LIANZA TE WHAKAKITENGA AA KAIMAI LIBRARY ASSISTANTS’ DAY
LIANZA Te Whakakitenga aa Kaimai celebrated our third annual Library Assistants’ Day on Friday, November 6 at Te aka Mauri/ Rotorua Library. The event was a chance for library assistants from across Waikato and Bay of Plenty to come together, collaborate with one another and share ideas.
The day consisted of group discussions, some presentations and a tour of Te aka Mauri. We started off the day with a lovely waiata from the staff at Rotorua Library and followed it by introducing ourselves, where we are from, what our role is and how long we have been working in libraries. This was a great way to break the ice and learn a little more about the varying levels of experience that a library assistant can have.
We then started off a group discussion talking about what our favourite part of being a library assistant was. We found out that regardless of the size of the library we all really enjoyed working closely with customers in front-facing roles, which is something that was missed during COVID-19. To follow up this discussion we talked about some of the challenges we face as library assistants. We found out it was clear that working in any front-facing role we will have to deal with difficult customers and some of the library assistants had the added difficulty of being in roles that involve council work as well.
After a delicious morning tea and some time for a quick catch up, we moved on to a presentation from me (Danielle) about how Te aka Mauri sets itself apart from other libraries. Rotorua in itself sets itself apart with the Reorua initiative, which encourages biculturalism in both written form (e.g signage) and spoken form (e.g greetings). Te aka Mauri also sets itself apart by the lack of an issue or reception desk and chooses instead to have roving librarians. Lastly Te aka Mauri is unique in the fact that it shares its space with the Children’s Health Hub which has been mutually beneficial for both the library and the health hub. This presentation led to a discussion about how other libraries are doing things differently and whether or not they worked well in the library environment.
Just before we broke for lunch the library assistants were given a tour of Te aka Mauri. If they wanted to learn more about a particular area or a particular feature of Te aka Mauri they were connected with the right person. All the others explored the three floors open to the public and asked questions as we went along.
After lunch, we were treated to a wonderful and very informative presentation via Zoom from Nicole Thorburn, who is on the LIANZA Te Whakakitenga aa Kaimai committee. Nicole talked about the process that she went through in order to gain professional registration through LIANZA. Nicole went through Route C which is demonstrating knowledge and understanding of the Bodies of Knowledge. This was a great way for the library assistants to see that there was more than one way to gain your professional registration, which some were looking to do.
After a quick break and some fresh air, we then gathered back together and talked about how libraries thrived and struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the library assistants continued to work from home, others did a few hours of work in-house on a roster and some used the time for personal development. There have been some great initiatives from libraries during the pandemic to allow patrons to still access resources such as click & collect, delivery services and promotion of online resources.
Our last activity of the day was a social media collaboration for library assistants to share thoughts, ideas and questions with one another. The idea behind this was to encourage the library assistants from around the region to keep in touch with one another and learn from each other’s knowledge and experiences. This was set up as a Google group and everyone who attended the day was added to the group.
Library Assistants’ Day proved to be a fun opportunity for us to share ideas and create a space where library assistants from around the region can collaborate with one another.