Kia ora koutou
I found the values session yesterday very interesting and it got me thinking when I was cycling home last night. I think values are a very serious matter and should be considered deeply and discussed widely. I’d love to see some discussion on Counterculture so I’ve put out some of the thoughts I came up with. These are not necessarily original- some of you will see ideas you put forward yesterday- but they are my take on them- from notes I made when I was still thinking about them when I got home)
Context. We are a New Zealand University Library.
All three parts of this should drive our values and may differentiate some of them from the values of other organisations.
OED definition: The principles or moral standards held by a person or social group; the generally accepted or personally held judgement of what is valuable and important in life. Values are a human thing. Values can only be expresses or enacted by people. In an organisational statement, they need to be backed/explained by ‘we’ statements but must be able to be enacted by staff who are prepared to make ‘I’ statements. We have to be prepared to have our actions measured against them and be called to account against them. If we can’t do this we have slogans not values.
Some potential values
Honouring the Treaty We ensure that the voices of both Treaty partners are heard. We support tino rangatiratanga.
Equity We acknowledge that there is not equal access to resources, information or education in New Zealand society and we recognise the value of tertiary education in improving equity. We provide resources and services based on the principle of equity rather than equal treatment.
Diversity We have and apply the cultural, professional and personal skills to serve our diverse communites. We do not ‘tolerate’ others and otherness, we acknowledge and value that we are all unique and that both we and our communities have unique needs and attributes.
Honesty. We communicate openly and transparently. We will not dissemble or tell half-truths. We create an environment where it is safe for people to express their views whether or not these views match current policy, official views or existing norms. We are prepared to be the critic and conscience of the University and the Library as well as of broader society. Integrity We act in good faith. We do what we say we will do. We are open about our intentions and our actions. We do not have hidden agendas.
Accountability
We are accountable to our students, academics, our profession and the wider community as well as to the University management and governance. We are accountable for our actions and clearly own our decision.
Library-specific values. They are not what I would have traditionally called values but they do fit within ‘what is valuable’ within a library (I ran out of oompf to put detail to these)
Collection, care and preservation of resources
Access to information
Learning
Māori/Non-Māori values
I think we need shared values from both Maori and tauiwi world views, not translations of one or the other. If we can’t get shared values then using the partnership model we can acknowledge and accept combined values.
We already have a set of library values stated in the bicultural plan, Ngā Awa e Rua (as it is a bicultural plan they should already be shared values). This is what is says: As a library we value:
- Whakahoahoa – Partnership
- Matauranga Maori – Maori Knowledge as Taonga
- Tikanga Maori – Maori Protocol
- Kotahitanga – Unity, Teamwork
- Manaakitanga – Goodwill
- Kaitiakitanga – Guardianship
- Nga Kohikohinga – Our Collections
If we don’t think these values from Ngā Awa e Rua are our shared values then I think we should address this as part of the process of developing new values.
Looking forward to your comments.
Caroline S
An excellent post, Caroline, and there’s a great deal here to reflect on.
It seems to me that no value is an absolute; even ‘diversity’ for example has its good and bad points; and values often need to be traded off against each other.
The opportunity to consider our collective values is important, and when actions seem to conflict with an accepted value it can be disheartening. For example, the Library once valued the building of a legacy for future generations – look to Newton’s “standing on the shoulders of giants,” which implies a dialogue between past, present and future generations – whereas only the immediacy of “now” seems to be valued. How far is this “short-termism” due to the exigencies of current budget constraints and how far is this a potential long-term change in values, which should be open to discussion and critique, not just amongst us but within the UC community as a whole?
John
I really enjoyed this Caroline. Thank you for posting.
Lisa.
Thanks, Caroline.
I felt a bit uncomfortable with some of the values statements, as many of them seemed more like customer service policy statements, (which can flow from values statements, but are not the same thing). An example of a customer service policy statement is the following:
https://www.lib.uwo.ca/policies/customerservice.html
Some of the statements also lacked human warmth, in my opinion, and I think this aligns with what you said about values being “a human thing”.
I am comfortable with the values expressed in Ngā Awa e Rua being part of the Library’s values.
Perhaps it would be useful to look at the values of some other academic libraries and see which ones we think are relevant to us. I am happy to post some of these here later.
Caroline A.
Thanks for putting the thought into this Caroline. I especially liked your starting focus on context, and the 3 basic components.
‘We are a New Zealand University Library.
All three parts of this should drive our values and may differentiate some of them from the values of other organisations’.
Dave Clemens
Thanks Caroline A. I Iook forward to reading the ones you choose.
I had a quick look at the American Library Association values http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/statementspols/corevalues which I rather like, and the British Library’s values which seem less like values but have some positive ideas http://www.bl.uk/careers/values.html .
I couldn’t find LIANZA’s at a very quick look but I really like the PIMN sig’s values: http://www.lianza.org.nz/mission-statement-values-goals
I also think the values in Ngā Awa E Rua speak to our values. I particularly think manaakitanga and kotahitanga need to be central.
We’d need to add to Matauranga Maori to include that we value all knowledge (while still retaining the Matauranga Maori as a particular value as a New Zealand university library).
The LIANZA values are here under the Libraries Aotearoa branding <a href="http://www.librariesaotearoa.org.nz/"http://www.librariesaotearoa.org.nz/
Sorry I’ll try that link again: http://www.librariesaotearoa.org.nz/
Thanks Tim.
Thanks Caroline and Caroline (and others!). Really thought provoking and interesting comments.
I agree that ensuring our values articulate that we are a NZ Uni Library is vital and should help prevent them from being bland or generic. And human warmth is definitely important.
As promised, here are some links to information about values of other academic libraries. (I have also included some links to public libraries of which the values seem relevant to us):
Auckland Libraries (see page 14 for values. They are concise.)
http://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/EN/About/Documents/futuredirectionsfull.pdf
Victoria University of Wellington Library:
http://library.vuw.ac.nz/files/policy/LibraryStrategyMap_2014.pdf
Lincoln University, Library, Teaching and Learning Strategic directions 2103:
http://blogs.lincoln.ac.nz/ltl/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2013/07/LTL-Strategic-Directions-2013.pdf
University of Otago Library Strategic and Operation Plan (This appears to be incomplete):
http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/pdf/strategic_operational_plan_2014.pdf
The University of Waikato Library (Can you find their values/strategic plan? I could not).
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/library/about
Massey University Library’s Direction 2014-17 (Values aren’t stated explicitly).
http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Library/Documents/Publications/ki_te_hoe.pdf?EED5C77A137A2CCABD262F0EA7F7E05B
UCOL Library – can you find the values statement? ( couldn’t).
http://student.ucol.ac.nz/library/Pages/default.aspx
AUT Library’s Strategic Plan 2012-2016 (This has a clear values statement!)
https://library.aut.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/532184/Strategic-Plan-2012-2016.pdf
University of Canterbury Library Mission Statement:
http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/about/mission.shtml#serv
University of Canterbury Library Code of Ethics. (This is useful for our values statement):
http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/about/code_ethics.shtml