Caroline, Lisa and I met today for our first meeting to refine the draft values based on staff feedback. We looked at the draft values alongside the existing library values in Ngā Awa e Rua and found a lot of correlation, particularly after taking into account staff feedback on the draft values.
So our first step has been to identify five possible values drawing upon the draft values and Ngā Awa e Rua:
- Whakahoahoa – Partnership
- Manaakitanga – Goodwill (English word needs revision)
- Kotahitanga – Unity, Teamwork
- Kaitiakitanga – Guardianship
- Mātauranga – Knowledge (English word needs revision)
Alongside these short value statements, we would like to provide a brief statement that explains how these values inform our work.
We’ve started work on this and “Kaitiakitanga – Guardianship” precipitated much discussion! This value correlates to original draft value: “We treasure, protect and share knowledge now and in the future”
The issue is the tension between our treatment of archival collections (eg in MB) versus teaching/learning/research collections (eg in Central, EPS and Edu) and how to capture that complexity.
So far we have:
- We treasure and protect our collections or
- We treasure, protect, and curate our collections. (We’re not happy with this!)
We’d love your feedback – in the comments, in person discussion or via email to any of us.
(If you would like to see the notes from our meeting, they are here: K:\LIBR-Library\Management\Planning\Libr-Values-2015-2016\Values-Revision-2016-07-18.docx. Please note the values revision is very preliminary and will no doubt be drafted, redrafted and reredrafted!)
You’ve made a great start on this – thanks for taking this on! Like where your thinking is going. As far as “treasure, protect and share knowledge..” goes. Some half-baked thoughts follow. Think it’s important to include an electronic piece in this. This relates to where we’re going with research data, future-proofing access to digital collections (we’re considering things like data storage and longevity of data formats etc). We also subscribe to Portico – a preservation service for eResources. On the other hand, we’ve also cancelled some journal subscriptions because they’re available on aggregator services like ProQuest or Informit (opex) and in fact 49% of our current spend is opex (therein lies another story piece – one of which is that by doing that we can offer access to so much more). Feel like a statement such as this needs a story or context to go with it, or should include an access aspect. With that in mind I tentatively offer another option “We treasure and protect access to knowledge now and in the future”. This also could be read as having a fairness and equity aspect to it (which is similar to one of the Libraries Aotearoa values “Fair and just”). I also like the concept of “sharing” if we can include that somewhere thinking about the increasing range of document delivery services we can provide.
Thanks for the work on this! Not sure there can be one defining statement that addresses everything.
I like Tim’s suggestion of
“We treasure and protect access to knowledge now and in the future”.
Another attempt to capture the complexity of our content and what it’s there for…
“We aim to inspire people throughout NZ with our content”.
I agree this is a great start.
“We treasure, protect and share knowledge now and in the future” reflects more than our collections, it also encapsulates the values of our profession to ensure the sharing or accessing knowledge (as appropriate) for the benefit of communities and individuals. Librarians are driving the open access movement internationally because we understand that access to knowledge can create a more equal and civil society. It will be interesting to know if this wider view fits within Kaitiakitanga