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.