Term 1 Meetings - National Library Changes

I hope by now you have had time to catch up with all the changes that National Library is implementing. I appreciate it is a crazy time of the year, but honestly, this is HUGE for us all. It will impact negatively on our school libraries, our schools and our students learning.

Please find time to read National Library's Services to Schools changes - Transformation Programme: Questions and Answers and SLANZA National Executive's response in an Open Letter to the National Library.

SLANZA President Bridget Schaumann has been writing letters to Ministers of Parliament, PPTA, NZEI, LIANZA, New Zealand Principal's Federation and half a dozen others. Feedback received has been strongly adverse to National Library's changes. ActionStation have taken up a petition supporting our cause and have just under 2,500 signatures already - please add yours. We even have Eleanor Catton, Elizabeth Knox and Lorde backing us!

Although the transformation programme has been signed off by the Minister of Education and the Department of Internal Affairs we hope, with enough of a groundswell of opposition, they may just possibly review their decision.

Next step from SLANZA is initiating regional meetings where our members can discuss their concerns and questions they would like to direct to National Library. I will collate these and take them to our next National Executive meeting in Wellington at the end of March where we will be meeting with the President and Vice-President of National Library.

I have three meetings planned:

Kaitaia Primary School Library - Monday 23 February, 3:30pm

Whangarei Boys High School Library - Wednesday 25 February, 3:30pm

Kerikeri High School Library - Thursday 26 February, 3:30pm

We need your voice. As a member of SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau our membership incorporates a diverse rural perspective with concerns and questions different to other regions. It is important to have your say, to hear others views, and we will discuss strategies to cope with the changes.

  

Please RSVP to me so I know numbers who wish to attend.

Moving on : young fiction

Just a quick post to say that if you are interested in the Young Fiction / Quick Reads area of your library which Liz and I did a session about, you can come and join the online community set up on the National Library Services to Schools site.

If you already a member (free for anyone to join) then just find the Moving On online community and join... http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/community

If you are not a member, here's how to join - it is easy to do !

1. Go to the online community page http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/community and click on Signup

2. Choose a user name (something easy to remember and recognisable is good, like your first name and initial/ surname rather than "book girl" or something), and then add your email address.

3. Now scroll down - click on Moving on (and any other groups that take your fancy but if not now you can always add more later.)

4. Tick the box to receive National Library Services to Schools newsletters if you wish.

5. Add the name of your school and your location - if you want to put more info that's fine eg photo etc, but again, that can be added later.

6. Decipher the horrible double letters and click on Create new account

Now, what happens next is that you get an email saying Welcome to the online community. It will give you a "temporary password" but you don't need to worry about that - it will also give you a direct link to the page and ask you to choose your own password. Choose something easy to remember, but if you forget it you can always ask for a reminder. If you don't receive an email welcoming you, check your spam folder as sometimes "no-reply" messages get sent there.

Now you are a member of the online community. You will receive a notification each time a post is done in any groups of which you are a member, and you are able to make comments or add posts yourself to connect with others interested in the same area.

For Northland people, there is also the Northland Networks online community, another group open to all, with posts about our school library network meetings in Northland each term.