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The National Executive met after the Otago Regional Conference in Dunedin. Below is a summary of some of the discussions covered at the meeting. This communique is to keep members up-to-date with the work being done on their behalf by the National Executive.
National Executive team National Executive would like to welcome two new members to our team. Long-standing Representative, Auckland’s Trish Webster has made way for Sharon Jackson and Central’s Steph Gibbons has been replaced by Sasha Eastwood-Bennitt. The fluidity of movement into and out of the NE is a natural response to member needs. On one hand, we are saddened by the loss of the knowledge and skills leaving our team, yet, we feel empowered by the views and energy that new representatives bring in. We are fortunate to harness knowledge and experience from a wide range of members, and we would like to acknowledge and thank Bridget Schaumann and Rosalba Finnerty in particular for their continuing guidance and support. Statements and Policies As a National Executive, we are always working on improving our systems and practices. We greatly appreciate your input in forming our updated Vision and Mission Statements - the biggest change we made from your feedback was a change from ‘school librarians’ to ‘school library staff’ which we agree, is a more inclusive term. These are the new statements: Vision Statement SLANZA will empower and support school library staff, and strengthen and promote school libraries in Aotearoa New Zealand. Mission Statement SLANZA provides community, guidance and professional development on library practice and programmes for school library staff in Aotearoa New Zealand while reflecting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Further to these statements, we have also been developing policies relating to Te Tiriti o Waitangi - The Treaty of Waitangi as well as one on Equity. Membership Total membership for 2018 is 592 members, down 5% from 2017. Website Update If you haven’t visited the SLANZA website recently, do have a look. We’ve been quietly working away at refreshing the look and content. Conference We would like to acknowledge the phenomenal effort that went into organising and running the SLANZA Otago Regional Conference. The Conference Committee ensured that, even though it was a regional conference, the calibre of professional development on offer was exceptional while the fellowship was marvellous. Our sincere gratitude goes to the Otago team who made this event possible. It was announced at the conference that, next year, we will hold another regional conference, this time organised by the Waikato / Bay of Plenty region and based in Cambridge. Add the event to your budget and note it on your calendar, Friday 27 September to Sunday 29 September 2019. Collected Magazine Thank you to all the members who have submitted articles for Collected magazine. The theme is ‘Encouraging Readers’, although we will be treated to other articles of interest as well as book reviews and business member submissions. Currently in the editing stage, the twenty-third issue of Collected will be out soon. This will be the last issue by our editor Greig Daniels who has stepped down after four years as editor. With Greig’s skilful editing and writing,Collected has developed into a quality publication and we thank him sincerely for his tireless work and dedication. We are excited to announce that Melanie McVeigh, our administration officer, has worked alongside Greig with this issue and will take over the role next year. Connected Librarians Congratulations to all those members who completed the Term 3 Connected online learning module. The topic was Student Care and the Role of Librarians and proved to be a popular choice for learning new techniques and support practices for our students. Connected online courses are free for SLANZA members and are another option for school library staff to extend our learning. Watch out for the next module in Term 1. Google+ Community The discussion topic, Fun Library Activities, is due to start next week. We will be looking at stimulating activities we do in our libraries to have fun with our students and staff. Don’t forget you need to be a SLANZA member to participate. Open Polytechnic Courses The Open Polytechnic are undergoing a transformational change with a strong learner-centred focus. Their new courses in Library and Information Studies are really enticing with updated, relevant content and flexible, collaborative learning. SLANZA is strongly committed to raising the professional standing of school library staff, and we are grateful to Open Polytechnic for continuing to offer SLANZA members fee free study opportunities on two Level 6 papers. We encourage members to take advantage of this amazing study opportunity. NZEI Pay Equity Claim We are supporting NZEI with their pay equity claim for school librarians and library assistants. Achieving pay equity with similar non-female dominant professions will not be a quick or simple task, however, the information gained from the Google+ Community Pay Equity PD, earlier this year, where members collaborated to create a comprehensive database of skills, roles and responsibilities, will assist our cause. SLANZA National Executive would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing commitment to SLANZA and wish you all a great term 4. We will continue to work on your behalf and ensure that the voice of school libraries from all over the country are heard. Julia Smith Communications team
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The 2017 SLANZA AGM will be held in Auckland at Kings College on Tuesday 18th July at 12.30 – 1pm, as part of the SLANZA Conference 2017.
While it is expected that most people wanting to attend the AGM would also be registering for Conference, it is not essential and you are welcome to attend just the AGM if that is your preference. Please send any apologies for the AGM to [email protected] before Friday 14th July. A further message will be sent closer to the time with the agenda and any other required documentation.  We are very pleased to announce that SLANZA members can now access a selection of eBooks to support their continuing professional development. These resources will be available to members only, through SLANZA’s new eBook platform. Wheelers have made this possible by generously providing our ePlatform at no cost. We are very grateful for their support of our organisation, and our members’ ongoing professional growth. We invite all current SLANZA members to register for the SLANZA ePlatform now. When you register, please use your preferred email address (not a shared library email) and your personal membership number if known. We aim to process new registrations within 24 hours.
Titles currently available I do hope you’ve been able to have a restful break over the summer, and are now looking forward to the day-to-day business of working with students and staff in your school in what I am sure will be a busy and interesting year.
First some good news: Karen Clarke has been elected unopposed (no other nominations were received) to the position of President Elect. Karen was nominated by the National Executive, and brings to the role a great deal of experience and passion for working on behalf of all school library staff. Karen has served many years on the National Executive, including most recently acting as SLANZA’s treasurer. We know she has the best interests of you all, and our organisation, at heart and will do a fabulous job of leading SLANZA when she takes on the role of President from July of this year. In other news:
Wishing you all the best for this term, Miriam Tuohy President Fifteen years ago, SLANZA was established as an independent national body, representing school library staff throughout the country. Since the beginning, our goal has been “to strengthen and promote the role of school libraries, to enable all school communities to become information literate”.
The National Executive work to develop relationships and a wide range of resources that will help us achieve this. Regional committees in turn provide grass-roots support to the National Executive, volunteering their time and other resources to support the work we do, by offering networking and professional development opportunities for members. The National Executive’s ongoing programme of work is made possible by your payment of SLANZA’s annual membership fee, and a huge amount of primarily volunteer input. Currently, this allows the National Executive to:
Your membership fee also enables SLANZA to provide financial support to members each year in the form of study grants, and in alternate years through conference grants. We have plans to provide further resources and professional development opportunities that will support our members to provide excellent library services and programmes for their school communities. In the past year, the National Executive has been able to reduce its costs by replacing face-to-face meetings with online meetings, but this is not sustainable in the long run. In order to be able to continue to provide this range of services and resources, it is necessary for SLANZA to make a small increase in its annual membership fee - the first in 7 years - from $50 to $60 effective 1 January 2016. This will enable us to be more responsive to members’ needs, sourcing more professional development speakers, creating new resources, making better use of the affordances that changing technology allows, and appropriately managing the workload involved with all of these things. At the same time, the National Executive will be investigating a range of funding options which we hope will help to provide a sustainable income stream for our organisation, alongside that generated by membership fees. We must also acknowledge the support of Book Protection Products, who have very generously sponsored SLANZA’s professional development for many years. We consider that the $60 annual fee represents real value for our members. We appreciate your continued support of the work we do to advocate for the role of the school library and the professional standing of library staff, and to provide resources that support your work and continuing professional development. If you wish to raise any questions or comments regarding this change, please address them to either [email protected] or [email protected] Regards Miriam Tuohy President The National Executive Life Membership Committee is pleased to announce that Life membership has been conferred upon the following members of our organisation. These Life Memberships were conferred at the SLANZA Conference earlier this month and both the Wellington and Auckland regions will hold local celebrations of these members. We congratulate both Barbara and Kaaren on their Life Membership awards. Kaaren Hirst SLANZA work has been an inherent part of Kaaren’s life for the length of her career in school libraries. She is a stalwart of the Auckland school library scene. Providing PD for school librarians in the very early days of SLANZA, Kaaren’s voice has been heard many times over the years promoting the role of school librarians across the country. A champion for librarians and proactive in all aspects of school libraries, part of the change and growth of libraries and librarians. Kaaren has sat on the National Executive twice, been the co-chair of the Auckland regional committee three times, she has been conference convener and on every Auckland conference committee. She has been a very active union advocate and a vocal supporter for school libraries everywhere. She is not done yet, during the last school holidays while we were at SLANZA conference, she was representing us at the NZEI support staff conference. Kaaren's ongoing work with NZEI advocating for support staff and school librarians in particular, has benefitted all of us. Barbara Murison Barbara Murison has spent her life promoting and working with school libraries. Barbara has been an advocate for books, libraries, school libraries and school librarians. Through her ventures in publishing, especially Around the Bookshops and her online presence, she has informed school libraries about books for young people. Barbara continues to support school libraries, librarians and students despite having been ‘retired’ for some time, actively assisting those in need providing resources and support. She still attends SLANZA meetings, mentors new librarians, helps out with the Kid’s lit Quiz and is deeply involved in the children’s literary scene. Barbara is a longstanding member of SLANZA and a supporter of school libraries across the nation. Her work to promote school libraries is of nationwide importance. We congratulate both Barbara and Kaaren on their Life Membership awards. We are really pleased to share some terrific news for secondary schools today. The BWB Publishing Trust will be distributing a selection of BWB history titles to schools this week. Attached is an information sheet about the Books in School Libraries programme, and a list of the titles that schools will receive. The information includes a link to Teachers Notes for these books. Please share this news with your History teachers, and perhaps take the opportunity to talk with them about how these new library books and resources can be used to support student learning in your school. On behalf of all SLANZA members I offer a huge "thank you" to the BWB Publishing Trust and their supporters - the Grace Memorial Trust, the Stout Trust (with the Friends of the Turnbull Library), and the family of Emeritus Professor Alan Ward - for making this possible. Miriam Tuohy President
In 2013-2014 SLANZA offered our very successful Connected Librarians course to members. We are grateful to those who participated, for supporting SLANZA’s professional development and also for giving us feedback on ways we might improve what we do.
As part of a major review of the course - including participant’s feedback - we are very pleased to announce that each of the six topics that made up the original Connected Librarians course will now be offered as individual modules. We believe this will make our course even more accessible, by removing some of the barriers to participating, and offering the flexibility to better fit learners’ individual needs. The course modules are designed and fully facilitated by practising New Zealand school librarians, for school librarians. They are ideal for those library staff just starting out with online tools, who are ready and willing to try new things. Registration is free for SLANZA members. Class places are limited. Registrations for module #1 - Professional Reading using RSS feeds and Feedly - will open on Tuesday June 2nd (week 7). Successful applicants will receive invitations to our learning community in Week 9, and the class itself runs in Weeks 10 and 11. More information about Connected Librarians is available here, or you can contact me directly with any questions. Miriam Tuohy Professional Development team leader 
This year 160 school librarians from across New Zealand have shared their borrowing statistics for 2014 so that we can compile this list of best books for New Zealand children, available here now.
These titles have been voted the most popular in the way it really counts, by students borrowing and reading them from their school library. We have included the most popular New Zealand authors and titles. There are some old favourites, and some new favourites in these lists. Thank you to all school librarians who contributed to the survey. Trish Webster on behalf of the National Executive  The latest issue of Collected magazine is available today. This issue has Summer Reading as it's theme. Follow the link above, or click the cover image to read it now.
Many thanks to those who have contributed articles and reviews for this issue, and to those who have helped with proof-reading and editing - we couldn't do it without your help. As the number of issues continues to grow, we've made some small changes to the website to accomodate them, so you will now find older issues of Collected on a separate page. We send all our readers best wishes for the holiday season, and hope you enjoy your summer break - do make sure you find time to fit in plenty of reading! |
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