 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.
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We were promised 'Winds of Change' at the SLANZA 2013 conference in Wellington. What we hadn't bargained for was 'high winds close airport on Sunday"! Some of us were at airports around the country on Sunday rescheduling our flights and taking refuge with local 'flockmates' to ride out the storm.
Fortunately the storm did not dampen the spirits of those who arrived in time for the "meet and greet" at the conference venue. The conversation, food and wine flowed freely into the evening as members caught up with old friends and made new ones before setting off to enjoy the well known eateries of Wellington. Monday morning started with Professor Tara Brabazon "Learning to Leisure? Why Google is not a library and Facebook is not a classroom" enlightening delegates with her thoughts on digital medium’s place in education and the blurred line between generational understanding and use. Workshops followed each keynote throughout the conference with delegates following their own interests and passions to a variety of high quality opportunities for insight and engagement. Professor Erica McWilliams’ keynote followed lunch on Monday "Library Pedagogy in the Era of Big Data'. Although delegates had just enjoyed the high standard of fabulous food which the caterers consistently provided throughout the conference, nobody suffered from 'after lunch fade out’ due to Erica’s fascinating and engaging advice on assisting our users with information management in learning. Monday evening after cocktails and Awards (see website page for full list) many delegates chose to join flockmates of similar school types ie; boys schools, primary schools etc. This initiative was suggested on Listserv and captured the attention of many participants who enjoyed sharing with those in similar situations. Tuesday started with a keynote from Dr Cathy Wylie, a Chief Researcher at the NZ Council for Educational Research, ‘How reading matters in Children’s development’. She drew together findings from her own research and other comparative projects to give the audience a broad yet clear understanding of how literacy, home life and school experience effect children’s ability to learn and be productive. Keynote Andrew Fiu, author of Purple Heart a story of his teenage years spent in hospital, spoke of his own learning journey and how his elderly hospital mates inspired him to open his mind to education by sharing their newspapers and life experience with him. On the social side, the author breakfasts at the Iconic Backbenchers bar were well attended. Tuesday evening gave us an opportunity for a private viewing of the Andy Warhol exhibit followed by dinner and dancing in the stunning Te Marae on the top floor of Te Papa Museum. Wednesday started with Dr Susan Sandretto’s “(Re)considering information literacy through a critical literacy lens’ as the final keynote of the conference. She shared an overview of the rapidly evolving multi-literacy landscape and where information literacy practices might go next. Her practical handouts gave participants a starting point for their own info lit approach. The author panel with Kim Hill, Bernard Beckett, Glenn Colquhoun and Kate de Goldi was a highlight for many and a great way to finish the conference. Their open discussion was interesting and enlightening. Delegates were invited to join in the conversation, this lead to some humorous moments with good advice and ideas from all involved. All our thanks go to the conference committee and their dedication to providing a positive learning experience for all who took their offer to examine ‘The Winds of Change’ in our industry and our lives. Lisa Salter - SLANZA Communications Leader 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.  On Saturday 15 September the Wellington members of SLANZA attended the annual regional workshop. It was held in the lovely environment of Wellington Girls College. First up was a wonderful talk from SLANZA President Fiona Mackie entitled ‘Books or Oxygen: which would I choose?' It was great. It was a revealing and passionate conversation about books and the value of reading. It also touched on the topic of why libraries are so important. Libraries are there for their community and for all members of that community but especially the families that have the least. Thank you Fiona for revalidating why we love reading, and want others to share this passion as well. We then split into two groups. One went and polished their skills on book mending taken by Robin from Book Protection. Thank you Book Protection for sponsoring the morning and making the book mending session so interesting and enjoyable. There was plenty of laugher coming from the room. The other group listened intently to Senga White’s talk about Curation.Senga is currently the library manager at James Hargest College, a Year 7-13 school in Invercargill, New Zealand. She has also been the SLANZA President. Everyone enjoyed the talk about curation and the tools to use. Senga talked about Livebinders, Scoopit, Diigo, Pinterst, Symbaloo and Evernote. I personally use Scoopit and Evernote. After the talk it was time to play on the compuiters and put what we had learnt into practice.  You can see her slide show here at: http://www.slideshare.net/SengaW/curating-content-with-digital-tools Of course this was helped along by meeting new friends bolstered by lovely food and coffee from Caffé L’affare.   The Wellington Committee pictured above with Fiona (fourth from left) and Senga (sixth from left).
Karen Clarke On behalf of the Wellington SLANZA Committee [email protected] The Conference committee is happy to announce the pricing for the SLANZA 2013 Conference.
Please note that the correct dates are 15th to 17th July 2013 at Wellington Girls College. This is in week one of the July school holidays. SLANZA Members Rates Full registration: $425 Early Bird: $375 Conference Dinner: $80 Author Breakfast: $30 Daily Registration $160 Non-Members Rates Full registration: $475 Early Bird: $425 Conference Dinner: $80 Author Breakfast: $30 Daily Registration: $200 So now you can get planning and budgeting! Karen Clarke – Conference Committe She has me fired up now!
This is the comment of one of the participants who attended our annual Saturday morning professional development in September. The themes were “Advocating for your school library” and E-learning. Forty seven people attended the workshop and went away with many new ideas for how to promote their libraries (Donna Watt and Miriam Tuohy) as well as issues around technology enhanced learning (Paul du Temple, Jason Murphy and Tom Avery). Donna Watt as a keynote speaker was a definite drawcard. Donna is the communications person on the National Executive of SLANZA and has had many years experience in school libraries. Her message was appropriate to both primary and secondary school library staff and teachers. We recommend that she is invited to share her advocacy ideas to members around the country. Miriam Tuohy (Nat Exec member) ran a workshop after Donna’s keynote and reinforced the ideas, giving relevant and useful advice for untrained library staff who are just starting out in a primary school. Remember you are not alone in this work! Here is some more feedback on the presentations.
Michele Whiting SLANZA National Executive representative Wellington region |
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