object of libraries. Libraries are so much more than traditional physical buildings and books, as the variety of examples throughout the webinar so perfectly illustrated. A huge part of the success is the sharing of these stories and Gene Tan laid down a challenge to all libraries in 2022 to share our post-COVID-19 success stories on a platform he named ‘’Brave New World’’.
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Libraries are well and truly playing their part in delivering on the SDGs. For inspiration and ideas on how you and your library can contribute, the webinar will be made available on the LIANZA YouTube channel. It is well worth a look!”
Watch the recorded event on the LIANZA YouTube channel:
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