Kia ora koutou,

I’m really pleased to announce that Sara Roberts has accepted appointment to the role of Manager, Learning and Teaching in LTR.  Sara comes to the position with her current leadership experience as 0.5 Deputy, and will bring her strategic vision and her many other talents to this role. The official start date is Monday 16 July.

Congratulations, Sara, and we look forward to working with you as Manager L&T.

Talofa lava,

I’m sure many of us will be interested in next Wednesday’s Salon topic. Please spread the news to other UC staff that the Salon is on next week and that everyone is welcome to come and have their say on this topical matter.  Professor Ann Richardson (Health Science) is the provocateur – see below for her provocation summary!

Open plan working, who’s it actually working for?

Our recent systematic review on the effects of workplace design on the health of employees found that, compared with individual offices, shared or open-plan office space is not beneficial to employees’ health, with consistent findings of deleterious effects on staff health, wellbeing and productivity.  Our findings are consistent with those of earlier reviews.   Decisions about workplace design should include weighing short-term financial benefits of open-plan or shared workspaces against the significant harms, including increased sickness absence, lower job satisfaction and productivity, and possible threats to staff recruitment and retention.

This is the link to the paper: http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/read-the-journal/all-issues/2010-2019/2017/vol-130-no-1467-15-december-2017/7443

Kia ora koutou,

this month’s Salon is at 12 noon Wednesday on level 3 between the lifts.

Theme: Death by 1000 Cuts – the Cumulative Impact of Micro-aggressions

Provocateur: Philippa Martin

Please spread the word and remind any staff that you are talking with that the session is on, and we are keen to know whether the break time is an easier time for some staff to make it to a Salon session.

Thanks very much to Joan for moving her VALA reportback. Alison’s farewell will be held in Undercroft 101 on Friday 13 April from 2.30 pm until 4 pm. All staff are welcome (and, of course, family members as we know that after school pickup may be a challenge).

We will also be extending the  farewell event invitation to people in other parts of the University who have worked with Alison over the years.

Kia ora koutou,

I’m very sad to be announcing that we have accepted Alison’s resignation from her position as Manager, Learning and Teaching Services in LTR, because she has been appointed as a Principal Advisor at the National Library, based in Wellington.

Of course we are delighted for and congratulate Alison and wish her well in this new and very significant position, for which she is well suited and equipped. Alison’s last day will be Friday 13 April, and although that is not far away, I know that we will have time to show our appreciation for all that she has contributed here at the Library. More information about a farewell event will be posted here in the coming days.

Thanks very much to those of you responsible for the beautiful flowers and gifts and for all the best wishes for my next round of chemo treatment tomorrow afternoon. Its is lovely to work with such a supportive group of people and I really appreciate it. Good news from my specialist today is that the cancer lump is definitely shrinking!

Kia ora,

not that we are spamming about Week of the Geek but… a few people said they’d love to just help for half an hour or an hour on a day and to let them know when we knew what we needed help with. So – on Monday we need help with Lego, particularly at Central between 11am and noon and between 2pm and 2.45pm.  On Wednesday, Games, Games, Games needs a few people to come alongside students and play board games with them any time in the afternoon from 1pm – 4pm.

At any time during the week you may volunteer to dress in the inflatable dinosaur suit and pop up for half an hour in a library location (any of our libraries) so that students can have their photo taken with you. (this may also involve Don the Bear).

Names and times of your availability can be given to Alison McIntyre anytime between now and Monday morning.We also appreciate that library staff are already talking up the week to students and explaining that we love to partner with them.

Thanks in advance, Lyndsay.

Kia ora koutou,

last year CONZUL (Council of New Zealand University Librarians) agreed to survey academic staff at each of the NZ universities using a core Ithaka questionnaire related to staff use of academic literature in their research areas. I am our contact person and organiser for the survey (see 2018 Library Operational Plan Objective 1.21)

 and I’m keen to hear from anyone who is interested in being involved in this project. For UC, we intend to have the survey open at a similar time as the other universities (start of May to start of June), and before that we need to do some set up work.