Celebrate knowledge and imagination - Aotearoa’s School Library Week is happening next week.3/8/2023 School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa, SLANZA - Te Puna Whare Mātauranga a Kura, instigated Aotearoa NZ School Library Week to celebrate the valuable role school libraries have in education and to acknowledge the work of school librarians.
The inaugural event was a resounding success, and we are thrilled to once again celebrate the joy of reading, learning, and imagination. This year, the event will be held from 7 – 11 August. A plethora of exciting activities can be found on the SLANZA website, specifically designed by SLANZA and award-winning illustrator Paul Beavis, to help kura across Aotearoa celebrate their library spaces. Schools are encouraged to share School Library Week-inspired activities via social media using the #AotearoaSchoolLibraryWeek hashtag. Celebrating Aotearoa NZ School Library Week raises the profile of school libraries. It normalises the need for our tamariki to have access to this valuable resource. National and international research has shown the importance and necessity of having a school library, supported by a specialist librarian with an adequate budget, in improving student achievement, well-being, literacy, and in building information literacy, critical thinking and a love of life-long reading. We hope Aotearoa NZ School Library Week will provoke discussions on the correlation between Aotearoa’s crisis in declining literacy rates among our children and teenagers, and that fewer than a third of schools and kura in Aotearoa have paid library staff. Let’s come together to support our young readers, and reinforce the importance of the school library as a centre of knowledge and creativity. Mark it on your calendars and get ready for an inspiring and imaginative week ahead. For more information, visit the SLANZA website, www.slanza.org.nz Contact: Sarah Stretch – SLANZA National Administrator - admin@slanza.org.nz
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 Hundreds of students in Christchurch and Wellington are set to be entertained and enlightened by finalists in the 2023 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults at Books Alive events in the immediate lead up to the awards ceremony.
In Ōtautahi on 4 August, WORD Christchurch will host a selection of shortlisted authors and illustrators in panel discussions for primary and intermediate schools. There are still some spaces available for the 10am and 1pm sessions in the spacious Christ's College Auditorium. Interested teachers can find out more on our website, then book their classes in by emailing the WORD schools team. The Books Alive events in Pōneke, programmed by the talented Wellington City Libraries team, are already fully booked, having attracted 20 schools from around the city. All available spaces in the National Library’s Tiakiwai Conference Centre on Molesworth Street will be abuzz on the day of the awards ceremony, 10 August, with finalists conducting workshops on writing and illustration, behind-the-book talks, panel discussions, and live drawing sessions. Nicola Legat, Chair of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa, says that fostering a love of reading in tamariki and rangitahi by engaging them with books and their authors is an essential part of the award’s kaupapa. “After several years in which the pandemic forced much of our Books Alive activity online, we’re delighted to be bringing our finalists in person to Ōtautahi Christchurch again, and to be hosting a bigger-than-ever event in Pōneke Wellington. Our warmest thanks to our wonderful partners in both centres for helping to make this happen.”  for Whiria te Tāngata – Kia toitū te mātauranga – weaving the people together for the sustainability of the library sector.
A second and final Whiria Te Tāngata cohort has been funded thanks to the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme, head here to apply! Do you want to be part of an amazing opportunity to support the sustainability of the Aotearoa New Zealand library sector? Are you looking to grow your strategic leadership skills and have a passion for mātauranga Māori, workforce development, data research and collective impact? We are looking for 10 talented people with a diversity of backgrounds and experience in the library sector to be part of a dynamic cohort of Kākaho (sustainability champions). Read the recently graduated Kākaho blogs, here. This is an 8-month learning and development opportunity for you to grow your networking, collective impact, and leadership skills within a national context. With the support of your workplace, being a Kākaho will see you applying practical skills to highly relevant issues facing the library sector today through action-led learning. The programme is delivered within four tukutuku (panel) modules. These are Waharua, the mātauranga Māori workstream and its connection to the land. Poutama symbolises the scaffolding of knowledge and its application to workforce capability. Purapura whetū signifies the complexity of data, research, and evidence work. Niho taniwha represents the determination needed for collective impact. Built upon a foundation of mātauranga Māori and through a Te Ao Māori lens, we ensure principles, key concepts, practices and approach to engagement and collaboration is informed by tikanga. You will work with other Kākaho across Aotearoa with dedicated support provided by Te Rōpū Whakahau. You will remain within your substantive role, while learning and developing with your fellow cohort for up to a day a week through both online and in-person experiences. What’s required:
Please feel free to forward this email on to any library or candidate you feel would benefit from this opportunity. To apply for Whiria te Tāngata, head here. EOIs close by 23rd July, 11.59pm. Before you can be confirmed within the role you will need to have all required documents in by 6 August 2023. Whiria te Tāngata is funded through the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme, led by Te Rōpū Whakahau and supported by the National Library of New Zealand.  Drop by Drop: Poetry for Children Competition A new nationwide competition for adults who write poetry for children has been launched in the lead-up to Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day in August. ‘Drop by Drop’ runs between now and 4th August and will be judged by renowned children’s writer and poet, Bill Nagelkerke. Entry is free and is open to anyone in New Zealand aged 18 years and over. The prize for the winning poem is $50. Up to three poems can be submitted on the theme of ‘water’ – to be interpreted as widely and wildly as entrants like. Poems should be aimed at 5-12 year olds. For further information visit the Poets XYZ Facebook Page or email thepoetsxyz@gmail.com. The winner will be announced on Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day on Friday 25th August. The competition is organised by the Poets XYZ, a trio of New Zealand children’s writers. Elena de Roo, Kathryn Dove, and Melinda Szymanik are keen to see poetry for children flourish in Aotearoa New Zealand and to develop a network of children’s poets. Kia ora koutou
SLANZA is involved in two initiatives to support weather-impacted school libraries. Schools can benefit from both of these initiatives, not just one or the other. The first is the Books Back Better project. Launched in March 2023 in response to Cyclone Gabrielle, Books Back Better is a fundraising effort between SLANZA, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand, and Books Back Better to gather monetary donations that will be used to buy Booksellers Tokens. These book tokens will be distributed to Aotearoa school libraries that have been affected by the cyclone, and who fit project criteria via an application process. National Library is working closely with SLANZA and the Books Back Better project to coordinate communications and offers of support for school libraries. Thank you to all those who have already donated to this cause. Donations will still be accepted until 3 July 2023 at http://www.slanza.org.nz/donate.html If you know of weather-impacted school libraries, please encourage them to apply for the Books Back Better funding. The application form can be found on our SLANZA website. The second initiative SLANZA is associated with is supporting the work being done by National Library to implement the government funding. Please read National Library’s communication on this:
Ngā mihi nui Julia Julia Smith BAppSci (LIS) Qualified Librarian Kerikeri High SchoolKerikeri High School Kia ora koutou We are incredibly excited and proud to let you know that Alan Dingley will be the next Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador for children and young people. Alan is a passionate School Librarian at Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School and SLANZA member. You may have watched his presentation, This Quiz is Lit, at the SLANZA Whakaohooho Online Conference 2021 or heard him as the voice behind SLANZA Sessions Podcast.  Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador supports and champions the importance of reading in the lives of young New Zealanders, their whānau and communities, increasing visibility and awareness of reading across all sectors, helping to create a nation of readers. Alan will bring impressive experience, skills, and knowledge to the kaupapa of creating readers:
“I am so humbled to be chosen as the next Te Awhi Rito New Zealand Reading Ambassador and follow the wonderful mahi and impact Ben has made. It’s a brilliant opportunity and to have been selected is just such an amazing feeling. Our sincere congratulations to Alan for being selected for this prestigious role. We know he will be a fabulous advocate for promoting reading, School Librarians, and libraries. “I believe my strength will be reading engagement, on-the-ground work with children and young people, and building and strengthening community connections.”  Register events now and unleash the power of poetry across Aotearoa on 25 August National Poetry Day is scheduled for 25 August 2023, and as its administrators open registrations for events and seed-funding, they are inviting organisers across the motu to join in to unleash the uplifting power of poetry. Robin McDonnell, CEO of Poetry Day sponsor Phantom Billstickers, says that when company founder Jim Wilson witnessed the healing power of poetry in the early 2000s, he started putting poems on posters to share with others. “It was balm and a joy for him then and still is now, and we’d like to think that it can help the nation heal as we recover from more than three very tough years. Never has poetry been so important for so many reasons,” he says. Aotearoa’s much-loved one-day nationwide celebration of poetry – now in its 26th year – is gearing up for its biggest and most joyous range of events yet, and is encouraging regional organisers to think about all the ways that poets and poetry can soothe, delight and rejuvenate as they plan their 25 August activities. In 2022, in the first in-person Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day in three years, more than 150 events were staged across the motu, bringing together established and emerging poets, young writers and voices, and poetry enthusiasts of all ages. They celebrated on beaches and street corners, in old churches, pubs, libraries, universities, museums, hospitals, bookshops, bowling alleys and even in national parks. NPD’s national coordinator Erica Stretton encourages organisers to register early to access seed-funding, promotional materials, guidance, and to be included in the heavily promoted official calendar of NPD 2023 events. Interested organisers will find registration documents, templates and a full range of useful planning and promotional resources on the NPD website at www.poetryday.co.nz. Applications for seed funding close at 5pm on 1 June 2023. The official Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day 2023 calendar will be announced on 2 August. For further information contact NPD national coordinator Erica Stretton at poetryday@nzbookawards.org.nz and to keep up with plans for NPD 2023, follow NZPoetryDay on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Released on behalf of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa by: Belinda Cooke, manager@nzbookawards.org.nz, tel: 021 481044. National Poetry Day was established in 1997 with a mandate to celebrate discovery, diversity, community and pushing boundaries. It is a one-day nationwide poetry event extravaganza held annually on a Friday in late August. Phantom Billstickers has been assisting New Zealanders to express themselves since 1982. From the very beginning they’ve supported home-grown talent alongside their commercial campaign work, actively promoting New Zealand music, art, poetry and culture through a network that now numbers 6500 framed street posters countrywide. The New Zealand Book Awards Trust Te Ohu Tiaki i Te Rau Hiringa was established as a charitable trust in 2014 to govern and manage the country’s two major literary awards – The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults – as well as Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, and to ensure their longevity and credibility.   The Books Back Better fundraising initiative is being launched today to help the recovery of school libraries affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
A group of local Hawkes Bay authors, school librarians and booksellers, led by Mary-anne Scott, have teamed up with SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) and Booksellers Aotearoa NZ to create the Books Back Better project. Books Back Better is a project to collect monetary donations from our wider communities around the motu to buy Booksellers Tokens and distribute these to kura/schools, Kohanga Reo and Kindergartens affected by the recent cyclone Gabrielle in Aotearoa New Zealand. Mary-anne Scott, Hawkes Bay author, is leading the Books Back Better group. “A well-stocked, library should be the beating heart of any learning environment for our tamariki. Books Back Better aims to restock flooded school libraries after Gabrielle. Monies raised will provide book tokens so the affected libraries can be filled with books best-suited for their readers.” Our SLANZA National Executive had been discussing ideas about how we best to support school libraries around the motu that had been impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle when Mary-anne phoned me with a desire to support affected school libraries, so it was a no-brainer that we do all we could to get behind a locally driven project”, says Sasha Eastwood, school librarian at Manchester Street School and current President of SLANZA. “The tokens will give schools agency to purchase their own books with their community needs in mind. We hope these books will give comfort to akonga/students as school communities work through recovering from the devastating damage of recent events.” Booksellers Aotearoa were also approached by Mary-anne and were keen to be involved. “The devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle has had impacts throughout New Zealand’s book-loving community, including several of our members.” says Dan Slevin, Booksellers Aotearoa CEO. “By channeling these generous donations through discounted Booksellers Tokens, our association can make a contribution to those schools, kohanga and kindies that have to rebuild their collections, and also support our members operating in affected communities in Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti and Hawkes Bay.” People can donate via the SLANZA website. Donations will be used to purchase Booksellers Tokens which will be distributed to kura/schools, kindergartens or Kōhanga Reo in Aotearoa New Zealand affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and who fit the project criteria via an application process. These tokens will enable the affected kura/schools to purchase new books from local booksellers to replace those damaged. Booksellers Aotearoa are supplying the tokens at a 20 percent discount off face value. Join us today by donating to Books Back Better.  Check out our 2023 School Libraries Transform wall planner. Once again thanks goes to the amazing Paul Beavis who has produced this beautiful resource, and to our business members in supporting this project.
This is a double sided calendar / wall planner with one side showcasing important dates in 2023. It can be printed in A3 or A4. Download it by clicking on the image. A group of Manawatu School Librarians realised there was nothing for their special brand of people in the podcast world so decided to create their own! After a few delays and lots of learning new skills we are proud to announce that the first episode of SLANZA Sessions will air Wednesday 4th January 2023! New episodes will be broadcasted ‘live’ fortnightly on Wednesdays at 10.30am. All episodes are recorded and can be listened to via the Manawatū People’s Radio website or found on your favourite podcasting platform (including Apple and Spotify). Find out more here http://www.slanza.org.nz/slanza-sessions-podcast.html We would love to hear from you so feel free to contact us at podcast@slanza.org.nz Send us some feedback, ideas, and book reviews etc 
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