Latest news from National Executive

National Executive meeting 3 March 2012

The National Executive team met this weekend, partly in Wellington as originally planned, and partly online via Skype.  Fiona suffered an injury to her foot just over a week ago, so was planning to chair the meeting from a comfortable chair at home, and Senga and I were affected by flight cancellations related to the weather 'bomb' that hit the North Island over the weekend.  So it was an interesting experiment, one that we had been talking about trialling as an alternative to some face-to-face meetings anyway.  On the face of it, as you will see from the following update, we still managed to cover a lot of ground, and we will be evaluating the experience as one way to potentially save costs.  So here goes!

Advocacy
We have the opportunity to bring Dr Ross Todd to New Zealand in July to deliver his one day seminar on evidence-based practice.  Fiona will be going out to the listserv for feedback tomorrow, so please respond to that message so that we can make our decision based on the feedback we receive.  It is not a cheap or simple exercise to bring seminars or experts like Todd to our shores, so we will be relying on solid feedback from members before making this decision.

The advocacy templates that are being prepared by the Advocacy team are almost ready to go up on the SLANZA website.  Letters to Principals, BOTs, and others, advocating for school libraries, are in their final draft form and will be with NE members shortly for final feedback.  They will be on the website by the end of this term.

Professional development
Conference planning is progressing nicely, the over-arching idea has been established, the underlying themes pulled out, and the venue is booked.  A wish-list of presenters and keynote speakers is waiting in the wings for follow-up.  Look for major announcements coming very soon via the website, listserv and regional communication channels.  Well done to the hard-working Wellington team.

The final draft of the professional development survey received its last tweaks this weekend, and will be embedded on the website on 19 March.  This will be widely publicised.  We encourage you to spend a few minutes completing the survey so that we can see where the gaps and needs for professional development are, and work with you to seek or provide appropriate training and resources.

Communications
Planning for the next issue of Collected is well in hand, and a final call for contributions will be issued in the second week of March.  It will be published early in Term Two, and is on the theme of content curation.

Miriam shared the progress she has made with the next stage of our website upgrade, and it is looking really good.  This upgrade will allow more people to contribute to upkeep, thereby spreading the load, and helping to protect our organisation from risk as NE members step down from the role. 

Discussions about the wiki and its place in our communications strategy have begun in earnest, and some initial decisions have been made.  Key players in the wiki scene will be approached to be involved in the work that is planned.  Expect more on this soon.

Several blog posts have been scheduled for the remainder of this term so make sure that you are subscribed so that you don't miss these updates.

Business
The hardworking business portfolio team are nearing completion on the business membership project.  Watch for an announcement on the listserv very soon.  Discussion about life memberships is continuing, and a resolution has been made that SLANZA will be reinstating annual awards.  These will be given at conference, as has been the practice in recent years, and we will resume the practice of giving awards at the AGM in the intervening year.  Again, watch for announcements on the website, blog and listserv. 

The National Executive will meet again, probably in July, depending on decisions made about the Dr Ross Todd seminars.  If you would like more information about any of the matters mentioned here, please contact your regional representative.  Their contact details can be found on the SLANZA website.

Kind regards
Donna Watt
Communications Leader

SLANZA Central PD day

We are very excited to bring you the details of our fantastic day of professional learning and networking, to be held on Saturday 17th of March, at Te Manawa, in Palmerston North. We have secured some wonderful speakers:

• Donna Watt, Technical Services Manager at Invercargill City Libraries and also SLANZA’s Communications team leader
  Donna will be our keynote speaker, and will continue sharing her skills and knowledge during a workshop session later in the day. Donna’s sessions at last year’s SLANZA conference were hugely popular, really inspirational, and full of practical ideas that you can put to use right away in your library.

• Paul du Temple from Wheelers
  Paul will be demonstrating and sharing details of their eBook platform. Don’t miss this face-to-face opportunity to keep up with what’s happening on the eBook front for school libraries in NZ.

• Warwick Taylor, Digital Services Librarian at Palmerston North City Library
  Warwick will be presenting a “Technology Playground”, showcasing a range of electronic devices and how these can be used in the library.

In addition, we’ve included time for those attending to network and share information, to “show and tell” what’s going on in their libraries, discuss current issues, and learn from each-other, because we know how important this kind of peer support can be for school library staff.

All this, plus lunch, for only $20 (SLANZA members) or $30 for non-members. So mark the date in your diary now, you won’t want to miss it!

Included here are the schedule for the day, including information about the speakers, and a registration form:
Central Region SLANZA Day 2012 (pdf)
SLANZA Day registration form (Word document)

For catering purposes, we ask that you please complete the registration form and return your info to Joyce Richards at Nga Tawa by the 7th of March (richardsjoyce@ngatawa.school.nz)

If you’d like any further information, please contact either Miriam or Joyce directly.

February 22nd 2011

Today Christchurch, we are with you more than ever before - in our hearts, memories, thoughts and prayers. We think of those who have lost loved ones, homes, possessions, livelihoods, their way of life and peace of mind, and hope that one day the pain will lessen and ease.
We will stand with you in silence at 12.51 now and always.
Kia kaha Christchurch and arohanui to our library whanau.

A great blog post from a Principal who actively supports literacy

Hello to those of you who are back on deck.  This is going to be the year for school library advocacy, I can feel it in my bones!  Here's a great way to start your year.  Share this Principal's blog post with your Principal on the first day back.

The writer is a school principal who makes it his business to walk the talk of literacy.  He is a reader, knows it and shows it, and expects his teachers to be readers, too.  How can we expect kids to be readers and life-long learners if we don't ALL model those behaviours every day?

If literacy is identified as a priority in your school, you could use a blog post like this to get the conversation started, and perhaps ask that your Principal supports you by choosing something from this list that he or she could do. It might be that you make the approach by having an outline of the ways that you model your commitment to literacy and ask the Principal's advice on how that might be extended to staff, using the examples from the blog post.  Or you might approach it by creating your own list of suggestions, and ask that the Principal, your TLR or a literacy leader in the school works with you to explore ways to bring staff and the school community on board.

Maybe you could use this example as a template for the first of your regular contributions to the school newsletter, offering families some ideas about how they can support literacy at home.  This is the perfect time of year to explain to families that, unless their children spent time reading over the summer, they will have lost ground on their reading scores - again, the perfect start to a conversation.

Any of these methods would allow you to present yourself as a leader in your school, which is the best first step in library advocacy.  So put your shy and modest self back in the closet, and choose the new, assertive, confident and professional version instead.  L'Oreal says it best - You're worth it.  Now show the world what you have to offer.

All the best for 2012
Our year of advocacy

Donna Watt

The Dreaded Stock Take and End of Year Reporting

Since I’ve been in the library at my school I’ve been working towards streamlining the stock take process here.

The first thing l did was relabel the entire library as the barcodes were inside the back cover of the books, meaning each book had to be taken off the shelf and opened to scan, what a waste of time! I used relabeling as an opportunity to look at the collection, weed and recover those in need, so it took me over a year to complete.

Secondly I looked at the timing of stocktake. I felt that if I could get the scanning out of the way sooner, I’d be able to work on reports and trying to find “missing” books. I had heard of school’s who did theirs during break between terms 2 and 3, but my EO wouldn’t allow this as the timing would effect the stock value. So, I have slowly worked back from Week 9 and this week completed in Week 5, phew this really takes the pressure off making- me a much happier and less stressed library manager.

Now because I am not rushed or stressed I have time to actually look at all the statistics my library programme can produce. What a wonderful resource. I just looked at borrowing by year level and by sex, then I worked out the average borrowed and found that the girls borrow 62% of all issues. This is interesting and leaves me with questions and the possibility of setting targets/goals around the information. There are stats to support me in many ways now that I have time to analyze them properly and I can share with departments in a positive way. Used strategically the results could increase support from teachers and promote the value of the library and it’s contribution to student achievement.

Next I am starting on my annual report to the BOT, without the rush. I try to make my reports relevant, informative and readable. The key is to make it as short as possible but to jam pack all the information I want to share and celebrate. I use graphs, photos and try and relate to schools goals and strategic plan. I want the BOT to see how relevant and worthwhile my work is and I want them to know that the investment they make in the library is paying off in many useful ways.

This year I did research on NZ school library reporting and there were two notable things I learned. Firstly don’t write a book, no one will read it. Boards are bogged down enough with important bits to read, if you want to make an impact make it short and to the point. Secondly, no matter what your school expects do not write a short breezy letter, take the time to report properly, never complain and try to relate your information to the school’s goals.

Enough from me, I’m off to impress my BOT and make them happy to have me looking after their library and using it to improve student achievement as much as I can.

Lisa Salter
Te Tai Tokerau National Executive Representative
Ruawai College Library Manager

SLANZA Wellington Region Workshop Sept 2011

She has me fired up now!

This is the comment of one of the participants who attended our annual Saturday morning professional development in September. The themes were “Advocating for your school library” and E-learning. Forty seven people attended the workshop and went away with many new ideas for how to promote their libraries (Donna Watt and Miriam Tuohy) as well as issues around technology enhanced learning (Paul du Temple, Jason Murphy and Tom Avery).

Donna Watt as a keynote speaker was a definite drawcard. Donna is the communications person on the National Executive of SLANZA and has had many years experience in school libraries. Her message was appropriate to both primary and secondary school library staff and teachers. We recommend that she is invited to share her advocacy ideas to members around the country. Miriam Tuohy (Nat Exec member) ran a workshop after Donna’s keynote and reinforced the ideas, giving relevant and useful advice for untrained library staff who are just starting out in a primary school. Remember you are not alone in this work!

Here is some more feedback on the presentations.

• Lots of ideas/approaches to investigate. Change my approach – accentuate the positive. Emphasis on how I work and what I do. 
• So many practical ideas to take back to school. 
• Great speaker, have gained some good ideas to work on. 
• This was absolutely wonderful! 
• Very inspiring. Really made me think how our library is perceived by others. 
• Excellent speaker. Challenging. 
• Practical ideas for e-books in the school library environment. 
• Excellent. Helped a lot to understand how all this works. 

Thanks again to our presenters. Contact your local SLANZA regional rep to organize Donna Watt for a professional development meeting in 2012.

Michele Whiting

SLANZA National Executive representative

Wellington region

Full report from SLANZA NE meeting 12 November 2011

Report from SLANZA NE

Meeting 12-13 November 2011

Good morning everyone. The following is feedback on the content covered at the meeting held in Auckland at the weekend. If you have questions please contact your local regional representative, whose contact details can be found on the SLANZA website.

At our July meeting, we set up portfolios which relate to the specific areas of focus identified in the strategic plan : Advocacy, Communication and Professional Development. At this meeting we added another portfolio for Business, to cover the matters which do not neatly fit into the others. The following report will relate specifically to those areas of interest.

Communication – this portfolio is led by Donna Watt, and the others working within the portfolio are Miriam Tuohy and Bharathi Char, with support from Senga White in relation to Collected magazine. The matters reported and furthered within the portfolio include:

• The most recent issue of Collected was published on Friday. You can read it here. The three issues to be published next year have been discussed, with the following themes selected – Issue #6 Content Curation, Issue #7 Evidence-based practice, linking to self-advocacy and promotion, Issue #8 Blue sky thinking – next steps, innovations, what now?
• Miriam shared the test site for the website redevelopments she has been working on. We are all very excited as the new stage will see more interactive features, and a bigger resource section amongst other things. It will be ready to launch in the New Year.
• We have developed a shared Google website for NE representative communication, and we reviewed its functionality, and agreed on a number of new pages to facilitate our work. This is providing a platform to ensure our work continues effectively between meetings.
• All members of NE will be blogging more frequently, and permissions will be set up to facilitate that.
• In other areas, we have been represented by Fiona at the Educational Leaders Forum, and by both Senga and Fiona at the LIANZA pre-conference forum – our presence at these meetings allows us to further develop new and existing networks and ensure the school library voice is heard.

Advocacy – this portfolio is led by Greig Daniels and he is supported by Jude Cosson and Michele Whiting. Their area of interest received wide discussion throughout the meeting, and they have significant workloads on which they are working, including:

• A formal letter was drafted, to be sent to Principals and Boards implementing cuts to library services. This will be shared with NE members today, and after feedback, will be available for them to send out as the need arises.
• A thirty-minute presentation is being developed, which will be delivered at regional School Principal's meetings by local reps.
• Greig has been working with NZEI to establish stronger communication links with them, and is working hard to negotiate space in their publications for articles and information about school libraries, services, staffing.
• Work continues on the advocacy kit for members, including reporting templates, letter templates.

Regional representatives will continue to respond directly to members (off-list) to support them, and refer them to other supporting agencies such as the NZEI, as necessary.

Advocacy workshops have and will continue to be available to regional networks as needed – Michele Whiting will be blogging with further information about these.

Professional development – this portfolio is led by Michele Ayers, and she is supported by Michele Whiting and Bharathi Char. Michele summarized PD events held or scheduled since the last meeting, thanks to the support of Warwick Ashton from Book Protection Products :

• Wellington held a very successful workshop with the theme of advocating for your school library and eLearning. They will shortly have a session with Chris Szekely – Chief Librarian at Alexander Turnbull Library, who will be talking about his new picture book.
• Aoraki held a session where members who received free registration to conference fed back on their learning, Desna Wallace shared her interest in book trailers, and Paul du Temple from Wheelers spoke about eBooks.
• Te Tai Tokerau had Bob Docherty speaking about teen fiction and engaging teens in reading, and Hilary Greenebaum is scheduled to share her very successful conference presentation on relationships within the school.
• WaikatoBoP have hosted Vince Collins sharing his skills in library display, and their upcoming event is a tour of local libraries.
• Auckland had a half day workshop with four presenters who explored the topic 'Engaging learners: Learning and reading, and the day included Dylan Horrocks as a guest speaker. They have an upcoming visit scheduled with Stacy Gregg – author.
• Otago's recent session involved conference feedback, and the planning for a two-day event next year is under way.
• Southland held sessions on using Twitter, and note-taking skills for students. The last session for the year was a social event, and general sharing of best finds. Planning is under way to try and engage Nathan Mikare-Wallis to speak in the region early next year.

Larger events on the PD horizon include attempting to bring Dr Ross Todd to New Zealand next year to share his presentation on evidence-based practice (we have also decided on back-up plans if this is not successful). A full day of PD in conjunction with the AGM has been outlined in principle, and this will go ahead if the Todd event cannot be secured.

Wellington region shared progress on planning for the 2013 conference which is rapidly getting into gear. The contract with the conference organizer will be signed this week, a venue has been selected, and prospective keynotes are being evaluated. Seed funding was clarified at the NE meeting.

The new business portfolio is led by Lisa Salter, supported by Jude Cosson. The matters currently on their agenda are:

• Reviewing the criteria for study grants to ensure consistency
• Business membership – linking to conference sponsorships, and developing levels of membership, criteria and benefits. They will be liaising with business partners to get feedback.

In other matters, we advise that study grant applications are now with the committee. Decisions will be made and applicants notified by the end of November.

If you are aware that you may be changing schools, or your other contact details need to be updated, please let Frances Gibbons at slanza@xtra.co.nz know as soon as possible. She is working to update the member database for a busy time at the beginning of next year.

We reiterate our advice that regional representatives are here to support you, in good times and in bad, so please contact us if you are in need of support or advice. If you hear of threats to other school libraries, whose staff may not be SLANZA members, we would also appreciate hearing from you. We are working very hard at a number of levels, regionally and nationally, to support and advocate for school libraries.

Kind regards

Donna Watt

SLANZA Communications Leader