Musings of an Academic Librarian

From a lecturer: The topic of values came up so to illustrate I asked what NZTC ones were.  They (the students) mentioned Heart so I asked who at NZTC had shown them heart (being that values get lived, and are not just posters on the walls).  They immediately said the Librarian in how he found resources for them and showed them how to find others also.  Nice one Angus.  Thanks for supporting our students J

Theses 2 photos illustrate the improvements I made to the shelving.  The top photo shows the purple shelf ends I added for displaying new books.  (Purple is one of the college colours).  I also made the shelves higher by adding "extenders" to the top of each shelf.  The photo below shows the sloping shelves I purchased for the children's collection which made the books more visible and easier to browse and that has lead to increased circulation this year.

It was recognition for the initiative I have displayed this year, including: Organizing database trials and then making a proposal for Informit which was accepted Selecting many new books for the library and developing areas of the collection. My suggestion about having the college's theses made available at DigitalNZ and then arranging that Ideas I've had to promote the library's resources, such as adding a link (with an embedded login) to the EBSCO eBooks collection on the NZTC learning platform My enthusiasm for helping students in the library and "getting books into their hands" was also noted.

100 EBSCO eBook milestone for NZTC Posted Mon 13 Feb 17 11:09 am New Zealand Tertiary College’s eBook collection via the EBSCO database has clocked triple digits. Since the addition of new titles in 2016, the College’s collection has passed the 100 mark with its range expanded to add variety and the most up-to-date titles. Young Children in a Digital Age: Supporting Learning  and  Development with Technology in Early Years  and  Childhoods: Growing up in Aotearoa New Zealand  are just two of the titles that have been added to the EBSCO collection. “The advantage of eBooks over print books is that students can access them from a digital device like a smartphone from anywhere and at any time. They don’t need to be borrowed and then returned like physical books so there’s no chance of getting an overdue fine,” said NZTC Librarian Angus Johnston. Another advantage of a digital book is the ability to do a keyword search to find relevant information and ...

I was looking at another small library's website the other day and the catalogue was referred to as the OPAC.  I never use the term when I'm talking to library users, I can't even recall what the acronym stands for.  I'll have to look it up...online public access catalogue.  It's quite a dated term and how would a student know what it means? The same goes for calling the online library at the college Liberty Library (Liberty is the library management system that we use).  For a long time I used the term in my library talks, etc. but then I realised that Liberty library means nothing to students and I have stopped referring to it as such.  I suggested to management that the name be changed on the learning platform from Liberty Library to something else and I was pleased when it was changed to NZTC Library or otherwise the library catalogue.

I have always become anxious when students ask me to help them find articles in a database on a certain topic.  I'm much more at ease when I get asked if the library has a certain book, then it is a simple yes/no answer.  Searching databases effectively is hard.  I have had a lot of practice at it but what I have realized is that I don't make it easy for myself.  For example, when I'm with people, I rush.  I want a quick answer.  Part of me just wants to quickly get rid of the person, another part of me really wants to help. This week a student asked me that she wanted to search articles for references in EBSCO on "adult-run teaching models."  I knew straight away with such vague sounding terms this was not going to be a good search.  I asked the student the right questions like, what do you need this information for?  And what exactly do you mean by "adult-run teaching models?"  Her answers were not very clear so I went and asked one ...

In October of last year (2017), new improved shelving was installed for the children's picture books.  Previously the children's books were shelved at the back of the library.  I moved them as well as the puzzles and games to the front of the library and with the new sloping shelves they have become much more visible to borrowers as they walk into the library.  What I am not surprised to find is that circulation has increased dramatically this year, in particular with the Maori myth and legend picture books.  And forgotten about resources like the jigsaw puzzles are being borrowed again.  Here is a sample of items with their borrowing history over the past 2 years Resource 2016 2017 2018 We're going on a bear hunt 0 2 5 Pania of the Reef 0 0 8 Paikea 0 0 4 The Fish of Maui 2 5 15 How Maui Found his Father and the Magic Jawbone 0 3 7 How Maui F...

It's just a little mention but I was pleased to see it. Resources are allocated to support high quality learning, teaching, research and continuous improvement. The NZTC library is valued and new resources are added. I have personally selected and ordered a lot of new books this year, much more than last year or the year before.  Last year I was mainly focused on weeding items and fixing cataloging errors, this year I've been more focused on finding new resources for the library, as well as newer editions of textbooks we currently have.

NZTC students’ learning enhanced by new online database Posted Fri 10 Aug 18 9:59 am New Zealand Tertiary College (NZTC) students now have access to highly-regarded academic database specialising in education in Australasia, Informit A+ Education. Informit A+ Education specialises in education in Australasia, with over 200,000 records including contributions from leading researchers in teacher training and in-depth coverage of the learning, teaching and management issues that can be faced by those in teaching professions. “NZTC is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to ensure that our students have access to relevant academic research, ensuring our students reflect the NZTC value  Competence , the addition of Informit A+ Education speaks to that commitment,” Chief Executive Selena Fox said. Accessible via the online journal section on NZTC Online, Informit’s content is sourced from publishers, associations and professional bodies with a focus on regional pe...

Oversaw the changeover of the college Christchurch library from a research to a lending library. Organised the installation of new security gates with RFID technology for the Auckland library. Created new guides for using the online resources. Significantly developed the library's EBSCO eBook collection as well as the print collection. Trialed, proposed and then acquired a new research database for the college, Informit A+ Education. Arranged for the college's masters' theses to be made freely available at Digital NZ's shared repository. Improved the shelving for the general collection and purchased new shelving for the children's picture books.

NZTC Master’s research now available on DigitalNZ Posted Fri 29 Jun 18 11:10 am New Zealand Tertiary College (NZTC) Master of Education (Early Childhood Education) graduates’ theses and dissertations can now be easily cited in academic research worldwide due to an extended partnership with the National Library. In the 2017 Staff Survey NZTC staff requested an online shared repository for theses and dissertations produced through NZTC. A number of students have since then asked for an online shared repository. NZTC librarian Angus Johnston sought to accommodate the requests through the recent relationship with the National Library. “After great consideration to how we could best support our staff and graduates’ requests, we decided to go with a shared repository with the National Library located on DigitalNZ,” Johnston said. “This will allow theses and dissertations to be available on the DigitalNZ content aggregator, in hard copy at...

Recently the library upgraded to RFID gates supplied by Bibliotheca.  It was a long overdue change, the old RF gates had stopped working properly a long time ago and were actually designed for retail.  After a few tweaks the new gates have been working well.  However when the gate alarm is triggered by a student I still have the old habit of calling them back and asking "have you got any library books?"  What I forget to do is look at the screen on my PC and see which book has set off the alarm since the gates are data enabled.  (If it's not one of our books it will just say "unknown.)"  This is great technology and makes my job easier.  Plus they light up like a disco with the red LED lighting around them when triggered which looks cool.

Libraries are organic in the sense that they are constantly growing and changing.  Books get too old or damaged and get weeded (or go missing!) and new titles are bought or new editions of books the library already has.  It is the same for the college library.  Lots of books have gone missing over the years (hopefully very few more with the new security gates) and books have gone out of date.  The collection needs to be constantly updated. Because of my interest in collection development I realised that I am having a hand in reshaping the monograph collection and that is very pleasing to me.  For instance, since I have started reading picture books to my son I have become really interested in young children's literature and so I have been choosing some new titles for the library (bearing in mind we are trying to promote te reo in centres so I have been choosing mostly English-Maori books).  It's not just children's books.  Where I have seen a need fo...

In any library it's important to have subject headings that are very specific for books and other resources so that patrons can more easily find what they are looking for.  For example, books on RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers) are very popular in the library where I work.  Often students will come in and ask for books on RIE and at first I didn't know what they meant.  Then once I knew I decided it would be a good idea to add RIE as a subject term for all the books that cover this teaching approach  (the other terms being used were very generic Library of Congress subject headings, e.g. Child care).  Now when you type in RIE as a keyword into the catalogue search box, all the books on RIE come up.  If RIE wasn't a subject term, then these books would only appear in the search results if RIE was mentioned somewhere in the catalogue record of the book, e.g. the abstract.