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Keynote Speakers

Deborah Jacobs

Deborah Jacobs began her career as a rural children's librarian 29 years ago. Her other positions have included bookmobile services, general reference, head of branch libraries, as well as serving as an adjunct professor teaching public library advocacy at the graduate school.

For the past 17 years she has been a library director, spending eight years as City Librarian for the Seattle Public Library.

It is Deborah's passionate belief that a strong community and a thriving democracy demand vibrant public libraries.

During her time in Seattle she has lead the system in building the highly awarded and regarded Central Library designed by Rem Koolhaas, as well as 27 new neighborhood libraries, in addition to passing a $196.4 million bond measure and raising $83 million in private funds.

She has received many awards during her career including Library Journal "Librarian of the Year" in 1994 and Governing Magazine's "Public Official of the Year" in 2001.

Presentation Synopsis:
From Vision to Reality: Engaging the Community

Join Deborah Jacobs, City Librarian, The Seattle Public Library, as she discusses how libraries must reach to the future while holding onto the past. Deborah will share her insights and perspectives on how to rally public support and translate a community’s needs into a vision, and finally the steel and glass of an innovative 21st century library. She’ll discuss methods to engage and serve diverse communities, employ new technologies and visions of what libraries and information means to reach new generations, and how to engage staff in creating new service models and greater efficiencies.

 

Celia Lashlie

Celia's early experiences include single parenting two children, completing a degree in Māori and Anthropology, and spending two years on the DPB. She regards this as a challenging and most interesting period.

She was the first woman to work in a custodial role in a male prison, and moved to the role of Penal Division EEO co-ordinator, which was followed by three years as manager of Christchurch Women's Prison.

Highlights in this role were the two productions undertaken in conjunction with the Christchurch Arts Festival.

Celia has also completed contracts with the Specialist Education Service. She has most recently completed the "Good Man" project, involving 25 New Zealand boys' schools, and their views on what makes a good man in the twenty first century. A book detailing this is due late in 2005.

Her other publications include He Kete Pokai (2000), focusing on the management of females in custody, and "The Journey to prison: who goes and why" (2002), reprinted and revised in April 2003.

Professor Neil McLean

Professor Neil McLean is National Technical Standards Adviser to the Australian Government Department of Education Science and Training. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the IMS Global Learning Consortium.

He leads a small team who are involved nationally and internationally in the development of specifications and standards to increase technical interoperability for education communities.

Over the past two years he has devoted much attention to the interaction of libraries and e-learning and to the links with research information infrastructure.

Presentation Synopsis:
Libraries and E-Learning: Matching People and Resources

E-learning in its various forms is now well entrenched across learning and training communities. Building technical infrastructure for e-learning has been a primary focus in the international arena over the past decade and this presentation will begin by assessing the current state of play in terms of infrastructure developments. The use of technology for assisting learning and training activities has been varied and in many respects problematic. A gulf in communication persists between technologists and learning and teaching communities and the implications of this lack of dialogue will be explored at some length. Libraries find themselves caught up in spasmodic dialogue with both technologists and learning communities. The principal aim of the presentation is to explore ways in which libraries might take the initiative in matching people and resources for learning, irrespective of the educational or training context.

 

Paul Reynolds

Paul Reynolds is joint manager director of mcgovern on-line media, one of the New Zealand's original new media companies. Over the last 10 years the company has developed first class web properties for the library and information sector, as well as enjoying an excellent reputation in the legal, cultural, creative, and education sectors.

His role in the company embraces what he calls "imagineering" web solutions which put the user at the centre of the on-line experience. He is a strong advocate for the new information age - but is also equally clear that any information society worth speaking about must have at its core a commitment to equality of access and equity of opportunity.

He believes the public library network is a unique institution which can play a key role in the new world of digital living. He also believes that local authorities have an equally pivotal role in the development of strong communities.

However, he also believes both institutions need to re-examine their relationship, as well as create new synergies of interest if both parties are to contribute effectively to our emerging digital life.

Paul also has a strong media footprint - both in National Radio and in print. More recently he has been a guest of TVNZ's Breakfast Show. He continues to write by invitation - and has a secret blog which he hopes no one will ever find.

He is a member of LIAC, the Library and Information Advisory Commission, which advises the Minister to the National Library, The Rt Hon Marian Hobbs.

Presentation Synopsis:
The Public Library: 21st century visions for a 21st Institution

From its origin in the 19th century the public library network has developed into a key institution of civil society. One hundred and fifty years later, it has also developed extraordinary reserves of civic trust with each succeeding generation extending and renewing a commitment to ensuring its retention as a key community asset. However, here in the beginning of the 21st century, it is equally clear that new institutions and new networks will be required to ensure that the extraordinary benefits unfolding out of the emerging knowledge and information revolution are able to be shared within the same value frame of community equity and equality. Is the pubic library network equal to this challenge in New Zealand? Is the concept of equity and equality of access still relevant? If so, what kinds of institutional, technical and communication frameworks are required to ensure that the public library network continues to nurture and enhance the communities it is tasked to serve? 

Penny Carnaby

Penny was appointed Chief Executive and National Librarian in January 2003. From 2000 - 2002 she was University Librarian and deputy Librarian at Macquarie University in Sydney and prior to that held several positions at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology including Polytechnic Librarian and Director of the Library/Learning Resource Centre.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Diploma of Education from the University of New South Wales, and is a Member of CILIP, and Associate of ALIA. Penny served as National President of the Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) in 1999/2000 and was awarded a Fellowship of the Association in 2001.

Penny has a particular professional interest in creating national frameworks and strategies which enhance the flow of information to all parts of society and believes that New Zealand Aotearoa has the potential to become a leading information democracy.

She is currently the deputy Chair of the ICT Steering Committee for Education, established by the Minister of Education, was recently elected to the Public Sector Training Organisation Board, and is a member of the Library and Information Advisory Commission (LIAC).

Her personal interests include the environment and wildlife of Australia and New Zealand, and the management of a small farm on Banks Peninsula, growing native trees.

Presentation Synopsis:
Rewind, play, fast forward: New Zealand libraries engaging with the challenges of a knowledge led society

In this plenary National Librarian Penny Carnaby rewinds time to look back on an extraordinary year for the New Zealand library and information community. She celebrates the challenges/te wero that the profession set itself and has now delivered and reflects on why our engagement has been so strategically important for us as a sector.

Pushing play, Penny Carnaby considers the challenges that are with us right now as the Digital Strategy unfolds and as New Zealand prepares for what is hoped will once again be a positive role at the World Summit on the Information Society, to be held in Tunis later in the year. She also looks at how the new direction of the State Services Commission might play out in relation to libraries and our workplaces of the future.

Hitting fast forward, Penny Carnaby will examine some of the challenges New Zealand libraries may face in the future and how we might engage with these. She asks whether we can afford to press pause for a moment if we are to continue to engage with the challenges of a knowledge led society.

 

Hana O'Regan

Hana O'Regan is an educationalist who has spent the last 12 years working in the area of Māori language revitalisation, Māori politics and Māori culture and identity.

Hana attained her Masters from the Universirty of Otago with her thesis on the subject of Māori identity development becoming the basis of her book 'Ko Tahu, Ko Au', published in 2000.

Hana was a lecturer at The University of Otago before shifting to Christchurch where she lectured at Christchurch Polytechnic for two years before taking up the position of Head of Department of Māori Studies.

She is currently a member of the Māori Language Commission and the manager of Te Waka Reo, the Ngāi Tahu Māori Language unit of the tribal organisation of Ngāi Tahu descent.

Presentation Synopsis:
Kai hea ra te manuka - Where is the manuka?

The title of this paper "Kai hea ra te manuka" is derived from a Maori whakatauki or proverb; 'Kua takoto te manuka' that translates as "the challenge has been laid". This paper will discuss the nature of the challenge that libraries face today in their attempt to achieve sustained engagement of Maori and other communities in their activities and services. This will be analysed against the broader backdrop of current issues facing Maori participation in education and the barriers that many Maori face in terms of educational history, apathy, institutional racism, fear and 'Treaty back-lash', in this current age of educational market warfare, mass-production and instant gratification. The paper will attempt to identify where the challenge lies and how it might properly be addressed to promote the growth of positive, sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships between libraries and Maori communities.