I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank people for their help and kindness after my accident. Anne has been really supportive during this time, and I’d particularly like to thank Jenny for managing MB in my absence, also Alison for help with recruitment, and Fiona for helping with Pacific enquiries. Caroline S was thrown into it for her last 2 weeks before her break and the entire MB team have just got one with everything calmly. Sorry if I’ve forgotten anyone!
I was getting quite bored so I’m glad to be back. As you can see I was determined that nothing was going to stop me enjoying my summer holiday…
What have I been up to the last couple of days in Waiau? Well, as a UC Library representative on the Canterbury Disaster Salvage Team I received a call to action to assist the Amuri Historical Society in Waiau. Sadly their cob cottage, which houses their museum collection, was badly damaged in the 7.8 earthquake of 14 November. I spent the last two days assisting with object salvage alongside Lynn Campbell (CDST co-ordinator) and Judith Taylor (National Services Te Paerangi). I must say, people in Waiau looked pretty shattered and tired.
See the next issue of Kaweroko for more details and pics of the salvage operation. Here is me in front of the poor old cottage 🙁 (we were not working in the damaged building).
Our mihi whakatau for Waitangi Teepa our new Kaitakawaenga Māori, is on Monday at 9.00am (for details see my email to library staff).
We will support Nekerangi in the mihi to Waitangi with a waiata, ‘E Hara’, which many of you already know. Here is a link to the lyrics and tune for E Hara.
I’m really pleased to let you all know that Emma Ioane will be joining the MB team as a research assistant over summer. She will be working on a project to research and provide descriptive information about John Macmillan Brown’s own papers and personal library that is now housed at MB. Emma’s research is aimed at making the collection more accessible for research by Pacific scholars researching Pacific topics. This position has been funded from the Macmillan Brown Trust funds.
Emma is a UC student with an impressive collection of degrees in commerce, political science/Pacific studies and law. We are really looking forward to welcoming her to the team and following her progress on the collection.
It’s my pleasure to announce that Waitangi Teepa has accepted the role of Kaitakawaenga Māori. Waitangi has previously worked in publishing Māori educational resources and also for Archives New Zealand, having been involved in the Constitution Relocation Project. The panel were impressed by her knowledge of Te Reo and Tikanga and are looking forward to welcoming her to UC.
Although the role is now based in the Macmillan Brown Team, Waitangi will deliver services to the College of Education, Health and Human Development. She will therefore work from both the Macmillan Brown and Education Libraries at various times.
As Waitangi is relocating from Hastings we have not yet confirmed a start date but this is likely to be in December.
Don’t panic, we are not losing Caroline permanently! We will however be farewelling her temporarily at the end of this year to embark on a year’s leave during 2017.
This provides an opportunity for someone to take on the role of Research Services Librarian at Macmillan Brown Library for a fixed term period of 12 months. See vacancy 4119 on the UC vacancies website for more information. The role will be full time for the fixed term period. I’m happy to answer any questions about this role.
Tomorrow morning I will be taking the disaster cart in the library warehouse away for 2 days to the Fire and Flood salvage workshop at the Woolston Fire Station.
If there is an incident you can use the MB supplies in stack 2 or there are supplies in the disaster cupboard in the warehouse. If anything major happens you can always call me and I can bring a whole team of newly trained salvage experts to the rescue!!
We have a few staff on leave at MB at the moment so this is just an overview of who is where.
Erin will be on leave after today and returns on 21 November. Damian will be on professional development leave overseas from 7-17 November (he will no doubt post on this interesting opportunity soon). Enquiries for either can be sent to the front desk in the first instance… and I will try and remember how to be an archivist and rare books librarian for any enquiries that get forwarded to me!
Lisa and Annie are helping us out until Hannah returns from parental leave on 21 November and it’s been great having them here.
We are interviewing for the vacant Kaitakawaenga Māori position next week so hope to have an update on that soon.
And please do come and admire our freshly painted foyer thanks to the awesome UC painters!
The Macmillan Brown Library foyer is being repainted next week. There may be some disruption to access via the foyer on Monday while the scaffolding is set up on the stairs, and people may be redirected via Te Ao Mārama.
While disabled access will still be available it may be advisable to phone ahead if you are referring customers who require lift access.
Once the scaffolding is up, there should be little disruption throughout the rest of the week. We are very much looking forward to a refreshed foyer!
