Tēnā rawa atu koutou in the group for your hard work on the FedEx Day. Plans are well underway to implement our first initiative the Kōrero Zone. Waitangi is the main lead and contact person for this. Library Managers have agreed to continue with FedEx days twice per annum, one in winter and one in summer. If you are interesting in leading one of these please let me or your manager know. This does not stop other FedEx type innovation happening in teams or other groups across the Library or LR. Ngā mihi nui, Anne

If you are intending to apply for Staff Tertiary Study Assistance for Semester One courses can you please talk to your manager and get your application in as soon as possible. Approval and enrolment for staff is likely to be slower this year than the usual two weeks as the government changes are adding extra manual work for SSAC staff. Thanks, Anne

We have just been informed that Distribution Services no longer have the staffing capacity to provide a hamper service to the Library. There will be a series of meetings next week both with Library staff and with Distribution Services to look at how we manage this change, what type of service we can sensibly offer and how to communicate this to our users. If you would like to attend or have ideas, please contact your manager or me.

The cessation of the hamper service will have an impact on staff and students. Areas of impact will include:
– Inter-library requesting and returns
– Distance Services
– Interloans
– Support at Dovedale until CoEHHD moves to Ilam
– Store retrieval
– Delivery of new books and serials
– Delivery of small miscellaneous items e.g. marketing materials and stationery.

One option is to use Allied Pickford who have been contracted to do the furniture moves at UC, but this will be a cost to the Library. Distribution Services have been asked to cost this option prior to discussions next week.

The postal service will continue but with one delivery/collection per day in the afternoon. This will link up with the usual daily mail and courier pickup very early the next morning.

These are part of the changes across Learning Resources to achieve budgetary savings. The VC, SMT and Council all made the decision that permanent savings must be achieved in 2018 to allow the university to become financially viable.

No reduction in service will be seen as positive from a customer experience perspective, and it will be breaking promises that we made to academic staff when we put material into storage. We must now focus on managing the impact of this on our users and on ourselves, and continue to provide a service we can be proud of.

Thanks for your understanding. We are asking for information on any other service changes in LR to be passed on so these can be planned for. In the meantime if you are asked, or find you need to, pick up new tasks due to changes happening outside the Library can you please discuss it first with your manager so we can see the full impact for all of us.
Ngā mihi nui, Anne

As you are aware we need to make staff savings in 2018. Temporary staffing savings give us time to make the best decisions for the Library going forward. One way to create these savings, at least for the one year 2018 that counts, is to take more leave than you did in 2017. If most staff took for example another three days or part time equivalent leave than they did last year it will end up as a credit for the Library. I know some staff have little outstanding leave or are saving for a particular purpose and that is fine. You will still need to use all your excess leave by December. This is just a suggestion so make the choice that is right for you. Ngā mihi nui, Anne

I would like to welcome three AV staff members, Rob Stowell, Andrew Fletcher and Alan Larsen to the Library. They will form the new Online Production team within the E-learning Support Team. They will report to Nick from 4 December and will be physically located in the Library before Christmas. Other members of AV Services will join ITS. There will be a transition period to allow staff time to shape the new services going forward and to ensure that services run smoothly for the start of the 2018 academic year.

The change in AV Services reflects the rapidly changing requirements for AV support for Learning and Teaching, and the increasing synergies with ITS and the Library, in particular the E-Learning Support Team. As the volume of demand grows and the technologies evolve there is a need to do more with existing resources, requiring closer integration of services. Having the Online Production Team closely integrated with E-Learning Support will better align complementary skills to allow pedagogy driven learning content to be created to support online learning. They will focus mostly on learning but will also provide resources for research and other activities.

At the moment we are discussing an induction for Rob, Andrew and Alan, where they will be located, and setting up a recording space that can be used. You will soon start to see them coming and going in the Library. Please make them feel welcome.

Ngā mihi nui, Anne

The Library OEI/OCI Results for 2017 and comparisons with 2015 are now available in K:\\LIBR-Library\operations\HR\OCI-OEI.   There has been a very pleasing change to the Library results overall with a lot less green and red and an increase in the blue.   There are also some very interesting differences between Library teams.

Various files have different versions of the information so it will be best to work your way through a number of them.   The Library-full-subgroup-report-2017.pdf  contains all the statistics broken down by unit if you are interested in the detail.    There are comparison files for five units that show the changes between 2015 and 2017 more clearly.   Sadly these arrived after the first Library workshop and  I am still working on getting one for the E-Learning Team.   The feedback from the Library sessions last week is also available.    Over time more information will be added to this directory.

Library managers will be discussing the outcomes and feedback from staff at the next Strategy meeting to determine the priorities for 2018.  Keep feeding in your thoughts.

Ngā mihi nui, Anne

In Academic Board today Rod provided some information about Rehua and the move of the College of Education, Health and Human Development.   Hawkins are still saying Rehua will be available for January however there is not a lot of faith in this prediction at UC.  Meanwhile the 2018 timetable will come out on 18 September.    It assumes that teaching will remain on the Dovedale Campus for Semester One 2018.   There remains an option that some teaching will move to Rehua when spaces becomes available, possibly on a class by class basis.

Teaching on the Dovedale campus has an impact on the services we provide and use of the Education Library.    The Library collection moves will go ahead as planned.   Over the next few weeks there will be a number of conversations about what services options might be required at Dovedale, how they might be provided and how that may impact on other groups.    If you have ideas, please feed them to the appropriate person.

We have a new approved list of reo Māori terms for the Library.   Some of the terms have changed due to a better understanding of what the role does.      The name of the UC Library is now Ngā Puna Mātauraka (o Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha).   This acknowledges that the Library is about knowledge in its many forms rather than just books.

Please check that you are using the correct terms and update the various places that the reo Māori terms may appear including the website, signatures, business cards etc.

Ripeka and Nekerangi are happy to explain the background for the changes and pronunciation of the terms.

Ngā mihi nui, Anne

I sadly have to inform you that Fiona Macmillan passed away on Saturday.    Fiona started working at UC in the mid to late 1970s in the Cataloguing Dept.   As a cataloguer her specialty was Fine Arts. She also worked at the British Library for a few years.   She was involved in setting up the Law Library when it first started and before Gail Pattie was appointed as the Law Librarian.  This would have been sometime in the mid-80s.   She retired around 1993.

Fiona was a keen opera buff, and enjoyed art and Italian.    She frequently visited the Library after she retired.

Please see the notice in the Press for more details.

Max Burrows was the Foreman Binder in the University of Canterbury Library from Feb 1984 to May, 2006. He came to the University after having worked in Whitcoulls as a binder for a number of years.

Max was an outstanding craftsman, who was responsible for the repair and binding of all of the publications received by the Library and other university departments . He also bound theses, dissertations and publications for students. His work was always of the highest quality – when he repaired damaged books, they were often better than they had been when they were new. In addition, he set the same high standards for his staff.

Max was one of the most personable members of the library staff. He had a large number of friends in the University and many of them found their way to the Bindery where he was always a welcome listener (and advice-giver). Outwardly, he loved to present a somewhat gruff manner which, as we soon discovered, masked a very warm and caring nature. He was particularly in his element at morning and afternoon teas where he would sit with his staff and expound on anything, especially politics and sport.

He was a keen golfer and he looked forward to playing more of it during his retirement.

Dick Hlavac, University Librarian (Retired)