Takaka Library – What is happening in our world Friday, Jul 10 2009

School Holidays – our Tuesday Storytime with Ronnie was very popular & the children made an amazing array of hacky sacs which were decorated as birds. So far we have not been as busy as usual in the holidays. I’m not sure why. Borrower habits are always abit of a mystery to me.

Coming Up

Tuesday 21st, 7.30pm – we are hosting Tui De Roy & Mark Jones – the authors of “Albatross: Their world, their ways” which is a Montana NZ Book Award finalist this year. They will present in words, pictures, sound & film clips the story behind the book. We are looking forward to a great evening. Friends of the Library will do the supper.

Friday 24th, 12 noon – Poetry & Lunch.  To celebrate Montana Poetry Day we are inviting poets & lovers of poetry to share their work & favourite poems at an informal get-together over lunchtime.

U-Read Party – Friday 31st after school. We will celebrate the programme & draw the big winner & spot prizes.

Library Week

We have Melanie Drewery coming for a morning session though unfortunately not for the Big Read .

Gillian Jackson a delightful 80 year old is going to tell us about her adventures climbing in the Mt Cook area 70 years ago – this will be a slide show.

Golden Bay Cement Company 1940s to 1950s – we will play this DVD at lunchtimes & on demand.

That is all that is planned so far & it might just about be enough given we have 2 events in the second to last week of July.

Tish

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LIANZA Conference 12-14 Oct 2009 Friday, Jul 10 2009

Remember: let me know if you’re interested in attending conference this year in Christchurch.  Looking for a short email from you to tell me when the last time you attended was, why you want to go and which workshops interest you, and how you will share your new info across the District when you come back.

Thanks.

Catherine

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Beautiful Libraries Wednesday, Jul 8 2009

Take a look at these amazing photos of beautiful libraries from around the world.
http://curiousexpeditions.org/?p=78

Enjoy!
Cathy

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Richmond Building Project Monday, Jun 22 2009

Looks like we finally have a completed furniture and fittings schedule and a bit of mathematical magic brought us in on budget – less the video conferencing equipment.  We also have an initial building schedule, though prone to much change once an actual builder is awarded the tender.  Now that we have a tentative schedule we can share it with all of you. 

Registrations of Interest Closed 12 June 7 received

Library assess, weed, pack or discard: June – August 17

Stackroom/Stationery room/Staffroom/Technical Library/Waimea Collection/Children’s collections

Storage areas – Fiction, Meeting room, Cleaners 

Children’s office     

Tender documents issued 1 July 2009

JUNK & FOOD DAY Library has a pack down, throw out day Saturday 18th July

Tender closes 28 July 2009

Assessed and awarded by 14 August 2009

Library relocate children’s collections to YA area

Relocate staff to Customer Services area

Site establishment 17-28 August 2009

Wall off Children’s Area/Meeting room/Stackroom 24-28 August 2009

Phase 1 Building in Wrightson’s area/Upper floor/ External stairs 31 August-14 December 2009

Library pack down 35% nonfiction, 10% fiction, most of the Reference 31 August-14 December 2009

Store excess shelving upstairs 7-14 December 2009

Relocate remaining stock to finished section of library 8-14 December 2009

Relocate customer service area to temporary quarters in finished section 8-14 December 2009

Relocate Bibliographic Services upstairs in final positions 8-14 December 2009

Phase 2 Building in centre of library and Queen street end 15 December 2009-26 April 2010

Library shift into bottom floor and unpack collections 13-26 April 2010

Relocate Customer Services to final position 13-26 April 2010

Furnish library 13-26 April 2010

GRAND OPENING

 

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Library Thing comes to NPL Sunday, Jun 21 2009

I recently noted a “Nelson Mail” article about the addition of Library Thing to the Nelson Public Library catalogue The  article is here on the NCC website. Is this option something we might consider? The recent bookmark campaign is a good idea, but this would enable library users to get their opinions to a larger audience. Perhaps adding user reviews to our Staff Picks section on the TasLib website might be an alternative option?

Anne M

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U-Read Challenge in Takaka about to start Friday, Jun 19 2009

After 4 weeks of busy preparing and advertising the U- Read challenge is ready to take off next week. To our surprise we filled the 42 spaces quickly and like Mary wrote in her latest blog, the teenagers are keen to read and participate.  What also surprised me: there are more boys than girls enrolled- 24 boys and 18 girls. If anybody would like any material: posters / boards etc. for running a similar challenge in their branch just get in touch.

Doris

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Motueka Teens and UiaNgaPatai Friday, Jun 12 2009

At Motueka on Friday 29th May we hosted a group of students from Motueka High School.  These students are the recently formed school book group that meet fortnightly with the Hish School librarian Anne Scaife.  The purpose of the meeting was to get some feedback from the students as to how they felt the YA area could be improved and to ascertain what they would like us to offer in the way of reading programmes, and hands on sessions, etc.

 The students came over in their lunch break. We were expecting perhaps 8 to 10 and were blown away when 16 arrived. (The food managed to hold out, just!) They were very enthusiastic and had a range of suggestions, including a whiteboard or teen notice board and teen reading programmes in winter around the school holidays. They were very keen for art/craft activities, such as designing posters, having best book blurb competitions and even cooking (might be a challenge). We were quite surprised by how keen they were to do book reviews. At the end of session, reading copies of Random House books were distributed and the students were able to keep the books in return for a review. If this is successful it would be great to put reviews on our website as well as being passed on to Random House for their website. Also, they liked the idea of being able to suggest books for purchase and having first pick of new YA books. Feedback forms were given to the students for them to discuss at their next school book group meeting. So we are hoping to receive more great ideas and also gauge whether the students would like to form a Motueka Library YA Committee in the future.

Yesterday, I had students from the senior Whanau class at Parklands School come and have a UiaNgaPatai demo on the APNs. UiaNgaPatai is the Te Reo version of AnyQuestions. A link to AnyQuestions can be found on the homework page of Kidspace on our website. AnyQuestions directs students to useful, accurate, online information for their homework. It is not a ‘quick answers service’, and is available to all New Zealand school students. Online librarians help the student to work out the sort of information they need and begin searching for them. The transcript and links from the session can be emailed to the student. The student ask a question, in this case the students were doing a project on their whakapapa. The online librarian ‘chats’, finds out more about the question and then guides the students to useful sites. I was really impressed with the students, one conversed all in Maori, with some help from his teacher. The operators easily engaged the students to chat, it was awesome. The questions were quite tricky as there was not a lot available online and we did run out of time. However, it was a very useful exercise and students and teacher seemed to enjoy themselves. One of the teacher’s comments was that it was excellent inquiry-based learning and he would be keen for the students to use it again. I really wasn’t sure how it would go, but the session exceeded my expectations and I can recommend the AnyQuestions/UiaNgaPatai as a useful research tool for school students. ManyAnswers is a database of previously asked questions and the answers and websites that were found.

 

Justice chatting online 

Matua Dean helping students use UiaNgaPatai 

 

Mary

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Nelson Tasman Library Group Meeting Tuesday, Jun 9 2009

Hi everyone, due to the renovation of the Library building we are no longer able to host the Top of the South Nelson-Tasman Library Group meeting in September as planned. We have arranged to swap with NMIT so we will now be hosting the meeting on the 20th of July instead.

Nelson-Tasman

Librarians Group Meeting

 Monday 20^th July 2009

(The first day of the new school term)

 6.00pm dinner at Mango, 244 Queen Street Richmond

7.00pm meeting at Tasman District Library,Richmond

An informal discussion on roles undertaken by library staff in the region and what specific skills we might need to take advantage of developing opportunities in libraries in the future. Come along to share & find out about the wide variety of roles, talent and expertise in our local library community.

Library studies students and those new to working in libraries are very welcome to attend. If you know any please pass this inviation on to them.

If you would like to attend the dinner and/or the meeting please RSVP by Thursday the 15th of July to Louise (I will be away on leave from the 10th of July so please RSVP to Cathy after that date)

 Those wanting to attend the dinner will need to order their meals in advance (to ensure prompt service) so please visit the mango website http://www.mangoonline.co.nz and send your selection through with your RSVP. Please indicate if you would like rice & breads and how spicy you want it as well! You need to order rice separately as it doesn’t come with the main meal.

thanks,

 Louise

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Brain Overload? Tuesday, Jun 9 2009

Today I’m having a philosophical moment and playing devil’s advocate Thoughts and comments welcome.

While we rush to embrace the wonders of the internet, it may be time to consider where we’re going with it. Do we control it, or does it control us? I would feel quite lost without access to the worldwide web now, but I’m concerned about the amount of cyber-babble and electronic white noise to which we are all increasingly subjected. The brain needs periods of quiet to rejuvenate and for creative thought to percolate. Are we reaching the point where virtual life is overtaking real life, to the detriment of our ability to relate to actual people? Are we in fact, to quote Pink Floyd, becomingly comfortably numb? These concerns are more and more becoming a subject for debate as scientific research appears to validate them. Here’s a thought-provoking article on the subject of brain overload by “Times” journalist John Naish, called  ‘Warning: Brain Overload“

And on a lighter note, Bill Ralston shares his concerns in the latest issue of the “NZ Listener” (June 13-19, 2009). Those of the baby-boomer generation will relate to this article; for once I’m actually in sympathy with Bill Ralston – chalk it up! Please note that the full article will not be made available online until 4 July. 

Cheers,   Anne McFadgen

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Community Services 3rd tier meeting 4 June 2009 Thursday, Jun 4 2009

Lloyd went over what Council cut and kept during the LTCCP process.  Libraries are to recieve:

•  an extra $20K for collections next financial year and another $67K in 2010/11. 
• the possible move of Murchison library to the Rec Centre was left in for further consultation in 2011/12
• a possible extension to Motueka Library was to be investigated but no timeframe was given
• a direction for library staff to consider services to Wakefield was inserted again with no timeframe
• the LMS project on the advice of staff was downgraded to an upgrade with the surplus money going to 2010/11 for us to join the National project or roll over the funding if needed

There was a reminder that Tara is still seeking nominations for a community award for people who have volunteered for over 25 years either in one place or in a succession of places.  Nominations to her please ASAP.

Registrations of interest in the Richmond building project went to press this week.

Lloyd went over our budget year to dates – Libraries is ontrack with both expenditure and revenue.

Jim Frater, Property Manager is looking into leasing some storage space at the Wakatu building.

Annual Leave – Lloyd will be on leave from next Thursday 11th and heading to Australia.  Mike will be on leave from 27th June for a month.

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