Kia ora koutou,

Over the past couple of months there has been quite a lot of development around the Library’s Makerspace that I haven’t updated you on – so here is what we have been doing, and I’ve added in the background information for those of you who want to read that far 🙂

What are we doing?

We have a project team to set up a trial Makerspace in the old Student Care space on Level 2 of Puaka James Hight (Room 214). The project team is Caroline A, Lyndsay, Rebecca F and Te Paea. The SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) for the project is all the people who have been in the Makerspace project teams so far, and we also have Library staff that haven’t been on the team yet but have expressed an interest in being involved. I will email all of you so you know who you are. The project charter for this project will hopefully be approved at this Friday’s Library Project Board meeting.

The space will open for use on Monday 9 September and the first activity will be a banner making exercise currently being planned by Zina. (who is an SME!). Activity 2 will be games (kēmu) held in the space as that week is also Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori. Any student or staff member will be able to come and use the equipment in the space to do their own projects, supported by library staff. Opening times for the trial will be 2pm to 5pm Monday to Friday. If we get feedback that suggests these hours aren’t the most useful, they might shift during the trial, which will end at Show Weekend. We expect to gather feedback throughout the time and then work on what we require for a service in 2020.

We will be advertising for a full time 5 month fixed term person to assist with planning, working with our library users in the space, relationship building and linkages etc. This position is at band four and will hopefully be advertised this week.

Some activities that we’d like to have in a Makerspace won’t be able to be in the trial due to Health and Safety concerns around fume and particulate venting in the space we will be using.

What is a Makerspace?

These are places where people gather to make things, supported by knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff, and with the needs of the specific user community in mind. They often sit in libraries as libraries already bring together diverse groups. In academic libraries, they often support the curriculum or expected graduate outcomes. Being a maker inspires creativity, collaboration and new interdisciplinary ideas. In particular, the opportunity to combine technology and crafting using tools and equipment that is not always available to an individual user.

Moving the Library Makerspace activities from small project-based achievements to a Business as Usual service to our UC community was prioritised by senior management in May 2019. In this context, a BAU approach means creating and trialling a purposeful space, linkage to other similar initiatives on campus, and completing administrative setups.

Relevant Library Operational Plan opportunities identified for 2019 are:

• alignment of services with the Graduate Profile,
• collaborative working,
• emergence of new technologies and associated services.

Kia ora koutou

Kia kaha te reo Māori!

From 9th to 15th Mahuru (September) is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, and we would like to bring a team together to organise ngā Puna Mātauraka’s events and special happenings. Anyone who is interested in contributing to the week is invited to attend a brief meeting on Monday 19th at 2pm in PJH 524A (meeting room 9).

Bring your ideas , experience and enthusiasm!

Kia ora koutou,

a reminder that from 5pm this Friday (26th) Games Night is on in the Puaka James Hight tearoom. Everyone is welcome – we will be ordering out for food at some point. You can turn up at any stage as there will be some short and some longer games.

Feel free to bring along games, and we will have a selection already here for your enjoyment!

Lyndsay and Anton.

Thanks very much to everyone who replied to the Games Night survey. There was a clearly preferred date so our night will be:

Friday 26th of July. Everyone is welcome (including family members).

A couple of people felt that the start time could be improved so:

from 5pm – you are welcome to arrive then, or later on after tea. We will probably finish around 9.30pm, though we imagine some may keep playing!

Many of you are not worried what option we chose for food, but of those who do have an opinion the preference is to order in a fast food solution, so we will do that.

Put this in your diaries and come along to a relaxing or competitive evening!

Kia ora koutou,

our chance to provide feedback is happening through until Sunday 14 July. For me, it has been useful  to spend some time filling out the two parts of the survey and reflecting on what messages and expectations I get in our workplace.

If you’ve lost your survey link, please let Michel Fivet know as he will be able to get it reinstated.

Lyndsay.

Organisation = UC

Department = Library

Kia ora koutou

want to get together and play some board games or some xBox etc.? We are suggesting a Friday night get together in the Puaka James Hight tearoom from 6pm onward to have some fun games, eat some food together etc. If you are interested, we need to know which night will suit best so please indulge the survey monkey with a few minutes of your time:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/M9J8B5J

Thanks,

Lyndsay and Anton

Kia ora,

I’d like to use my P card to order some items from the American Library Association’s graphics catalogue, but they only post to internal US addresses. Has anyone got any experience with the Post Office’s US address service or is already using a US address?

thanks, Lyndsay.

Update: Thanks to everyone for their comments here and emails to me. I have learned that we do have a Library Youshop account (rarely used), so I will use that method to get our goods.

Kia ora ano,

for the next 6 months, we will have a joint IT, Financial Services and external consultants team of 4 people working on the north side of the consulting room between the PJH level 5 tearoom and my office. They are working on a robotics/automation of processes project and will be putting up some partial height screens to achieve privacy.

Subject Librarians and the ELearning team will still be using the other side of the area for consultations with staff and the Library managers will still be using it for the visual management board meetings. The 3D printer and its accessories have all moved to the Level 2 former Student Care space. If you need to access the printer, a key to the level 2 space is available from Customer Services.

Toni O’Donohue from Finance has briefed the team who will be coming in so that they will be fully aware that this space is a thoroughfare to the tearoom and there is no expectation that we should alter our behaviour (except of course to be mindful and welcoming to the new team :-))

Kia ora koutou

Over the next 5 months, Te Paea and I will be working on a trial makerspace set up in the former Student Care/Disabilities Services area on level 2 of Puaka James Hight. This work will allow us all to get a feel for how our users would use a library makerspace and what layout and equipment we will need to develop for a more permanent location. A limited amount of furniture and equipment will be sourced now with a view to reusing it later.

More details of the project are in the Makerspace project folder in the K drive. The former Makerspace project team will be a reference group for this new piece of work, as the experience and expertise that members of the team have built up is a valuable resource. There are a couple of pop up activities that the team had already planned to hold in Semester Two and we will discuss the best way to either incorporate those or have them as separate events as part of the Library’s wellness work.

The staffing requirement for a makerspace that is not just a pop up activity is part of what will be worked on, as we will need to have knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff working with users in the space.