Whanganui

We didn’t visit a library or a museum in Whanganui. We stopped off at Virgina Lake for a picnic lunch, and basically visited an outdoor art gallery!

After lunch we had a look around the Wintergarden and admired the flowers, plants & displays.

Outside we discovered an exhibition or outdoor sculptures that had been done by local art students. Simply gorgeous.

I’m sure you will agree.

Patea Library & Museum of South Taranaki

I’d had the forethought to tweet Cath (@KiwiLibrarian) after we left Puke Ariki, to let her know I was in the area. Cath manages a couple of libraries in South Taranaki and the Museum of South Taranaki.

She let me know she’d be in Patea, and that I could pop into say hey!  Cath and I have been Twitter buddies for a while but hadn’t yet met in real life.

When I arrived in Patea she gave me a cheery hello, then realised it was me. We had a quick recce of the library, and inspected the Angry Birds artwork, that was part of the school holiday programme. The kids were off creating biscuits somewhere.

It was obvious to me that Cath loved being part of this tight knit community, where everyone knows everyone – more like family than customers. After we’d finished our chin wag, she recommend we go across the road to the museum.

And it was worth the time spent, containing well designed and informative displays.

What intrigued me even more was the locked double doors, where we could see the “off-display” exhibits through the glass. Me, as always dying to get into the “stack” area where the treasures live.

Our girls hadn’t come in with us, opting to sit in the car and hijack the library’s WiFi to catch up on their social media as we’d deprived them for a day or two.

Lovely community library and museum, great to finally meet Cath.

A display at Aotea Utanganui – Museum of South Taranaki

Long view of some of the displays

Puke Ariki

I’m away on holiday with random access to the internets.

Whenever I am away – whether on holiday or for work, I always do my best to check out the library and/or heritage establishment/museum. An occupational hazard I suspect, as I know plenty librarians, or other GLAM sector workers who do the same thing.

Partly, it’s probably due to our passion for our sector – partly it’s probably due to our natural curiosity that seems to be an inherent part of our personalities.

In 2010 I was lucky enough to win a LIANZA scholarship to attend the National Digital Forum where I had dinner one night with a bunch of lovely people from Puke Ariki. I’ve really longed to visit Puke Ariki ever since!

I finally got my chance to during this holiday, as we’d opted to overnight in New Plymouth to break our trip up on our way down to our holiday on the Kapiti Coast.

We had also planned to spend part of the time we were there on the beach – however, New Plymouth turned on some particularly foul unseasonal weather for us, so we got to spend much more time having a leisurely look around.

We took a tour of the whole library. I really loved the basement – where the teens area and children’s section was. The teens area was a lovely laid back area, with a couple of seats for reading, in front of a flatscreen TV playing music. The only thing missing from the area to complete the relaxed feel, was maybe a couple of bean bags!

The children’s area was bright and colourful with fake palm trees with colourful birds. There were a couple of teens chilling in this area, as well as a parent with a couple of littlies.

Taranaki Research Centre was naturally a place of interest for me – I enjoyed browsing through the local history collection for the Taranaki region. I spotted a couple of avid genealogists looking through birth, death and marriage fiche. I almost walked up to ask them if they needed any help (force of habit).

Bright and colourful and welcoming,
the Puke Ariki children’s area

We went across airbridge to the Museum, and all had a ball. We each had a favourite part of the museum that we enjoyed. We all thought the Te Takapou Whaariki o Taranaki gallery was awesome – it was my husband’s favourite part of the museum. Taranaki Life was my favourite, and the girls thought the Surf gallery was dead cool.

I hadn’t had the forethought to let Twitter peeps from Puke Ariki know that I was coming, but I did walk around trying to see if I could recognise anyone from the memories I had of various avatars! Poor planning on my part because it’s always awesome meeting up with Tweeps IRL!

 

So close . . . I can almost taste it! – A reflection of where I am at the end of 2013

I’m a year away from finishing my library degree, if I continue to do a paper per trimester as planned. I must confess to being very impatient to complete this.

I have seen lots of things that I’ve wanted to be involved in. I see so many opportunities around and long to be involved in as many as possible.

Studying as a mature student has had its challenges.

I’ve worked full-time before and studied. When I was 17, I took an apprenticeship in Typography Printing working for the Hawke’s Bay Herald-Tribune. I had to study by “correspondence” for 15 hours per week, plus a “block course” of six weeks full time study each year at ATI (Auckland Technical Institute as it was then). Challenging enough when 17/18/19 and you only want to go out partying and have fun 🙂 At least no real responsibilities then.

My apprenticeship was contracted for 4 years, and was a mix of practical and theory, as you can imagine an apprenticeship would. You received a reduction in hours, everytime you passed a paper or exam. I managed to reduce my apprenticeship to a few weeks more than 3 years as a result and had been promoted before it had even finished.

Since then, I’ve studied on and off over the years. Mostly informally, as a self-motivated learner responding to whatever I felt I needed to learn at the time. Sometimes also in organised learning – business studies, quality certification studies (ISO9001, ISO14001), software and hardware training.

For a couple of years, I had been looking for an alternate career after 26 years working in the same field and couldn’t see one that could happen easily.

Knowing my love for genealogy as a hobby, my husband suggested working professionally as a genealogist. At the time, New Zealand wasn’t quite ready to take a hobby and turn it into a full time career path. So my husband suggested I become a librarian, because librarians help people with “things like their genealogy.” . . . and *shock* he also pointed out that I liked books! He committed to being sole provider for a while to help me though, even though it would cause a huge change in our lifestyle.

So I left my old career after 26 years and planned on studying my library papers full time at home, while being a stay-at-home mother. I thought it would be a great balance. My education provider disagreed and wouldn’t allow me to study full time as I had never “officially” studied at tertiary level before.

So for six month, I studied two papers per semester before I landed my first library job. I worked as a shelver for 12 months before I got my first job as a library assistant and the on-the-job training that came with it.

In my old career the last 10 years I had been at senior management/board room level, and there was something soothing and comforting about not having any responsibilities, other than turning up and doing the task at hand. Much less stressful. After six months though, I was ready for something more and started looking for it, so was really happy to obtain that library assistant role.

After obtaining my library assistant role, I really got into the library world. It became amazing. It also helped my library studies no end. A few hours as a library assistant with one library, developed into a few more hours at another library . . .  and so it spread. The challenge was gauging when to give up one lot of hours, to take up another lot of hours to ensure progression. A real juggling act.

All this time, my studies continued. It wasn’t all plain sailing. A number of blips on the horizon. Being mother to twin daughters – 5 years old when I started studying – was challenge enough. Each year after, it seemed I had health issues where I needed emergency surgery for one thing or another – it slowed me down. Then at then end of 2007 my husband had an accident which left him disabled. Only working part-time at the time as a  library assistant was hard. My colleagues were my saviours, the support and the assistance was unbelievable – I was probably too mired in the minuitae of surviving day to day at the time to really acknowledge this and thank them properly at the time.

In my old career, often part of my role would be to act as a trainer. So it seemed natural to become a circulation trainer in my new library career. Training is a role I’ve always enjoyed if not relished.

I also eventually obtained my HT licence, so I could be a relief mobile librarian when the usual mobile librarian was on leave. This was my first taste of outreach. I enjoyed the role when called upon to relieve – readers advisory always being part of that role – sometimes doing impromptu storytime in the back of the bus when called upon.

I had the opportunity to help out on the New Zealand Collection Reference Desk back at my home library, assisting in a small way, with oral histories.

I also applied for LIANZA registration. Wasn’t sure I would get it, but I did. I know there were a few people who wondered why, as I’d “only been in libraries for five minutes” – but I have been told that they took my experience from my earlier career into account, learning opportunities I’d taken advantage of, along with the progress I’d made since joining libraries, and someone also pointed out that a length of time in a job doesn’t necessarily indicate the level of professionalism obtained.

Four years later when my husband was well enough to start returning to work, we’ve had to start again financially.

. . . and then my dream job became available. I applied only because my husband encouraged me to. I applied because I thought I had nothing to lose and was astonished and delighted when I got the job. I was so naive when I took the job. I didn’t know that there were only two specialist family history librarians in New Zealand – and I was to be one of them.

I also didn’t realise that I would have to speak in public – me, who was too self-conscious to do “Rhyme-Time” or “Wriggle and Rhyme” for kids in my earlier library role. Well, I had a crash course, and now speaking comes nearly second nature to me (with a few exceptions which I may discuss in later). Baptism by fire for sure! Its been an enormous growth area for me. One thing to run training for a small group of peers – different scenario standing up in front of a couple hundred peers or more (whether genealogists or librarians). You really have to know your stuff, so there is a lot of research that goes into it so you can speak confidently.

I had a year off study, while I was getting settled into my new role. There was such a huge learning curve and I wanted to be able to be able to give my new job all of me.

My specialism is a growth area and going from strength to strength! Demand is a good thing . . . I’m often asked to speak out of the Auckland region for community groups and at various conferences. I’m speaking at Hastings District Library in a couple of weeks time, and have been asked to speak at the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) Congress in Canberra in 2015.

I’m active on social media networks, and use it heavily for self-directed learning – and I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I wasn’t promoting my collection and my library!

So its been a long journey and as I look back, I realise I can tick off quite a few achievements. Notably my Dip Information and Library Studies, Dip Records and Information Management, Certificate in Literature and Library Services for Children and Young People – and I am halfway through a Certificate in Writing and Design for the Web. I’ve obtained LIANZA registration, and also re-validation.

Next stop will be my full BA degree in Information and Library Studies. So close I can almost taste it. Someone rightly pointed out recently that the professional development of librarians is very much like an apprenticeship. Theory and practical working in tandem.

The biggest thing I have learned since I started this journey – is to try everything. Whatever your doubts you have in yourself, apply for that job or that opportunity. If you don’t try how will you ever succeed? No such thing as failure, only missed opportunities.

Apart from finishing my degree, my goal for 2014 is to become more involved in LIANZA, somehow. I made the first step recently by attending my first Hikuwai event.

So – watch this space as they say!

Reflection

My previous two posts were full of emotion and frustration – and I’ve had a good long time to sit back and reflect while delivering family history month and completing my last library studies paper.

Kris captured things much better in her post “Who’s the enemy here?” over in the Room of Infinite Diligence. Re-reading Matt’s post “Why are New Zealand libraries letting their enemies write “the final chapter”?” crystalised things further for me.

Social media is a wonderful tool. It brings people from all around the world much closer together. We get to hear things, that we previously wouldn’t necessarily hear about in the traditional media. Or we’d hear about them much later than we do now.

The danger of it all, is sometimes the need to filter out or analyse the content. Not to take in too much negativity. Learn from others mistake yes, but ensure you retain balance. Concentrate on the positives. Look at the evidence.

This is my career, and I’m passionate about what I do.

My job isn’t confined to a building (although my collection might be) – I have a strong outreach focus. We are getting busier and busier, the demand is strong.

There are loads of my colleagues doing really effective, awesome outreach also, in different ways.

And outreach pulls customers in either digitally or in person (often both). The public knows the value of libraries.

As I’ve heard Tosca (@catatonichic) quote: “where ever there is a librarian, there is a library“.

Yes.

“Library dystopian” type- blogs

I sometimes read “library dystopian” blogs. That is, people who blog about the end of librarianism (books, reference work, libraries etc), and I get really cross.

I came late to Librarianship. I had a career in design and print for 26 years before I needed a change, and chose librarianship.

I get cross on so many levels, when I read blogs/articles about the death of libraries. Yes, its happening to a large proportion of UK and US libraries. How can people be so stupid? I get indignant – why did those in the profession not stop it – did they not see the warning signs?

I have lots of family in the UK. A cousin tells me that they cut the acquisitions budget for Southend, Essex, Libraries for a number of years. As they weren’t renewing stock, books on shelves got older, customers stopped visiting. Then “they” chose the falling numbers of customers, to defend closing half of Southend’s Libraries.

How sad. This is a similar tale throughout the UK. Reducing budget leads to less footfall which leads to library closures.

Did my UK colleagues not protest quick enough? How can business people not realise that lack of investment leads to reduced usefulness of a service?

I don’t believe that libraries competition is technology (e-books, the internet etc) – history demonstrates that librarians and libraries are extremely good at adapting to customers needs. I think it is budget-creators who think that we can continually make do with less that are responsible.

I’m passionate about what I do. My family and I have also made huge commitments and sacrifice so I can study (personal back-story here), and also work in this industry. Selfishly, I’m concerned our sacrifice means nothing.

I worry that we may follow overseas trends – but really hope that New Zealand will learn from the mistakes that the UK and US have already made. After all, what will they do when the libraries have gone?

Inconceivable to me.

 

 

Rendering a library useless

Having worked in the commercial world in my previous career, I understand about budgets. I’ve been responsible for some pretty damned big budget, and had to make sure they balance at the end of the year. I’ve also had to reduce spending in response to company-wide budget cuts. Lived through some pretty lean times, where the company has nearly gone bust during hard times, right through to times when the company flourished.

I keep an eye on what is happening in this industry of which my current career is placed.

I’ve read alot in blogs, newspapers and magazines – been involved in plenty of discussions too – about keeping libraries relevant. Keeping them evolving so that they are delivering what society needs and wants of us. This is important – its why we are here!

Today I read this post with dismay and my heart hurt.

You see, I’ve been watching what has been happening worldwide, particularly in the States, Canada and the UK. Budget cuts, followed by library closures.

The library closures have been said to be because the library isn’t relevant any more. They aren’t used as much. People have stopped going in. Circulations are down.

I have cousins in the UK and in Canada, one I spoke to recently said that her local library is closing down too. For these reasons.

However, the budgets had been cut, no new books had been bought for ages, no new services had been introduced, and existings services had been reduced or done away with. Budget cuts had rendered the library useless. Not staff, not the library itself. Bureaucrats had killed the library by cutting budget and refusing to invest in them.

It may reopen again later with “volunteers” running it.

I don’t agree with unqualified volunteers providing library services, any more than I agree with unqualified teachers in Charter Schools teaching our children.

In New Zealand much time and effort has been spent in encouraging our library staff to gain professional qualifications and to work towards LIANZA registration. We’ve made personal investment and sacrifices. We’re encouraged to upskills and develop professionally and to ensure our skills and knowledge is current and relevant.

I shake my head when I see these overseas institutions closing their library doors or handing their libraries over to unqualified unpaid workers.

And then I read this blog and I wept inside.

As a librarian who works on the heritage floor, I shudder to think of any books being “weeded” from any collection that is older than 10 years old. I saw the titles that were highlighted and was dismayed.

This person who sanctioned the weeding of this library, has taken a huge step towards rendering her library useless. This person has thrown away the heritage of the community, wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.

I tried hard to imagine such a thing happening in my wonderful library – and it hurt far to much to, so I stopped.

Blogging #23mobilethings

I decided to join Australian and New Zealand librarians and other members of the library community to take part in the 23mobilethings challenge, so I have signed up with ANZ 23 mobile things.

Already an avid user of social media, I am hoping to explore how to use my cellphone (an iPhone 4) to use mobile apps that I don’t already use, or to learn different tips on the ones I use already.

The 23 mobile things are:

1. Twitter
2. Taking a photo with a mobile device: Instagram / Flickr app / Snapchat
3. eMail on the move
4. Maps and checking in
5. Photos + Maps + Apps: Historypin / What was there / Sepia Town
6. Video: YouTube and screencasts
7. Communicate: Skype / Google Hangout
8. Calendar
9. QR codes
10. Social reading: RSS / Flipboard / Feedly / Goodreads / Pocket
11. Augmented reality: Layar
12. Games: Angry Birds / Wordfeud
13. Online identity: FaceBook and LinkedIn
14. Curating: Pinterest / Scoop.it / Tumblr
15. Adobe ID
16. eBooks and eBook apps: Project Gutenberg / Kindle / Overdrive / Bluefire / Kobo, etc.
17. Evernote and Zotero
18. Productivity tools: Doodle / Remember the Milk / Hackpad / any.do / 30/30
19. File sharing: Dropbox
20. Music: last.fm / Spotify
21. Voice interaction and recording
22. eResources vendor apps
23. Digital storytelling

I did start earlier with Twitter, but fell behind due to general busyness – so now I have some catching up to do – I think my library friends and colleagues are about 5 “things” ahead of me!