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/

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

Library Assistants' Day

IKAROA REGION LIBRARY ASSISTANT'S DAY
18th November 2009

Ikaroa Region of LIANZA invites all Library Assistants from the region to a Library Assistant's Day on November 18th.

The registration fee of $50 for members of LIANZA, SLANZA and Te Ropu Whakahau and $60 for non-members includes morning and afternoon tea, lunch and bus travel from National Library to UCOL and back. Registrations are limited to 40 people.

The programme has been designed to provide a day for Library Assistants which provides learning opportunities which are fun and engaging. To register contact Wendy Macaskill.

PROGRAMME

Start 9.30 am at National Library of New Zealand, 1015 Tremaine Avenue, Palmerston North

Welcome - Video conference link with Barbara Garriock LIANZA President of LIANZA

Speed booking - you will get to know each other and discover a novel way to engage your patrons, pupils, children or grandchildren with books

Web 2.0 Go to Whoa with Courtney Johnson -Courtney will talk about what is working well and perhaps not so well with social media in the GLAM sector. Courtney Johnston is the Web Manager at the National Library of New Zealand, where she works with a small team of great people to create and run websites. She also oversees or runs herself the Library's social media presences, including three blogs, two Flickr accounts, and one Twitter stream. Here's where you can find her blog posts. http://librarytechnz.natlib.govt.nz/search/label/Courtney Johnston

Discover The Basement - inspired by and enthusiastic about youth with Kiri Thompson - Kiri is the Youth Librarian at the Palmerston North City Library. Kiri has a passion for engaging young people with libraries and will talk to us about some of the innovative activities associated with the "Basement" at PNCL.

Making memories- A "hands on" session at UCOL - have fun and be creative making a short video with DigitalNZs Memory Maker tool

Finish back at National Library by 4.00 pm

Presentation Skills Workshop

On Tuesday 29 September, the Ikaroa sponsored workshop on Presentation skills was held in the Training Room at Massey University, Turitea campus.

It was well attended by many librarians throughout the region. The highly engaging session was facilitated by John Howells from the Centre for Academic Development and eLearning at Massey University and covered such topics as:
• How to write an effective abstract
• How to present to an audience
• How to use visual aids
• How to handle questions

For myself i found the most useful part was the contributions and feedback from my fellow attendees and particularly from my group: Beth and Joann from Horowhenua Public Library and Pamela from National Library. (Hiya ladies! )

The Presenter:
• Humour: having a bit of humour can break the ice and allows you to form a rapport with your audience. But don’t overdo it.
• Be confident and knowledgeable on your topic. If posed a question you can't answer acknowledge that and say "yes, that's a good question. I'm not sure of the answer but i know someone who does. I'll introduce you after the presentation" or something to that effect.

• Personal presentation: Ensure you are properly attired! No knickers showing above your trousers please, or fiddling with your hair.

• Voice: Speak clearly and smoothly, neither too fast nor too slow and use modulation for interest. And watch those ‘ums’!

Content:
• Tell a story or a journey with your presentation, perhaps start with an anecdote. Make it personal. In our exercises I was interested in how the situation affected people especially the person talking.
• Provide a clear summary of your main points or ideas at the end.
• Have a theme, preferably one that ties in with the conference, or a keyword that succinctly describes your presentation.

Other things to remember are:
Check out your venue first. For example if you have an interactive session planned the room may not be suitable.

Know your audience and be culturally sensitive and respectful.

And finally a tip on using visual aids, particularly powerpoints.
Don’t rely on them to do the presentation for you! Always have a Plan B if the technology fails. Others said that they went to a conference where the version of Microsoft Office was different and all the fancy animations were lost.

And remember:
“The only difference between the pros and a novice [presenter] is that the pros have trained the butterflies to fly in formation.”

If there are any other attendees out there, feel free to tell us what you learned at the session in a comment. We'd love to hear from you!

- Amanda Curnow

Richard Stallman free lecture

Horowhenua Library Trust and LIANZA Ikaroa Regional Committee
are delighted to announce that
Richard Stallman
has agreed to deliver a public lecture
in Levin on 7th October 2009, 4pm - 6pm.

at

Levin Salvation Army Complex.

More information here.

Richard Stallman is one of the keynote speakers at this year's LIANZA conference so this is an ideal opportunity to hear him speak for those who will not be attending the conference.

Upcoming events - November

Mark your diaries for two LIANZA events in November:

Conference Feedback
Tuesday, 3 November, 5.30pm at the Palmerston North City Library

Library Assistants' Day
Wednesday, 18 November - more details to come.

UCOL Hub - Visit

Well, the evening was quite mild when a bunch of enthusiastic librarians from the Ikaroa region got together at UCOL's Hub. The evening began with pleasant chatting over a glass of wine and a nibble followed by a presentation and tour of the Hub by Library Manager Doreen Young, and Liaison and Information Services Librarians Sharon Ritchie and Dianne McConnell.

It was a fascinating presentation and the Hub looks just marvelous. Without further ado, here are some photos:

The Hub from on high:


Diligent students using and enjoying the facilities


Happy Librarians catching up:

Doreen starts off the presentation


On the tour with Dianne and Sharon (with her back to us) and Janet and Noelene from Massey listening attentively


A lovely photo of Kate Stanton (left) and Doreen Young discussing video formats of UCOL Library's latest gadget a Flip Video camcorder.


Posted by Amanda Curnow