All posts by pca27

Weather

Tena koutou

Some of you will be aware that snow has been forecast for some parts of Canterbury tonight, although not for the Christchurch area. In case the weather does become extreme and the University needs to close, notification will appear on the UC website, so do check for news and updates if you’re unsure of the situation. Also check your UC email if you’re uncertain.

Safety is our priority so do stay home if the roads become unsafe and phone to let your team know.

Keep warm and stay safe.

Alison MacIntyre and Jo Condon
Co acting University Librarians.

Digitisation stock take

Kia ora koutou

As part of ongoing work by the library’s Digitisation Steering Group, a small working group has been formed to undertake a digitisation stock take.

What on earth is that? Well, we will be taking stock of the library’s current capability for digitisation in terms of knowledge, skills, technology and process that are required to digitise resources and make them available online.

How will we do it? A small team of Gerald, Dave C and myself will first approach the managers of each team to find out what knowledge, resources and equipment they are aware of in their teams or the libraries generally. There are actually a really wide range of skills needed, including things like project management, marketing, metadata creation etc. We know there are people throughout the network with all sorts of relevant skills and knowledge that might not be widely known. Some of the managers might identify certain staff in their teams that we will need to talk to in detail.

Why is it important? Digitisation of a range of resources is now an integral part of what libraries do. When done well, it can open up resources and provide new opportunities for learning, teaching and research. There have been some really good digitisation projects so far, but we want to take a more co-ordinated approach and increase our capability for this in future.

All teams will be contacted by one of us soon, so we encourage you to have a think about your own skills and knowledge in this area. If there is something you would particularly like to flag or tell us about, either talk to your manager or feel free to contact to one of us directly.

The Digitisation Stock Take Group
Jo, Gerald and Dave C.

Macmillan Brown Centre seminar series

For those of you interested in Pacific history and research, the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies is hosting a seminar by Dr Roseanne Hawarden on Ancient Tongal naval bases:

3 – 5.30pm, Thursday 21 May
Room PS 208, Te Ao Marama (just down the corridor from MB Library)

“A wonder of the medieval Pacific maritime world: The massive 800 year old harbour and canal system of Mua, Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga and the legend of the giant waka, Lomipeau”

Jo Condon
MB Library

Gabrielle’s new arrival

Kia ora Koutou

Here are a couple of pics of Gabrielle’s (as yet unnamed) baby boy, born on 17 April. Total cuteness!

Gabrielle says “Routines seem to be going okay here, the girls are great with their wee brother and at the moment he is still a very cruisy baby, sleeps well, feeds well, doesn’t cry, can’t complain too much at all!”

She hopes to visit and pass him round for lots of cuddles and oohs and aahs.

Ngā mihi

Jo

Te Reo practice – pics and next session

Kia ora koutou

We had our second staff Te Reo session at the Education Library on Tuesday and did some more work on greetings and also looked at different ways to make a mihi more relevant to different situations and more personal to each individual. It was interesting to learn more about the meaning behind it and to talk about how to develop a mihi in a Pakeha context.

I’ve saved some images from our whiteboard notes from the last 2 sessions in the K drive: K:\LIBR-Library\Operations\HR\Staff-development-programmes\Te-Reo-sessions

The next session will be on 17 June at 2.00 pm in room 210, Central Library. Some suggestions have been to sing some waiata and Joan has also found a word game that looks interesting.

Ng&#257 mihi

Jo

“Pacific Echo” out now

The first issue of the newsletter of “Pacific Echo”, the newsletter of the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies is out now.

http://www.pacs.canterbury.ac.nz/mbcnewsletter/ThePacificEcho_Apr2015.pdf

(sorry you will need to cut and paste, I can’t make the link work!)

It’s a really exciting time for Pacific research with the redevelopment of the MB Centre, and we have a regular spot for MB Library to highlight our services and collections for Pacific research.

Have a read and find out what’s happening with the Centre and it’s students.

Jo
MB Library

New team members at MB

Kia ora koutou

A very warm welcome to our two new Macmillan Brown Library assistants, Hannah Stevenson and Annie O’Brien.

Hannah started with us full time 2 weeks ago, replacing Nick Scullin, and is now confidently dealing with all sorts of front desk enquiries (she also has proven cake baking skills!).

Annie O’Brien is a familiar face, having already worked as casual library assistant since last year. Annie is covering Gabrielle Faith’s parental leave and we are enjoying getting to know her better.

We are really pleased to have a full team again with two very enthusiastic new team members with excellent skills and knowledge.

Jo, MB Library