This is the way Counterculture ends
This is the way Counterculture ends
This is the way Counterculture ends
Not with a bang but a simpler team collaboration application developed by Microsoft as part of the Microsoft 365 family of products, offering workspace chat and video conferencing, file storage, and integration of proprietary and third-party applications and services

Kia ora koutou

Are you interested in digital systems and technology and enjoy technical problem solving? This is an opportunity to temporarily join and support the Library Systems team part-time.

Leah from the Library Systems team is going on leave for 6 months, due to health reasons. I am therefore seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from library staff to join the Library Systems team as a fixed term secondment.  Details below.

• Band 4 role for 6 months, from 8 July 2024 to 8 January 2025
• 6 FTE (22.5 hours per week)

The hours of work can be flexible and negotiated. It may be possible for fulltime staff to remain in their current role for the other 0.4 FTE.  I am also open to suggestions or ideas of other flexible work practices. I welcome applications from any interested member of the library team from bands 2 to 4.

The role of the Systems Librarian is to provide support to the Library Systems Coordinators (Claire, Donna & Romy).  Training will be provided, and this is a fantastic opportunity to improve your technical skills and gain experience in a supportive environment. The tasks include working with: Folio, library webpages, Research Repository, Databases, Minisis, ADO, plus more.

If you wish to apply, please email your expression of interest along with your CV to me by 5pm Thursday 27 June 2024.  Please include in your email why you are interested in the role and what skills and experience you bring.

You are welcome to contact me if you want any more information.

I will attach the Position Description to the Teams post.

Ngā mihi
Jenny Owens
Kaiwhakahaere Kimi Rauemi | Resource Discovery Manager

Kia ora koutou

It’s so great to be back fulltime again now after my extended absence of late for health reasons.  On which note, I’m really delighted to report I have the all-clear for both breast and skin cancer, and no further treatment is required.  Needless to say, celebrations and gratitude have been the order of the day! And this extends to you all, for your wonderful collegial support, well-wishes and willingness to take care of lots of pieces of work on my behalf, as I went through this journey.

Since coming back, I’ve been focussed on getting up to speed again, noting some constraints now in place for our budget.  This means we need to re-scope some of our planned activities and initiatives for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025, in particular the implementation of our Library Review priority recommendations.  I’m working with Library Managers to put some shape around this, and to identify together what *is* possible. It’s also great we have Dale in post and well underway with our Strategy and Vision work, to give us a framework and mandate for our future.

We’re seeing illness (Covid and flu in particular) cut a swathe through our teams just now, so I urge you all to take care and rest up as possible while winter does its wretched thing.

On a brighter note, I’m aware there have been some great training & development opportunities take place, or about to take place, for many in our teams.  I’m looking forward to share-backs and learning more about these experiences in due course!

For now, happy and safe weekend all,

Kat

For the fourth year in a row, the annual Open Christchurch Architectural Festival included several University of Canterbury buildings, including our very own Puaka-James Hight! As always, this event was a great opportunity to show off our collection of architectural drawings held in the archives (as well as some other cool things like 3D printed models of PJH, and our enduring concrete award!).

We ran the event similarly to previous years, with the self-guided tours being particularly popular! We saw a total of 142 people over the course of the day, which was a large increase compared to last year, where we saw 87 people come through. We had a mixture of visitors, including current students who were keen to jump into a tour group to see their own building in more detail. We also had a visit from one of the carpenters who had worked on the building when it was under construction!

This year was particularly special because it is our building’s 50^th anniversary of opening! To celebrate this, we had a memory wall where people could write fond memories of their time in the building on a postcard and add it to the wall. This year was also unique as we were promoting Erin’s ‘Drawing Connections’ exhibition currently being shown at Tūranga, exploring the architectural legacy of Cecil Wood.

Overall, it was a great day, and we look forward to hopefully doing it all again next year!

The display will be between the elevators in PJH for a little while longer, so do pop over and have a look before it ends!

Thanks to everyone who has helped with this event!

Aroha nui,

Isabella, Erin, Roman, Zina, Hui, Ryan, Sarah, and Laurie.

Kia ora koutou!

As we rapidly approach Rā Tōmene | Open Day on Friday 30th August, I wanted to give a detailed debrief of our efforts for Herea tō waka | Welcome Day which was in February (and the orientation period in general, including Summer Starter).

Firstly (and of significance!), was Central comms’ subtle change in name from ‘Orientation Day’ to the new and improved ‘Welcome Day’ (of which sits within the ‘Orientation period’). Gone are the days where we refer to both significant days as the generic “O’Day!” (a relief to most of us, I am sure!).

Principles

Herea tō waka in 2024 was about connecting and reengaging with our students on campus and in our libraries. This is one of our core events which we use to support our goal of connecting people to knowledge. We aimed to show manaaki to our new and returning students in our libraries, and at the Ori market, to show the services we have available (in brief!).

Connection

Greeters at PJH

In preparation for the market day on Friday, we had greeters from across our library teams welcoming guests into PJH. We made use of the bespoke t-shirts with our UC library images designed by Ryan Dooley so that our team was recognisable by students. The meet and greet ran for the week leading up to orientation.

Engagement

Library101 sessions

This year the library tried to build on a successful model from the earlier Rā Tōmene in 2023 where we ran very tightly focussed brief Library 101 sessions across the week of Herea tō waka. The purpose of offering the sessions was to create opportunities for our ākonga to engage with our services and our staff early, so when they need our services they’ve already met us before! The idea for the sessions was to focus on “library survival skills”: the three or four key ideas that would help students be successful in their study and library use. People from both the ELS and LTR teams participated but uptake was not what we hoped. In review, we think that the orientation period of the year is the wrong time for this sort of introductory material and that in future, we would attempt to move it closer to the point of demand – when the first assessments start to be handed out.

UC Library stall

The library stall on Welcome Day (previously ‘Orientation Day’) was a fantastic opportunity for connecting with students (whanaungatanga). The stall held 2024 postcards, library guides, subject librarian guides, and Te Rua guides. We also promoted our Library101 sessions which are being held the first two weeks of semester. We chose TikTok as our primary social media to promote at the stall, as a way to grow our following with our brand-new account! In total, we saw 387 people engage with us at our Welcome Day stall!

Summer Starter

Following Herea tō waka, we continued to engage with our student body through our stall at the Summer Starter Expo in late February! This expo is run through the UCSA at Haere-roa and is a great opportunity for us to get out and engage and connect with students in their space, so when they venture into the library they are welcomed by familiar and friendly faces! For summer starter, we focussed on promoting our subject specialists and the services they offer (including promoting upcoming workshops and classes). A huge thanks to all the subject specialists who were able to come down and help out at the stall! We managed to connect with 130 people!

Thank you to everyone for helping with this very busy time of year!

Ngā mihi nui,

2024 library Ori crew

Isabella, Sara, Dale, Roman, Simon, Kathryn, Lani, Hine, and Jacqui.

Kia ora koutou!

Today, Friday 17th May 2024, is Pink Shirt Day! If you’re able to, please join us for a very pink- themed photo at midday to celebrate. We’ll meet in the PJH workroom and find a nice spot (maybe the front steps of the library?).

Meet for photo: Midday (12pm), PJH workroom

See you then!

~Isabella

Kia ora,

The weather is getting cooler and Hotoke (Winter) is not far away!  Looking for a way to shake off the cold? You’re in luck!

Try out Māori Movement, no experience necessary, just a good way to have fun and I can vouch you’ll have the “BEST” time.

Check out the poster for more details 😀

Kia ora koutou

I’ve signed up for the next round of the Online Te Reo Māori course that’s being offered through UC DevelopMe. It kicks off June 3 and as of now, there’s still 12 seats available.

If anyone else is doing this course, or is thinking about it, I’m planning on setting up a hui once every two weeks  or so (dates and times TBA) where those in the course can meet up, ask each other questions, or just have a bit of dedicated time to work on the material.

If this sounds like something that you’d be interested in, let me know and I’ll send some dates and times around!

Ngā mihi

Kiera

Kia ora koutou,

With the demise of the online Library booking service next Monday,  we have been looking at alternatives for booking:

• Room 224
• EPS discussion rooms
• Ātea ako (x3)

MB are happy to leave their discussion rooms on the Time Edit system.

We have created individual Outlook calendars for each room, which seem fit for purpose at this stage.

ELS
Simon, Isabella, Ryan and Dale all have editing rights to Room 224, EPS 101c and the EPS Training Room.
The rest of the ELS team will shortly be sent a calendar invitation to allow read only access to Room 224. Please accept this!
This will allow you to see what’s on in Room 224 and update the whiteboard.
If you need editing rights, please let us know.

Subject Librarians
All of LT&R have bookable access to all of these rooms.

• Other things:
  I have swapped the order of Tahi and Rua so from the main library to the window, the room titles are in numerical order (Tahi, Rua, Toru).
• Toru is awaiting a bench (to arrive this week) and chairs.
• Long term, Lydia will look at art for the beautifully painted space opposite.

If you experience problems, please let me know: we have tested this, but if there are issues, we have a backup ready to roll out at a moment’s notice!

Ngā mihi
Kim

Last year I was fortunate to receive a Rosalind Patrick award to attend the Teaching the Teachers Conference for Law Librarians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

I am leaving for this on Monday 27th May (so John will be the Law Librarian for that fortnight. Good luck John!).

As part of my application I had said that I would do a report-back on my learnings and what I did. I am organising this reportback now so that I don’t forget and because I have an exam at the end of June.

Please come along to hear my report back about the Conference on Tuesday 18th June at 2pm in Room 210 (PJH) to hear what I learnt and to see my “work” pictures from my time in Philadelphia

Please sign-up here so I know to expect you and so that you get a calendar invitation: https://canterbury.libcal.com/event/5721815

Please

Theresa

Please note this will be an in-person session in Room 210 – I am not intending to record or provide an online link to this one.