Response to Budget 2024 - Building on Structured Literacy: The Need to Fund School Libraries30/5/2024 Media Release 30 May 2024
Building on Structured Literacy: The Need to Fund School Libraries The School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) is concerned by the absence of funding in today’s budget announcement for essential school library resources to address the falling literacy rates in Aotearoa New Zealand. “Whilst we applaud the allocation of funds to structured literacy programmes, we are concerned that without access to school libraries and specialised librarians to promote and encourage reading for pleasure, the potential of literacy programmes will always be limited.” says Sasha Eastwood, SLANZA Interim President. “Today’s funding announcement is an encouraging first step in supporting our ākonga to learn to read, however, school libraries are essential to ensure that the building blocks of structured literacy are strengthened by developing the joy of reading, increasing reading comprehension, empathy, and the capacity to learn.” continues Sasha. SLANZA urges the government to mandate that every student have access to a well-resourced school library, funded by the Ministry of Education, and staffed by a specialised school librarian. This way all students will have equitable access to the resources needed to achieve their reading and learning potential. The Education Minister has previously stated, “our education system should be the great equaliser. Your means should not determine your destiny.” SLANZA would argue that school libraries are the greatest equaliser, in that equitable access to books and reading for pleasure is crucial to every student’s literacy and learning success. End Contact – Sasha Eastwood, SLANZA Interim President – [email protected]  Registrations for the SLANZA Module #17: Gender and Sexuality in School Libraries module of the Connected Librarians course are open from today Tuesday 28 May 2024 and will close on Friday 7 June 2024.
Here is the link on the SLANZA website to register: This course is for anyone who would like to explore gender issues as they relate to our school library practice. In a librarian workforce that is predominantly female in Aotearoa schools, we have a responsibility to be informed about all gender issues and how we can ensure our collections and reading advisory are diverse and appropriate for all our students and staff. This course is a repeat of the course run in 2021 and 2022, so you don't need to repeat it if you have already completed one of those courses. What to expect in this course? On successful course completion, learners will be able to:
This course is designed by New Zealand school librarians, for school librarians - for anyone who is ready and willing to learn and try new things and share their thoughts and learning with others. You can work at your own pace, in your own time and network with other school librarians. For those school librarians working in schools on their own, this is invaluable. The course is only available and free for SLANZA members. Please visit the Online PD page on our SLANZA website for further information and to register. Or register here.  We welcome Ellie Nicolson who joined National Executive as the new Wellington representative in March. Ellie has been chair of SLANZA Wellington, but nationally you may recognise her as the organiser of the Wellington online conference Whakaohooho. Previously a teacher, Ellie retrained with a post-graduate library diploma and worked as Library Manager at St Patrick’s College in Wellington.
When I was a small bookworm, tucked in a corner reading a book, my Grandad predicted I was destined to be a teacher or a librarian. I have now proudly been both. I started my career as a teacher but put it to one side for children and travel and when I returned discovered I would have to retrain. Given I wasn’t sure that I could be the teacher I wanted to be and the mum I needed to be in the number of hours there are in a day, it was time for a rethink. What I did know was that I wanted to stay in education, so I completed a post-graduate library diploma and started my new career as Library Manager at St Patrick’s College in Wellington. As Chair of SLANZA Wellington, and organiser of the online conference Whakaohooho, I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to work with amazing people who share my passion for libraries. Most recently I have accepted a new role as a facilitator for the National Library and can’t wait to meet and work with librarians all around Aotearoa. As NE rep for Wellington I look forward to bringing my passion, experience and knowledge into continuing to support my amazing fellow librarians. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Clare Forrest as our previous SLANZA National Executive Wellington Representative. After a ten-year tenure as National Executive representative for Wellington, Clare Forrest has stood down from the role. Clare worked tirelessly on the betterment of school librarians. As a NZEI union representative, she was on the negotiating team representing SLANZA for our pay equity from the beginning, and it was a tribute to the work she put in on our behalf that she was there for the historical signing of the Pay Equity Settlement in March 2023. Clare spent many years creating, delivering, and facilitating our Connected online professional development modules. She has also been an integral and leading member of our SLANZA social media team, as content researcher, poster, and moderator. Clare’s views were honest, sage and astute, and we admired and respected her knowledge and guidance. NE are profoundly grateful for all that Clare has contributed to National Executive and the whole school library sector. We want articles on how you and your library are helping to build community in your school or further afield. These could be activities within your own library, professional learning development you have attended, or connections you have made with other librarians or organisations. If you have helped to build communities we'd love to hear about it. Submissions are due May 10th, guidelines can be found here. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Lauryn Urquhart-Eaton Collected Editor SLANZA http://www.slanza.org.nz/collected   In December each year, school librarians pool their borrowing statistics to give a snapshot of the books that captured the imagination of Aotearoa New Zealand ākonga. The results of our annual Reading Survey for 2023 are in! Our students have spoken and these are the most popular books and authors read by our students in 2023. It looks like our students were relishing the thrill of murder mysteries alongside some comedy, romance, and books featuring wahine toa.  We surveyed SLANZA members on the following categories:
The survey results can be found on the SLANZA website and can be accessed here Thank you to all of you who contributed to making this survey such a success. Happy Reading! SLANZA are excited to share the following update on the Tertiary Grants fund: ******* LIANZA SLANZA TERTIARY GRANTS Update February 2024 Three funding rounds over 2022 and 2023 have provided grants to over 130 students to complete library and information qualifications. With 97 applications received in the October 2023 round of funding, 54 applications were successful. Over 50% of the grant recipients in this funding round are already working in or expected to work in school libraries. The total NZLPP-funded amount of $ 1.5 million has now been allocated, and no more funding rounds will be held. Students will complete undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications at Open Polytechnic Te Pūkenga, Te Wānanga o Raukawa, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. The final group of successful applicants are expected to complete their studies in 2028. Of the grant recipients across all three rounds, around 25% are new to the library and information sector, and around 25% identify as Māori or Pasifika. ******* Congratulations to all the recipients who took this incredible opportunity to study tertiary courses in Library studies for free. In November 2020, SLANZA was one of nine organisations invited to submit funding proposals from the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme’s strategic partnership grants (NZLPP). These grants were offered as a response to Covid-19 to support the upskilling and strengthening of the library sector. In our proposal to seek tertiary funding support for school librarians, we emphasised that by removing the barrier of tuition costs, the initiative would enable equitable access to library and information qualifications. When assessing applicants for these grant rounds, it became obvious how school librarians were adversely affected by the costs of tertiary courses. Therefore, offering free library courses is a huge benefit to our sector, and we are thrilled to have achieved this. Find out more about the LIANZA SLANZA Tertiary Grants project here. The tertiary funding proposal presented to NZLPP also stated these outcomes: Knowledge, capabilities and confidence gained through tertiary qualifications will strengthen our school library sector, enabling graduates to manage a high-functioning school library that will positively impact student learning and well-being in literacy and information literacy, web evaluation and critical thinking skills. This will improve literacy levels and digital skills capabilities to benefit the country. Feedback and experiences shared by recipients have highlighted their increased knowledge, capabilities and confidence. The benefits are shown for their schools and themselves. This is a valuable outcome of these tertiary grants. Lastly, the tertiary funding proposal expressed that a strengthened sector workforce will raise the profile of the vital role of school librarians in Aotearoa schools. Graduates of these grants will be equipped with the skills and knowledge to effectively manage school libraries, thereby elevating the standards and perceptions of our profession. This is very rewarding for National Executive members working towards these outcomes from 2020. We wish all the recipients of these LIANZA SLANZA Tertiary Grants the best with their studies. We thank Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand for supporting our sector with these tertiary grants and LIANZA for partnering with us to achieve these fantastic outcomes.  Recipient Victoria Elisara. Credit V. Elisara In December 2023 we shared information with members about undertaking a research project to provide evidence of the value and impact of school libraries, particularly on literacy for young people in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The project is a collaboration with the National Library’s Services to Schools and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER). The research will:
We’ve established a steering group who will work closely with NZCER throughout the project. SLANZA representatives: Sasha Eastwood (Steering Group Chairperson, SLANZA Central / Immediate Past President | Leonie Grigsby (WaiBOP) | Kirsty Adam (Southland) National Library Services to Schools representatives: Elizabeth Jones | Kate Irvine | Miriam Tuohy Contact us via [email protected] if you have any specific questions for this steering group. How you can be involved Part 1 of the research project will begin this term with a survey of schools. We encourage all our members to make sure your contact information is up-to-date on our records and with the National Library’s Services to Schools team, so that we can send you an invitation to participate in this project. Contact your local SLANZA NE Rep if you think your membership details need updating. Project updates We'll share updates about the project throughout the year. Click here to see all project updates  Image credit: https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/  The LIANZA Freedom-to-Read toolkit is a new resource for people working in library and information services. It will help them with the issues of book challenges and mis/dis information in their libraries.
The toolkit helps library staff prepare for challenges by providing information on the New Zealand context and legislation involved in this area. It helps identify the policies and processes libraries should have.
There will be a series of webinars on the topics in the toolkit, starting with an introduction to the toolkit on February 27. Register here for this > SLANZA was pleased to be involved in the development of this resource as part of the project working group. Click here to read the Quick Guide for School Library Staff. In December 2023, LIANZA asked SLANZA National Executive to provide content for a briefing paper on issues relating to the library and information sectors in Aotearoa that was presented to our new Minister of Education, Hon Erica Stanford, as well as three other Ministers, Hon Simeon Brown, Hon Brooke van Velden, and Hon Paul Goldsmith, this month. As key stakeholders in the library and information sector. LIANZA, SLANZA and PLNZ wrote this briefing paper to introduce new MP's to our organisations and identify key areas affecting our library and information members. We are pleased that SLANZA’s voice was present in this important communication to the Ministers to inform them of the work of SLANZA, and the critical role of school libraries and librarians in the education sector. You can read this briefing paper here in full. The following text is some of the school library-relevant sections in the briefing paper: EQUITABLE ACCESS TO SCHOOL LIBRARIES
2 https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/school-libraries/understanding-school-libraries/school-libraries-in-aotearoanz-survey-reports/school-libraries-in-aotearoa-new-zealand-2022 3 https://theeducationhub.org.nz/school-libraries-as-safe-spaces-promoting-literacy-and-wellbeing/ 4 https://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/curriculum-matters/articles/under-recognised-underused-andundervalued-school-libraries |
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