Friday, November 11, 2011

Report to National Executive

This weekend I am off to a SLANZA National Executive Meeting.

Most concerning to our profession is the future of School Libraries and who manages them. Some around the country are under threat and the government and ministry aren't yet prepared to make a stand regarding a 'national standard' for school libraries. I emailed all members last month asking for any information regarding threats to services or hours in our area, and have had no response, therefore assuming that things are settled at the moment. It is important for the National Executive to have concrete evidence when working with such a vital issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any concerns at all lsalter@ruawaicollege.school.nz.



Below is my regional report for Te Tai Tokerau for your information. Any questions or suggestions are most welcome. Thank you to everyone who has supported SLANZA this year. I look forward to seeing many of you at our last event of the year next week with Dr Hilary Greenebaum from Softlink to giving us her presentation "Do you swim with sharks or dolphins ?!"

Te Tai Tokerau Report 2011

Professional Development

Our region was well represented at Conference this year and we are grateful to the National Executive for sponsoring two members attendance. All felt it a very worthwhile experience and commend the committee and St Cuthbert’s for the great atmosphere and smooth running of the event.


In Term 3 we invited Bob Docherty http://bobsbooksnz.wordpress.com/ to speak at two after school sessions and made him available to schools during the day to assist with costs. As it turned out, Bob’s plane was unable to land in Kerikeri or Whangarei and after some scary landing attempts, the plane went back to Auckland and he was bussed up. Because of this Bob was unable to keep his appointments in the far north. He did attend his Whangarei engagements and I was fortunate to attend a packed after school session at Whangarei Girls’ High School. Bob’s enthusiasm is contagious and his recommendations are spot on, making for much discussion and book shopping afterwards. Thank you to the National Executive for making money available for the regions to host speakers of this quality.


We have an event planned in Term 4 with Hillary Greenebaum repeating her conference workshop “Do you swim with sharks or dolphins?” in Taipa and again in Whangarei. We felt that her session was well worth sharing with those who were unable to attend in July and Hillary has been gracious in combining her visit with other work to keep costs down.


Communication

As well as emailing everything to our membership mailing list we are using the Te Tai Tokerau blog Te Tai Tokerau blog share information. The blog is growing and with encouragement has been updated by various members who have found this a useful and friendly introduction to blogging and this new ownership has impacted on their following of the blog. With Jeannie Skinner’s direction we also have four online communities at National Library Services to Schools Northland Networks, Northland PD Day, Northland registered librarians and Moving on : young fiction. Jeannie is promoting these every chance she gets throughout the region.


Advocacy

The Northland Secondary School’s PD day in August had a strong focus on Advocacy with links to documents and resources posted on our Online Community. The clear message was that we must consider the future and how we can best provide services that keep our libraries relevant in changing times.


2011 has been an active year in our region, although our numbers are small our enthusiasm to provide the best service we can to our schools is huge. I am grateful to Jeannie Skinner, secretary, the local committee and the National Executive for their support and guidance.


Lisa Salter

Te Tai Tokerau

SLANZA NE

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