Thank you to the following staff who have agreed to pick up extra hours for the Academic Liaison Team  as we prepare for the busy start of the academic year –

• Caroline Syddall  in the Education Library Fridays 8.30 – 5.00
• Kathryn Andrews in the Education Library Mondays 8.00 – 4.00
• Kim Allan in the Education Library Tuesdays and some Wednesdays* 8.30 – 2.30
• Dave Lane in the EPS Library Thursdays and Fridays 9.30 – 1.30
• Kerry Gilmour in the Central Library Mondays 9.00 – 3.00

This level of staffing will be in place for 8 weeks, beginning next week to cover the demand for teaching and subject specific Library inductions during this period.

The Academic Liaison Team seeks a warm and knowledgeable librarian to join us for 6 weeks. The purpose of the role is to provide a consistent visible presence for the liaison service in the Central Library and online via AskLive during the busy teaching period at the start of the academic year. The role (band 4) will be personally demanding, requiring complex problem solving while exhibiting empathy, establishing trust and being open to learning. Hours will be 10.00am – 4.00pm Monday to Friday. Duties will include –

• Provide individual research assistance for students and staff in person and via AskLive
• Receive referrals from busy first point of enquiry service points to provide more in-depth consultations
• Interpret and refer specialist enquiries to Liaison Librarians or other library specialists
• Record daily drop-in consultation statistics
• Support the implementation of the new Book a Librarian service

To register your interest in this role, please provide a brief Expression of Interest that outlines:

• Why you are interested in this position;
• What skills and personal qualities you will bring to the position;
• What knowledge and experience you will bring to the position;

Expressions of Interest should be submitted to alison.mcintyre@canterbury.ac.nz by 12.00 noon Thursday 11^th February 2016.

School Librarians Dinah Warren (Waimea College) and Senga White (Southland Boys’ High School) will visit tomorrow as part of a proposal to develop a pilot information literacy programme to support transition to university.

There are a number of drivers for this pilot –

1. Recent NZ research by Emerson, L, et al (2014) identified information literacy as a critical success factor in transition from high school to university. They highlighted a gap in the  skills of high school students and the levels of information literacy required for success at university.
2. Student recruitment and retention, and community engagement are  strategic priorities for the UC in 2016.
3. A desire from high school librarians for closer working with tertiary libraries

Following on from a suggestion from the Library Committee and conversations with school librarians, the meeting tomorrow will introduce potential collaborators and be the start of planning for a pilot to deliver an Information Literacy programme for transition to university. Other UC collaborators included in the discussions are the School of Humanities, UCPathways and Academic Skills.

• Emerson, L, Kilpin, K and Feekery, A. (2014) Starting the conversation: student transition from secondary to academic literacy. Curriculum Matters, 10, pp. 94-112

The following arrangements have been made to provide subject cover now that Cuiying has left –

Dave Clemens will act as Liaison for Chinese and Japanese

Dave Lane  will act as Liaison for Computer Science and Software Engineering

Janette Nicolle will continue on her own as Liaison for all Commerce subjects – Managements, Economics, Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, Management Science

All staff are warmly invited to a morning tea to farewell Cuiying Mu on her last day of work.

When: Friday 16th October 10.30 – 11.30am

Where: Puaka-James Hight Level 5 staff room

Please RSVP for catering purposes to me by midday Thursday 8th October.

Alison McIntyre

It is with some sadness that I must let all staff know that Cuiying Mu has resigned her position as Liaison Librarian. Cuiying has accepted a position as Liaison Librarian at Massey University, Albany campus. She has decided to move to Auckland to be closer to her daughter. Cuiying’s last day of work will be Friday 16th October.

Alison McIntyre
Academic Liaison Manager

7 St Margaret’s Road
Girton
Cambridge
CB3 0LT

Greetings from Cambridge

Dear Alison,

Our shipping container arrived last week so we are delighted to be reunited with all our furniture and household effects. We’ve also established reliable internetness. It also means I’ve got my hands on the splendid book Spirit of the South and UC pen and tie again so it’s a really appropriate, if belated, time to write this letter to thank everyone for these gifts and for such a lovely send-off. Here’s an update on what we’ve been up to since leaving Christchurch.

Now we have furniture we’ve just moved into a lovely rented house in Girton, which is about a 25 minute cycle ride from the Scott Polar Research Institute. My route takes me down a newly created cycle path, via the Bridge of Sighs, which spans the River Cam and affords a view of more punts than you can shake a stick at, then through the historic centre of Cambridge and past Kings College. Cambridge is the most bike intensive city in the UK and there are certainly bikes everywhere (and the students haven’t returned yet so goodness know what it’ll be like when they do!) There are plenty of bike parks but they’re not as elegant as the ones I’ve grown used to at UC.

SPRI is a lovely place to work and, following our strategy Away Day in Jesus College, which I’ve scheduled for November, I’ll be initiating some projects. A major refurbishment and change in service provision will be needed as currently entering the Library is like teleporting back to 1975. There are two card catalogues in the foyer and the electronic catalogue for materials purchased post 1985 is a standalone one. My first task is to ensure the project to migrate this standalone catalogue to the University’s Voyager system is completed successfully this year _ I’ve just arranged cataloguing training in using Voyager for my team. This is a fairly short term aim as the University is planning to move to either ExLibris’ Alma or Proquest’s Intota in 2016. Next sounds like it’ll be an exciting one – I’m also expecting to be able to meet up with other Polar Librarians at a conference in Fairbanks Alaska in July.

My family are happy to be back and have now, I think, caught up with some of the things they missed in NZ (mainly family but also an absurd fondness for Pizza Express!). We’ve sold our house in Loughborough and are now looking for a house in buy in the catchment area of Impington Village College where the girls have just started at school. Their new school has a very international feel, probably linked to the international drawing power of the University of Cambridge, and I’m confident Emma and Freya will settle in well there. Their school mates all seem intrigued by Emma and Freya’s experience in Christchurch.

We have had an interesting journey from Christchurch to reach this point. The family loved spending a few days in Auckland – we went up the Sky Tower and were fortunate to meet up with one of my Dad’s cousins who lives in a residential home in Rotorua. We hadn’t been able to see her in Rotorua in the four years we were in Christchurch so it was lovely to see her and to hear her Yorkshire accent so far from home. I also managed a few beers with Brian Flaherty in Parnell. Our next stop was Singapore where we enjoyed the Gardens by the Bay, afternoon tea and cakes in Raffles Hotel, a bus tour of the city and walk through Chinatown. Once we arrived back in Britain the first thing we did is buy a car and, no doubt influenced by four years driving in NZ, I seem to have acquired an all black, four wheel drive VW Tiguan, though I doubt I’ll make use of the 4WD to get to any skifields. I do however aspire to take the family skiing in France or Italy next year in the event that buying a house near Cambridge doesn’t soak up every penny we have. For Cambridge think Auckland prices!

Home access to the internet has been patchy over the last couple of months but I’ll be updating my Facebook account with some photos of our recent life changes very shortly. Other contact details are below. It’s probably best I sent this off now as this week the All Blacks are heading this way and I hope to be devoting my leisure time to watching Richie and the boys on the telly!

I trust that all is well with everyone at UC Library.

Best wishes

Peter

All staff are warmly invited to a morning tea to welcome Te Paea on her first day in her role as Customer Services Manager.

When:  10.00 am Monday 7th September 2015

Where: Puaka-James Hight, Level 5 Staffroom

Janette Winks

For Greg Marshall