Another blog to add to the graveyard

I always said I didn't want my blog to be one of those ones that ends up in the graveyard of blogs that hasn't been updated for ages, with no explanation why. Well, that's about to happen to this one. A while back I posted saying that I was taking a hiatus because life was just getting too busy but that I would be back some time in November. It's December & there hasn't been much in the way of posting. So, I've decided to abandon ship for good. While I really enjoyed blogging at the beginning, I've realised it's just not for me. So, farewell blogosphere! It was awesome while it lasted.

LIANZA Otago/Southland Weekend School, Dunedin, 15-17 November 2013

I recently attended the Otago/Southland LIANZA Weekend School and thought I would record my thoughts on a valuable weekend. These are the points that stood out to me the most.

• Be proud of NZ and LIANZA-we are important on the international stage-take advantage of that
• Don't feel like you are working in isolation-there are always ways to connect
• Use of libraries is strongly connected with academic success ( but we already knew that!) 
• Freedom of access to information is vitally important. Librarians should be sharing knowledge whenever possible
• Libraries ARE a core service. Communicate this clearly to people and be strong in the language you use. 

Laurinda Thomas ( LIANZA President) mentioned the IFLA Trend Report which I found fascinating. The top 5 trends are:

1. New technology will both expand and limit who has access to information
2. Online education will transform and disrupt tradtional learning
3. Boundaries of data protection and privacy will be redefined
4. Hyper connected societies will listen to and empower new groups
5. Global information economy will be transformed by new technologies. 

Overall, it was a great weekend and I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people and catch up with others.  Here's a Storify of the weekend that Sarah Gallagher @SarahLibrarina put together:

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 15

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 15: Today's photo is a flashback to our Christmas photo in 2010! The Oamaru Library staff are skilled, friendly and always willing to help you with your enquiry. Thanks for joining us on this virtual library tour, it’s been a pleasure. We hope you learnt a bit more about all the exciting items and services the library can offer. Hope to see you soon!

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 14

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 14: Did you know we have an Adult Literacy Collection? It is hidden away near the APNK computers-please do ask a staff member if you would like direction. This collection is great for people who find reading difficult but want more mature content. Andrina, our Large Print Co-ordinator looks after this collection and is the person to talk to if you would like to know more about the collection or make some suggestions.

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 13

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 13: Local musician and Library Assistant Lynley Caldwell, is pictured with our CD collection. This collection houses a number of music CD's from many different genres- classical, jazz, contemporary, rock, meditative/relaxing and even Lynley’s own CD- ‘Waiting for the lark’-. What kind of CD’s would you like to see in the collection?

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 12

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 12: The Heritage Collection is a comprehensive collection of local history books. These are available for use in the library only. The collection will be of particular interest to local history researchers and genealogists. Located next to the Heritage Collection is the Janet Frame collection which contains a large selection of Janet Frame’s books. A number of these books are in languages such as Danish, French and German.

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 11

Oamaru Library Tour: Day 11: Customer Services Co-ordinator Brenda Wollstein is pictured in front of our Graphic Novel collection. The graphics are a very popular aspect of the library collection and we have some great titles like 'The Sandman' by Neil Gaiman and the Alex Rider series. The Children’s Area also has a graphic novel collection with books like Tintin and Asterix. Do you like reading graphics? What are your favourites?