Kia ora Koutou,

With Ryan moving into a fixed-term role as Team Leader for the ELS team, Te Rua Makerspace has an opportunity for an Assistant Librarian Learning.

We are now opening expressions of interest for this role from interested members of the library team. It will be a fixed-term, 37.5 hour per week Band 3 role and will go through to October 18, 2024.

If you have always wanted to work in the Makerspace, help students realise their creative potential as well as boost their well-being and contribute to an overall more rounded experience of university, please feel free to talk with Jessica or Ryan for more information on the role. If you wish to submit an EoI please email it to me with your attached CV by 5:00 p.m. Tuesday 14 May.

Attached in the Teams post version of this message (Library All Staff > General), is the Position Description for your reference and a copy of the Makerspace plan for the next two years.

Ngā Mihi, Simon.

Kia ora Koutou,

I am very pleased to announce that Ryan will be our new acting team leader while Dale is in the Library Strategy Navigator role.
My thanks to those people who put in an EOI for the secondment, and my congratulations to Ryan on his success.

I know the ELS team is really looking forward to working with you Ryan wearing your new hat over the coming months!

We now of course have a vacancy in Te Rua maker-space! We will be working on an EOI / secondment for this role in the next fortnight or so.

Ngā mihi, Simon.

Kia ora Koutou,

With Dale having been successful in the Library Strategy Navigator role, the ELS team now has a vacancy for a Fixed Term team leader.

This role would extend from 15 April (or as close as possible) to the 15 October – when Dale’s fixed term role is due to come to an end. It is a 37.5 hour per week band 5 role. The successful person will look after 13 direct reports.

So, if you have ever wanted to gain experience in a supportive environment to learn how to coach, people manage and lead in a library team, and you love timetabling, this may be the opportunity for you!

If you wish to apply, please email your expression of interest along with your CV to both Aurelia and me by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday 2 April.

I have attached the PD to Teams post. If you have any questions, please feel free to talk to me, Dale, Isabella, or Aurelia.

This will be cross posted on Teams.

Ngā Mihi,

Simon Burge
Kaiwhakahaere Ratonga Kiritaki | Manager Engagement and Learning Support

Kia ora Koutou,

Following the recent large recruitment process we ran for our various library assistant positions; we now have a fixed term vacancy for a 30 hour per week Band 2 Library Assistant position in the ELS Team.

The fixed term will extend until 9 June 2024.

The hours will be:

Sunday
Monday
Tuesday 7.45 am-4.15pm (7.5)
Wednesday 1.00-9.00 p.m. (7.5)
Thursday
Friday 7.45 am-4.00pm (7.25)
Saturday 1.00-9.15pm (7.75)

I am going to recruit this via an internal Expression of Interest process.

Please note that we would prefer to fill these hours as a whole package rather than split them up.

If you are interested in these hours, please send into me your CV attached to a covering email by close of business, Friday 23 February.

Ngā Mihi,

Simon

Kia ora koutou,

Here is a long and newsy sort of bulletin containing some goings on in ELS.

With our big recruitment phase coming to an end, we next need to turn our attention to the permanent selection of the Team Leader role that was Tomo and is being ably held under a fixed term by Isabella due to end on 3 March. Given the very tight timelines to complete a selection process before the end of the fixed term, and the other work we have on at the moment, I decided to seek a three-month extension to the fixed term for Isabella until 9 June 2024. As a consequence of this, we have also extended Roman’s fixed term (he is covering Isabella’s substantive role) through to the same date.

My thanks to both Isabella and Roman for agreeing to this extension.

Ishbel was on a fixed term filling Roman’s substantive role. With Ishbel being successful in gaining our continuing 37.5-hour role (which was Hugh’s), we will have a fixed-term vacancy of 30 hours per week available until 9 June 2024. This will be recruited via an internal Expression of Interest. A Counter-Culture and email to staff will be the next thing I write.

Monday is the beginning of the new academic year. That means we are back to our longer (normal) hours of opening in our PJH and EPS libraries (MB Library keeps standard hours throughout the year). I will circulate the opening hours on the Teams All Staff General channel.

This leads to a timely reminder about the reserved carpark spaces near PJH – the ones we have near Angus Tate. They are marked reserved for library staff only at all times. Their purpose is to allow members of my team who are coming in to work late nights through to 9 or 11 to have a shot at getting a park that is near to their work and doesn’t require them to walk a long distance back to their car at the end of their shifts. Especially as the nights draw in, it is important that these parks are only used by members of the team that need them. Please refrain if you are not working a late shift on the roster.

Ngā Mihi, Simon

Kia ora Koutou,

Dale, Isabella, and I am very pleased to announce the successful candidates for our full time and part time continuing roles (ex-Hugh and ex-Juliet).

We will welcome (back) Ishbel Cullinane to the full-time role.
We welcome to our team Olivia Davis to Juliet’s part-time role.

Both roles begin on Monday 19 February.

Congratulations to Ishbel and Olivia!

Because of Ishbel’s appointment, I hope to very shortly put out an EoI for the 30 hour per week secondment that she is currently filling. More details to come.

Ngā Mihi,

Simon Burge

Kia ora Koutou,

I am posting to let you know about our planned commemoration for Tomo Shibata. Tomo, as you know, died on Sunday just gone. He has now been laid to rest with the appropriate Buddhist rites in Japan. Leslie and Viktor have returned to live in Manilla, but she is planning to come back to Aotearoa New Zealand in March next year for a short time.

As there was understandably no local funeral or service that we could attend as a team, we will be holding a commemoration of Tomo here next week to allow a space for those of us who wish to, to say goodbye to our friend and colleague and to acknowledge him and his time with us.

When: Thursday 7 December, 10:00 a.m.
Where: Room 224, Central Library PJH.
Shared kai to follow: ELS workroom (Catered)

There will be only a few formalities, it will be mostly an informal chance for those who gather to share their memories and speak (if they wish to) about what Tomo meant to them.

I will shortly send out invites – including to people in the wider university, and some folks from outside with whom Tomo had close working relationships. The invitation is purely to help gauge catering needs, so if you are considering attending on the day, it will help if you hit the accept button.

Ngā mihi,

Simon

Kia ora Koutou,

I am posting this morning with the very sad news that Tomo Shibata, our friend and colleague, has died in Japan after a yearlong illness.

Tomo held roles as a team leader and acting Manager for ELS over the past three years. As you will all know, he had many great qualities which means he has had a huge and beneficial impact on his own and the wider UC Library team. In the days to come, we will all have moments where we remember his honesty, courage, drive, determination (sometimes stubbornness), but always his compassion, humanity, quiet humour, and intelligence. As we think on how his life has touched ours in many different ways, we will also have moments where we reflect upon what his absence will mean for us now too.

His loss will be keenly felt here, and I think also with our colleagues at CCL where he worked before joining UC. I know that he will be sorely missed by all of us. and I want to encourage all of you to talk with each other and remember Tomo; talk to your manager, to myself, Dale, or Isabella. Remember too that there are good, free professional services available to us through EAP should you wish to do so.

As Tomo and his family are all in Japan now, I am afraid I have no information to forward at this stage regarding any service or funeral, but we hope to find out more in due course.

Our thoughts are with Lesley and baby Viktor and Tomo’s family.

Simon

Kia ora Koutou,

The following information came to managers via an email from (ultimately) Paul O’Flaherty’s office. It regards the drilling works that have been going on for most of this year (and last year) as part of converting the university’s heating systems. Key body of the text below….

[Update on] the on-going central campus drilling works…

Please note that while all works are continuing on-site, there will be noise and some minimal vibration with the balance of the drilling/civil works, but this will not a be a constant and will have intermittent breaks with every effort being made to keep any and all adverse effects on your daily life to an absolute minimum. Please share this information with your teams.

Ngā Mihi, Simon.

Kia ora Koutou,

Further to the information provided about Hugh’s new and exciting career direction, we will be holding a farewell morning tea for Hugh on Wednesday 4 October – in the Level 5 break-out space between the staff room and workroom at 10:30 a.m.

All welcome!

We will be providing some kai but feel free to bring a plate to contribute to the send-off!

Ngā mihi, Simon and ELS Team.