The National Oral History Association of New Zealand (NOHANZ) held their biennial conference in Wellington last weekend and I was fortunate to attend. The conference drew professional and amateur oral historians working in the most amazing range of areas from interviewing train drivers in Picton to former gang girls to Quakers to well known artists.
The theme was “Using Oral History in Communities” and apart from the stimulating opportunity to learn and network (for people who do a lot of listening they sure can talk!) some fascinating speakers provided great inspiration. I’ve posted about some of the highlights on the Library Blog.

I also attended a “technical day” run by the National Oral History Centre at the National Library. I think this may have been the first time the centre has really addressed the issues of digitisation as certainly 2 years ago they were still training people on analogue equipment. So there is a whole community of oral historians coming to grips with the digital age. Some are moving much faster than others but the intention of the day was “Making the best possible digital audio recordings”. Sound conservators and technicians talked about guidelines and standards, gave a technical introduction to digital audio, talked about making a good recording, choosing equipment, file management, making CDs, digital preservation and what is required for depositing recordings and related material in the Turnbull (and other archives).

The use being made of oral histories encompassed the academic and of course Maori, particularly with treaty claims, but also as a basis for books, for exhibitions and for artworks. Some people were recording their community voices or were planning to. Rather depressingly one library had brought equipment without a clear idea of how they would use it with the community. Maori are making extensive use of oral history in treaty claims research and capturing iwi traditions and they are exploring all sorts of exciting things such as recording on video, very active and outdoors recordings – i.e an interview may be conducted while walking around a marae or sitting on a beach of special significance.

Putting community voices onto the internet is a great way of sharing that digitisation makes possible and at Christchurch City Libraries we have a good example with Ti Kouka Whenua, but we also have the Library Detective and various interviews from the Auckland Writers Festival and other events. In the government sphere the resources have been poured into Te Papa for their Passports and Community Gallery but not many of the interviews recorded for those exhibitions  seem to appear on the website – they have just a few podcasts. On the other hand the VietnamWar.govt.nz site which is part of the official reconciliation with Vietnam vets is a lively example of interviews, photos, video etc which have been (and still are being solicited from the community) – it is a sort of Vietnam Kete.

I think community storytelling will benefit greatly from the advances in the digital age and give voice to people who are seldom heard, but whose so called ordinary lives are filled with the extraordinary.

I’m not a betting person, but I’d stake a few dollars on this session being the only one at the Conference that included participants singing not one, but two songs.  Ada Nally, its inspirational presenter, first led us into a rendition of the classic Sesame Street song “Who are the people in your neighbourhood?”. This simple song neatly symbolised the theme of Ada’s talk, namely that the role of the library is to be a “good neighbour” for the members of its community. Whereas in the past local communities were more cohesive and neighbours knew and looked out for each other, modern society is far more atomised. Unfortunately this atomisation of society is happening contemporaneously with the ongoing influx of new New Zealanders.  It is therefore up to community libraries, Ada argues, to assume the mantle of the good neighbour, especially for the often silent and isolated newcomers.

Newtown Library, where Ada works as Multicultural Community Customer Specialist, has taken on this challenge with gusto: the library not only actively hosts a wide variety of groups of all ethnicities, but is also strongly committed to community outreach.  Ada visits groups at childcare centres, kohanga reo, Samoan language nests, schools and community centres, spreading the word that the library belongs to all in the community and, most importantly, inviting  them to visit the library.  And if people are reluctant to visit the library,  Ada takes the library to them, as in the case with the Somali mothers and children who congregate at the city housing community rooms.  Ada teaches them songs and rhymes, breaking the ice with a rendition of “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” in Somali. (In case you were wondering, this was the second song we all got to perform during the session.)

The Muslim Women’s fashion parade held at Kilbirnie Library last year is probably the most well-known result of this outreach effort; however there have been many others.  Since 2005, to celebrate Race Relations Day,  Ada has also been an active promoter of the Earth People project, which sees adults and children throughout New Zealand make people out of clay, while sharing their diverse experiences and celebrating diversity.

So what are Ada’s suggestions for libraries wanting to become good neighbours?

• Use the other neighbours in your community - Plunket nurses, schools, childcare centres, English Language Partners (formerly ESOL Home Tutors), Refugee Services, shopkeepers - to stay informed of new arrivals to the community;
•  Be flexible: be open to operating in different locations and at different times;
• and, above all, Embrace the concept that being a good neighbour is our role.

 Here are some interesting links if you want to explore this topic further:

• The powerpoint  that accompanied Ada’s talk
• Earth People on the Wellington City Libraries’ blog

Are you thinking of studying next year? There are have been some recent changes to the MLIS programme that might effect your decision making. As part of the LIANZA conference some of us went along to a meeting to discuss these changes with Brenda Chawner, one of the lecturers from Victoria University. It wasn’t a very well attended session to be honest, but did give the current students chance to air their views and be re-assured by Brenda on the choices they make over the next few months that will effect their degree.

Currently, the MLIS runs as a one year, full time course, of 10 papers and a research project. If you are working in Christchurch, then you can study 1 or 2 papers at a time and take between 2 and 4 years to complete. As of next year the emphasise of the course will change slightly. Following the lead from other countries Victoria have decided to drop the word ‘Library’ from their Masters Degree, and will instead be offering a MIS – Masters of Information Studies. If you follow the same core subjects as the current MLIS degree you can graduate with a MIS (LIBS) – a Master of Information with a Library Studies endorsement. With a slightly different set of core papers you can also get an Archives and Records endorsement (ARCR).

If the whole idea of 4 years of part-time study is too much, Victoria have also introduced two other qualifications: a Postgraduate Diploma and a Postgraduate Certificate in Information Studies. The Diploma takes 8 papers and the Certificate takes 4 papers to complete and again, depending on your choices can have the endorsements LIBS or ARCR after them.

Victoria have been working with LIANZA as well, and the core content of the MIS (LIBS) reflects the body of knowledge that is needed to become a Registered member of LIANZA. There is no word yet where the diploma or certificate sit in relation to registration, but Lianza are currently looking at it.
For more information do visit the School of Information Management website.

Tuesday was filled with participation. “Getting people on-side: making allies to support your innovation” presented by Deborah Fitchett, was a workshop to brainstorm ways of realizing ideas, achieving goals, and generally gaining support in our workplaces. Some of the ideas that came through in the session include: taking advantage of those precious moments that we are face to face with our managers, engaging with colleagues to gain kindred spirits, and resolving miscommunications in person. There were a lot of ideas flying so Deborah is developing a website with the collection of suggestions that came about in this un-conference session (#1). I will post this as soon as I get the link for all to enjoy.

Joanne Smith’s presentation “Revitalising libraries for the self-serve generation” was reaffirming. Joanne’s research presented ways in which libraries are preparing themselves for a new set of needs and customers. I sat happily in the session realizing that Christchurch City Libraries already does almost all of the things she suggested implementing for the next generation. Impressive!

how do we make staff meetings more creative?

I might be bias, but “What would you do? Developing and sharing creative solutions”, a pecha kucha-style, unconference-like session (#2!) was the highlight of the day. Paul Sutherland and Elizabeth Whyte were our fearless coordinators. Several LIANZA delegates took the stage with some things they wanted to discuss, providing an opportunity for anyone to present. The questions were revealed in just a few short minutes and everyone sat together to develop solution. Some of the content of the session:

Q: Suggestion boxes, A: Answer feedback and make it public

Q: What would you do about disruptive youth in the library (Kate Ogden’s questions), A: Well, at least we have their attention!

Q: Having more dynamic creative staff meetings, A: Have 10 minute standing meeting, have 1 meeting with an agenda and 1 without, take on the un philosophy.

Q: What’s more important? the food, the service or the menu, A: Customer service is the most important, the customer doesn’t always know what they want.

Paul and Elizabeth un-presenting

Thanks Paul and Elizabeth for an awesome, and yes “refreshing” (as was quoted by someone at the end) session.

It really was a fascinating un day. I suspect to see more of these kinds of sessions based on how incredibly popular and useful they were.

Oh yes, and SOL square was pretty fun too.

Claudia Lux - Photo courtesy of Ross Becker

At their sessions during the LIANZA conference they both stressed the importance of sharing.

In her keynote on Tuesday Claudia Lux encouraged us all to advocate for our libraries and ensure they are visible, especially to those not connected to education or cultural sectors.  Share information about what we do as librarians – do all your friends and family know (and more importantly ‘get’) what librarians do?  Most importantly don’t complain – no one likes a whinger.  Package your message in a different way and create advocates from customers who use your library.

In a similar vein, later in the day John McIntyre co-owner of The Children’s Bookshop in Kilbirnie, Wellington stated to his audience that it was all about sharing – whether you’re a librarian or a bookseller.  Share the passion – share the enjoyment of reading and books.  John stressed the importance of getting out from behind the desk and into the shelves - initiating conversations with our customers.  But for god’s sake don’t lead in with the universally loathed ”can I help you?”!  Alternative suggestions were ”Are you happy browsing?” or “Are you finding what you’re looking for?”.  Not earth shattering news to librarians but a timely reminder to engage with our customers without the barrier of a desk rather than expecting them to come to us.

John’s passion and enthusiasm for books and the ways they can impact and play a role in changing lives for the better was blatant. From his sharing of a personal letter from a very grateful teen mum to encouraging us to think about our own customers situations and the positive impact we could have on them, has got this librarian thinking about creative ways to engage with challenging youth in my own library.

Common to both Claudia and John was their message to make ourselves valuable to our communities – now there’s a challenge!

Maybe it’s because spring is coming (oops, it’s here!), maybe it’s because I have not had enough sleep recently, but I think I am in love with Tim Spalding, Tim Spalding, Tim Spalding. Well, LibraryThing anyway!

Tim Spalding or lollies?

“LibraryThing catalogs yours books online, easily, quickly and for free” - but wait, there’s more – you can also use it to … [Warning: the following list is a very narrow summary of features that is not truly representative of all of the functionality available within LibraryThing. Existing users of LibraryThing may find this offensive]:

• See who else has the book, and what they think about it.
• View and add facts about the book such as character names, awards, or places.
• View and add reviews, ratings, tags.
• View and add cover images and a gallery of authors.
• Look at statistics to see books that you share with other LibraryThing members.
• Use comments to send a note to other members.
• Connect to other people on LibraryThing by joining or creating a group.

Is this enough to pique your interest? If it is then sign up for LibraryThing. Go to the home page, click “Join now” and enter a user name and a password in the yellow box. That’s it.

If you have already used LibraryThing, then what do you think?

An interview with Jessica Dorr – the Program Officer for Global Libraries, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jessica is a  keynote speaker at LIANZA Conference 2009 (she’s on stage at 9.30am this morning and promises a presentation with plenty of photos).

(15.46 minutes, 14 MB)

Jessica recommended this video on Youtube showing how a library project in Latvia, jointly funded by the foundation and the Latvian government, has turned Latvia’s libraries into centres of learning and opportunity by providing better access to information, jobs, and social connections through technology. The grant—which provided public libraries with computer equipment, Internet connectivity, and skilled librarians—is a huge success story and is helping to close the digital gap in Latvia.

(Thanks to Richard Liddicoat of the Digital Library Web Team for his sterling audio work on the interview)

We finish our interview with Tim Spalding of LibraryThing, talking about social networking and sharing, and different way of seeing the world.

Tim on Facebook and social networking book applications: “To some extent they’re competitiors, to some extent they’re gateway drugs to LibraryThing”.

Well, Day 2 of the Conference is almost over and I have already got screeds of notes. Unfortunately, most are illegible, as I seem to have lost the knack of speed writing, or indeed of any writing at all, now that the keyboard has supplanted the pen in my daily life… So this summary relies mostly on my memory – if you attended the Conference, please do let me know if I have got something wrong!

The first session I attended was the keynote speech by father-and-daughter duo, Sir Tipene and Hana O’Regan.  The focus of their session was the intergenerational transmission of knowledge within Ngai Tahu.  Not surprisingly, father and daughter exemplified the different ways in which knowledge is acquired by different generations, with Sir Tipene favouring the written word, while Hana “waits for the video”.  However, regardless of these differences, both emphasised that the transmission of knowledge entails the inherent selection of knowledge, and therefore the withering of the knowledge that has not made the cut.  As the famous quote says, “history  is written by the winners”, or, in Sir Tipene’s version, “history always forgets the losers”.

So the coming of the potato to Aotearoa led not only to the vanishing of the fern root as a common source of food, but also to the disappearance of songs, poetry and knowledge about its cultivation, preparation, etc.  Similarly the axe took over the pounamu adze, and as Christianity and pork meat became popular, kai takata (cannibalism) vanished, and with it an important part of Ngai Tahu culture (Sir Tipene clearly enjoyed making repeated reference to kai takata, tongue no doubt firmly in cheek).

Much of the session then outlined the priorities and issues that dominated the last 300 years or so of Ngai Tahu history.  There was much to absorb here, but one snippet of information that impressed itself on me was the fact that the whole of pre-European Ngai Tahu history is preserved in written form in only a dozen or so manuscripts, and that half of those are heavily based on the other.

As a language junkie, it was the following statistics, taken from When Languages Die by K. David Harrison (2007), which however most shocked me:

• In 2001 there were 6912 distinct languages in the world
• By 2101 only about half of those are likely to still be in existence
• 47% of languages are under threat. By comparison, “only” 11% of birds, 18% of mammals, 5% of plants  and %8 of plants are in the same position.

Is there hope for Te Reo?  Hana O’Regan is obviously very concerned about this, and with reason: only some 5% of Ngai Tahu are fluent speakers of Te Reo, and almost all are second language learners of Maori, with only 15-20 families currently raising their children in Te Reo at home.  And the language that is being learnt has been sanitised – not surprisingly, few modern parents choose to follow in their predecessors’ footsteps by singing lullabies to their babies describing wars and acts of revenge. 

So where to for us as librarians? I guess that for me, this reinforces the importance of the role that the library can play not only in preserving Maori materials, but also and especially in encouraging the use of Te Reo within our walls, so that this knowledge may be available for the generations to come.  Sir Tipene and Hana O’Regan used Te Whare Mahara (The House of Memories) as a metaphor of the importance of “acknowledging the past, embracing the present and advancing the future”.   I can’t think of many better descriptions of the role of the libraries… What do you think? How can we help preserve Te Reo?

Sharing and censorship (what a great and difficult combination) were the big themes on the first day of the LIANZA conference. As you can read from my colleagues posts there was much to hear and see on Monday. The highlight for me was definitely Richard Stallman (where the subject of this post is sourced from), check out what  Donna wrote about the session.

Richard Stallman @ LIANZA 2009

So, I will focus on other aspects of this busy and fulfilling day. Beautiful weather for the powhiri was followed by presentations for the 3M Award for ‘Innovation in Libraries’ – won  by the Aotearoa Peoples Network Kaharoa later that evening.

Lunchtime came which presented a chance to meet other delegates as well as check out the huge range of vendors at the conference this year. Micrographic Services were giving out free plant seeds! (nice originality). I  then attended Chris Brickell’s session “Research in Libraries: The example of gay history”. This was a refreshing session where Chris presented his findings from libraries while researching his book “Mates and Lovers: A History of Gay New Zealand“. His session was filled with incredible details of  several library collections and resources such as: Cyclopedias, newspapers, Wises, journals, court cases, postcards, ephemera, etc. His talk concluded with some interesting thoughts on censorship such as “who do we name?”, “who do we protect?” [when it comes to sexuality and the role of it in Aotearoa culture].

The last session of the day was Brenda Chawner’s discussion “Talking to the world: using online identities for professional (and personal) communication”. Brenda started surveying people in 2007 and again this year and found that exponentially more people have a profile on a social networking site than 2 years ago. It was a provoking discussion about our identities online and how or if  we keep our professional and private lives separate in  social media. When Brenda asked the audience in the room how many people worked at libraries that had a policy regarding  using social media at or for work only 2 people raised their hands. Have organisations not encountered problems, or is it not an immediate need?

I did say that Stallman was the highlight of my day, but it was also a very happy moment when our very own Haneta Pierce was presented with the joint letter of recognition for Bicultural Development. A very proud moment.

All in all a great start, and much more to come…