New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme secondee videos

Speaker

Mike Dickison

Mike Dickison: In 1971, if you were the librarian at the public library in Hokitika and the whitebait were running, you could get the afternoon off to sit your nets. Unfortunately, not anymore, but this is something I learned when I interviewed the former head librarian of the Hokitika Public Library as part of my 18-month stint here as a digital discovery librarian at Western District Library.

Kia ora. I'm Mike Mike Dickison, and I want to talk about what I've done over the last 18 months at a small public library on the west coast. Now, my job was as a digital discovery librarian, along with Ruahine Coakley, my colleague in the NZLPP program, who was a community outreach librarian and worked on improving the library's access and outreach, particularly to the Māori community in Hokitika.

I was concerned with community access to our collections and to making things available online. And the first thing I did when I walked into the library was take this photograph. We have the most number of translations of The Luminaries of any library in the world, I think. And so being a good Wikipedian, I promptly put them all onto Wikidata and improved The Luminaries and Eleanor Catton article.

Then, I noticed in the history room, we have a locked cabinet full of obscure, local publications and pamphlets that really weren't accessible to anyone. And I wondered what I could do to try and make this collection both able to be handled and issued, and readable by more people. So I began to scan and produce facsimiles of some of the works so at least we had clean copies that people could touch.

But this wasn't really improving accessibility. So I then decided that we'd try digitizing-- out of copyright, I have to be clear-- public domain works using Wikisource. Now, Wikisource is a Wikimedia Foundation platform that lets volunteers transcribe and proofread books that can then be made available for download or even exported as an EPUB. And you can see some of the stuff that we've already managed to complete. We have lots more in the pipeline, and we've just received a Matatuhi Foundation grant to continue this work for another six months.

A volunteer sees this when they're working in Wikisource. It takes two people to clear and proofread each page. It goes yellow first. Then, when two people have checked it, it goes green, at which point, the book is finished and able to be exported. Now, a tip that, by the way, you might appreciate, when you're looking through Google Books at an already scanned work which is unavailable because Google thinks it's still in copyright, you can query them on this.

So Ivy Law died in 1941, so his work is, in fact, in the public domain even in America, which has a 70 year term. So what you can do is click on the Contact and query that. Say, I'd like to see the entire book and I believe it's in the public domain. Google will ponder that and get back to you in about two or three days saying, yes, you're quite right. This is in fact, our mistake.

Then, the whole book preview is now readable and downloadable, not by you, but by everyone. So good tip to know. So when we'd cleared these books, transcribed them and produced them as e-books, we were able to put them up into OverDrive collection where, because they popped up as new books, they were immediately seeable and borrowable. In fact, we've had far more loans from these books in the last few months than they have had in their 10 years on the shelves.

So I documented this whole process in a blog, Digital Westland, which I set up to try and give tips on Wikisource, tips on clearing copyright, dealing with Google Books, all the sort of stuff. I strongly recommend setting up a blog to document your time if you're ever in a short contract like this. The whole thing is exported and now available from the website.

And one of the things I ended up writing about was a history of Western District Library based on our archives, news clippings, and photos. Again, if you have a photo collection, make sure you write down the names of everyone at least on the back. So we began recruiting volunteers to do some research and work with sources.

Here's some of our volunteer team, and Helen on the left there is now actively scanning Victorian engravings and line drawings from old reference books and uploading them to Commons where we can use them in Wikipedia articles. It's been a great success. So because we started getting involved with Wikipedia in the community, we decided to host a New Zealand's first ever Wikipedia conference in Hokitika last year.

And it was a small but passionate meeting, and lots of great stuff was done. And the great thing about Hokitika is that if you have a conference, you can have a bonfire on the beach afterwards perfectly legally. That's a tip to know.

One of the projects I was working with was with the Left Bank Art Gallery on West Coast Artists. This is Marilyn Rea-Menzies who's a weaver and painter from Westport. And we got photographs of her and her work copyright-cleared by her so that they could be shared and reused under an open license, unlike most artwork photos. That means they were able to be used in a Wikipedia article, particularly this one here, which I wrote about her and several other artists which we are now using as part of Left Bank Project to showcase and spotlight some of the work of West Coast artists, which is, again, an ongoing funded project now.

And another thing I managed to do was run a community event in Barrytown, north of Greymouth, where locals contributed photographs, historic photographs, of the town. And I wrote this entire article on the area, which is actually threatened by mining now. So that was a great community initiative which we had to shift online at the last minute because of COVID, but still worked.

And here's us in COVID. My wonderful team, I just want to thank them all for their support and their good cheer. And in a small library, you really depend on the quality of each individual team member. And it was so nice to work with these people.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Any errors with the transcript, let us know and we will fix them. Email us at digital-services@dia.govt.nz

Speaker

Duncan

Duncan: From event management and cinema operations through to community engagement, that's a big jump. And it's been a challenging one, but very rewarding. The big news is there's plenty left to do.

The problem with this role-- in fact, most NZLPP roles-- is that every project opens a new door, and behind that door there's another door. And me? I just have to go look through those doors.

Hello, COVID-19. Boy, have you made our lives interesting. What you have done is proved the point that libraries are a major community touchpoint.
Yes, those numbers. And the numbers tell a story, but they don't tell the full story. Fun engaging with teens, and doing lots of listening. Hint-- if you're into it, do listening. It's awesome.

When a group comes through your door and says, we need big tables and lots of space, what do we do? We say, oh, we've got that. Bring on Chinese calligraphy. Initially for the Chinese community, but now they're sharing their culture with the whole community.

We're libraries. We give people skills, show them how to use tools like library apps. Otherwise, the smartphone they have is as good as a screwdriver on the internet. If you can't use your tools, you're nowhere.

The important thing for libraries is we shouldn't be an island. We have to be in the community. Go out. Get amongst it. Be a people person. Listen, engage, encourage, involve-- that's what libraries do.

Engage with your community. Here's an idea-- a Christmas carol sung by locals, school choirs, whatever. Images provided by locals reflecting their view of their region. End result? An electronic slideshow Christmas card, from Marlborough, to the world. Give it a go.

Coding. It's not a dark art. It's not voodoo. It's 21st century literacy. It's teen-centric and relevant for our tamariki. Get into it. Prenda Coding Club looks great to me.

Within the workplace, do the hard work for others so they can focus in their areas of expertise. And remember, we don't all need to know everything. We don't all need to be experts in all areas.

Sometimes in life, it's the little things that matter. Do the little things. Print nose clips for your teammates. Be a supportive team member. Be a sympathetic ear when others are going through tough times. That's what life's about.

The great thing about this role is something's always coming up. Coming soon-- Sunday arvo in-library concerts. Just another way of linking with our communities and tapping into the skills base that's out there.

Remember those doors that keep opening? Well, here was another one. Underutilized 3D printing. Schools who needed to print their 3D designs. Link them together with our libraries as the common point, and we have brand new relationships through the community.

Take a bunch of seniors willing to learn. Add a remote access platform, and you can teach them anywhere. It's a green eggs and ham moment-- they'll do it in a plane, on a boat, on a train, and benefit all the way.

BRIC-- Building Resilience In Children. BRIC-- a fantastic resource that develops communication, cooperation, and teamwork, and does it all while they're having fun building LEGO at their local library.

One of the big outcomes from all our focus group work? Teen music sessions. Evening music sessions, playing it loud, teens only. Teens own the libraries, and building those relationships.

It's not often I encourage demolishing things, but that's what we do here-- demolish silos, work cooperatively, communicate often. Look at what others are doing, and communicate with them. That's a win-win-win.

There's a bunch of opportunities out there. We need to engage with others, tell the story, be proud of what we've done and what could come from it. That's why we've got our own group currently engaging with government ministries, showing them just what NZLPP can deliver across the nation.

Someone once said there's no such thing as a new idea. Well, we're not sure on that. But I'll tell you this much-- I'm good at stealing ideas, especially good ones. Big kids like LEGO too, so steal good ideas. Block party-- LEGO for adults. Thanks, Dunedin.

NZLPP-- it's a great journey so far, and there's more to come in this story. Part of it's staying sane in a crazy world, but I'm not sure how sane some of us are. Embrace the challenges. Enjoy the people. And above all else, love yourself. Thanks for listening.

Any errors with the transcript, let us know and we will fix them. Email us at digital-services@dia.govt.nz

Speaker

Jackie McMillan

Jackie McMillan: Kia ora koutou. Ko Jackie McMillan toku ingoa. My NZLPP-funded position as Reading Promotion Coordinator began in July 2021. I was seconded from Collection Development Team, where I'm the Collection Specialist usually responsible for children's fiction, non-fiction and picture book budgets. My interest in promoting reading grew, in part, from DPL's Children's Literature Research Collection, and my desire to increase the knowledge of its existence. Continued Sense of Wonder, for adults who love children's literature, is now in its seventh year. This NZLPP position has enabled me to develop new programs and events for DPL, with reading for pleasure at their heart, and which help our communities to connect and grow.

My first objective was to, along with a small team, redevelop readers' advisory training into a series of four modules. Four staff presented their modules, six times each. Over 90 staff from throughout DPL were able to participate. The four modules were delivered over four months. Topics were an introduction to readers advisory, appeal characteristics, the reader's advisory conversation, and reader's advisory resources. I presented the fourth module on the resources. On top of this, I've organized professional development sessions with a reading promotion twist, and with Collection Development team sharing highlights.

Second objective was to run events or start new programs. I've been able to put some plans into action. The web banners designed by council marketing teams-- each of them are shown here. It's just saying in this list on the Facebook post-- the second Wednesday in the month is often now a little busy. I've also worked to get dementia-friendly reading groups established at more than one library in DPL. I'm yet to coordinate graphic design for this, so in the meantime, we're using images of Dovetail Christmas books.

We've forged a working relationship with Alzheimer's Otago-- began by their providing in-service training for library staff on dementia. They've helped publicize the groups to their customers and more widely, and we've been interviewed together in the local community newspaper. And I've promoted the groups through our own online magazine, NB.

The first Reading Aloud-- just a tea and tales after-work event was the first regular event I wished to establish. It took time to get the volunteers' status approved through council, and then the Justice Department checks completed. We were set for a September start until lockdown intervened.

Then it also took time to get the graphic design right. This image of the reader wasn't quite what I had in mind, and the color often prints too darkly. Timing of the event fits the busy lives of the two volunteers; the audience is slowly growing and are appreciative. It's on the ground floor, so anyone in the library can join in, as well as those who come along intentionally.

We've tried a variety of Facebook and other social media posts to promote Reading Aloud. The more creative posts, Gandalf and Gulliver, received good responses online. I've also contacted other organizations, including parts of the university, to promote the event. At this stage, though, the most effective advertising still remains emailing people directly. It's a tough time to start a new kind of event.

But we've also started South Dunedin Page Turners, which meets in the middle of the library in the middle of the day. We share and swap books. The librarian also leaves a pile of books for the group, which is devoured. She knows her customers well.

I've helped coordinate and market two new book clubs for teens. We've advertised them together and separately. The teen book group for years eight to 10 has had five or six kids come along, and the Graphic Novel Club for high school students has struggled to find an audience. Extra promotion has been sent to school librarians and teachers and parents, but reaching the teens is still fraught.

Here's an example of some of our Facebook posts. Our NZLPP youth engagement librarian has also used other social media to reach teens, including Instagram.
Other activities I've been involved with-- visiting library book clubs and assisting it with independent youth outreach outings, and as well, I've joined the Read Share Grow COR work in South Dunedin, and taken part in some of their work, giving books to children. I've also organized a meet-up of local children's writers and illustrators.

My first public talk had actually been booked the year before, and I just snuck in before the August lockdown. This talk was based mostly on a talk I'd given at the University Center for the Book Symposium in 2020, where the theme was booking travel. And my second talk, in November 2021, was for the University of Otago's annual symposium, again. This time the theme was natural history. I used Hocken Library and the Public Library's books. But it wasn't so much about reading promotion, per se, but a lesson on how reading for interest or self-directed study can lead to knowledge about an entirely new area.

This one-off event in March was attended by over 70 people, mostly in their 20s or 30s. Books and other library resources were on display, and the goodie bags proved a hit. Fourteen people signed up for a new book group, which has been run in collaboration with Dunedin Pride.

As events were problematic, hosting author talks in two literary festivals based in the library were canceled or postponed. So writing articles about reading and interviewing by email has formed a significant part of my work. Dame Fiona was due in Dunedin in September. However, lockdown changed that, but I still got an interview with her for NB. My 2021 and 2022 articles for NB, our online magazine, have included book lists on a topic or a theme, on a specific collection, on our new reading-related events or interviews, which I hope will encourage young and old to read our great New Zealand writers.

And from December till early February, I filled in as the Libraries Event Coordinator on events that promote reading of New Zealand writers. These events help strengthen the library's relationship with local and national organizations. We had planned to host Ben Brown in March, but COVID was against us. If time and COVID had allowed, I'd hoped to host more writers and advocates for literacy and reading for pleasure.

Any errors with the transcript, let us know and we will fix them. Email us at digital-services@dia.govt.nz

Speaker

Julie Price

Julie Price: Kia ora, tēnā koutou. Ko Aoraki te maunga, ko Waitaki te awa, no Waimate ahau, Ko Julie Price toku ingoa. Kia ora

It's lovely to have the opportunity to speak about my position as a community engagement librarian in the Waimate District Council. I was fortunate to win the position in January 2021. And since then, I've had a fantastic journey with the Waimate community, learning and growing together. We also in the Waimate District Council employed a digital librarian, and so some of our work interweaves beautifully. Just get my slide ready. Here we are, Emily and myself.

So when Emily and I began our journey with Waimate District Council, unfortunately there was a flood within the district, which meant the library was closed when our positions began. However, they quickly addressed this, and we were relocated at the event center. We were also given the time that we needed to understand our roles while the library was closed. So we did some heavy research about the Waimate District and the people within the district. And then we got to celebrate with the community who missed the library immensely on March 11 with the official opening, or reopening, of the library.

NZLPP was very generous with their finances to support us during our time in our secondee positions. Our library benefited with several tablets. And this means that our community could work more efficiently within the library. They also supported us with free public internet, waived fees, and advertising, and our travel case was supported financially. So we are very grateful. While working with the Waimate District Library, we formed collaborative relationships with the libraries within our immediate neighborhood, which were all Oamaru, Timaru, and Ashburton.

Through these relationships, we were able to find out different information and part of that information was DORA, the Digital On Road Access bus. So we were very grateful for Oamaru, Timaru, and Ashburton for sharing their knowledge of DORA. And DORA came to Waimate, and we were able to not only deliver DORA to our community and town but also outreach to our rural communities, because we are quite a rural our community. It was fantastic to share our banking, particularly because for Waimate, BNZ closed during our secondment times. And so people were anxious and nervous. And so they came and to learn how to keep safe on the internet while banking.

One of my roles, one of my key projects was to enhance, and extend, and enrich our communities literacy through high quality books and story times. So I worked with a variety of different people. I worked with John Street Kindergarten, East Valley Kindergarten, the Waimate Mobile Kindergarten, the Waimate Childcare Center, Rural Scholars Center, Morven Playgroup, parenting hub playgroup, the holiday program within the library, plus within the local primary schools and their junior classes.

I also worked one-on-one with the social worker within one of the primary schools with a low literacy group. And this was an amazing experience. And one of the tamariki that were in this group, Their whānau mentioned to the social worker that she had started talking about books and stories and looked forward to at times when we were together. So that was some wonderful feedback. Another part of this project was reaching out to whanau, because we know that the first 1,000 days are critical for a young tamariki.

And so engaging with their whānau and parents as best teachers, we were able to work with the Reading Together Program in conjunction with the Kahui Ako facilitator, Tina and Lizzie, as well as being supported by our local Rotary who gave us the funds that we needed to give the books and the resources to their whanau. So the picture that's underneath is one of our Rotary members, Michael, who was supporting the programme, reading to a group of tamariki when I'm working with the whānau. So it was a wonderful opportunity to work directly with whānau in those first 1,000 days while their tamariki were growing.

Another area that I worked in that boomed in Waimate and initially wasn't part of my project but was part of the digital librarians project was the digital training that DIAA work collaboratively with us. So we were really shocked and surprised in how many people needed this and how many people came to us and said, can we have more? As you can see, we're trying to keep it fun, light hearted, engaging, and relevant. So our people that needed this came from a variety of different skills. Some of their skill level was very low, and for others, they were on the journey but just wanted some back up.

One of the comments that Emily and I received was we know that we can start investigating things on our tablet or our phone when we're with you because you will get us out of trouble if we get into trouble. So there was that wonderful trust model. Unfortunately, as everybody knows, the 17th of August forced us down into a lockdown. So while our projects we're starting to form and while the interactions were starting to become strong, we were locked down.

And after the lockdown, there was the framework for the red light which also prevented us from engaging with our community, particularly for me, the schools and the early childhood centers. As you can see, there should be no non-essential visitors on site at red. So this meant that I needed to come up with a variety of different ways to get into the education sectors that I'd been working with. And one of those ways that we did this was Emily and I worked together and we did a video of some storytelling that we sent out with links to remain connected.

Of course during the lockdown and also during the red zone, my hands weren't idle. NZLPP provided a fabulous wrap around support. And they invested plenty of time and resources into this common positions through Slacks, sign ups, huis, zuis, zooms, and coaching. I certainly felt very supported and was able to upskill along my journey as you can see from my record of learning.

When returning to the library, yay, at long last after the lockdown and the red zone, there was some skeleton crew. But once we're back into the library it was Te Wiki o te Reo which means that what I had planned, I had to adapt to. So how I adapted was with doing displays but also making available some local legions of Moeraki boulders, Aoraki, our maunga, and also little Mt Peel.

So I collated this information and delivered it to the schools, and early childhood centers, and the high school. So that was a fabulous way to still be connected and also work supporting their te reo and tikanga Māori journey, which was also one of my projects. The purpose of the project was the library's commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi, and to strengthen the principles within the library and the connections in the community, as well as increase the library's use of te reo and Māori tikanga.

Part of my position as a secondee was to support my librarians. So within the library, I would be on site on a Thursday and Friday morning. And during that time, it was a wonderful opportunity to interweave the outreach that I've been doing in the community by being on site. And so when people came in, that relationship continued, and so that was really important because they would often come up to me directly because the relationship that we'd formed and trust in me-- different discussions, different aspirations for the community, and also different journeys that they had been on.

NZLPP also supported us with resources that we needed to share some of our Christmas cheer, so to speak, which included bags and resources. So we were really fortunate to have 77 pluses, which was immense for our district because some of our posts aren't supported. But this post in particular-- 77 acknowledgments, which was fantastic.

The community outreach that I did was also very well supported. And the purpose of that was to increase membership and member participation in an inclusive manner. So going out to the people and going out to their place of work or to their place within the community was a really empowering thing to do.

Here, we can see that we celebrated Waitangi Day within the library. This also interweaves with the Resource Management Act, 1991, and the Local Government Act, 2002. And as part of one of my projects to strengthen, like I say, the Treaty of Waitangi principles within the library, the outreach work that I did was with the local marae. I also supported the library staff to learn te reo on a Thursday.

I also worked with the kapa haka group at the local Waimate high school. I was on the Matariki Committee. I started a Waiata Wednesday. I had regular meetings with other library people within the district. I had wonderful cups of tea with one of our elders. And I was involved in supporting one of our local whānau members to apply for some funding.

Here is the poster for Waiata Wednesday. During the time, with all the lockdowns and things, we started in the library, using the screen, which was fantastic. Then we had to move outside because of the COVID worry. Then we moved to the front foyer. And now we're back by the TV. So we've really been very adaptive during this time. But what we've ensured that we've done is still make this available to our community, and I think that's really critical.

Housebound was one of my other projects. And within Housebound, we also needed to get a lot of resources. And so the idea of Housebound was to support people who are unable to get into the library. Part of the community outreach was public talks, one-to-one sharing, COVID passes, New World kiosk, Christmas bag handouts, St Johns . We also have a relationship with Kurau library and community link in Heartlands, as well as the museum archives. So plenty of outreach within our community.

Here is a summary of the stats that we were able to achieve within our library. So within the commitment to our early literacy experiences, we held 76 early literacy events for approximately 1,121 attendees. So they included parenting hub, kai ako learning, the whanau program, the early learning center visits, the library story time, and the literacy growth group.

The other stat were about the commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi. And within this, we were involved with the kapa haka, Matariki, te reo and tikanga Tuesday within the library, Waiata Wednesday with our community, he tangata relationships with the people in the iwi within our community, and Te Wiki o te Reo. So our results there were 84 events with approximately 651 attendees.

And finally, the Waimate Library's community outreach to increase membership and participation in an inclusive manner. For here, we did public talks. We did some digital work within the library, the library LEGO club, the library banks, the kiosk at the New World, and the librarians secondees' outreach. Here, we had 58 events with approximately 658 attendees.

The barriers that we identified during this time was the stigma in receiving support, the limited finances, the cultural values, fear of social repercussions, the low literacy, the low digital literacy, the language or second language difficulties, the digital access, access to transport, and limited or no phone service, or people not knowing where to go for help.

So being able to be a community engagement librarian and being able to go to the people means that it supported those people who are unsure or were new into the community. For example, the housebound had been housebound for seven years and didn't know who to ask, or had lost confidence and didn't feel confident enough to ask.

So certainly, being a community engagement librarian has been fantastic. It's been wonderful to be able to be in this position. And I'm very excited for the Waimate district's future. And I hope that our projects will continue and that the community will be excited about the things that are new in their communities as well.

Tēnā koutou katoa.

Any errors with the transcript, let us know and we will fix them. Email us at digital-services@dia.govt.nz

Speakers

Daniel, Jocelyn and Harmony, Palmerston North City Library

Karakia

Kia ora koutou kātoa
Whakataka te hau ki te uru
Whakataka te hau ki te taonga
Kia mākinakina ki uta
Kia mātaratara ki tai
E hī ake ana te atakura
He tio, he huka, he hau hū
Tihei mauriora

Harmony: Kia ora tatou, nau mai, haere mai.

Welcome to our experience with the New Zealand Library Partnership Program.

We are lucky to come to this journey from within the Palmerston North City Council. Daniel and Jocelyn worked in the customer and experience sector, but in different teams. While I came over from the contact centre at the Palmerston North City Council as the trainer.

Together, we created a tamariki story-time session where I read books with te ao Māori content. This was aimed at children, adults with beginner level te reo. We also wanted to reach out to those in isolation that were unable to come into the library. Our digital team used a green screen to add special effects, edited the videos, and helped bring it all together. Teamwork makes dream work.

We contacted some retirement villages in our area, where we were invited to visit four of them. Some with fortnightly visits. At these visits, we answered questions residents had, from simple ones like how to access eBooks, to updating their devices. One village even wanted us to do a presentation at each visit. So, we would show things like, how to use Google Maps and Google Earth. We were unable to continue this after the second lockdown, though.

Daniel: So, when we visited groups or had individuals come to the library for our help sessions, we were able to make a big difference. Joyce, who's pictured here, she's a perfect example, as she learned how to use her phone, and immediately called her friends on her phone, with a lot of excitement. The difference we made was particularly noted around the time vaccine passes were needed, as we were able to assist many people getting their passes, even assisting them with travel requirements needed for overseas travel.

Jocelyn: We visited five schools before last year's lockdown, showing kids how to use our website, and access digital resources, and also have a bit of fun with robots. These sessions were always lots of fun and so much chaos and noise.

Daniel: We took all the opportunities we could to introduce new forms of technology to people — young and old.

Harmony: So, my focus points for my secondment are Matauranga Māori and te reo Māori. Some of the mahi we did were displays, and this was one from Matariki 2021. The aim was to promote, educate, and encourage our community with te ao Maori through our taonga. Videos of documentaries around Matariki and Puanga, the Matariki Maramataka, and te whare tapa whā.

Jocelyn: During the school holidays, when we were able to, we created a very busy program with things like robotics and LEGO activities. And we even organized a pop-up library location. And the pop-up was mainly focused on trying to help job seekers, and let people know about our resources and stuff — but yeah, the job — the school holiday activities were always lots of fun.

Harmony: At the end of last year, we delivered a te teo Māori summer reading program across three classes, from the ages of 5 to 10 years, over three weeks. The purpose of this program was to encourage reading Māori books over the summer holidays and to help improve their reading and literacy. We had a great response from the kaiako and tamariki. They are super keen to this again this year. Tamariki were reading more and learning new kupu. At the end, they received certificates, new books, and prizes for their amazing efforts.

During COVID last year, we saw an opportunity to help boost COVID numbers within our Māori community in the Manawatu District. We walked around the Fielding township with our COVID signs in the rain and let everyone know we had a site set up at the civic centre. This attracted a lot of people through Facebook Live, local businesses, and locals passing by.

We had an amazing turnout where a lot of people said they didn't know where they could get vaccinated, until they saw us. We gave out prizes, and it was an amazing experience coming together to boost our numbers and keep our whānau safe.

Daniel: With the introduction of vaccine passes, we found ourselves extremely busy helping people get their passes. This sometimes required us creating emails for people or ringing up the vaccine call centre for them to email us a copy of their vaccine pass. We even went to a couple of retirement villages to assist the residents in bulk, getting their passes done, which was great.

Harmony: For Tiriti o Waitangi 2022, we wanted to put a positive spin by bringing two cultures together as one, highlighting the trading industry. Te Manawa art museum collaborated with the library to show off a mini exhibition of taonga that showcased the iron, harakeke flax, kai, whaling, and musket trades. We also displayed a copy of the Tiriti o Waitangi with the two different versions, and the Declaration of Independence.

Jocelyn: With the learning management program, it was great to take part in all the learning opportunities that was on offer. The range of choices was amazing, especially with the two options from the Open Polytechnic, which can go towards the Library and Information Services Diploma if they want to continue it. I, for one, took advantage of that. And I'm currently doing the second paper, and I probably will continue finishing it after 15 years.

Daniel: Proud moment for us all was to see our efforts recognized in organization newsletters and leaflets. And we are, as you can see, we got the odd yummy treat as well. Food's always a great plus in this industry.

Jocelyn: During the lockdown, and after it, we couldn't go out and see people, so we adapted to change and helped in different ways. We created worksheets to help people be digitally included. We sent these out to places like the retirement villages, posted them on our library blog, and had printed visions on a table for everyone to access. We also created worksheets for job seekers, to help with their journey in finding a job.

Daniel: Along with the printed resources, we created other digital content such as videos and displays. We did this to help with things such as delivering the online preschool program when it couldn't be done in the library, promoting things like Māori language week, and helping educate — sharing stories behind ANZAC Day and Waitangi Day. And they were so much fun to create. We all had a great time. It was awesome.

Jocelyn: And Niche Academy, it was such a wonderful tool for us to help with staff training. We've been able to use resources already created and shared on the marketplace, many from other members of the NZLPP, which was awesome. And we could create our own resources. We have so many plans to how we could use this in the future, and carrying on.

Daniel: So yeah, thanks NZLPP.

Jocelyn: Thanks.

Daniel: It's been awesome.

All right.

Kia ora.

Any errors with the transcript, let us know and we will fix them. Email us at digital-services@dia.govt.nz