Kia ora koutou,

It is with sorrow for us and with joy for Max that I announce that Max Podstolski will be retiring from the University of Canterbury in December.  Max has been with us for a robust number of years and we will miss his extensive expertise and his sense of humour.  We will, of course, farewell him in style closer to the time, so stayed tuned for the invitation to the party of the season.
Ngā mihi mō ngā rā kei mua i te aroaro.  Max, we wish you all the best for a relaxing and fulfilling retirement.

Sara

Kia ora koutou,

It is our pleasure to announce that we have appointed two Liaison Librarians to the Education and Engineering roles.

We are delighted that Fiona Tyson will join us in the Liaison Librarian, Education position.  Fiona brings a wide range of skills and experience to the role from her time in the Customer Services team, and we are excited to have her on our team.

Fiona will join us on 22nd August.

We also welcome Brian McElwaine in the Liaison Librarian, Engineering role.  Brian has been working at ARA Institute of Canterbury (Previously CPIT) for the past 4 years as a Liaison Librarian and more recently as a Knowledge Advisor. Originally from Northern Ireland, He has a degree in Physics and has worked with Engineering, Computer Science and Science departments in prior roles.

Brian will join us on Monday 8^th August.

Ngā mihi,

Sara

Kia ora koutou,

The Library Committee met on Friday 27 May, and this month the theme was Learning and Teaching.

The meeting started with the usual business of the presentation of the Librarians report (available on Counterculture), and the Chair’s report from Mike Grimshaw.  Mike presented a paper based on his own views regarding the collection review process for Arts and elsewhere, and his desire for better processes.

We then had a presentation from Nick Ford about the behavioural use of Learn by students, which resulted in a discussion about some problems surround Echo360, and the use of Learn by postgraduate students to assist in their research.

Nick Scullin then presented numbers of consultations and information literacy sessions offered by the library in 2015, compared with the numbers for 2014.  There was discussion around the new liaison role to be appointed into Science/Engineering and how this will help to address the lower teaching figures for these colleges.

Let me know if you would like any further information.  I am happy to chat.

Ngā mihi,

Sara

Kia ora koutou,

On Wednesday 25 May Patricia Veen from Thomson Reuters will be leading a session on WestlawNZ.  WestlawNZ is one of our main databases used for accessing New Zealand legislation, case law and legal commentary.  It also contains Australian legal materials and journal articles.  The session will assume a level of familiarity with the database and Academic staff will be attending.  Anyone who uses WestlawNZ and would like to improve their skills, or ask questions of Patricia is welcome to come along.

Date:  Wednesday 25 May
Time:  10am
Venue:  Room 210, Central Library

Sara

Kia ora koutou,

I am the staff representative on the Library Committee, and I have been remiss in not providing an update for the meetings each month.  So, I will do better!  Here is the report from the meeting this morning.  I have relevant documents, so if you need more information, please let me know.

Sara

1. Helen addressed some questions from the History Faculty about the history collection review process.

2.  Mike Grimshaw (Chair) had spoken to the Research Committee about the use of the library collections, and had some points to follow up around who uses the collections, how the collections are used and who tends to use physical items vs electronic items.

3.  The Librarians report was tabled (see Counterculture post from earlier this week)

4.  The committee agreed that there should be two Maori staff representatives on the committee, and that there should be a general staff rep and an academic staff rep.

5.  The draft Information Resources Policy was approved by the committee and will go onto Academic Board now.

6.  There was discussion about the timing of the meetings so that minutes can be provided for Faculty meetings in a more timely fashion.

7.  The undergraduate report concerned the barriers the UCSA are experiencing implementing the “borrow a charger” service, and a reminder that the AGM is coming up.

8.  The postgraduate rep did not have anything to report.

Kia ora koutou,

The Academic Liaison team is currently working on implementing a “Book a Librarian” service through our current LibGuides software.  The software we are using for this is called “My Scheduler” and it seamlessly integrates with our existing LibGuides to enable students and front-line library staff to book appointments with us for consultations.

Each Liaison Librarian is setting up their My Scheduler as they have the opportunity, and we are aiming to all be set up by the end of Term One.  As each Liaison Librarian sets themselves up, there will be a button available from the Subject Guides a little like this:

Please do use it to book appointments when you have students or staff who need to be referred to a Liaison Librarian.

We will be monitoring this service carefully over the first term, so please send any feedback you have about the system to me (sara.roberts@canterbury.ac.nz)

Many thanks,

Sara

Kia ora koutou,

A team of library staff are looking into the possibility of creating a knowledge base of library questions and answers.  This will help us to answer students’ questions and help students to find their own answers.  The group have decided to run a pilot project using the FAQ software that is provided with LibraryH3lp  (our AskLive).  This will enable us to determine how useful a knowledge base will be, how labour intensive it might be to maintain and what other problems might present with a resource like this.

For our pilot we have decided to concentrate on APA referencing questions, as this is a very discrete set of questions that we often get asked.  Can you help us build the FAQ?  We are looking for those odd APA referencing questions that come up regularly at certain times of year, that might be tricky to answer, or for which we need to have a definitive library-wide correct answer.  If anything springs to mind, and regardless if whether you know the answer, could you please send your suggestions to Sara Roberts, or to Kerry Gilmour.

Ngā mihi nui.

Kia ora koutou,

The Library Committee met last Friday and the following items were discussed:

• The students had asked if we could provide a sleeping room for students during exams, but unfortunately our fire rating does not allow for sleeping in the building.
• The students also want to offer device chargers for loan in the Self Loan area.
• Mike Grimshaw (chair) initiated a discussion around e-books and how use of e-books may impact the kind of research that is produced by his discipline.
• Helen presented the digitisation policy.
• The LLO position description was approved.
• The IRAG recommendations for the continuing resources review were passed.
• Helen also presented Tim Stedman’s review of the non-continuing resources.  This was very thoroughly discussed and the recommendations from the report were agreed.

If you would like any further information about the meeting or the items discussed, please let me know.

Ngā mihi,

Sara