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Tēnā koutou

This issue of Library Life was put together on the road! I put aside some time for paid work while on holiday with my family in Europe and the UK during July. As we travelled I was reminded how, although we have plenty of differences between cultures, there are also many similarities and shared values. From the impressive British National Library to the tiny specialist National Poetry Library in London; the glamorous reading rooms of the Bibliothèque Richelieulouvois in Paris or the modern architecture of the Central Rotterdam library, all these libraries aim to make knowledge accessible to all.

As Rachel Esson says in her first President’s column ‘We need to do all we can to ensure that our most vulnerable society members take that first step and walk into our libraries’, indeed, the contributors to our feature item on the importance of online Māori information are doing just that! The Freedom of Information column digs deeper into accessibility and our Viewpoint column questions ‘what is neutrality – and is it something we want to be strictly committed to?’

In this issue we also interview the Gold Partners and some committee members of LIANZA Conference 2019; profile the tiny MOTAT Walsh Memorial specialist library and, drumroll … announce the winners of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults along with the winners of our recent competitions! I am really excited about this issue of Library Life, I hope you are too.

Noho ora mai, Helen Heath