Thursday, November 26, 2009

Ikaroa Library Assistants' Day

The 2009 Ikaroa Library Assistants' Day held at National Library in Palmerston North was a day of fun and learning enjoyed by 23 participants from across the region. Participants reported going back to their libraries energised and motivated.

Librarians, library assistants and school librarians were welcomed by ou LIANZA President, Barbara Garriock by videoconference. This was the first videoconference for many of the participants. Barbara spoke warmly about the importance of Library Assistants in their organisations.

A "Speedbooking" session presented by School Library Adviser, Jan Watts got people chatting and sharing straight away. You can read more about Speedbooking on the Create Readers Blog
http://createreaders.natlib.govt.nz/2008/08/spice-up-your-book-club-with-speed.html . The speedbookers were amazed at how much they could find to talk about when the books had no words!

The energy and commitment of Kiri Thompson, Youth Librarian at the Palmerston North City Library inspired us all. Kiri's domain is The Basement, a youth zone housing novels, magazines, dvds and games, with comfortable casual seating, Sky TV and gaming consoles. Kiri and staff from the City Library have hosted youth events in The Basement (and wider Library) jointly with the City's Youth Council, and thinkgs like the Pulse Street Dance party have been hugely successful, with around 700 attendees at the last event.

During our Web 2.0 session we looked at the Memory Maker widget from Auckland Museum on the Digital New Zealand website and talked about the use of Twitter in libraries. Courtney Johnson's post on the LibraryTechNZ Blog gave us a good starting point for discussion http://librarytechnz.natlib.govt.nz/search/label/Courtney%20Johnston.

The introduction to Memory Maker in the morning meant that afer a quick bus ride to UCOL our participants were able to get straight in to making their own videos using the UCOL Library's lendable laptops kindly organised for us by Doreen Young and Dianne McConnell. This was an enjoyable and instructional activity with everyone being able to view each others' masterpieces once we returned to National Library http://remix.digitalnz.org/

Friday, November 13, 2009

Ikaroa email list - new address

Please note that if you wish to post to the Ikaroa email list - the address is now:
ikaroa@lists.massey.ac.nz

All current list members have been moved across to the new Ikaroa list.
If you have any queries please contact list administrator - Jane Brooker J.E.Brooker@massey.ac.nz