Kia ora koutou

A bit of a stop/start week, with some important time on Tuesday to come together and remember for ANZAC Day.  But lots of mahi is taking place, and students are visibly and emphatically back for more as semester 1 resurges into life!

Helen, Aurelia and I met with our TEU delegates this week (Nick, Dave and Tim O) for our quarterly kōrero, where we discussed the upcoming external peer review, and what this will involve. As mentioned in last week’s update, we’re still finalising full panel membership for the review, but have now had the Terms of Reference (TOR) confirmed by SLT (Senior Leadership Team).  These TOR have now been shared with managers who are happy to on-share and discuss (as am I).  The TOR have also just been sent to two of our three prospective panel members, along with Letters of Invitation.

I’d like to emphasise that the overall aim of the review is to help us (the UC Library team) set a long-term strategic vision, which is fit for purpose now and in the future, Te Tiriti-responsive, places the user experience at its centre and is in direct alignment with the overarching institutional strategies and priorities of the University.

To help us do this, the review is an exploratory analysis of where we are currently, and where we can position ourselves for future opportunities.

In terms of approach, once we have received positive responses from panel members to our Letters of Invitation, the panel will then be sent a pack of relevant documents (e.g. Library Ops Plan 2023, Ngā Awa e Rua, Library Committee Terms of Reference etc.).  They will then be invited to visit us here at UC (we are hoping for this to occur in late June) to undertake interviews with key stakeholders (including library staff) so that they can understand the ‘on the ground’ nature of our service and the experiences we offer. The panel will then draw together their analysis, culminating in a report of findings and recommendations which will go to SLT and Academic Board for their November meetings.

On panel membership, I’m delighted to confirm that one of the panel members is Andy Priestner, of user experience (UX) fame.  Some of you were part of Andy’s UX workshops here last November.  Because we have this opportunity to bring Andy back to UC as a panel member, we’re also looking at running a 2-day UX workshop with him, after the panel site visit and interviews.  Library managers can share more details about this opportunity with you, but please sing out if you have any questions (and if you were part of last November’s UX cohort but are keen for another bite, please feel welcome to put your hand up again! There’s always something new to learn 😊)

I see the external review as a positive opportunity to get a comprehensive, current evidence-base of where we’re at, along with some robust recommendations for where we can go.  But if you have questions or are feeling uncertain about any aspects of the process, please feel most welcome to talk with your manager and/or come talk with me, Helen or Aurelia.  We all have an open door and would be happy to kōrero at any point.  You may like to come along with some colleagues and support people.  I know that your TEU delegates (Nick, Dave and Tim O) are happy to be with you and/or bring questions to managers directly, if you’d like them to support you in this way.

Finally, you’ll have seen that we’ll have a Staff Forum in the last week of May, taking the form of two repeated hui so that as many folks as possible can join in.  Full agenda to follow, but this will be a great chance to Q&A together on a range of matters and hear/share about some recent professional development opportunities some of you have been part of.

For now, safe weekend all,
Kat