About 12 years ago I worked in a rural high school.  I was the librarian, with few clues about what I was doing, except that I rekindled my love for young adult books and I desperately wanted to share those books with anybody who would stand still long enough for me to issue one to them.  We had a fantastic reading programme and I was luckily included in any discussions about reading and literacy in the school.  In quiet times - there weren’t many - I spent my time looking on the internet for great ideas to use in my library and learning about research processes and learning to be useful to teachers.  By accident one day I found the Listserv and then once I was installed on there I found out about SLANZA, which was in its very early days, and joined.  School librarians, banding together for strength, trying to make good things happen for their colleagues - my kind of organisation!

Fast forward.  It is 2004, I work in a different school in a city now and I have put my hand up to be the representative on the National Executive for our region.  A bit scary!  But also really interesting, challenging and oh my the people I met!  And a new view of the organisation I belonged to, a view which showed frustrations and annoyances, but also so much fabulous work going on by reps from all over the country, work which just goes on, sometimes invisible to those off exec but always valuable and always working towards improving things for the members.  And then, someone nominated me for an award.  My school sat up and paid attention, the boss made a huge fuss, presented me with the certificate in front of the whole school and told everyone that they were the luckiest school in the country because they had me.  Wow!  A SLANZA award changed my reputation in the school, the perception of staff, and made the students think I was a little more awesome too.  SLANZA award nominations are open now - they are one of the best things SLANZA does for it’s members.  Recognising those who make a difference in their schools.  Nominate someone who makes a difference to his or her school through the work they do in the library.

Now it is 2014, SLANZA membership is up for renewal again.  There has been no rise in the cost of membership for 12 years. We work hard to keep this cost down by having a fantastic Major Sponsor in Book Protection Products, by having great Business Members who finance our Collected magazine.  We work hard to keep the costs of the National Executive members down to a minimum and we always have done that.  So sometimes, even though membership is only $50, people say to me, “Well what do I get for my membership?”  This is what you get:

SLANZA awards - see above.  And also Life Memberships for those who have contributed so much to SLANZA over the years.

Regular meetings with people who do what you do, who work at a similar coal face every day and who have the same kinds of problems as you.  The chance to have a group of friends who work in your field, who can give you advice and who get together regularly for a catchup and a vent.  You can’t get this online from any website, you can only get this by developing relationships, and for me that is the main purpose of SLANZA, relationship builder for school librarians across the country.

The Online PD - our third cohort is in their second week of the course.  This kind of professional development is valuable because it is self paced, easy to fit into your day, has been developed for you by school librarians just like you, and is full of things we know you can use in your regular working day.

Collected magazine - smart, professional and full of great stuff that you really want to read.  Lead articles by people at the top of their game in the school library world.  Information you can use straight away and ideas straight from the school library world locally and internationally, and you get this three times a year!

Conference.  Every second year you get the opportunity to hear luminaries from the international school library world, to go to workshops with fantastic practitioners, to attend a huge variety of events and opportunities and to network with school librarians from across the country.  A SLANZA conference is an event of significance because of the fantastic PD you receive but also because of the connections you build.  And it is very reasonably priced with great accommodation also reasonably priced to go with it.

Local Professional Development.  The regional committees organise regular PD for you: sometimes a small event, sometimes something much larger.  Visiting speakers, authors, workshops, information sessions and so much more.  Usually free and always valuable.  We are working hard to raise the levels of our profession through education and connection, and it’s working!  Look how far we’ve come!  Look at the amazing skills out in the school library community.  In large part SLANZA has inspired that!

SLANZA study grants. This is a chance to study, to upskill professionally and to have the majority of the cost of a paper paid for.  A long time ago I decided to do a paper, full of trepidation, and realised a) I could do it and b) passing was empowering!

Connections.  Connections with other organisations, outside agencies who have goals which are similarly aligned to our own.

Most importantly for me: SLANZA gives me a community.  Like minded souls.  A feeling that every time a group of SLANZA members gets together, that we work for a common purpose, have common goals and are in this school library business for all the right reasons.  I love my SLANZA friends, they come from small schools and large, they might even work in places which aren’t school libraries but which support school libraries. They are passionate, fun, and full of great ideas I can take away and use, adapt and make something else out of.  It is a cool group to be part of.  We do a great job of growing new leaders, encouraging people to step up and get involved and at local and national level it is wonderful that people are comfortable to do that in this community. Thanks so much to those people.  

SLANZA has filled my days, evenings and life for a long time now.  I work hard for this organisation because I believe it is valuable.  Like all volunteer organisations it can take it out of you.  It is the work I go to after work.  But it is the work I like doing because for all of you reading this, who are passionate about school libraries, the work I do is for you.

Join The School Library Association of New Zealand, your school can afford that $50. Feel the passion, get better at your work and find a community!  You don’t have to go to meetings to get heaps out of SLANZA, you just need to participate.  Say yes to the opportunities we offer and get more awesome!  A list of local reps are here; phone one up and ask any questions you have.  Non members are welcome to come along to a meeting and give us a try, you would be very welcome, we know you’ll like us and that you’ll want to join in our community.

Bridget Schaumann
President
SLANZA

On Saturday morning I had the privilege of delivering a presentation to the great SLANZA folk of Nelson along with some enthusiastic people from the Nelson Public Library.  We assembled at Garin College library and had a lovely morning tea and chatted school libraries, especially the joys and challenges we face in our libraries.  I always love getting together with others who share my passion for school libraries and gleaning ideas and new ways of doing things from them, I think we are all pretty similar that way!  It was a great mix of primary, college and intermediate school librarians.  My presentation was well received and hopefully everyone came away with some ideas to try and some new tools to test out.

Nelson is at the very top of the SLANZA Aoraki Region, Aoraki is a huge region - many hours driving from end to end, and because of that there are many isolated school librarians in their region, as there are in almost every SLANZA region across the country, we acknowledge that like many other organisations we have some very large regions and that some people have to travel a very long way to go to a SLANZA meeting or PD. I got thinking about what SLANZA does to make those who are a long way from the big cities feel more connected to the rest of the membership who have more access to regular meetings and PD.  

While SLANZA executive work hard to provide resources which work for every member wherever they are, including traveling to the outer reaches of their region from time to time, there are still those who are isolated and that is where our online presence is so valuable.  I believe that every member is important and I hope that we can continue to connect with our members in the far flung areas of the country.  The beauty of our online presence is that everyone can connect these days by following #SLANZA on Twitter, joining the SLANZA Facebook page, our Goodreads Group, and especially by reading Collected which is full of great ideas every issue.  These are good ways of keeping in touch with your regional representative who is there for all the members in the region, as well as with what is going on nationally and internationally in the world of school libraries.  

I would like to encourage those in smaller towns to have a SLANZA get together, like those in Nelson you will have a great time and learn new tricks, your regional rep can help you set it up.  I believe in the power of gatherings of school librarians to offer collegial support, great ideas and good discussion.  In this online world there is no need to be isolated but sometimes face to face is even better.  There are plenty of SLANZA members out there who would love to meet up for coffee, to talk about school library stuff and who have great ideas to share and who are also craving contact with others.  If you need help to set up a gathering get in touch with your regional representative, they are there to help you and to represent you.  They may be able to provide resources and speakers for your gathering and will advertise it to everyone for you too. 

SLANZA values every member and we want you to feel valued, and to find out how you can become more involved.

Bridget Schaumann
President of SLANZA

It has been a very busy 2013 so far for the National Executive, so I thought I'd give you an update about some of the projects we've been involved in.

Most of us have a really good break over the Christmas break, but for some people their focus was the creation of SLANZA's new reading website.  Bridget Schaumann and Miriam Tuohy led a team who evaluated  all the lists, identified double ups and inconsistencies and re-formatted everything. Miriam created the site and layout and then the team started the mammoth task of transferring all the lists to the new site.  Sounds simple, but it was months of work for all involved.  However, I am sure you will agree that it was well worth it!

Miriam's other major project has been the development of the  SLANZA online Connected Librarians professional development course.  She was investigating the idea of Library Badges in recognition of skills learnt, and came up with the Connected Librarians concept.  The National Executive wanted to provide online professional development, and thanks to Miriam's perseverance, there are some very lucky SLANZA members who are starting this exciting course soon.  We were completely amazed at the amount of interest shown by you, and do intend to run it again, so all the waiting list have an opportunity to do the course.

One of my roles as President is to represent SLANZA in a variety of forums, and one of those forums is the cross sector Strategic Advisory Forum (SAF).  SAF meets three times a year, to talk with the National Librarian and each other regarding issues across the sector.  As a result of a recent meeting, LIANZA convened a cross association day to identify how each of the library associations across New Zealand could work more closely, support each other and try to stop re-inventing the wheel. Miriam and I represented SLANZA, and it was very interesting to see the commonalities between associations.  One of the issues we raised was the cost of PD provided by LIANZA.  We also pushed for a reduced LIANZA conference rate for SLANZA members, and that is being considered by LIANZA Council.

The Executive has been working on the SLANZA Constitution, as things have moved on since 2000 and it needed to be updated to reflect new ways of working and communicating.  Greig Daniels has been leading this project, with an updated Constitution now lodged with the Companies Office.  As a result, a number of amendments will be presented for ratification at the upcoming national AGM during the Wellington Conference.

One group of very busy people is the Wellington Conference Committee, and I'd like to thank them for all the organisation and planning, as the conference is going to be great. Karen Clarke is the Wellington representative on the Executive, as well as being part of the Conference Committee, and is the conference liaison too.  Karen has been doing  a sterling job of keeping us up to date with what has been planned, and I am really looking forward to attending such an exciting conference!

Membership is a big part of SLANZA and we have a number of people involved with it.  Carole Gardiner, our new Administration Officer, has been working through some very tangled membership renewals, and has done a brilliant job of sorting this out for us.  If you have not received a renewal, please email Carole ([email protected]) as we may not have a correct or current email address for you. Life and Business memberships were instituted last year, and Lisa Salter has taken responsibility for these, with Greig taking on the SLANZA awards.  If you know someone that you feel should be granted life membership, or receive an award, please do nominate them by June 20th.  More information is available on the SLANZA website.

Lisa has also taken on the Editor's role for Collected magazine, working with others on the Executive, and is currently pulling together all the articles written for the magazine, which will be published later this term. The upcoming edition will be all about reading, and having done some proof-reading, I know you are going to find it

The Executive is also very grateful to Rosalba Finnerty, the first member of the SLANZA Pool of Talent.  Rosalba has taken over the SLANZA archives, and is sorting through several years of documents, so our history can be preserved.

I hope this gives you an insight into some of the activities of your National Executive and the work we do for you.

Hi everyone,

SLANZA has been the victim of hackers twice in the last month.  We are in the process of changing our email provider and do not have access to our xtra email account currently, nor do we think it is safe to use.  We are setting up new email addresses for SLANZA right now so we can send out renewals as soon as possible. We ask all SLANZA members and intending members to hold off sending their payments for this year until they have received their invoice, as this will enable a more cohesive receipting than has previously occurred.  

If you wish to contact SLANZA in the next couple of weeks while we get these problems sorted out, please do that via your local representative.  They are working hard to sort out the problems and they will pass your message on to the person who is responsible for the appropriate portfolio.  If you are unsure who your regional representative is, check out the links on the 'Contact' page of the SLANZA website.  Paula Eskett has recently taken on the role of National Executive representative for Aoraki, and she can be contacted at [email protected] 
 
Fiona Mackie
President SLANZA

Term 1 is now underway for everyone, and I know we're all heads down, meeting new staff, getting classes organised, starting orientation, selecting and training student librarians, creating displays, identifying curriculum areas to support - the holidays feel like such a long time ago already...

I spent a glorious 12 days up north, camping with my family, and thought I had taken enough books, but ran out with three days to go! As I was driving to Whangarei on a book buying mission, I noticed the sign outside Parua Bay School, and just had to stop. I met Janet Hill, who works in the office and library, and who decided that she would support her students' literacy levels over the summer break by opening the library and encouraging students to take reading material for the summer.  Janet said that lots of families had taken advantage of the library being open, and several of those families were new to the school for 2013, so it served as a great introduction to the area. Parua Bay School has a lovely, well stocked library, and congratulations to Janet for joining the summer reading revolution, and to the senior management of the school for seeing what a positive difference it could make. How did your summer reading programme go? At St Cuthbert's, we issued about 2800 items to Y3-12 girls and staff for the holidays and the books are pouring in right now! The returns bin keeps on overflowing, but it is worth it when a Y11 girl told me today that 'Room (by Emma Donohue) was the best thing I've ever read!'

The National Executive is delighted to announce that Carole Gardiner, from Queens' High in Dunedin, has accepted the Administrator role for SLANZA. Carole is currently getting up to speed with the start of year procedures, as the first task is membership renewals, which will be coming out to you very soon. If you have changed school, or your email address, we'd really appreciate you letting  us know via [email protected]. Thank you to those who have already contacted us with information re contact details as it makes things much easier for us. The renewal form does ask for an alternate email address, as we know school details often change, so a personal email address means you don't miss out at all.

I'd like to thank the National Executive, especially Lisa Salter, Bharathi Char, Bridget Schaumann and Miriam Tuohy, for all the extra work they have done over the last few months. Their efforts have meant that SLANZA as an organisation has continued to function, and I am very grateful that they have put in the extra time and dedication, which will benefit us all.

Although it is super sunny and warm right now, my thoughts are drifting towards the July holidays and the upcoming SLANZA conference. The conference committee are doing a sterling job of putting it together, so keep an eye out for further announcements, as those Winds of Change are going to blow any cobwebs away!

Hope to see you at conference,
Fiona.

SLANZA is pleased to offer Honorary Life Membership to recognize those whose contribution to school librarianship or a closely related field is so outstanding that it is of lasting importance to the advancement of the whole  field of school library service.

Please think about those in our field who deserve to be rewarded in this way.  Applications are open now and close Thursday 21 June 2012.  The first Honorary Life Memberships will be presented at our 2012 AGM in Wellington on Saturday 21 July. 

An application form may be obtained from Lisa Salter, email [email protected].  This new form of membership will be up on our website in the near future.

WHAT IS SLANZA HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIP? 

Honorary Life Membership is considered to be SLANZA’s highest honor.  Honorary life  membership may be conferred on a living member whose contribution to school librarianship or a  closely related field is so outstanding that it is of lasting importance to the advancement of the whole  field of school library service.  It is intended to reflect honor upon the SLANZA as well as upon the  individual.

NOMINATIONS PROCEDURE:

Any SLANZA personal member (except current members of the SLANZA Executive Board) may nominate an individual for Honorary Life Membership.  The nominee will be a member of SLANZA.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further clarification.

Lisa Salter
Phone 09 439 2216
[email protected]
Te Tai Tokerau NE School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa

The School Library Association New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) is pleased to announce the launch of Business Memberships for those businesses who would like to enter into a productive relationship with our members.

Features and benefits to for all Business Memberships include article/s in SLANZA Collected Magazine with your logo and a live link to your website or current promotion on a banner at the bottom of the article’s page.

Our magazine Collected has a readership of over 800 with more than 10,000 unique page views per issue. Our readers are mainly from New Zealand but we also have readers in the UK, USA and Australia. Collected is developing as a leading source of information for school librarians in New Zealand. This is your opportunity to reach those readers and inform them of an idea, trend or service that may interest them.

The article must be informational, providing reviews or commentary on new products or innovations, and will not be a paid advertisement.

The most recent issue of Collected is available to read at http://www.slanza.org.nz/collected.html

We are offering four tiers of membership:
Platinum Membership - Top Shelf -

• An article in all three issues of Collected each year.
  
• Your logo/link live on a banner on the bottom of the article page. * Your logo/link live on a banner on the "Join Now membership" page of our website.
  
• The opportunity to provide promotional material at one PD event for each region over the year.
• Annual Membership $500.00**

Gold Membership - Circulator -

• An article in three issues of Collected each year.
  
• Your logo/link live on a banner on the bottom of the article page. Annual
  
• Membership fee $350.00

Silver Membership - Reserved

• An article in two issues of Collected
  
• Live logo/link on banner on the bottom of the article page.
  
• Annual Membership fee $275.00

Bronze Membership - Periodical

• An article in one issue of Collected
  
•  Live logo/link on banner on the bottom of the article page.
  
• Annual Membership fee $150.00

Membership forms are available here.

For further details, questions or suggestions please contact Lisa Salter
[email protected] or phone 021 116 1080.


** the first 2012 issue of Collected is nearly ready. If you do not join prior to our first issue in 2012 you may join as Top Shelf for the adjusted price of $425.00.


Lisa Salter
Te Tai Tokerau SLANZA National Executive Representative
[email protected]