We are very fortunate to be working with Keri Hulme’s whānau on her archives coming to be cared for within the UC Library Archives. This material is in addition to the Keri Hulme archives we already hold. Tomorrow a group of us will be travelling down to Waimate to work with the whānau on sorting and uplifting a significant section of the collection. This is the culmination of many years of engagement with the whānau led by Erin, and supported by Jemma and myself.

Because of space limitations and current work to replace the shelving in Library Warehouse B, the initial tranche of archives will be temporarily stored in the Consultation Room in EPS for the next month, and we have contracted Catherine Bisley to work on further appraising, sorting and rehousing of the collection in EPS. This will further decrease the size of the collection for it to be moved to its final location in the Warehouse.

I have block booked the Consultation Room for the next month to accommodate the collection. Catherine will work in the Consultation Room and/or the Subject Librarian Office as necessary – I have also block booked a Discussion Room for work space for the final week of Catherine’s work. We will need to lock the Consultation room for the security of the collection, and the office if collections are being worked on.

Many thanks to Simon and Stuart and the EPS Subject Librarians for being so flexible and making this work possible!

Catherine will start work on the collections in EPS on Thursday 2 November. Erin will introduce her to people on Thursday – please make her feel welcome😊

There has been a lot of consultation and informal communications with stakeholder at UC. However, as we are still working with the Hulme family on deciding what material will come into the archives, we are not at a stage where it is appropriate for any formal communications regarding the Keri Hulme archives.

Kia ora koutou

A short week as the calendar goes, but still action-packed!

Thanks to those of you who were able to make it to our first all-staff Q&A session on the Library Review Report.  We’re collating feedback (organised thematically) to share back.  And we’re committed to offering the chance to kōrero together on an ongoing basis.  To help with this, and to provide an alternative means of feeding back and asking questions, we’ve set up a padlet.  Please feel free to share your thoughts and pose questions here:
Library Review Report feedback (padlet.com)

Our MLM project continues apace!  A well-deserved morning tea for functional co-leads and subject matter experts was held on Tuesday.  It was, as always, lovely to connect together in-person to share some kai and celebrate sterling progress to date.

It was Jaz’s last day today, and we were able to go out for coffee and have a bit of fun with travel bookings together.  Jaz has been a fabulous addition to our team, getting up to speed and teaching me a thing or two (million) along the way!

We’ve opened recruitment already for our next fabulous Tautāwhi | Administrator.  Please spread the word far and wide amongst your networks:
Library Tautāwhi | Administrator – University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha

I’d like to add an endorsement to today’s earlier post on the Pacific Talanoa Day on 13 November.  We encourage everyone to attend and invite you to talk with your manager if flexible arrangements might be helpful so that you can fully engage in the day and the fabulous opportunity this represents.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to express thanks to the Macmillan Brown Library team for the raft of activities, displays, talks, tours and events on offer at the Alumni & Community Reunion celebrations this weekend.  The weather forecast is more promising than today’s chilly offerings, and this should be a busy and bustling time for the campus and our wider UC community.  Thanks to all of you pitching in to work and contribute to the event.

Next week is LIANZA Conference and a number of us are going along to connect with colleagues, hear and share, and in some cases, present.  A shout-out to Nick and Kathryn for their paper on Keenious (AI versus traditional database searching) on Wednesday!

Also this weekend, a certain game of rugby takes place. Go the ABs!

Mā te wā,
Kat

This weekend is the Alumni and Community Reunion Weekend, and the Macmillan Brown Library team has been working hard to prepare and/or support multiple events taking place on Saturday. This has included planning for the movement and display of collections around different events, digitisation of CANTA and display on the UC in Print site and planning for tours.

The library leadership team would like to share a bit more detail about the Pacific Talanoa day scheduled on November 13.

Co-designed by the Pacific Development Team and library staff, the session is tailored for library staff. In the morning, we will learn more about the realities for Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand, with an opportunity for reflection and discussion on the significance of these realities in the library context. In the afternoon, we will learn more about the new Pacific Knowledge and Culture Hub at UC and how the Pacific Liaison Librarian roles work with this team, learn about success strategies for Pasifika students, and reflect on how what we’re doing in the library supports these strategies and develop an action place for next steps.

This talanoa is an important step in developing our cultural awareness and capacity to better support Pacific students and staff, a key strategic goal for the university and the library. We encourage everyone to attend, even if you have attended a talanoa day in the past, as developing cultural responsiveness often takes repeated engagement/experience to deepen understanding and strengthen our ability to incorporate it into our work.

The session runs from 9-4pm – if you don’t usually work these hours (or all of these hours) but would like to attend, please have a chat with your manager about options to timesheet extra hours or swap shift. There is also flexibility if people need to leave early for school pickups.

Please RSVP to the calendar invite sent from the shared Library Managers email on the 11 October – we’re using these registrations to inform planning for the day, as well as the catering for morning and afternoon tea😊

All CDs and DVDs have now been moved from level 7 to level 8. In the same corner, just a floor higher. Weeded CDs will be available on level 5 until tomorrow or Friday, then will be taken to the L2 storeroom for a future student giveaway.

Kia ora koutou

This was a busy and enjoyable week, as library managers and colleagues started a series of hui together to reflect on, question and share impressions of the Library Review Report.  I want to thank you all for the level of interest, and the candid sharing of reflections, already evident in our initial kōrero.  We are committed to forming our review response and prioritisations together in partnership, and taking this approach in everything we do. It is heartening to see this in action, from the very start of this engagement.

I met with DVC-Academic lead colleagues on Monday this week as part of a monthly hui. (We’ll be reporting through to DVC-A Catherine Moran for the next few months, while DVC-R Ian Wright is on extended leave.)  It was great to meet and share with colleagues from a range of Learning & Teaching areas across UC, while we still keep close connections with our DVC-Research colleagues from Te Kura Tāura and Research & Innovation.  This is an opportunity to further nurture key partnerships across all teaching, learning and research areas of our community, which seems particularly timely as we share and raise awareness of the report and its recommendations.

On which note, Library Committee met for a two-hour planning workshop (focussed on the report) this morning, which was engaging and thought-provoking in equal measure.  Library Committee has long conveyed a palpable sense of investment and interest in our library service, users and staff, and this was never more evident than in today’s session.

Next week is Open Access Week 2023, themed “Community over Commercialization.” There’s a raft of events on offer, and I encourage you to join what you can of the extensive programme:
Open Access Week 2023 | Open Access Australasia (oaaustralasia.org)

My thanks to those staff who are providing services through the long weekend ahead.  Lectures end today and we know the ensuing study break and exam period will be a very busy time.

For those of us taking some time off, wishing you safe, fun and restful adventures in equal measure.

Mā te wā,
Kat

We now have purchased 2 more Springer subject eBook collections:

• 2022 Engineering eBook Collection
  

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  You can find the title list here (993 titles) at K:\Info-Resources\Non-Continuing-Resources\E-books\Springer_Engineering_2022.xlsx

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• 2023 Engineering eBook Collection
  

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  You can find the title list here (1,046 titles) at K:\Info-Resources\Non-Continuing-Resources\E-books\Springer_Engineering_2023.xlsx

All those Springer eBooks are DRM free with unlimited-user access. Individual eBook bibliographical records are available in the library catalogue.

Ngā mihi,

Wendy Wu

It’s that time again, folks, your new issue of Pānui awaits. Brush away those rainy-day blues, and let a bit of light shine through.

You can find the finished PDF copy here at K:\Management\Communications\LTR-Newsletters\Pānui 2.0\2023\2023-10-LTR-Pānui.pdf

Kathryn, Hugh and Simon