Online PD Term 4 - Inaugural Discussion Topic

One of SLANZA's goals is to provide a variety of Professional Development options for our members.

Our Online Connected Librarians courses have been fantastically successful with a large number of our members participating over the last two years. However, we are only able to work with a small group at a time, and they require a lot of time commitment from all parties.

Over the past year we have been looking at running a discussion group that any of our members can participate in. We feel that Term 4 is the perfect time to kick this off as an alternative to holding another Connected Librarians Online course, and it will be an opportunity for you continue your PD in a more relaxed way. We know that secondary schools are currently in a crazy busy time of year, at least until seniors leave, and that all schools are still working right up to the very end.

We hope that holding this discussion group over the final five-week period of term (starting in week 5) will be a fun way of rounding your PD out for the year.

To find out more information, and to take part in our inaugural discussion topic - Expect More: Demanding better libraries for today’s complex world (R. David Lankes), please join our SLANZA community on Google+  https://plus.google.com/communities/117910246097309761328 where the discussion details will be listed under the ‘PD Monthly Discussion’ tab.

We look forward to seeing you online and sharing our own thoughts and ideas with you.

Sandi Faulconbridge

Professional Development Team Leader

School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa

Conference presentations available

Our Conference proceedings web page now has a number of presentations and other information available to view or download. More will be added to the page as we receive presentations and other resources from our presenters. 

We are very grateful to those who shared their conference experience through Twitter, it adds value for those who were there and (like me!) weren't taking notes in all the sessions. And for those who couldn't attend conference it will give you much to read and follow up on - almost as good as being there! I would particularly like to acknowledge and thank Steph Ellis who tweeted prolifically during conference, and has now created Storify collections of the Twitter stream relating to all our keynote speakers. 

Miriam Tuohy
President

Life Memberships 2015

The SLANZA National Executive is delighted to announce the Life Membership awardees for 2015.  These were first announced at the SLANZA conference in Christchurch.  This year's recipients are:

Kaaren Hirst (Auckland) and Barbara Murison (Wellington)

You can read about their ongoing work on the SLANZA blog.  The National Executive congratulates Kaaren and Barbara for their achievements over many years.

Bridget Schaumann

Immediate Past President

SLANZA

2016 SLANZA study grant recipients

I am absolutely delighted to announce the recipients of SLANZA’s Study Grants for 2016.
Our warmest congratulations go out to these successful applicants:

• Brett Moodie (Wellington College)
• Debbie Airey (Hebron Christian College)
• Janine Holcroft (Trentham School)
• Kristal Montrose-Arnold (James Cook High School)

We all understand that working and studying takes quite some commitment. So it is especially gratifying to know that many SLANZA members are continuing their learning in the field of Information and Library Studies. SLANZA is committed to helping make this undertaking easier where we can, as we believe that it will benefit not just our members as their library careers unfold, but that the students and staff in their schools will benefit too, from working alongside a librarian with a deep understanding of their field, and a personal commitment to life-long learning, continual improvement and innovation.

Best wishes once again to all our grant recipients!

Sandi Faulconbridge
Professional Development Team Leader

National Library Services to Schools update

Yesterday the National Library have updated their website with some new information about their services. You can find new information about the lending service model here: 

http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/about/service-changes-2016

We are pleased to see some adjustments to the lending service, including a greater number of books available to larger schools, and loans in Terms 1, 2 and 3 rather than only Terms 1 & 3.

Please note that this is an interim update - more info will be going out to schools via National Library's usual communication channels (including Gazette ads/articles, MOE bulletin message, direct mail to principals etc.) in mid November.

If you have comments or questions about the update, remember that you can contact National Library directly using their email address s2stransformation@dia.govt.nz

Thanks,

Miriam

 Miriam Tuohy

President

School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa

SLANZA Collected - submissions open

Conference is  over and  Term 4 has begun and the new issue of Collected is being prepared.

Our theme is  “From the Ground  Up Conference 2015”  We want reports and photos of events and gatherings. We would also welcome articles on, and responses to workshops and key notes that inspired you.  You might also share your impressions of conference, and the importance of networking. There was so much to inspire us and I know our readers will have taken this inspiration and planned to put it into action. Let us know what you took away from this inspiring event.

We will also accept other articles of interest and book reviews. Our deadline for this issue is November the 19^th. Submissions and questions can be directed to me at collected@slanza.org.

Submission Guidelines can be found on the Collected Page at slanza.org.nz.

Looking forward to hearing from all of you.

Greig Daniels

SLANZA Collected Magazine

Conference Evaluations

Conference is all done but the sharing continues!

What a great 2.5 days of networking and learning and it’s not too late to catch some of the great professional learning that took place.

Hello everyone,

I hope you have all had safe holidays and journeys home from conference and are now ready to jump into the last term of the year with renewed energy.  Thank you to those who made it to conference and contributed to an amazing time of networking and learning.  If you were unable to make it to conference, there are still lots of opportunities to catch up with professional learning over the next few months.

Workshop Presentations

The presentations that are available to us will be added to the SLANZA website just as soon as we can, so you can catch up with any you missed or get the notes and links from those you attended.

If you presented at conference and are happy to make your presentation available, please send it to Mandy (mandy@conference.co.nz), preferably as a pdf or a web link.

A very big “thank you” to those who presented workshops and giving your time and knowledge so generously – this willingness to share our professional knowledge is the most valuable asset we have!

Conference Evaluations

If you didn’t get a chance to complete your evaluation form at conference we will send this to you electronically so we can gather your feedback.  This is an important part of conference for us so we can ensure that future professional development meets your needs.

Thank You from the Conference Committee

A special thank you to all for supporting our conference in Christchurch this year.  It was great to see everyone networking, sharing, learning, and just the general buzz as you caught up with colleagues made it a successful event!

Thank you to our sponsors who made conference possible and I encourage you to continue to support these businesses who were willing to give their time and a financial commitment to be there.

‘Till we meet again!

Cathy Kennedy

Conference Committee Convenor and your Aoraki Conference Committee

Ban lifted on Into the River

The Film and Literature Review Board have announced their decision yesterday, regarding Ted Dawe's book Into the River.

The book has had all restrictions removed, and can be placed back on library shelves today. There are no age restrictions in place.

Full details of the decision - and the dissenting opinion of FLRB President Dr Don Mathieson - can be found here:

http://www.dia.govt.nz/Into-The-River-decision

Quick interview on Morning Report this morning:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201774690/banned-book-back-on-shelves

 Miriam Tuohy

President

School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa

SLANZA Awards 2015

One of the nicest parts of being on National Executive is the presentation of the SLANZA annual awards. It is a chance to recognise the great work that is being done in school libraries all over New Zealand.

I would like to thanks all of those who took the time to nominate their peers for awards and  in this way ensuring these SLANZA members get the recognition they deserve.

Some awards were presented to those in attendance at the SLANZA Meet and Greet prior to the SLANZA Conference. I’d like to extend a big thank you to the Christchurch Conference Committee for helping us to organise that opportunity.

Regional NE representatives will arrange for those who did not attend the Conference, to have their awards presented at a local Function

The current list of award winners and their award citations can be found on the SLANZA website. Slanza.org.nz

Congratulations to all the Award winners.

Greig Daniels

Awards Committee

Conference Attendance Survey

SLANZA 2015 Conference in Christchurch was a fantastic and successful event, well attended by members with a general feeling that a conference provides very valuable professional development and a great opportunity for connecting face to face. Approximately a third of our members attended and although this is a healthy number for our small organisation, there was a large disparity between the number of secondary school attendees to primary school. We need to ascertain the reasons members did not attend the conference, and would greatly appreciate those members who did not attend filling out this quick online survey Conference Attendance.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey, your input will provide valuable feedback for planning future conferences

National Executive Meeting Summary

Following on from the Conference, SLANZA National Executive met Wednesday 30th September and Thursday 1st October at Burnside High School in Christchurch. 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.  

Financial and Treasurer's Report

Spending has been within budget this year due to the cost-effectiveness of holding the July NE meeting online through Google hangouts.

Membership

Membership is now at 621 paid members, with several new members signing up as a result of registering for conference.

Admin Officer

We welcome Jacky Reid (based in Wellington) as our new Admin Officer. Jacky will start at the beginning of Term 4. At the same time we wish to sincerely thank Carole Gardiner for so ably and effectively holding this position for the last two years.

Conference

SLANZA Conference in Christchurch was a fantastic and successful event, well attended by members with a general feeling that a conference provides very valuable professional development and a great opportunity for connecting face to face. Approximately a third of our members attended and although this is a healthy number for our small organisation, there was a large disparity between the number of secondary school attendees to primary school. We need to ascertain the reasons members did not attend the conference, and would greatly appreciate those members who did not attend filling out this quick online survey Conference Attendance.

After much discussion NE is keen to retain the existing time frame of a SLANZA conference once every two years, preferably in July. The Auckland committee will meet to discuss whether they are happy to take on this event in 2017 and we will inform you of the outcome.

If you have not filled in and returned the Conference Evaluation form please use this link to do so - feedback is vitally important in planning and organising future conferences.

Online Professional Development

To date, we have had 161 members participate in Connected Librarians, the online learning modules on digital tools that Miriam Tuohy created. This is a wonderful reflection on the quality and relevance of these modules in extending learning for school library staff. The new platform, Haiku Learning, is working very well and has helped streamline the service offered to members. Module #4 on Content Curation will be available towards the end of Term 1, 2016. See the SLANZA website for more details on this professional development.

The Google+ community currently has 88 members. Community members are welcome to share resources and join in discussions. This term we will be launching another PD option on this platform: in-depth monthly discussions. Our first discussion will be based on R David Lankes’ book Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries For Today's Complex World - issues important to our role in schools and how our library serves our school community. We’ll let you know more details soon.  

Collected Magazine

The next issue of SLANZA’s online magazine Collected will focus on the conference. Members are encouraged to write reviews, summaries and share tidbits of their conference experience and please include photos, with captions, for a visual treat. If you were one of the lucky recipients of a Book Protection Products Conference Grant then you will recall the expectation to contribute to Collected as part of the feedback process. As usual, we like to have a selection of book reviews on recently published books. All submissions to collected@slanza.org.nz thanks.

 

Study Grants

Applications have closed for SLANZA Study Grants for 2016 and the successful recipients will be notified shortly.

Sponsorship opportunities

To generate more income SLANZA needs to make the most of contacts and think more widely about companies and individuals who could be approached to fund specific projects and activities. Bridget Schaumann spoke about this at the AGM at conference. If you know of any company or individual that may be willing to sponsor a SLANZA project that benefits students or school libraries please contact your local NE representative.

On this note, National Executive wishes to acknowledge the ongoing sponsorship of Book Protection Products who donate $5,000 yearly to SLANZA Professional Development.

National Library Services to Schools Transformation

There is still some uncertainty about the implementation details of  National Library’s transformed services to be offered next year. However our president, Miriam Tuohy, is in regular contact with National Library management and will ensure you are kept informed as those details  are  finalised. Until clarification, members are encouraged to prioritise your topics for 2016 and consider what you may order in December for the 2016 Inquiry Learning Loan. Likewise, order your Reading Engagement Loans for 2016, this year.

National Library asks that members continue to direct any questions to: s2stransformation@dia.govt.nz

SLANZA Awards

A list of the recipients of the SLANZA Awards will be posted on the SLANZA website soon and will be in the next issue of Collected.

SLANZA National Executive will continue to work on your behalf and ensure that the voice of school libraries from all over the country are heard.