It was a clear and windless day in September in Wellington (A Good Day) when an enthusiastic group of school librarians and their friends ventured out for the PD Term 3 School Library Bus Tour. 

First stop - Wellington College, kindly opened up and presented early on a Saturday morning by Library Manager Katherine McKenzie. Wellington College is a large boys college in central Wellington and its Girven Library is a large, well used vibrant space, full of resources and eye catching displays.
After a good poke around (nothing that librarians love more than having a look at other people's libraries) we boarded the large red double-decker bus, courtesy of Malcolm Little and expertly driven by Simon Cross. 

Next stop - Samuel Marsden Collegiate, newly remodeled and refurbished. Library Manager Karen Richards explained the huge amount of planning and work that has gone into making this senior school library the work of art that it is. Lots of glass and light combined with comfortable corners and modern furniture and different types of working areas, made for an enviable space for students to use. Samuel Marsden Collegiate is a private girls school that caters for Years 1-13.
Back on the bus and on the road again, we traveled the winding back roads that gave those on the top deck intriguing not usually seen views into peoples properties and weekend lives.
Next stop - Tawa Intermediate, a co-ed intermediate in the suburbs north of Wellington where Library Manager Shelley Knox gave us the guided tour and explained some of the ways she engages the students in the library. Tawa Intermediate's library is a great example of a colourful modern learning environment, with a diversity of furniture and spaces for students to be in, including a glass walled quiet room, that Shelley told us the students love and respect as a sanctuary.

Final stop on the tour - Cashmere Ave School, a medium sized primary school with Years 1-6 in the north-west suburbs of Wellington. Sarah Jordan, Digital Systems Manager and Rachel Huddleston, Library Manager, who had been on the tour with us all took on the role of library guide and explained how they made their more traditional library space the vibrant and well used facility that it is. 

Thank you to everyone involved in making this school library bus tour such a success and so much fun.
Thank you to the generosity of our hosts for letting us poke around your lovely libraries, take photos and pick your brains. Thank you to the participants for your support of each other and this SLANZA Wellington PD event. It is because of you that we do this.
Thank you to NZEI for sponsoring its members to go on this tour and thank you to Book Protection Products for your continued financial support so all this can be possible.


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​Wellington Regional News Term 1 2016

On the 9th of March Wellington Slanza held its first event of the year.  Thank you to Helen Muxlow of Karori West Normal School for hosting.  Helen is also the newest addition to the Wellington Slanza committee.
The topic this term was ‘Genrefying Your Collection’. It was great to start the year of with a lively discussion on the pro’s and con’s of genrefying  your collection.
Sue Levine, an American Teacher/Librarian, who is visiting New Zealand at the moment  as part of her Fulbright Scholarship also attended our meeting.  Sue spoke about her ideas and thoughts in regard to her research in School Libraries in New Zealand.
The Wellington committee is looking forward to the challenges ahead  for the year, next up is the AGM.  See you all there.

Karen Clarke
Chair Wellington Slanza.

On the 18 of November Wellington members gathered for their final PD event of the year. We bought our xmas treats to St. Patricks College, Kilbirnie for a relaxed event for term 4. Firstly we farewelled and gave an Award to Sue Esterman of Scot's College.  Sue has been a wonderful ambassador for school libraries through Wellington and we we wish her well in her retirement.

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We then presented Barbara Murison her Life Membership Award.  Barbara has been hugely influential within, library and literature circles in New Zealand.  Her life has been filled with books, writers, libraries and her passion for literacy.

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Then we awarded Marianne Dobie her recognition award and she talked to us about her experience of the Christchurch conference. Here is what she had to say:

Highlights of the 2015 SLANZA Conference


Where to start? The conference was such a positive experience it is very hard to choose just a few highlights.
Here are only a few of the highlights.


Roger Dennis’ keynote address was about how technology is changing the world and how to prepare children for entering the workforce in ten years. The point that was most memorable was that people can do great things, and so can technology. It is when the two work together that something amazing can happen.


Kay Oddone’s keynote on Makerspace gave practical advice on this phenomenon, in terms of setting up, staff roles, activities and equipment.  I took many ideas away with me, and have already contacted Kay for more information, which she was very generous in giving.


Alison Johnson’s workshop on eBooks was interesting, as her findings on eBook borrowing are very similar to our own experiences – namely that library platforms for eBook borrowing are not as popular as we had expected or had hoped. Alison also talked about different ways of promoting eBooks.


Visiting other libraries is always fascinating and I had the opportunity to visit Fendalton Open Air School, Halswell School, and the Secondary and Primary Libraries at St. Andrews. I took many photographs and ideas. Halswell was particularly interesting as we saw the purpose-built  MLE classrooms and the  new library. It never fails to amaze me how creative and adaptable librarians can be.


Meeting other colleagues, sharing ideas, experiences and laughter is always a highlight.
A personal highlight for me was being awarded the SLANZA Award of Merit for Library Assistant. This came as a complete surprise, and was a very humbling experience. Being presented with my certificate in front of my colleagues was especially meaningful.

I was fortunate enough to receive a grant from Wellington SLANZA which covered the registration costs of attending Conference, for which I am extremely grateful.

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Clare Forrest treated us to a fantastically funny and challenging literature quiz.  Luckily for everyone we all went away with prizes.

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On Saturday 20th Of June at Wellington Girls College, the Wellington region gathered for their annual Professional Development Day.  
The first session was presented by Tim Parkin, a Massey University lecturer of Design. Tim talked about the work that has emerged from their senior design student's exploration regarding the topic 'Exploring the library of the future".  The insights we learnt suggest the library has immense relevance within the 21st century and an exciting future beyond its role as a repository.

The second session was presented by Karen Clarke - Library Manager St. Patrick's college and Clare Forrest - Library Manager at Raroa Intermediate.  They presented on using Google apps in your library. The full range of apps was explored and shown to the attendees.

The final session of the day was presented by Colleen Shipley Library Manager of Marlborough Girls College.  Colleen talked about the Marlborough Inquiry that she put together between two high schools, an intermediate and a primary school in Blenheim. The aim was to collaboratively develop a research/inquiry process so that students have common understanding of the key stages, languages used and skills required for successful research as they transition from primary to intermediate to secondary school.

A great stimulating, informative and collegial morning was had by all with wonderful food to help us through the day.

Hi Everyone,
I would like to thank everyone who attended the three meetings Slanza arranged to discuss the changes to National Library Services to Schools.  We held three meetings at Wellington Girls College, one in Kapiti and one in Wairarapa so that all our members could have the ability to meet, discuss and think about the repercussion of the changes.  I will be at a National Executive meeting in two weeks time to discuss your concerns.

We had some great discussions and wonderful insights from our members. Here are just some of the comments that sum up our regions thoughts:

1.How will the National Library be able to provide better high-interest reading material for my students than I can and how will I be able to provide better non-fiction curriculum print material than the National Library can? 


 2.Reading engagement is about more than just dumping a box of books on a table. How will the new plan help teachers and library staff to get kids reading? Most of us already do a good job, and those schools that have low reading engagement probably need face-to-face help, not just at school but in their community. Telling them to find help online will not work.


3.National Library acknowledged that digital resources are currently inadequate and largely unsuitable for primary school children learning to read.  They had no plans for accessing NL books in the meantime or for the time it will take to develop digital resources


I spoke at the Wairarapa meeting to a teacher at a small Wairarapa primary school.  It is a small low decile school.  The National Library books are a Godsend for a school with a tight budget.  They cannot go to the public library and their community cannot help them.  This is going to disadvantage these children's education.

I think the main concern was as librarian's we want to get children reading and get wonderful books into all our children's hands not just those who can afford them.

Hi Everyone,
As you know there have been changes made to the Curriculum Services to School that the National Library provide.  Due to the serious nature of these change we are having as our first event of the year a meeting to discuss the ramifications of the changes for school libraries and their communities.

The meeting will be held at Wellington Girls College on 25th of February at 4pm.  Please RSVP to this email to let me know the numbers who wish to attend.

I will also be holding coffee meetings in the Kapiti and Wairapapa region on a Saturday so we canvas the views of all our members. I will let you know more details of those meetings in due course.

If you do not know what is changing here is the link:http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/national-library-transforming-its-services-school



Cheers Karen c.

Our traditional Saturday morning PD event was held at WGC recently.  We had a selection of workshops to choose from.

1. Summer Reading
2. Readers Advisory
3. Make your Library Welcoming
4. Making a library website

We were really pleased to welcome four new members to slanza who joined us for the event.  We also acknowledged Kenzie Benbrook the librarian at Paraparaumu school who lost her library recently in a fire. We discussed her predicament as well as talked about what new idea is working well in our library at the moment.  The workshops were very popular and I am sure something well will do again.

Wellington Regional Report for AGM 2014

After our AGM last year held at Wellington College, thank you Brent, the Wellington Committee ran a very successful Slanza National Conference. After 2 years of planning, meetings and very hard work the 2013 Slanza National conference was held at Wellington Girls College in July.  Even though the weather tried to stop delegates from arriving, an excellent conference was enjoyed by all. We had 215 delegates, 55 of those were first time attendees. The author’s breakfasts were well attended, as well as the dinner at the spectacular Te Papa.  The workshop timetable was full with a variety of workshops.  The trade stand space was full and the trade people said they had a very good conference. Eventually after everyone had left and the committee had finally sat down we found we had made a small profit which we sent to National Executive for the next conference in Christchurch in 2015.

Overall it was an amazing experience to be part of the organising committee one which I would recommend to anyone. Even though it seems a monumental task when you begin, with a great team you can achieve it.

Our next event in term 3 was at Scots College. Thank you Sue, Sue reprised her workshop that she had presented entitled ‘Bring the boys in’. Also we had two people talk about their conference experiences as they were recipients of the free registration that we offered.

Our term 4 meeting was held at Tawa Intermediate, thank you Elaine. We had 3 more recipients of the free registration talk about their experiences at conference.  We also farewelled Linda Forbes, long time National Library representative.  We also said thanked and farewelled Michelle Whiting the outgoing Chair of Wellington region. We were very lucky to have Michele’s wealth of experience as a Principal as the head of our conference committee. Then Karen Clarke, took over the Chair of Wellington region.

This year we started off with our term 1 event which was held at Raroa Intermediate, thank you Clare. the event started with a presentation to Adaire Hannah of  her Life Membership Badge for her efforts on behalf of Slanza and the Wellington region. We then listened to Matt McGregor regarding Creative Commons issues.  A lively discussion enthused after his talk suggesting that we found the ideas he presented fascinating.

The main project for the Wellington committee this year as all regions is the Membership Drive. Membership of Slanza has fallen over the last few years.  There are many reasons for this including funding cuts to libraries, libraries being shut, staffing of libraries, lack of a National Library presence in regions and lack of transparent communication by National Executive.

Being the Wellington National Executive representative for Wellington I hope you will find that we have rectified that concern.

 Our committee has contacted all non-member schools in the Wellington region and we will be bring them up to date with the advantages of being a slanza member.

As Bridget Schaumann the President of Slanza stated ‘ Slanza is all about community.  the membership fee of $50 has not gone up in 12 years. For that fee you get regularly meetings with people who do what you do, who work at a similar coalface as you do and have the same work problems you do’

The Wellington committee is committed to providing the Wellington region professional Development opportunities each term that is relevant to school libraries.  We know there are concerns regarding time constraints and distance travelled for our members and this is taken into consideration when organizing an event. In the coming year we intend to have events throughout the Wellington region and I hope to see many new faces at each event.


NE report 2014 AGM

At the last AGM it was reported that Michele Whiting had stepped down from the NE rep role and Karen Clarke had filled that role.  Each year as the NE rep you attend three weekend meetings during the year.  Usually held in March, July and November.  Since the last AGM NE has:

1.    Seen Fiona Mackie s handover the Presidents role to Bridget Schaumann

2.    NE was involved with the National Reading Initiative by attending the Creating Readers hui in Auckland.

3.    We presented the Slanza awards and Life memberships recognising excellence in school libraries.

4.    NE commented on the Ted Dawe ‘Into the river’ controversy

5.    NE published 3 editions of the online magazine Collected

6.    The NZ Education Gazette published an article entitled ‘The transformation of school libraries’ which NE was asked to participate.

7.    The online professional development has started and each course has been oversubscribed.

8.    During the year LIANZA and National Library visited and communicate with NE during the weekend meetings

9.    The Pool of Talent was started

10.  We commented on the closure of Learning Media

11.  We added a new registration resource to the website

12.  We were asked to participate in the Reading for Pleasure survey by the Book Council

13.  We notice the rise of MLE and are taking an interest in their development and how they include school libraries.

14.  We commented on the closure of schools and their libraries in Christchurch

15.  All regions in New Zealand have participated in the membership drive.

16.  Have presented the seed money to Aoraki in anticipation of the 2015 national conference to be held in Christchurch in September.

The National Executive  aims to strengthen and promote the role of school libraries, to enable all school communities to become information literate.

Karen Clarke
Chair- Wellington Region

After our AGM we had a brain testing quiz run by Clare Forrest and Marianne Dobie.  There were great prizes and some very funny responses to questions.  Great fun was had by all.  Thank you team for the convivial conversations, food and drink.