Amazing study opportunity

New professional learning opportunity for SLANZA members

We are very excited to be able to offer our members a fantastic study opportunity with the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. As you know, SLANZA is strongly committed to raising the professional standing of School Library staff through ongoing PD and professional qualification opportunities. SLANZA and the OPNZ are very pleased to confirm that following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between our two organisations, a fee free offer has been arranged for current SLANZA members studying the Certificate in Literature and Library Services for Children and Young People.

SLANZA is very grateful to OPNZ for their willingness to make this initial opportunity possible, and their commitment to ongoing collaboration. Members looking at study or already working towards these qualifications will be aware what incredible value this offers in the study fee saving.

Who is eligible

This fee free offer is available to SLANZA members taking either of two courses in the OPNZ OP6273 Certificate in Literature and Library Services for Children and Young People (Level 6):

·  72276: Literature and Information Resources for Children and Young People

·  72277: Library Services for Children and Young People

Note that the OPNZ $60 annual administration fee cannot be waived. It is also important to note that SLANZA members who wish to take up this offer must have either completed the Diploma in Information & Library Studies (Level 5) with OPNZ already, or alternatively, have completed the four prerequisite courses that apply to this certificate. Information on these prerequisites can be found under the ‘entry requirements’ tab of the certificate on the Open Polytechnic website.

How to take up this offer

1.     Your SLANZA membership subscription must be paid in full. If you are not sure of your membership status, please contact Jacky Reid (admin@slanza.org.nz) or your regional representative on the National Executive

2.     Check that you meet the OPNZ’s prerequisite requirements for the certificate

3.     Enrol online via the OPNZ website here.

4.     At the payment section, use contract code 0663 to receive the fee-free offer. OPNZ will verify SLANZA membership before approving course entry.

In Trimester 3 this year OPNZ offers 72276: Literature and Information Resources for Children and Young People. Enrolments close for Trimester 3 on 23 October 2016. Both courses are also offered in 2017.

We strongly encourage our members to take advantage of this offer now.  

Further information

Any questions? Please contact Jan Irvine:

Email: Jan.Irvine@openpolytechnic.ac.nz

Phone: 0508 650200, extension 5594

Submissions for Collected magazine closing this Saturday

Collected Submissions will be closing soon. Our theme for the issue is “ebooks” but we also welcome articles of interest, reviews and accounts of local SLANZA or library related activities.

Guidelines for submissions can be found at slanza.org.nz under the Resources tab.

Our deadline for this issue is October 15 2016

Please feel free to contact me at the above address if you have any questions or concerns

Regards

Greig Daniels

Editor, Collected

Latest National Executive news

SLANZA National Executive met online in the evening on 14th September to analyse and discuss the AGM as well as other matters. This is a brief summary for members.

AGM

The Annual General Meeting was held online over 24 hours  from 9:00am on Wednesday 7 September. We had 130 members participate. Thank you to all those who responded, we easily met our quorum.

Minutes from the 2015 AGM - read and accepted

AGM Reports tabled - read and accepted

Proposed constitutional change for ratification - accepted, constitution update to be lodged

“If in a non-conference year there is not an event that will guarantee a quorum for the National Executive AGM then the AGM can be run via an online forum”

Appointment of auditor Chris Saxton - accepted

Matters arising from 2015 AGM minutes, reports, and general business:

·         4 members - concern over SLANZA and LIANZA conferences being held in the same year

o    Response -  SLANZA has maintained our conference every two years, for example, 2009 Christchurch, 2011 Auckland, 2013 Wellington, 2015 Christchurch. Members at the 2015 AGM voiced emphatically to continue conferences every two years and NE response was to ask Auckland if they would be prepared to run with the 2017 conference. As the change to same-year was not initiated by SLANZA, we believe concerns are misdirected.

·         1 member - saddened by declining membership across country, did membership drive two years ago make a difference, what can be done?

o    Response - the membership drives were undertaken at different times in different ways by most regions with no significant impact. Some regions have utilised their Community Post pre-paid envelopes this year to promote events and distribute the SLANZA brochure detailing the role and benefit of joining SLANZA. We do know that membership numbers fluctuate, rising a little in conference years. With NE planning to provide further benefits for our members in future we hope to see member numbers rise again.

·         1 member - are you still considering a survey of school library staff and conditions?

o    Response - a trial phone survey for non-SLANZA schools has been initiated, this will be followed with another survey which is still in development - together these surveys will help build a comprehensive picture of the situations facing school libraries around the country.

·         1 member - concern under government’s global budget proposal school libraries may become luxuries schools can’t afford, or communities of learning where ten schools share one library

o    Response - NE too, have concerns about the possible effects of changes to school budgets on provision of school libraries and adequate school library staffing. We urge all members to advocate for better funding for schools in general and school libraries in particular. Take every opportunity to promote your role and the services you provide, share evidence of your practices and how you benefit your school community - become indispensable.

·         1 member - how are funds from 2015 Christchurch conference being used?

o    Response - the bulk of the income from the previous conference, $20,000, has been redirected to the 2017 conference in Auckland as seeding money. Specific decisions about the use of any of SLANZA's income are made by NE after consideration of the best use of funds to meet SLANZA's goals and objectives, and the needs of our members.

Study Grants

SLANZA offers study grants each year, to those working in school library teams. We believe that continuing professional development is vital - it helps you increase the knowledge and skills you need to deliver a valued service to your school community, and it can open you up to new and exciting possibilities in the field of librarianship. If you are thinking about undertaking Library and Information Studies next year, you may be eligible to apply for assistance. The closing date for submitting study grant applications is this Thursday, 22 September.  

Google+ Community Professional Development

The discussion topic currently running is Transforming Your Library based on the ideas of  Rachel van Riel. Do join the conversations, the more contributions the greater we all benefit from the shared experiences and knowledge. This discussion topic started last week and will finish at the end of Week 2 of next term, however you may watch the videos and post comments anytime, including catching up over the holidays.

Conference 2017

The conference website is the place to go to keep up to date. Rachel van Riel has been confirmed as a key note speaker and the call for abstracts has gone out to all members. Consider presenting a session, 15, 30 or 60 minutes long, a great way to step up and contribute. Remember that your audience are librarians, just like you, and we admire and respect those who are willing to share their knowledge. Make sure you add this valuable professional development opportunity into your budget planning for next year.

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.

Julia Smith

Communications

Collected magazine submissions open

Once again SLANZA is calling for submissions for the latest issue of Collected.

Our theme for the issue is “ebooks” but we also welcome articles of interest, reviews and accounts of local SLANZA or library related activities.

SLANZA members, Collected is your magazine and we want to hear your voice. If you wish to submit something and have any questions,  don’t hesitate to contact me at collected@slanza.org.nz

Guidelines for submissions can be found at slanza.org.nz under the Resources tab. Our deadline for this issue is October 15 2016

Please feel free to contact me at the above address if you have any questions or concerns

Regards

Greig Daniels

Editor, Collected

Conference 2017 costs

The Auckland SLANZA 2017 costs will be (approximately)

Early bird member registration = $495.00, this includes the conference dinner on Tuesday night.

Accommodation: we will have enough room for at least 100 people to stay on site.  The rooms will be private, with shared bathroom facilities and all meals included (breakfast, lunch and dinner on site) = from $340.00 for 3 nights.

More information will be added to the website shortly, including other registration options (single days, non-member registrations, etc).

Trish Webster
Library Manager
Ph +64 (9) 477 0150 Ext 671

Rangitoto College | 564 East Coast Road, Mairangi Bay | Private Bag 93-601, Browns Bay, Auckland 0753 | New Zealand
Ph +64 (9) 477 0150 | Fax +64 (9) 477 0077 | trish.webster@rangitoto.school.nz | www.rangitoto.school.nz

Online AGM on TODAY

I warmly welcome you to our first SLANZA Online AGM.  I thank you all for your patience while we have trailed these new processes.  Here is the link to the Google Form for your responses to the AGM motions: https://goo.gl/forms/qeMLSjRiiNcTMqgH2

The Google Form will be open for 24 hours from 9am this morning. The responses will be collated and we will let you know the results in due course.  Any further questions that you have to matters arising will be discussed at the next National Executive online meeting on the 14th of September.

Kind regards

Karen Clarke

SLANZA President.

Professional Development Opportunity in Whangarei

I’m excited to announce the professional development session Building a Quality Collection will be offered in Whangarei Week 8 this term, Wednesday 14 September.

We held this earlier in the term in Kaitaia and it was very successful, in fact the discussion went on well over time. And this is a discussion, the more people who come and contribute, the more ideas and options are presented that we can take away to use in our own libraries.

RSVP to me please

Transforming Your Library - Professional Development opportunity

Are you interested in a discussion about Transforming your Library?  Or maybe finding out more about how you can incorporate a Reader-Centered approach to the services you provide in your library?  SLANZA Central’s Term 2 AGM & PD day just touched on these ideas with a fantastic presentation from Steph Ellis.

If you are a SLANZA member then join us for our next Discussion Topic over on our Google+ Community.  We will be kicking off on Sunday 11th September and running the discussion for the last two weeks of Term 3, having a break over the holidays, and then finishing off in the first two weeks of Term 4.

Not on our G+ Community yet?  Jump onto our SLANZA Community Online page for more information.

Not a SLANZA member?  Interested in C&YA Services & Librarianship?  Information on how you can join and take part in the fantastic Professional Development we offer is available on our Membership page.

We look forward to seeing you online

Sandi Faulconbridge

SLANZA PD Team Leader

Communique

SLANZA National Executive met online in the evening on 10th August. Matters of particular importance to members are shared here:

AGM

The Annual General Meeting was postponed in July due to insufficient numbers of members to meet the quorum. However an AGM is vital for the following reasons:

·         the president shares SLANZA’s strategies and vision with members

·         members have the opportunity to discuss issues with the National Executive

·         members view the financial statements of the organisation

·         members have the opportunity to respond to the AGM reports

·         it is a requirement under our constitution

NE are looking at holding an online AGM this year. We are trialling a digital meeting tool this coming week and will keep you informed as to how you can participate in our AGM.

School Library Survey

A phone survey of non-SLANZA schools is currently underway to establish information on the New Zealand school library landscape. NE would like to build a comprehensive picture of the situations facing school libraries around the country.  This data will be useful when promoting and advocating for the importance of school libraries.

Bicultural Toolkit

National Executive has had very little response to the request asking for members who would like to help shape the toolkit, particularly those members whose libraries already reflect our bicultural communities. The toolkit being developed is to help school libraries operate biculturally. If you would like to add or share input to the bicultural toolkit, please get in touch with your regional representative - it would be wonderful to have one person from each region supporting us in this endeavour.

2017 Study Grant applications are now open

We are please to announce that applications for 2017 SLANZA Study Grants are now open.  Closing date is Thursday 22nd September 2016.  

If you haven't thought about applying for one before, a study grant is a great way of providing support during your journey of ILS learning.

For more information, and to download the application form please visit the blog on our website.

http://www.slanza.org.nz/news/study-grant-applications-for-2017-now-open

Building a Quality Collection - PD this Wednesday in Kaitaia

Just a reminder that the SLANZA event, Building a Quality Collection is on this Wednesday after school at Kaitaia Intermediate School. We have 13 people registered but there is plenty of room and you are still welcome to join us in this discussion – we all run our libraries differently so we can all learn off each other.  There is a lot to cover in the session so we will be starting at 3:30pm.

Please forward to anyone you think may be interested in joining us – the cost for non-SLANZA members is only $10, (which they will need to bring on the day) so they are getting a bargain!

National Executive Communique

SLANZA National Executive met on 9th-10th July 2016 at St Patrick’s College in Wellington. 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.

Handover to new President

National Executive is proud to announce Karen Clarke (BA ILS., RLIANZA) as the new President of SLANZA. Karen is library manager at St Patrick’s College in Wellington, was the SLANZA Wellington Chairperson, NE President Elect and Treasurer, and has had five years as a NE representative. She brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to this position with a positive, practical approach - here is an introductory video of Karen.

On that note, we sincerely appreciate the work Miriam Tuohy undertook in her time as President. We all greatly applaud Miriam’s technology skills but as a leader her soft-spoken, calm, considered views were highly regarded. Miriam now moves into her role as Immediate Past President to support Karen and maintain continuance through the National Executive.

Bridget Schaumann, as the outgoing Immediate Past President, came to the end of another long innings with the NE - we thank Bridget for her integrity, her passionate advocacy of school libraries and, of course, her humour.

There are four other changes to the National Executive: we welcome Clare Forrest who joins us as the new NE representative for Wellington; Nick Vincent stepped down as the NE rep for Waikato/Bay of Plenty region; Sally Stanley-Boden, Aoraki representative, will take on the role of Treasurer; and Greig Daniels, who has been with us for six years, has stepped down from the position of Otago rep but will retain the editorship of Collected magazine into 2017, we gratefully acknowledge his workload and sage advice.

The AGM was postponed due to insufficient numbers of members to meet the quorum and this will be held later in the year.

Membership

Membership presently sits at 587 members, slightly down from this time last year as expected in a non-conference year. SLANZA membership entitles members to a variety of professional development opportunities including conferences, online courses, Google+ community discussions, network meetings and events, the eBook library, and Collected magazine. In addition, membership is an acknowledgement of the critical role of SLANZA as New Zealand’s organisation for support and advocacy of school libraries and library staff.

Pinterest and the Reading Website

National Executive are pleased to announce we are currently creating SLANZA Pinterest boards, organised in the same topics as on the Reading Website. Migrating our content to Pinterest gives members another platform to use when accessing the reading lists - we hope you enjoy the visual representation as much as we do. Fifty-three boards have been created to date, do  have a look and follow us, remember this is a work in progress. At the same time, updating and beautifying the Reading Website is underway. Roughly half the Year 9-13 reading lists have been updated to include cover images.

Professional Development

Our new eBook library was launched last month with a tremendous response and uptake by members - all the professional development books were borrowed within hours! NE will continue to buy more eBooks to populate the library. We wish to thank Wheelers for their support in providing our ePlatform for free, as well as giving us some additional titles. You may register here anytime - this opportunity is only available for members of our organisation.

The Term 2 Connected Librarians online learning module was on Digital Citizenship with an emphasis on the ethical use of information, and attributions. Congratulations to all those who participated and completed the course. These online courses are free for SLANZA members and are an opportunity to extend learning for school library staff. The next module being offered to members is  Content Curation, find out how you can best support your students and staff by providing great digital resources. Course registrations are open until the end of July, with the course running for two weeks from Monday 15th August, Week 4 and 5 of Term 3.

Last term saw the publication of the eighteenth issue of SLANZA’s online magazine Collected. With a theme of What SLANZA Means To Me it is chock full of affirmations of how SLANZA membership can have a positive effect both personally and professionally on it’s members, as well as the usual selection of thought provoking articles, book reviews and business member submissions.

The next issue of Collected will focus on eBooks and ePlatforms, as well as a selection of interesting articles and reviews of books recently published. The call for submissions will open September 15th and close on October 15th. Please consider submitting articles or reviews, we all gain so much from reading Collected and that can only happen from other librarian’s contributions. In addition, we have space available for advertising and are happy to accept business members, please contact Greig Daniels at collected@slanza.org.nz

The Google+ Community has grown to 116 members. Community members are welcome to share resources and join in discussions.

Study grant applications will be opening again in early August, with a closing date of Thursday 22nd September.

Professional Development Survey

Thank you to all those who responded to our recent PD survey. The information you’ve given us is important in guiding NE’s efforts to make continuing professional development accessible and affordable for all our members.

Bicultural Toolkit

National Executive is developing a toolkit of resources aimed at helping libraries operate biculturally. We are looking for members from throughout New Zealand who would like to help shape the toolkit, particularly those members whose libraries already reflect our bicultural communities. If you would like to add or share input to the bicultural toolkit, please get in touch with your regional representative - it would be wonderful to have one person from each region supporting us in this endeavour.

Conference 2017 - Fiery Futures

The Auckland Conference committee, led by Elizabeth Atkinson as convenor, is on track with organising the 2017 conference. This will be held in the second week of the July school holidays, Sunday 16th July to Wednesday 19th July 2017. The venue of King’s College, Otahuhu, has been finalised which provides excellent on site accommodation options and all meals. At this stage negotiations to secure two outstanding, international, library key-note speakers is well underway. The conference committee hope to have their website live by the end of the month, we’ll let you know when that happens. Make sure you save the date for an excellent professional development opportunity.

National Library Services to Schools

Some discontent is being voiced by members over the present service. The 0800 LIB LINE (0800 542 5463) is still proving to be the preferred channel of communication for school librarians - please utilise this service for any National Library issues and services. Likewise, email schoollibraryadvice@dia.govt.nz for help.

The ongoing effects of the transformation and the impact of this on our members is of concern for SLANZA. We are looking at ways we can support and advise our members around developing collections - both print and digital - that will best meet the needs of their school communities.

Our suggestion to members is to try the service, if it doesn’t work for you then gather data to present to the Principal and Board of Trustees to ensure adequate funding in your library budget to purchase new resources that are no longer being supplied by National Library. If you are not sure how to go about this, or where to source quality resources, please contact your local National Executive Representative. SLANZA is here to support school libraries and library staff - the network meetings, events and other professional development opportunities will help with your collection management.

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.

Julia Smith

Communications

Google+ Virtual Library Tours

SLANZA Virtual Library Tours - Show us yer bits!!!

Many of us are thinking of making changes in small ways to our libraries.

Many of us are looking for ideas for re-builds or renovations.

Our biggest problem with this is being able to visit all those amazing, fantastic, spectacular libraries that you all maintain.  This may be because we are in other towns or regions around the country, or it could be a case of not being able to get time off work to visit our local school and public libraries.

Surfing the internet for ideas is all well and fine ... but it’s not the same as a tour of our colleagues’ libraries.

If you are a SLANZA member then join us over on our Google+ Community to find out more information and for an opportunity to share your own amazing space and virtually tour the libraries of your colleagues as part of our next Discussion Topic.

Not on our G+ Community yet?  Jump onto our SLANZA Community Online page for more information.

Not a SLANZA member?  Interested in C&YA Services & Librarianship?  Information on how you can join and take part in the fantastic Professional Development we offer is available on our Membership page.

We look forward to seeing you online

Sandi Faulconbridge

SLANZA PD Team Leader

Online PD Term 3 Course Reminder

Hello everyone.  Welcome back to another term.  I hope everyone that had a break got lots of lovely R&R time in, and that those of you who work through the school holiday period got time to enjoy the piece and quiet :-)

This is a reminder that Registrations for the Content Curation module of the Connected Librarians course are currently open.  

We are all pretty good at developing our print collection and compiling a pile of books appropriate for our students and teachers to use when they have a particular research topic.  After all that is what we do best ... match people and resources together.  But when it comes to online resources, just how do we make the equivalent of a stack of books?  Find out how you can best support your staff & students by providing great digital resources.

Applications close on Friday 29th July, and the course will be starting on Monday 15th August. 

This course is designed by New Zealand school librarians, for school librarians - those just starting out with online tools, who are ready and willing to try new things. 

The course is free for SLANZA members. 

Please visit the Online PD page on our SLANZA website for further information and to register.

Sandi Faulconbridge
Professional Development team leader

Professional Learning Through SLANZA's New eBook Platform

We are very pleased to announce that SLANZA members can now access a selection of eBooks to support their continuing professional development. ​

These resources will be available to members only, through SLANZA’s new eBook platform. 

Wheelers have made this possible by generously providing our ePlatform at no cost. We are very grateful for their support of our organisation, and our members’ ongoing professional growth.

We invite all current SLANZA members to register for the SLANZA ePlatform now.

When you register, please use your preferred email address (not a shared library email) and your personal membership number if known. ​We aim to process new registrations within 24 hours.

AGM Announcement

Apologies for the late notice but we need to hold our regional AGM this term! Therefore it will be added to next Saturday’s PD event, Building a Quality Collection which covers all aspects of developing a great collection for your school library, everything from selecting books to promoting them.

Providing local Professional Development for school library staff, the SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau committee meets four or five times a year to plan, implement and action these events. Committee members are expected to attend and contribute at meetings which are usually scheduled to follow on after a PD session. Petrol money to attend committee meetings is available, as is the ability to connect by Google Hangouts or Skype. As a team, there is not a lot of work.

We really need new people to get involved and share their ideas. We need people with enthusiasm for school libraries, who are prepared to help out. We also need a succession plan of people moving through the committee and gaining an understanding of their region and members’ needs, and that may include progression to representing their region on the National Executive.

Please consider joining our committee. Currently only three or four of us meet to plan and organise events for the whole region and that is not ideal. It would be wonderful to welcome some more people on board.

Liz Christiansen has kindly agreed to continue in her role as Treasurer which she took on last year. Thank you so much Liz. I am happy to remain as the Chairperson but I encourage someone to be involved in the committee who would consider this position in a shared role or to take over next year. We also have the following positions available:

Secretary - take notes at meetings and write up, share with committee and save on SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau Google Drive account

Communications - receive communications from Chairperson and/or Secretary, and repost (no editing involved) out to Te Tai Tokerau members and onto blog. The job is to keep the members informed of meetings and events at a regional level

These two positions could well be amalgamated although it is helpful to share tasks around. Our AGM itself will only take 15-20 minutes on the Saturday 25, and if all willing, we will continue after the PD session Building a Quality Collection with a committee meeting to brainstorm and plan the Term 3 and 4 events either at school or in a café in town.

Please support local SLANZA to help bring useful Professional Development opportunities to our members.

Any questions, or to register for the Building a Quality Collection session, please email me

Term 2 event - Building a Quality Collection

This term’s event will be a friendly and useful discussion around all aspects of developing a great collection for your school library, everything from selecting books to promoting them. The more people who come and contribute to the discussion, the healthier that will be and the more we will all learn.

Please RSVP to me by Friday 17 June.

Building a quality collection - from selection to promotion and everything in-between

SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau Term 2 event

Saturday 25th June, 10:00am-12:00pm

Kerikeri High School Library,

Building a quality collection, from selection to promotion and everything in-between

Cost: Free to SLANZA members, $10 for non-members

To register, please contact Julia Smith at Kerikeri High School Library

Professional Development Survey

I am writing on behalf of the SLANZA National Executive to ask for your help.

As you know, helping to build a confident and knowledgeable school library profession is incredibly important to us. We believe that our communities deserve the very best school libraries possible, and it is one of our strategic goals to improve the professional standing, working conditions, and qualification levels of the staff who work in those libraries. Enabling access to a range of professional development opportunities is a vital part of achieving this goal.

In 2012, SLANZA surveyed school library staff about their Professional Development needs. Around 200 people responded to that survey, and as a result of what we learned, our Connected Librarians online PD modules were developed and introduced the following year.

Fast forward four years, and as part of our ongoing work in the area of Professional Development for school library staff, we are asking for your input again.

This time our survey is focused on work and qualification profiles - your library situation, employment, and continuing professional development including library & information studies qualifications.

The survey is open to SLANZA members and non-members alike, so please forward the survey link (below) to any library colleagues - SLANZA members or not, school library staff or not - who would like to participate. All the responses we receive will provide crucial information to guide our professional development strategy and our relationships with other professional development providers.

Please follow this link to access the survey:

http://goo.gl/forms/yMuvyJTLa6wh7e1i2

The survey will remain open until the 31st of May.

We really appreciate you taking a few minutes to have your say.

Thank you,

Miriam Tuohy

President

School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa

LIANZA Hikuwai Weekend School - professional development opportunity in Whangarei

I wanted to promote the LIANZA Hikuwai Weekend School, 28-29 May in Whangarei. 

Lisa Salter has been heavily involved in planning and assured me they have worked hard to keep the price affordable. If you check the programme you will see a children’s and young people strand – perfect for us.

This will be a great professional development opportunity right in our back-yard. Earlybird registrations close end of April!