About SLANZA

Vision
Purpose
Frequently asked questions
Join SLANZA

Vision

SLANZA aims to strengthen and promote the role of the school library, to enable all school communities to become information literate.

Purpose

SLANZA's purpose is to:

  • Provide a national voice for the school library community
  • Advocate the critical role of school libraries in reading, teaching, and learning
    represent all school library staff: Teacher Librarians, Teachers with Library Responsibility; School Librarians and suport staff
  • lobby for improved funding to provide better library facilities within the school library field
  • improve the professional standing, working conditions and qualifications for all staff involved with school libraries
  • support porfessional development through conferences, regular newsletters and a web site
  • develop links with associated national and international professional organisations

Read SLANZA's constitution

Frequently asked questions

What is SLANZA?

SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) was launched in Wellington in May 2000. SLANZA's Mission is to strengthen and promote the role of school libraries to enable all school communities to become information literate.

What are the goals of SLANZA?

The goals of the School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa are:-

  • To provide a national voice for the school library community
  • To advocate the critical role of school libraries in reading, teaching, and learning
  • To represent all school library staff: Teacher Librarians, Teachers with Library Responsibility; School Librarians and suport staff
  • To lobby for improved funding to provide better library facilities within the school library field
  • To create opportunities to recognise excellence within the school library field
  • To improve the professional standing, working conditions and qualifications for all staff involved with school libraries
  • To support porfessional development through conferences, regular newsletters and a web site
  • To develop links with associated national and international professional organisations

How do I join?

There's a membership form on this website. You will also find contact names and numbers on this site.

How is SLANZA organised?

Regional groups have been set up in Northland, Auckland, Waikato/BOP, Central, Wellington, Aoraki, and Otago/Southland. Contact details for each region can be found in this site. Each region has a representative on the Executive Committee.

What's been achieved so far?

The initial organisation of a new national association takes time. Nevertheless the Steering Committee, besides organising the successful launch of SLANZA, which included Gary Hartzell's Seminars; has helped the Regional groups get organised; Is circulating a draft constitution; has become an incorporated society; has made four submissions  - you can read these on this site; has run a conference in Wellington this July and will run the first full conference in Christchurch July 2003.

What's in it for me?

SLANZA is providing the first national voice for everyone working in school libraries. Other countries such as Australia, Canada and UK have had their national organisations for all those connected with school libraries. Until now there has been no way for NZ school library staff to lobby for better conditions, better pay, to put in submissions to important educational reviews and generally to speak for all those concerned. Now we will be able to represent our members and to create a higher profile for all school libraries and their staff.

Why is there only personal membership?

To ensure SLANZA is best placed to represent individual members should the need arise for this type of support. For example, in a situation where school management has decided to reduce funding for the school library, SLANZA would be able to protest without any conflict of interest. This would be more difficult if the membership was institution-based.

What happens if we work as a team?

We'd prefer all team members to join SLANZA individually. If for financial reasons this is not possible, we suggest that one person joins as a member and everyone else in the group contributes to the subscription fee.

What is our relationship to other organisations? (e.g. National Library School Library Networks, Reading Association, LIANZA)

We are still working out some of these relationships. SLANZA and the National Library School Library Networks have very different roles to play. SLANZA is aiming to promote the role of school librarianship in all its various forms and to provide a national voice for lobbying for the whole school library community whereas the National Library, School Library Networks provide more specific support and communication for lots of smaller groups of library staff. There are National Library and LIANZA representatives on the Executive Committee. We have yet to work out a formal relationship with Reading Association but of course we expect to have a strong working relationship with that body.

Join SLANZA

Print and complete our membership form to join. Send your completed form and subscription fee to:

SLANZA
P.O. Box 12578,
Thorndon
Wellington 6144


updated 17/01/08