The LIANZA Professional Recognition Awards have been presented since 1950. They recognise professional excellence and honour the contributions made by our members to the library and information profession in New Zealand. By presenting these awards each year, we applaud our colleagues for their initiative, creativity, and hard work that contributes to keeping the library and information sector current and engaging.

With that in mind, the LIANZA Council would like to review the LIANZA Professional Recognition Awards to ensure the awards remain current, and that the sector is aware of the awards and engage with them by applying for and nominating peers each year.

Expression of Interest (EOI) are being called to form a small working group to review the current LIANZA Professional Recognition Awards, and we’d like your help!

This working group will make recommendation for improving engagement, raising awareness and interest, and ensuring the awards remain relevant in the future.

The working group will have six members drawn from the LIANZA membership, including one from the current LIANZA Council and one from the current LIANZA Credentials Committee. One will be drawn from outside of LIANZA (if possible), so that the working group will have an outside sector perspective.

If you’re interested please read the LIANZA Professional Recognition Awards Working Group Terms of Reference before applying. 

If you’re interested in becoming part of the LIANZA Professional Recognition Awards working group please fill out this form before Friday November 19, 2021 EOD (5.00 PM).

​Being part of a working group can allow you to have your voice heard, gain important and relevant work experience, and meet colleagues from your sector nationwide! ​

​Each month we feature an individual who has recently moved to a new role in the library and information sector within New Zealand. This month we’re featuring Linda Stopforth who has recently started a new role at Wellington City Libraries.

Linda was just beginning to find her feet in her new job when lockdown came and added a new dimension. But, she says, the purpose of this position is to engage with the Wellington business community and promote the research services and resources we offer to assist them. 

She is a librarian with several decades of experience across the special library world working in private and public organisations. These days she wears several hats dividing her time between her new role, her own business interests and doing the administration work for a small charitable trust, YETI Nepal. 

I have a background in special libraries with experience in commercial organisations and understand the different aspects of business.  In my previous role I was doing a lot of business intelligence gathering and identifying leads that our sales team could follow up. I have also run my own business for over a decade. Add to that I am a long-time resident of Wellington, enthusiastic about what this city offers and this role brings all that together into one place.  
 
I’m excited about reaching out to the Wellington business community, raising awareness, and creating use of the wide range of resources (including a great team of very knowledgeable staff) available to businesses, when those businesses may not have thought about the library being able to assist them.

I'd like to see an increased uptake of our online learning resources including business databases like Katalyst and the training resources available through LinkedIn learning would be great. I’d also like to work with the library team to develop guest speaker events where people in the community can share their business journeys and experiences with others.

As I write this we’re still in L4 lockdown. The highlight of my day is the 11am Dom-Post quiz via Teams with my colleagues. Its great technology can allow us to connect each day in this way.

My advice to someone aiming to progress their career in libraries is to not stop learning and developing new skill sets. Make the most of professional development opportunities offered at work or by LIANZA. But also develop general skills and experience that is transferable. Sign up for a first aid course, or to be the union rep, or volunteer for the social club and help organise the Christmas party.  Don’t forget that skills learned through volunteering in the community also help develop you and can usually be applied to the workplace.

LIANZA is looking for professionals from the #LIS or wider cultural heritage sector, who are members of LIANZA or Te Rōpū Whakahau and have expertise OR an interest in copyright, to join the LIANZA Standing Committee on Copyright.

We invite anyone interested in copyright to apply.

• The committee meets by Zoom once a month for an hour, and there can be work between meetings. We aim to meet once per year in person.
• Expected time commitment is around 3-6 hours per month. There can also be periods of quite intense work when we are preparing a submission, but the workload is shared between the committee to ensure that it doesn’t become onerous for any member.
• We envisage that much of the focus for our work will be on the Review of the Copyright Act 1994, despite it currently being on hold. The Review covers not only the provisions which relate to libraries and the GLAM sector more broadly, but the relationship between Mātauranga Māori and copyright.
• The Committee is very collegial and joining is a great way to extend your awareness and understanding of the copyright issues facing New Zealand libraries.

This is an exciting time to be working on copyright matters and joining the committee will give you the opportunity to help shape change. The initial commitment for membership is a three-year term.

If you are interested in joining us please complete the expression of interest and send to: officeadmin@lianza.org.nz 

If you have any questions about the LIANZA Standing Committee on Copyright please contact Melanie Johnson, the current Acting Chair on mellione@gmail.com