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.
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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. In term 4 we had our last Pd Event for the year. A great turnout of fifty librarians made the journey to Coralie Walton’s Heretaunga College Library. The gathering watch as Life Membership Awards were presented to Rosalba Finnerty and Janet McFadden, with the Principals Award going to Michele Whiting. The events theme was Collaboration. We were very fortunate to have three teachers involved from the Primary, Intermediate and Secondary sectors. They talked about their library backgrounds, how they use the library and want they need from a school library. Librarians know they cannot work in isolation. After they talked about their libraries we opened up the discussion to the librarian gathered. A lively Q & A enthused where we discussed Modern Learning Environments, BYOD, Books, reading literacy and how to attract teachers into your library. A great time was had by all especially in the informal conversation over cupcakes after the panel discussion. We wish everyone well with their stock take and hope they had a lovely relaxing Summer break. Our traditional Saturday morning PD event was held at WGC recently. We had a selection of workshops to choose from.
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.
Hi Everyone,
People have asked who is on the committee: Chair - Karen Clarke - St. Patricks College Secretary - Joanna Ludbrook - Houghton Bay School Treasurer - Robbie Wathne - Rongotai School Christine Cross - Worser Bay School Clare Forest - Raroa Intermediate Jenny Carroll - Wellington Girls College Katrina Young-Drew - National Library Johanna Wicks - Otari School Marianne Dobie - Chilton Saint James School Rosalba Finnerty - Archivist - Samuel Marsden Michele Whiting the principal of Corinna School, who was also the Chair of the Slanza Wellington Region, has sent me a fantastic video made by Mr. Liam Smiley's room 4 class all about the love of reading. I am sure we all know the feeling when we cannot put a good book down.
https://drive.google.com/a/stpats.school.nz/file/d/0B7TJQYVydk6pTjdfQlotNkJRcWs/edit On Wednesday, March the 19th the Wellington region gathered at Raroa Intermediate (thank you Clare Forrest) for our first event of the year. Last year Adaire Hannah received a Life Membership Award for her outstanding contribution to Slanza at our conference. As well as receiving our recognition and a certificate the National Executive also wanted the Life members to receive a badge. Unfortunately the badge came too late to be presented at our conference. So we started out meeting with a presentation to Adaire of her badge and a big Thank You from our region for all her efforts on behalf of Slanza and the school library community. Then we sat back to listen to Matt McGregor from Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand. In July 2010 Government accepted a proposal from NZGOAL (the New Zealand Government Open Access and Licensing framework) regarding the Government use of Creative Commons licenses for copyright works. Matt enlightened us how this affects schools and in particular librarian's as we are often at the forefront in dealing with copyright issues. It was a lively session with many people asking interesting and informative questions. For all of you who could not attend see this website: http://creativecommons.org.nz/2014/03/more-from-our-march-events/ It was a great turnout for our first meeting. Hope to see you all at our next event in June. We recently had a question about successful visits from Wellington based authors who would appeal to teenagers. Here is the suggestions so far:
If any one else has any more ideas please contact me. We all know author visits are really popular with our students and a great way to raise the profile of your library. Karen Clarke St. Patrick's College On Wednesday the 27th of November we celebrated the end of year of the school year with our Christmas meeting held at Tawa Intermediate Library. As this was Michele Whiting's final meeting as Chair of the Wellington region we farewelled her with flowers and gifts. Michele has been on the committee since 2007 and her contribution to Slanza and the region has been highly valued. Her leadership during the 2013 conference held the committee together as we sailed the choppy waters of organisation. Another farewell was for Linda Forbes who has been a great ambassador for the National Library in the Wellington Region. She also served on the Slanza committee coming on at the same time as Michele in 2007. Linda is moving to Melbourne and will be greatly missed. We then listeneed to our final conference reports from our conference grant recipients. Trish Nash of Corrina School spoke first. She presented her feedback in a fairy tale form in a power point which was very entertaining. Kristine Saunders of Dyer Street School spoke about how wonderful it was meeting all her library idols at the conference. Also how it was good to put names to faces on the listserv. Trish Hereaka of Rata Street School talked about how all the Keynotes really stimulated her into trying new things in her library. We finished the event with a group discussion about movies and books. Whether it is a good idea to make a good book into a great movie, does it work? A great time was had by all in Elaine Smith's new library. We all appreciated the movable shelving, quiet work area, lovely bright colours and very welcoming environment. Thank you Tawa Intermediate.
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April 2024
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