Welcome to either the 27th or 376th edition of Inside-Out.

In any case, this is my first edition and as I am not 100% sure how to proceed, what follows is more of a rolling stream of consciousness.

I thought I would start by taking the opportunity to thank everyone for making me feel so welcome. This is just such a positive place to be, and I am pretty sure that I haven’t broken anything yet (or have I?). So, all-in-all, I am really enjoying myself and am very happy to be here working with you.

In other library related news…

I am looking forward to the two staff forums that are due on 25 and 27 October. Do try to get to one of these if you can as we will be discussing some of the work we will focus on as a wider team in 2023.

There are also the two Diversity Works workshops that will be held on 2 and 3 November. Hopefully, your TL or manager has already talked with you about participating in one of these workshops. It should be an interesting and thought-provoking three hours. If you cannot make it to one of the two sessions, don’t worry, we intend to run them again in the new year so we can maximise staff participation.

Sara Roberts and I are looking at the distribution of first-aid certificate holders to ensure reasonable coverage across our three libraries and opening hours. Training and refresher courses are again being offered on People Soft after a hiatus. Sara has organized an AED for PJH, so we have one accessible in the building and precinct, especially after hours. It will be mounted in due course (BEIMs willing) on Level 2 near where the workroom and wheelchair are located now.

The ELS team is gearing up to staff PJH and EPS on Labour Day Monday, extended hours for Study Break and the shift to summer hours after exams and various summer projects.

Jenny Owens has been leading the project to refurnish Levels 8 and 11 and I have been inducted into the mysteries. Stock moving is complete, relevant signage changes are in the works and the shelving, electrical and furniture contractors are all locked in from the 14 November. The whole process should be complete, and a lot of nice new furniture in place by Friday 2 December. We are also bringing in some new furniture for the level two “lounge space” behind Te Rua and a couple of experimental pieces that will help inform the 2023 FY project.

Like many of you, I am very curious about our new UL. Kat Cutriss has an interesting set of career experiences to draw on as she takes up the helm in mid-January. We may actually have a chance to meet her in person as she heads down for a familiarisation visit in early December.

In almost, absolutely non-Library related whimsical content…

The frosts are quietly persistent; there was another near frost at our house this morning, but Jack didn’t fully commit. It feels like Spring is positively dawdling its way toward summer.  Which means it is touch and go getting the veggie plot planted out. Labour Weekend is fast approaching, and this is the traditional time to consider getting your spuds in if you want them on the Christmas table. If you don’t have a patch of earth where you can try this activity, but you wanted to give it a go, have you considered growing them in containers? Here is a good article by NZ Gardener Linda Hallinan.

I am bussing a lot these days. One thing a bus is great for, alongside the basic A to B, is reading. I tend more to non-fiction, but occasionally I get invested in a piece of fiction or a series.

I freely admit partiality to a good detective story (last year it was the truly excellent and classic Maigret series). I am currently spending my commute with the lighter but no less entertaining Commissario Montalbano by Andrea Camillieri. By turns funny (almost slapstick), humane and tragic, Camillieri creates, and evolves over the series, a mercurial character who works by intuition more than reason, who uses food as a salve, and who is an utterly chaotically terrible boss to work for.

If you belong to your public library (and you should), you can get hold of the entire series (and much more) using a free eBook app like Libby for your handheld digital device.

Anyone else enjoying the new Star Wars series Andor, streaming on Disney? A slow burn with a good script and relatively un-clunky dialogue, CGI kept firmly in its place, good visual and set design, a gritty tone, actors who can actually act, and no teddy bears.

In a nod to Hannah Arendt’s theory of the banality of evil, it turns out the Empire is less about tall men in black striding menacingly about with heavy asthmatic breathing and is actually made up of a bunch of mid-level bureaucrats obsessed with getting their reports done, meeting quotas and climbing the greasy pole. Basically, the evil Galactic Empire is the worst management meeting you’ve ever had to go to…

I cannot be the only one, but I have been walking over at lunchtimes to enjoy and wonder at the little gem that is the Ilam gardens.

Well, there you go, you made it to the end of the ramble…100A+ for staying on the rails, no matter what.

That’s my Inside-Out. I think it felt more like the 376th edition in the end and not at all like a 27th, don’t you?

Hopefully I have done enough to absolutely never be invited back to do another one again!

Have a great weekend 😉

Ngā Mihi

Simon