Intro

Hello fellow Library and Information students,

Thank you, Kirsten, for setting up this Blog.

I am in my third year of the MLIS at VUW, studying by distance. I changed career in middle age and have never once regretted my decision. After having spent 2 years as an "unemployed student", I have been lucky enough to obtain employment as a library assistant in an academic law library and after 8 months I still love my job to bits. The MLIS has been challenging, but rewarding, and I know that in the coming years I will revisit many of the things we have studied and gain even more from them now that I am getting some practical experience. The final hurdle for me is the INFO 580 research project. I think it scares most of us, (if we are honest), but the people I have spoken to who have come through it don't seem to regard is as such a big deal, which surprised me at first. I think it is probably like anything you do for the first time - the fear of the unknown and of dipping your toe in the water, so to speak, is probably worse than the reality of actually getting on and doing it.

I look forward to sharing experiences and ideas with you all.

Best wishes,
Caroline Anderson

National Digital Forum

A quiet couple of weeks on the blog front...handed in my Topic Approval Form for INFO580, but haven't made much progress writing up my research proposal...must not procrastinate hmmmm...

Helpful diversions
I attended the National Digital Forum annual conference which was fun & humbling (so many great projects out there!) Besides many calories (from the free ice-cream), I gained some interesting ideas from the conference, particularly relating to the importance of developing wonderful web access to your projects. A number of presentors demonstrated how they had done this, either by employing a web developer or revamping their digitisation projects (for example, Sustaining Gathering the Jewels and Revitalising the papers past historic newspaper collection.)

One of the standout presentations for me was from Chris Hay who must have one of the coolest jobs at Lumen. He works on tactile digital experiences in museums and other heritage institutions. Check out some of Lumen's work. His work shows the importance of using convergent disciplines to inspire your project - very inspiring stuff! (Hmmm.. I feel another degree coming on...)

Another point I took away from the conference is that specific social groups have very different digital needs or concerns; varying from access, the protection/respect for the heritage object, copyright and intellectual property, metadata/ technical practicalites, permanence...the list is endless - how digitisation professionals navigate and come up with solutions to these issues are really fascinating. Did anyone else go and get inspired?

Congratulations to Lorraine and Louise!

Congratulations to Lorraine (Te Rohe) Johnston who has published an article in the latest issue of New Zealand Library & Information Management Journal - Nga Purongo see p. 202-215

Lorraine's article is on "The Role of Libraries and Archival Collections in the Preservation and Revitalisation of Indigenous Knowledge: The Case of Revitalisation of Te Reo Maori" - and I think is a lead into her INFO580 project? I am looking forward to reading your completed project Lorraine - sounds really interesting!

Also congrats to Louise Rutherford for receiving the Emerald Research Project Prize, for "appropriateness and application of methodology" for her MLIS research (INFO580) for 2007 - Louise's study was entitled "Building Participative Library Services: How Social Software is being used in Public Libraries" This theses is available from the Victoria University Library Location: Central Theses (Ask at Reserves) Call Number: AS741 VUW A55 R975 B

Great work folk!

If anyone hears of other Library students publishing articles or receiving awards, please post to the blog :)

Hello from Palmy

Hello I'm Judi Kercher. I've finally got around to posting on here - been lurking up to now. I'm in the final hurdle of the MLIS - the 580. Cor. It's been a long 4 years - one paper per semester. It's been interesting, hard work and I'm still keen to learn more so I'll have to check my RSS feeds regularly, join this, that and the other forum and try to keep on top with what's been happening. I've been lucky enough to be able to attend the past two LIANZA conferences which were inspiring.

I love Web 2.0. I've been blogging for 7 years now and, funnily enough, my research topic is on library blogs (if you're involved in a library blog, do please visit my questionnaire participation page here.) My blogs have been personal ones up to now though although I have attempted a work-related blog and did try out an internal work blog for library assistants at my workplace which worked quite well for a short time until I left. I've had a MySpace page for some years, have played around with wikis and have used MSN and Yahoo Messengers for some years also.

Well, I could keep rabbiting on but will stop here. This was just meant as a Hello!

Hello from Hastings!

Hi all!

My name is Carla Crosbie and I have been working for Hastings District Libraries for just over 12 months. I work 20 hours a week in the Havelock North branch as the Community Liaison Library Assistant. My background before library work is 20 years in the book trade working for both Whitcoulls and Paper Plus - in fact I still work part time for the Paper Plus in Taradale. I love library work and am lucky enough to be able to use my marketing skills as part of my current job. I have a Diploma in Marketing, and am currently doing a BA LIS through Open Polytechnic. Throw this into the mix with both jobs and a family and I wonder why I sometimes feel I dont have a life?? Got to do something about that:-)
Anyhow I had a great time promoting our Libraries during NZ Book Month and was lucky enough to be invited to blog on their website - in very esteemed company I might add! Check it out www.nzbookmonth.co.nz You cant miss me - I'm the cheeky one, in fact my boss has started calling me the naked librarian...

WISE consortium courses

If you are a student of the MLIS you can include courses offered by the WISE consortium as an elective - I'd like to encourage anyone thinking about enrolling to 'Go for it!' as I really enjoyed my experience.

I did a course through Syracuse University called Creating, Managing and Preserving Digital Assets, which included the complete life cycle of the digitised collection from project management, interoperability, copyright (hmmm...that assignment was fun! grrr...US Copyright Law :) ), Selection, Digital permanence, metadata and so on. The duration went from their Spring Term, January 16 – May 6 so there is a bit of overlap with our summer trimester.

The lecturer Jill Hurst-Wahl was really adept at distance teaching; the course being entirely delivered using Web CT (similar to BlackBoard). The amount of discussion was extensive, as this was part of our assessment, but proved to be the most interesting part of the course as everyone had such different backgrounds and perspectives.

Some benefits are that you can specialise in a topic which isn't offered here such as Music Librarianship & Bibliography. Negatives - now I keep spelling things with z's in them...digitization..

I believe the requests to enrol in these courses begin November 5th and there are 26 courses beginning in January - so be in quick!

More details about WISE can be found in Blackboard in LIM Programmes Information. Here is the path:
LIM PROGRAMMES INFORMATION > LIM INFORMATION > WISE CONSORTIUM INFORMATION

The Librarian

Of essential viewing for all Library students is the timeless classic Librarian: Quest for the spear. I admit that I really enjoyed this light-hearted movie. And best of all there are sequels!

Favourite scene: the interview

Winther, P. (2005). The librarian quest for the spear. [United States]: Warner Home Video.

Hi there from a first year MLIS student

Hi all,

First of all, thanks Kirsten for setting up this blog. What a great idea.

Now, let me introduce myself. My name is Adrian Jenkins. I live in the western suburbs of the wonderful city of Auckland and work full time for Waitakere Libraries.

I am a first year MLIS student who has completed INFO 525 & INFO 521 so far. As I'm working full time, I am doing my MLIS very part time with just one paper per trimester - which means that I will finish in 4 years.
My next course over summer is INFO 542. Anyone done this course who's got any tips?

For those of you who are studying at the Open Polytechnic, I did two papers through that institution in 2006 (72-170 & 72-171). Having been accepted for the MLIS in February this year, I abandoned my Open Poly studies after those two papers.

Having studied at both institutions, I will say that the assignments for the postgraduate MLIS are significantly harder than at the Open Polytechnic (although Assignment Two for 72171 is nobody's idea of fun!).

Anyway, I've now got a few weeks off until my next course starts which I desperately need to catch up with life. It's amazing how the washing, cleaning and general house work gets put to one side when you've got an assignment to finish.

I look forward to continuing to read what people post on this blog.

Cheers,

Adrian Jenkins

Hello all bloggers

I am currently studying at TOPNZ. I am enjoying learning about information access. I love seeking out information. I think that this site will be very helpful. Thank you Francis for the idea. I live in Wanaka.

Regards,
Barbara

Greetings

My name is Pete Sime. I'm 28 years old and I'm only a third of the way through my MLIS. Based in sunny Dunedin, I'm a distance student at Victoria University. This brings its own challenges but my employer, Dunedin Public Libraries, is supportive enough and Vic has a lot of good resources for distance students.

Like many, I fell into librarianship as a career. To be honest, when I was a schoolboy the thought of working in a library never really occured to me. I started working at DPL when I returned to Dunedin after completing my honours year in history at Victoria (having completed a BA and LLB at Otago). Working in circulations, I really enjoyed the public service aspect of the job. I've moved on to cataloguing and serials work now, though I still do a few stints each week in circ.

I'm on the LIANZA Otago/Southland committee. One of my goals serving there is to encourage people to consider a professional career in libraries, I think this blog will be invaluable to that end.

I have a deep interest in intellectual property. When the time comes to do my research project, I plan to examine creative commons in New Zealand.

Great Idea!

It's wonderful to see a LIS group blog created specially for us kiwis!
My name is Timothy, and I'm an Assistant Librarian at Victoria University. I've been a MLIS student at Victoria's School of Information Management for the last two years, and I've just finished handing in my 580 research project, which (hopefully) heralds the end of my studies and my dramatic entry into the illustrious ranks of Professional Librarians! No more shelf tidying for me (yeah right!).
I moved to Wellington just four months ago to my new VUW job, but I cut my librarian's teeth at the University of Canterbury Library. As I Cultural Studies post-graduate moonlighting as a library assistant to pay the rent, I quickly found that working at the library was a way to get access to top notch resources and get paid pretty well at the same time. I imagined a life of reading, researching, and helping others discover my favourite subjects, without the horrors of "PBRF" and academic politicking, which were becoming uncomfortably visible at that time.
As I took the various MLIS papers, I discovered that there's so much depth to this profession, and that a lot of the exciting new topics have to do with internet technology (and even online video games!) - which I'm dead keen on.
Speaking of the internet, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with other LIS students some of the great resources that I've discovered out there on the ole' WWW that we benefit from. There are lots of young librarians that love the 'net; we're in an exciting and forward-looking job. Here are three interesting communities to get you started:

• LibSuccess.org; best practices wiki: It'd be great to see some New Zealand Libraries contribute to this wiki, it's a really good source of practical knowledge about the profession, though largely from an American point of view. The section on finding a job is filled with excellent advice. I thoroughly recommend reading the articles there - I think they helped me get my current job!
• LISStudents Ning: A group for library and information science students from all around the world!
• NZLibraries2.0 Ning: A group for New Zealand librarians interested in pushing the envelope with new technologies in their libraries. Started by MLIS student and celebrity blogger Simon Chamberlain, just a few short days ago!

Let's start building a "blogroll" for this site! (A list of blogs that are recommended reading for library students.) Does anyone have any good ideas?

Wahey Kirsten Francis!

Wahey Kirsten Francis for starting up a discussion/blog board for NZ LIS students!

Yayar - well my name is Hana and I have just left working with Kirsten and Emma (and co.) in Collection Services at VUW Library to start full-time with the Wellington Medical Library team as a "Collection and Lending Assistant" combining my two favourtie aspects of library work into one neat little title. I have been here on and off since I left school essentially, more on than off though.

I am currently on my last paper 72271 User Education and Reference Skills of the (undergrad) level 5 LIS diploma with the Open Polytechnic. Although it has been a roller coaster of a semester I have actually quite enjoyed this one and I sing Lynley Stone's praises, as she's so beautifully lenient as a tutor and she even visited me personally at work one day.

For my current assignment I am to evaluate a library's user education and IL efforts and initiatives and I'm going back to where it all started - Wellington High School library.

"Hi my name's Hana and I'd like to become a student Librarian".

It's the quote that started it all off. I'd especially like to say that Jane Shallcrass, the head librarian there is a gem!

Here's to blogging for NZ LIS students :) *thumbs up*
Churs,
Hana

Welcome & get blogging!

Hi everyone and welcome to the New Zealand Library & Information Student Blog!

Have you ever thought "wouldn't be nice if we had a community space for all information students to share their learning experiences" .... well your dreams are now reality!

Blog intention
This blog is intended as a casual forum where any NZ library info student can come and share ideas, advice, and 'network' in a supportive online environment - of course, those in the profession & folk outside of New Zealand are welcome to add their two-cents as well!

This blog is unaffiliated with any particular learning institution.

Guide to posting
This is essentially a 'Team Blog' - if you want to post, you will need to register a google account (if you haven't already got one) and send me your email address.
It would be nice if you could introduce yourself the first time you post on the blog.

Introductions
Thus said, my name is Kirsten and I study at Victoria University part-time while working full-time at the VUW library. I will start my last paper for my MLIS in November which is the exciting (trying to stay positive and not terrified) INFO580 - research project.

Why?
The impetus for starting this blog came out of discussions in my INFO528 (research methods) class last term. Although we have great institutional discussion boards (for example, within Blackboard), these are by nature exclusionary and often forbid access once a student graduates.

Well, that's all from me for now - have fun blogging!
Kirsten