Kia ora koutou

There are many bottles of milk in the 2 fridges of level 5 staffroom PJH, that are close to (or past) the Best Before date.  If anyone wishes to take some home, then please do, so we don’t need to tip it out.
The milk order has been halved starting last week while many of us now work from home.

Ngā mihi,
Jenny

Kia ora koutou

Starting this week (1 February 2022), it is no longer a requirement for library staff to sign-in/out on the paper registers at each of our 3 storage locations (Warehouse, Law Basement, Henry Field).

Staff should record on their office whiteboard or roster when they intend to visit these spaces, and also scan the QR codes on their phone before entering each space.  Each location also requires scanning Canterbury Card reader for entry.

The Library Health & Safety Committee have agreed to these changes. The sign-in sheets will remain for non-library staff to sign in and out, and so library staff are aware if others are in the same building.

Ngā mihi,
Jenny

The new furniture is now installed on level 4 of PJH and the changes are complete.  There are a couple of photos below but I also encourage you to go have a walk around.  I also include a photo of Te Pataka desk on Level 2, which is not yet finished. These are both significant changes and milestones for UC Puna and have involved a lot of work and input by many staff.

Ngā mihi
Jenny

Kia ora koutou, welcome to another Inside Out from the Library Managers. There always seems to be a lot happening, even as we wind down to the end of the year.  Let’s all take a moment to pause and congratulate ourselves on getting through a tough year and achieving lots of great things despite the many challenges.

LIANZA Conference – I watched several papers at the first ever fully virtual LIANZA Conference in early November.  There was very active chat in most of the sessions, and good engagement from attendees.  Most of the papers were pre-recorded, but presenters were often present online and could answer questions after the session if there was time. There is access to the conference papers for 2 months so I intend to go back and watch some more sessions later.

One of the most inspiring talks I watched was from Dany Miller-Kareko and Sharnae Inu about Te Paataka Koorero o Takaanini, which is a new library and community hub in South Auckland that opened in March 2021. The library is all open plan with no kaimahi workspaces and it also has a whare kai (kitchen stocked with food/drink!) for the community to use. It is an excellent example of a wonderful bicultural space created with lots of consultation with the local iwi and community.

Gender Pay Equity in Libraries – I attended a TEU online meeting which was seeking information from librarians about our experiences and thoughts on gender pay equity in our sector.  The TEU is exploring raising a claim nationally in 2022 to look at this issue in Tertiary Libraries, so watch this space.

Mental Health workshop – I attended the Mental Health 101 Webinar last week. This course is new to UC this year and being offered through Learning and Development. It was a time to reflect about my own mental health self-care (which I don’t do often enough) and to develop confidence in understanding and responding to others experiences of mental health challenges.  I also re-watched Lucy Hone’s TED talk on resilience which was mentioned in the workshop. I recommend both of these to those that are interested.

ITS Team – Information Technology Services are currently undergoing a major change to their team structure. Some roles will be disestablished by end of February 2022 and new Product Manager roles are currently being advertised.  They are also renaming the team to Digital Services (sound familiar?) and renaming many of the roles.  Library support will be aligned with the Research Experience team, where Margaret Adam (Library Programme Analyst) will sit.  We currently sit under the IT Student Support team.

Ngā mihi nui,

Jenny

One of the goals in the Library Operational Plan 2021 is to support staff for an optional one day per year to do voluntary community work during your work hours. This is given without the need to take official leave.

Library Managers encourage staff to make the most of this opportunity to give back to your community.  Please discuss this with your manager if you are interested.

For inspiration, look at the Volunteering Canterbury website, or you may already be involved in an organisation which offers the opportunity to volunteer your time eg. Church, Sport, Club, Community group

Some of you may have seen the article in Tū ki te tahi about the shipping container going to Tonga, arranged by Dr Russell Taylor from EcoCARE Pacific Trust.  I have donated to the cause some books (withdrawals from the Physical collections project) and also several cartons of plastics folders (used for kits in Edu Library) that can be used in schools.
I have known Russell since when I worked in MB Library many years ago, when he was doing his PhD. Somehow he found out about the Physical Collection Project and contacted me.  The container is now on it’s way to Tonga.

We have completed boxing up about 60% of the books that are moving to Store H.  These items will then have a status of temporarily unavailable. If requests are placed on these items, then please ask the borrower to place an interloan request in the first instance.  If we are unable to source the book through interloan, the last resort will be to locate the book from the box.

Yesterday we also started shuffling/moving books on level 4 of PJH Library. The range guides will be amended by hand temporarily as we progress, so there should always be an accurate guide to where books are located on the floor.

Jenny

Kia ora koutou – below is an update, you will see boxes on Level 4 and Level 5 of PJH very soon.

For the first half of 2021 the Physical Collections project focussed on withdrawing journals from the Law Basement.  This was almost completed before we shifted focus to Level 4 of PJH Library, when an opportunity came about for funding to replace and update all the furniture on level 4.

We have almost completed all the agreed book withdrawals on level 4 and are about to move onto items being relegated to Store H.  This means boxes!  Books will be placed into boxes and temporarily stored on level 5, next to the subject librarians space. They will then be moved on to Store in batches.  The items will get a status of temporarily unavailable while they remain in the boxes.

The existing furniture on Level 4 will be removed  after exams end and the new furniture for Level 4 will then be installed.  We will also reduce and remove 20% of the shelving on level 4 at the same time.

Thank you to all the staff who have put a lot of time into this project and continue to do so.

Jenny

UC has a Bystander training course on 18 November, 9.30-11.30am.
Being an active bystander means being aware of when someone’s behaviour is inappropriate or threatening and choosing to challenge it.
This course comes highly recommended and may fill up quickly.  I have enrolled for the  course and it would be great to have other library kaimahi attend as well. It is usually only run once a year.  You enrol through PeopleSoft, Professional Development section.

Ngā mihi,
Jenny

I can confirm we are starting our work bubbles and posting/scanning service from tomorrow Tuesday 7 September.  We got acceptance of our plan late Friday night.  Posting will continue every day this week.

The COVID postal service will continue during alert level 2. Once libraries re-open, requestors will have the option of on-site pickup or postal.

If we move to Alert Level 2, it will take time to get guidelines and things in place before we can open the libraries.  It is likely to be a phased re-opening like last time.  It will not be possible to open any library until at least Monday next week, regardless of Alert level change.

Jenny