WHO GOT THE JOB?
Marion Read Local Government of New Zealand (LGNZ) Libraries Advisor

January 2022

Marion Read

Congratulations to Marion Read, who was recently appointed to a newly-created libraries advisor role at Local Government New Zealand. Marion shares the work that is underway and her goals for the role.

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I have held management roles in libraries for the last forty years, with my first leadership role in Tokoroa from 1979 to 1984. Since then, with my husband being transferred around New Zealand in his work with NZ Rail, I have held senior roles in libraries from Invercargill to Whangarei. These were mostly in public libraries, but I also spent eight years at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic Library. Most recently, before being appointed as Libraries Advisor at LGNZ, I was the Libraries Manager at Upper Hutt Libraries.

MY ROLE AT LGNZ
The libraries advisor role at LGNZ is a two-year, fixed-term role, funded through the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme. The purpose of the role is to advocate for public libraries to mayors, elected members and senior council leaders, championing how they boost all four well beings in communities. This means highlighting best practice and providing information and advice so that the key roles that libraries play in communities are more visible. For example, I’m currently preparing a paper on the summer reading programmes that many public libraries run each year. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that summer reading programmes are not just “a nice thing to do”, but support both social and economic wellbeing for communities by encouraging and developing literacy skills for young people and their whānau.
Another exciting project in the early planning stages is demonstrating how public libraries support cultural wellbeing and placemaking in their communities through providing opportunities to engage with public art and participate in the arts. For this project we are working closely with Creative New Zealand.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT REVIEW UNDERWAY
With the Future for Local Government Review underway, along with the Vote 2022 Campaign ramping up, there are plenty of opportunities to put libraries on the radar of local government politicians and candidates as well as key stakeholders. To achieve this, I am working in close partnership with PLNZ, Taituarā, National Library, and LIANZA.
Advocacy is high on my agenda, and I’m on the PLNZ Fines Free 2025 Working Group to support the promotion of and advocacy for the removal of the financial barrier that many people face in accessing their libraries.
MY GOALS FOR THIS ROLE
I was able to make a positive difference at the local level in each of the roles I’ve held in libraries across Aotearoa. I was attracted to the advisor role as I saw that it provided an opportunity to make a positive impact at a national level.
The key goals I have set for this role over the next two years are:

• create an environment within LGNZ in which public libraries are better valued and understood by decision makers as important contributors to community wellbeing
• provide information and advice to key decision makers, including mayors, elected members, chief executives and the Future for Local Government Panel, on the contribution that libraries make towards healthy, well informed and engaged communities
• support libraries to be champions of Te Ao Māori, highlighting best practice and communicating to LGNZ’s members that libraries can be leaders in delivering outcomes for Māori
• support library managers to strengthen their voices in policy and planning processes in their councils, that impact on the services they deliver.