THANKS!!

Thank you to all my readers and a special BIG THANK YOU to the New Zealand librarians who took time out of their busy days to show me around. I really do appreciate your hospitality and I found all my visits very interesting and inspiring. Thank you also to my 'bosses' who allowed me the time to go touring.

Here are a few photos of my humble work environment back here in Tassie.


And - in my back yard... and front yard...

Invercargill

Today was my final library visit - way down south in Invercargill at the Southland Institute of Technology. The library staff were just starting to pack a lot of their collection into boxes to be stored for the next few weeks while the end wall of the library is knocked out in to the new extension. They are not gaining a lot space but will get new carpet, paint and a much impoved entrance. This is the only one of the libraries I visited which manages class sets and textbooks.

Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin

Otago Polytechnic does not have, and has never had a library. They had a service agreement with the former teachers college across the street to provide library services, until two and half years ago when the teachers college was merged with the University of Otago. The University was not keen to provide library services to polytechnic students but the government made it mandatory. So the Bill Robertson Library, which belongs to the University of Otago, provides library services to both groups of students and teachers. They find it a real juggling act to provide equitable services to both groups. They have struggled with the issue of branding and which logos to use. They have two web sites - one for their university users and another for the polytechnic users, partly so that the users can access the databases that their institution subscribes to. They also have to work with two different IT support services because university and polytechnic students log on to different networks. Thankfully all our three groups of users are on the same computer network. The library was built in 1979 and is about to get a $10million makeover!

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology

One two storey library here - another industrial design which shares space with a number of other services. Here the library does manage computers for students within the library, but students also have access to other computer labs on campus. This was the first day back after holidays for students and by lunch time the library was quite full of them. It is obviously a popular place to hang out.

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology

My first stop on the south island was at Nelson. I was surprised to be told by the manager here that the building is 10 years old! It looks new as it was designed in the industrial design that is so trendy now. And it was cutting edge at the time in that it incorporated the full learning commons idea. The manager wants to get rid of the OPACS as the catalogue can now be accessed from any computer and they have 63 in total, but people still want the dedicated OPAC terminal.

North Island impressions

• Some New Zealand polytechnics are called Institutes of Technology for no obvious reason.
• They all offer certificate to bachelor level degrees, and most also offer post graduate and masters degrees, which require a higher level of research and need for library services.
• They resemble our Australian institutes of technology from the 1990s, such QIT and VIT before they became universities of technology.
• They have very few students under 18 years of age.
• They have all set up “learning commons” to varying degrees. However, the libraries are just one component and all are called the “Library.”
• While student computer areas are located in the same building or adjacent to the library, only some library managers are responsible for them.
• All the computer areas have a dedicated staff person, who is not a library staff member, available to assist students with computer problems.
• They are staffed mostly by librarians with a few library assistants. They do not have library technicians in New Zealand.

Whitireia Community Polytechnic at Porirua

Located on the edge of the harbour in an outer suburb of Wellington, this library is in a three year old building which also houses a cafe, student learning services, quality development and online learning services. It will soon have a large computer area and student lounge area to be called the Student Centre. This will be run by the polytechnic's IT services. The library is only responsible for providing library services. Unfortunately, or fortunately, you have to walk through a cafe to get to the rest of services, and be very tempted by the aroma of good coffee...yum.