The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are the country’s premier literary honours for New Zealand books. Forty-four titles were long listed to win a 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Award and the shortlist of 16 titles were shared on March 8. The winners will be announced on May 17 during the 2023 Auckland Writers Festival.
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Auckland Libraries have curated a digital collection of some of the longlist titles, available in ebook or audiobook format through the Libby reading app.


Let’s explore some of these titles, which can be added to your OverDrive digital collection.

• The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey
• The Fish by Lloyd Jones
• Downfall by Paul Diamond
• Always Italicise by Alice Te Punga Somerville
• Meat Lovers by Rebecca Hawkes
• A Fire in the Belly of Hineamaru by Melinda Webber
• Jumping Sundays: The Rise and Fall of the Counterculture in Aotearoa New Zealand by Nick Bollinger
• Thief, Convict, Pirate, Wife by Jennifer Ashton
• Home Theatre by Anthony Lapwood
• Super Model Minority by Chris Tse
• A History of New Zealand in 100 Objects by Jock Phillips
• Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant by Cristina Sanders
• Grand by Noelle McCarthy
• Better the Blood by Michael Bennett
• I am Autistic by Chanelle Moriah
• How to Loiter In a Turf War by Coco Solid
• So Far, For Now by Fiona Kidman

Looking for more New Zealand content to add to your OverDrive digital collection? Explore OverDrive Marketplace for local titles from suppliers including Gecko Press, Flying Start Books, Booktrack, Rosa Mira Books, Ram Sumedha Publications, Random House New Zealand, The Floating Press, Oratia Media, Mahobe Resources (NZ) Ltd, meBooks and Reading Warrior. 

Mike Dickison was the 2022 recipient of the Paul Reynold's 'No Numpties' Grant. The grant allowed him to attend the world Wikimedia Summit in Berlin in September and to meet with GLAM institutions in Europe. He reports back on his experiences.
 
In 2022 I was chosen to be the New Zealand delegate to the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin, an annual meeting to discuss the strategic direction of the Wikimedia movement. Because travelling to Berlin solely to attend a conference for a few days seemed a bit silly, I applied for funding to spend a month in Europe and spend time in Berlin, Utrecht, Prague, and Stockholm, to see how European galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (collectively the GLAM sector) engage with Wikipedia and open knowledge.
 
After 42 hours of travel from Hokitika to Berlin and a weekend recovering from jet lag, I felt relatively human for the Wikimedia Summit. This was the first time a New Zealand representative had attended, and it was fascinating to compare the well-funded European Wikimedia chapters, some with million-Euro budgets, with our small volunteer group in Aotearoa.


 
Germany was one of the few European countries still taking COVID seriously, with masks common on public transport. The conference was exemplary: masks inside, except for speakers while presenting. All food and drink were consumed outside, and attendees were required to take a RAT test at a government clinic before the opening session and show their negative results before being admitted.

Europe 2022 MRD Prague house. I did some urban sketching in my spare time, a great way to explore.
 
After the Berlin summit, I attended a GLAM Wiki meeting in Prague with representatives of the European Wikimedia chapters that work most closely with knowledge institutions. We had a presentation from the Czech National Library in the Klementinum, a former Jesuit college. It’s amazing medieval collection was made of books from shut-down colleges and convents all over Czechoslovakia, including the library of the Counts Kinsky. One of that noble family, Friedrich-Carl Graf Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau, emigrated to New Zealand as a political refugee in 1949. Here he was known simply as Fred Kinsky and eventually became Curator of Birds at the National Museum, where I used to work.
 
Marginalised knowledge is a hot topic in European GLAM institutions, whether from communities excluded by disability or gender, citizens of former European colonies, or marginalised ethnic groups like the Roma. With over 150 employees, Wikimedia Deutschland has an entire team devoted to marginalised knowledge. It was the topic of one session at the Prague conference. In Utrecht, I spent an afternoon discussing how Wikimedia Netherlands could collaborate with its former colonies of Suriname and the Dutch Caribbean.
 
I was told repeatedly that Aotearoa was a shining example of collaboration with Indigenous people. This seems surprising to us. We're painfully aware of our failings, the lack of Māori and Pasifika representation in the Wikimedia movement here, the very Western way that knowledge is catalogued and organised, and the exclusion of Māori from power structures. This is slowly changing, especially in LIANZA. But the situation in Europe is worse. Most collaborations with Indigenous or marginalised communities seem to be ‘white saviour’ projects, where Indigenous people are consulted but aren't leading or even helping run the initiatives.
 
I explained the ‘nothing about us without us’ kaupapa and encouraged European organisations to ask more questions. Questions such as does this community want your project? What are their actual needs and desires? What concrete benefits will they get? Will they be in charge of the project, and if not, why not? What needs to be done first to get them in the driving seat? Lots of robust conversations ensued!
 
For me, the biggest benefit of this trip was learning more about OpenRefine from experts like Sandra Fauconnier. This data-cleaning tool has long been a way to bulk-edit a spreadsheet of information, and more recently it has been able to connect to the open database Wikidata, which underpins Wikipedia and add or amend Wikidata properties. What's new with the latest version is the ability to work with Wikimedia Commons, the open-licensed image library that Wikipedia uses.
 
Traditionally if a GLAM institution had a photo collection it wanted to make publicly usable, it would upload tens of thousands of images to Wikimedia using a (sometimes rather flaky) tool like Pattypan. But OpenRefine can now bulk-upload images to Wikimedia and edit their structured data and metadata—a powerful new workflow. I gave a presentation on this at a Wikimedia meeting in Sydney in November and will be running training sessions here in Aotearoa to help our sector get up to speed with this new tool.
 
I’m very grateful for the Paul Reynolds ‘No Numpties’ Grant. It has allowed me to make so many new connections and start international collaborations that would never have been possible. I encourage anyone interested to apply for this year’s final grant!

The Review into the Future for Local Government is an opportunity to create a new system of local governance and democracy that will effectively respond to a changing Aotearoa New Zealand and create conditions for communities to thrive.

The Future for Local Government Review Panel (the Panel) began consulting with New Zealanders in early 2022. LIANZA engaged in this early-stage consultation by providing a sector workshop and facilitating a webinar, compered by Jehan Cassinader.

In October 2022 the Panel released a draft report He mata whāriki, he matawhānui, which posed  29 draft recommendations and key questions. Submissions were sought in response to this draft report which will shape the final report to be delivered in June 2023.
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LIANZA’s submission was prepared by Allison Dobbie (lead), Sue Sutherland, Bernie Hawke, Katie Brazil, Debbie Duncan, Louise LaHatte, Amanda Cossham, Rochelle Turnbull and Jenny Barnett. Allison Dobbie commented on the opportunity the review created.

“This is an opportunity to think about the role and place of public libraries in the wider environment and whether the current historical positioning, where funding is solely by local government, is sustainable or desirable. Also, it’s an opportunity to apply some blue sky ‘what if’ thinking about the solutions and designs that would best meet customer needs in the 21st century. It’s given us the chance to illustrate and raise awareness of the critical and extensive role of public libraries in relation to community wellbeing. Particularly the breadth, innovation, inclusiveness, community-led and collaborative nature of their practice.”
 
LIANZA’s submission highlights the radical responses that the Panel sought. It also noted that the Panel had in some cases backed away from a courageous stance on its recommendations. Especially in relation to scale, structure, funding, stewardship, and mandates.
LIANZA’s submission shows that public libraries have a fundamental and growing role in helping local government to thrive in all aspects of its role. It welcomed the overall direction of the Panel’s draft report and the priorities identified and particularly endorsing the focus on:

• Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi and genuine partnerships
• wellbeing and place
• partnerships and collaboration
• the need for change in public service attitudes towards local government.

 
LIANZA reinforced the role of public libraries as critical and effective enablers of community wellbeing. We made the case that libraries should be recognised and supported in all government planning and delivery, and at both central and local levels of government. The submission illustrates the points raised with case studies from across the sector, including international examples.

Strong support is given in the submission to Te Tiriti-based partnerships as fundamental to local government’s role and function in achieving community wellbeing and meeting Te Tiriti obligations. The submission notes that while public libraries strive to work with Māori, often at the leading edge within their local authority, there is a major gap and potential exists to truly meet the needs of Māori as customers and Tiriti partners.  A  stronger statutory framework is required to move local government in this direction and this needs to happen at a faster pace. The submission also supports the recommendation that central government provide a transitional fund to subsidise the cost of building both Māori and council capability and capacity for a Tiriti-based partnership in local governance, and indicates how libraries are well-placed to work with tamariki and their whānau to help build capacity over time. 
 
As democratic processes [AC1] move online, LIANZA says, library professionals, library computing and Wi-Fi resources, are enablers that allow for participation in and awareness of democratic processes. LIANZA calls on the government to fund public libraries sufficiently to make this possible.

A case is made for central government funding for public libraries where they are delivering national benefits, asserting that the current model of funding is unsustainable and unfair to ratepayers.
“Public libraries deliver wider national outcomes and therefore the case can be made for increased central government funding and support of public libraries. For example, in the areas of digital equity and inclusion, access to quality information, civic participation, learning and literacy, identity and belonging, and wellbeing,” Allison Dobbie commented.
The Panel in its report suggests a reallocation of central and local government roles. LIANZA’s submission supports the strengthening of the National Library’s role to support the development, equity and effectiveness of public library services across Aotearoa New Zealand.

The submission also recommends that local government should be mandated to work in partnership with schools and kura to support the learning needs of children, underpinned by Ministry of Education funding and National Library resources. It suggests that pilots be undertaken to test what solutions might work best so that children everywhere have access to school libraries and qualified school librarians.   

A similar recommendation is made in relation to prisons, that provision of library services there should be a partnership between local government and the Department of Corrections Ara Poutama Aotearoa.
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The submission does not support any specific model of local government but suggests that there are five design factors that should be taken into account – equity, diversity, scale, localness and flexibility.
 
“Post-code and digital inequities exist across the country in terms of access to good quality library services and information resources. We’d like to see Government take steps to address this as a result of the Review.”
 
The Panel suggests the need for much greater shared services collaboration. Collaborations already existing in the sector, such as APNK, Kōtui and EPIC. They are put forward as models that could be extended and strengthened to better support the work of library and information services. As are international models of shared funding between local and central government.
 
“This has been an opportunity for LIANZA to raise awareness of the unusual status of public libraries in Aotearoa New Zealand as funded solely by local government and without any form of legislative basis. It has allowed us to bring attention to some alternative international models for support of public libraries, such as in Australia and Ireland,” says Allison Dobbie.
 
Once the Panel submits its final report and recommendations in June there is still a long way to go. It is then up to the Government to consider and decide how to respond and what recommendations to adopt.
 
“The LIANZA submission process generated some great thinking and raised questions about perceived barriers, for example, is this really a barrier to working more collaboratively or just something in our heads? Maybe it will help us identify some things we could be doing anyway, regardless of what the final report recommends or how the government responds.”
 
The submission has been an opportunity for LIANZA, Te Rōpū Whakahau, School Libraries Association New Zealand Aotearoa, Public Libraries NZ, Local Government NZ and Taituarā to work more closely together. A big thank you to Allison Dobbie and the submission team.
 

• Go here to view the LIANZA submission.
• Taituarā Living Libraries: The Value of Public Libraries in Aotearoa
• Local Government New Zealand submission