Saturday 9th April saw a small group of dedicated librarians meet at the amazing newly refurbished Palmerston North Girls' High School library.  WOW!  It is stunning :-)

We started off with an interesting and thought-provoking discussion about labeling our collections which turned into a discussion on how to shelve our collections as well it included some impromptu hands-on changing of Miriam's shelves.  This was followed by a Book Covering workshop led by Miriam where participants got to have some hands-on practice of covering a variety of books.  We picked up quite a few tips from this one.  And we finished up with a discussion about the new National Library lending service - how those of us that were using it have been handling our books and suggestions for those who have yet to try it.

Thank you to Steph G, Jackie and Sue for coming all the way from Taranaki.
Thank you also to Steph E & Sandi for coming all the way from Hawkes Bay.
And a big thank you to Miriam for hosting us and showing us your fabulous new library space :-)

Tuesday April 5th was a fun-filled and informative evening for book lovers in Hawkes Bay.

Paper Plus Taradale hosted our first SLANZA Central PD event for the term.  A group of approx 20 librarians, school staff and Paper Plus customers gathered to listen to book recommendations from some of the publishers reps, and we all got to go home with a bag of goodies.

Tammy from Harper Collins had a great selection of current picture book and fiction to show us.  One of the notable trends in picture books is 'Retro Publishing' ... all the gorgeous old Dr Seuss style and other books from that era are being revived.

Irene from Scholastic gave us a teaser of some up-and-coming fiction and lovely picture books with Te Reo versions.  Some we only have to wait a month for but others will be mid-year.  You are such a tease Irene :-) 

Thank you to Toni and her team at Paper Plus, and thank you to Tammy & Irene for giving up your time and book-knowledge for our enjoyment.  Thank you also to the reps who were not able to attend but who provided books for us to take home and enjoy.