FAR NORTH LIBRARIES UNDERGO A TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY

Far North District Libraries have been busy! The library service has undergone a transformative journey after completing all major goals in their 10-year future libraries strategy in four years. This means an opportunity to reboot, refocus and deliver even more positive community outcomes for the remaining six years.

Roxanne Harrison and Nicola Smith have been gathering data about library trends to support the strategic reboot. This included a ‘big questions’ Future Libraries Inspiration session with staff and GLAMMIR sector leaders. They chat with Te Rau Ora Library Life about the session and its outcomes.

TELL US ABOUT THE APPROACH YOU TOOK

The best ideas are never usually cooked up by just one person. We were keen to get some innovators, change-makers, front-runners, and big-thinkers on board. We reached out to library leaders, our whanaunga in the museum sector as well as educators and high school makerspace specialists to join us in an online workshop

Together we looked at a few hearty discussion starters designed to draw out big thoughts and conversation, and maybe a little heated discussion.

We did lots of different types of research. For this session, we asked some of the sector’s ‘big questions’ like do libraries matter in the digital age? What skills do librarians need now and do qualifications really matter? But in a fun way designed to bring all views to the table. Rox facilitated this via Jamboard, so the session was a mix of conversation and hands-on activity.

WHAT BENEFITS AND LEARNINGS WERE THERE?

It confirmed to us that libraries are innovative, interesting places to work in and that there’s a lot of really cool stuff happening in Aotearoa’s libraries. Partnering with other agencies is a focus. We still have books, but libraries are also spaces for other experiences, creative outlets, and events.

There was a practical benefit to us, a lot of what we’d identified through our prior research was echoed in the session. This helped focus our thinking about where libraries are heading and areas for our library service to focus on. “A key takeaway for me was the idea that libraries shouldn’t, on their own, try to be all things to all people – that we need to hone in on our expertise and involve other experts where needed. To put it another way, don’t ask your staff to Youtube ‘basic pottery’ and then run a basic pottery class…” says Nic.

WHAT DID PARTICIPANTS SAY ABOUT IT?

The feedback was really positive, I think everyone enjoyed talking about what they were doing and hearing about the challenges and opportunities we often share. It was refreshing and pretty inspiring – we had someone request that we run it again so they could send their staff members along!

There were strongly positive, forthright responses from our participants and some great discussions about libraries including a recommendation that we stop worrying about our future – assume we’re going to continue to evolve in response to our communities and be as vital in ten years as we are now, then get on with it!

HOW MIGHT YOU USE THIS FEEDBACK?

It’s been useful. The main themes from the internal and external sessions were turned into a pānui for distribution. It will be used alongside other research to inform potential key focus areas for the next six years that we’ll engage with our communities about.

Once our communities let us know which focus areas they want to see included, we’ll draft the strategic plan to be approved by Council. We’ll continue to use the session pānui as a reflection tool showing how much progress we’ve made from transactional to transformational library services, and the journey left to travel.

The last four years have seen us setting up new libraries and updating others, introducing RFID and new outreach services, and setting up a Recollect local history database. We’ve had a 500% plus growth in customer digital library platforms and tools, robotics, VR, and makerspace, alongside heaps of other fun and educative stuff. Plus COVID-19 and all its challenges and opportunities. So, thinking about our future strategically and planning what might be achieved during the next six years is really exciting mahi.

Nicole is a librarian at Thamescoromandel District Libraries. This year she was awarded the Helen Zwartz Scholarship, which provides funding for librarians or staff working in a public library in one of New Zealand’s smaller communities or Māori and Pacific communities, to undertake a week-long residency at Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library. Te Rau Ora talked to Nicole about her residency.

Nicole has been at Thames Library, on the Coromandel Peninsula, for the past six years. She started her career elsewhere in the GLAMMIR sector, following her interest in New Zealand history into several different roles in community archives and museums. Nicole says she applied for the Helen Zwartz Scholarship because she has reached a point in her career where she wants to go out, learn from the best, and bring back new ideas to benefit her team.

Nicole considers herself a jack-of-all-trades at the library and has been able to develop into their local history resource expert, hone her customer service skills, and shape their ‘voice’ in online communication with the public. Te Rau Ora Library Life has been the lucky recipient of Nicole’s history research skills as she is a key contributor to our History Corner column.

Over a week in November, she visited Whanganui a Tara to learn more about the services at National Library, and how she could make use of what she learned in the Coromandel. Nicole had a great week. One highlight was going down into the basement and seeing the scale and breadth of the collection and learning about the way the books are stored and what was held there.

“I saw one rare book, Aurora Australis, in the Alexander Turnbull collection that had been published in Antarctica in 1908 by Ernest Shackleton and the British Antarctic Expedition team. They had learned how to print and produce books before the expedition so they would have a hobby when they were down there. They used what they had on hand – so the cover is made from an old bean box packet and the images were lithographs and etchings they’d done, and stories from their time there.”

She describes herself as a massive fan of Papers Past and the inter-library loan network. She learned a lot from her session with the Papers Past team, learning more about what was being digitised and becoming more accessible. Nicole was pleased to learn about the Kōtui training and how her team could make better use of Kōtui. “There are more resources on Kōtui than we knew about and I can help my team get more out of this shared service.”

Nicole also had the chance to learn from Wellington City Libraries and was impressed by her visit to the Newtown Library, their multi-lingual collection, and how they showcased their multilingual children’s picture books. “Thames has a big hospital with a lot of migrant shift workers, and it really got me thinking about what we could be doing to reach out to this group in our community.”

Nicole said one of her highlights was meeting David Zwartz and the rest of Helen Zwartz’s whānau.