Earlier this afternoon I emailed out an invitation to a survey that asks you to choose a new name for Bob. Please do let me know if you didn’t receive it.

Ngā mihi, Stuart

Kia ora koutou,

I’ve attached the Bob Review survey results for your reading pleasure.

Along with the survey results, the document contains a summary, an introduction, some findings, and recommendations, which have now been accepted by Library Managers. Please talk to your manager if you have any questions or concerns about these accepted recommendations.

20190416_Bob-Review-Report-Final

One of the recommendations is that the name ‘Bob’ should be changed. In the next few hours/days I’ll be emailing you a link to a survey form where you can vote for your favourite alternate name.

I’m extremely happy to let you know that Kiera Tauro has accepted the role of Subject Librarian – Research, in the Engineering area.

Kiera will begin her new role on 20 May.

Ka pai Kiera! The Research Services team looks forward to asking you to attend the postgraduate welcome events on our behalf…

Remember: Alison Johnston’s farewell ‘do’ is this afternoon: There will be kai! There will be conversation! There will be AJ!

Drop in to the EPS staff room any time from 1pm (there will be kai from 1pm, with more arriving at 2.15pm). A presentation will happen at 2.30pm.

See also https://blogs.canterbury.ac.nz/counterculture/2019/04/05/alisons-farewell/

As you know, Alison is retiring, finishing her many years of service at UC on 1 May.

To celebrate her extraordinary adventures in librarianing, Alison will host a ‘drop in’ in the EPS staff room on the afternoon of Wednesday 1 May. Please pop in for a cuppa to celebrate/commiserate with Alison any time that afternoon.

We will give Alison her present and card at about 2.30. Alison doesn’t want any speeches unless they’re from her. Horseplay, monkey business and shenanigans may ensue. Security guards may be needed to escort her from the building.

Retirement quotes:

“Retirement is the beginning of the time when you can sit back and give advice to others, even though you never followed it in your own life.”

“Retirement is wonderful. It’s doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it.”
— Gene Perret

“Don’t consider retiring … until you have irritated enough people to make it worthwhile.”
— Ernie Zelinski

Early last year when Bob took over from the previous PD&R system, it was agreed that there would be a review – an “evaluation … of the approach, adapting to make sure the system is continuing to work for all staff”

Recently Library managers reflected on how Bob has been working in their teams. An outcome of that discussion was that all library staff should be surveyed for their opinions on Bob.

Also, library teams are encouraged to provide feedback and ideas to their manager.

The link to a Bob review survey is below. Please do take the survey. It should only take about 5 minutes to complete. It will close off at 5pm Friday 12 April. The survey results are completely anonymous.

http://canterbury.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eY947Ez5KiKrHdH

Congratulations to Kerry Gilmour who recently passed QSR International training to become an NVivo Certified Expert. This certification isn’t easy to get, and positions Kerry as a top level NVivo user and trainer.

NVivo is a tool to support the analysis of qualitative and mixed methods research, and by becoming an NVivo Certified Expert, Kerry is qualified to provide a high level of training and support for UC NVivo users.  

Yes it’s true: Alison Johnston is (finally) retiring on 1 May 2019.
It’s not that I don’t still enjoy my work … it’s simply that I am tired of my endless commuting.

Over the last 23 years I have officially been a reference/liaison/subject librarian. It may seem like the same position but the actual roles I carried out changed every few years. As a librarian I have taught across almost all of the subjects available at the university and find my most recent role as civil and natural resources engineering librarian the most intellectually and interpersonally challenging.

My first Masters degree is in Anthropology and I have always tried to be the anthropologist in the room, engaging in participant observation, to discover the information needs of staff and students. Completing my Masters degree in Geology is also an expression of anthropological training in the research method of participant observation!

Over the years I have attended 4 national and 5 international conferences with the assistance of the library and 2 General Staff awards. I have delivered talks at 3 international conferences. I found these conferences so inspiring that my wish for all subject librarians is to have the opportunity to attend conferences. I have to admit that making the audiences laugh was the best part of speaking….

I am very grateful to so many people who have shown me kindness over the last 23 years. We have had so many turbulent times. I don’t think I am going to vanish into the Canterbury foothills for long as I have research interests in both paleoarchaeology and civil engineering that I will continue to engage in.

I would like to share an afternoon tea with my library family before I go. It will be at the EPS library. I will let you know the date later!!

GradFest begins today and runs all week.

Check out the programme and timetable on the Academic Skills Centre webpage (https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/support/asc/).

Library staff will be presenting at sessions and we will also be providing drinks at morning tea each day.