Laura Marshall joined LIANZA last November as executive director. She talks here about her career, what makes her tick, her love of surfing and her vision for LIANZA.
I’m from Auckland, and I currently live in Waiake. I have a passion for books. As a child, I was always reading a book. A friend shared an early memory the other day of all the kids sitting around playing a game, and I’d be playing the game while reading a book.
That obsession with books led to owning Evergreen Books, one of New Zealand’s leading second-hand and rare bookshops for about 15 years. We ended up having three shops in our chain and I really enjoyed that.
A bit more about me as a person. When I turned 50, I took up surfing, and it’s become a bit of an obsession. I’ve always loved the sea and swimming, so I decided to up the stakes and I’ve been surfing for about two years.
Anyone who’s a surfer will know it’s an absolute obsession, but it’s also very challenging and surprising. There’s so much to learn. I enjoy the learning aspect, and I enjoy its challenge. On a quiet day when you’re out on the sea, it’s very meditative. So, after a tough day at work, it’s nice to get out and either be challenged by the sea or to meditate.
A BACKGROUND IN NEW ZEALAND AND MĀORI HISTORY
I did a degree in New Zealand and Māori history and anthropology. I was going to continue training towards being an archaeologist but ended up in bookshops as my mother predicted. When I did my degree in New Zealand and Māori history in the early 1990s, people still thought the Moriori had been first to New Zealand, and Māori had killed and eaten them all. Disinformation was circulating, and I often found myself trying to explain the history of Aotearoa New Zealand to friends.
My studies certainly deepened my understanding of our country’s history while also providing some insight into Te Ao Māori. This knowledge has been valuable in my career, making me more aware. That said, I believe we are all lifelong learners in this area, especially as a Pākehā New Zealander.
WORKING IN LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS
Besides the bookshops, my next key role was as Commercial Manager at Rotorua Museum. That was my first time working for Rotorua Council, and I enjoyed the public service aspect. You’re doing things to help people, and the bottom line isn’t just money. It’s user satisfaction and education.
I then moved into the not-for-profit sector, serving as the General Manager Commercial for two different hospices. It was satisfying to know that every dollar generated went toward supporting people in need rather than contributing to a private business’s profits.
One of the aspects I enjoyed most was working with the staff who managed and ran our shops. I take pride in having contributed to improving their work environments, creating opportunities for growth, and enhancing their pay rates.
Working for a charity doesn’t mean you should earn less. I believe in pay parity—if you’re working in a charity shop, you’re putting in just as much effort as someone in the commercial sector, and that deserves recognition. We made a strong commitment to developing our team, providing opportunities for staff to grow from the shop floor into assistant manager and manager roles.
In between not-for-profit roles I was very proud to return to Rotorua and to be appointed as Library Director Te Aka Mauri.
When I joined Te Aka Mauri, we brought our archives back into the library and made them accessible to the public for the first time in 30 years. We also expanded the work of our heritage team, something I was passionate about driving forward.
I’ve always loved history and understand the value of archives, ephemera, and those fascinating bits and pieces from my time working with rare books. History has a unique way of connecting people and strengthening a community, and I’m proud to have played a part in making it more accessible.
They had some amazing resources, and we worked at getting them into the hands of the public more easily. The project gave the staff confidence that I was there to help and understood their work.
GREAT TE ARAWA STORIES
Another thing that I am proud of is when Te Aka Mauri were gifted the custodianship of a website and resources called Great Te Arawa Stories – a storehouse of stories from Te Arawa to help early learners learn more about local iwi stories and Rotorua history.
Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru Education Trust were scaling back their work and needed someone to manage the resource. Otherwise, it could have been shut down and all these amazing stories and incredible resources would have been lost. I remember my manager said to me to forget it, that it was too difficult and not to waste too much time. But I was like, no, I really love the resources and want to see what I can do to support the usage. I did a lot of the work in my own time, but I also had an amazing team to help.
It took about a year, and eventually we signed an MOU where Te Aka Mauri would be the custodian, and we had Te Pūkenga Koeke to offer advice and support. When I left Te Aka Mauri, about 2000 users were tapping into it a month and they were on a journey to expand the site. It was just incredible, and this was before the Aotearoa New Zealand School Histories curriculum was introduced.
INITIAL THOUGHTS ON LIANZA
My first thought about LIANZA in starting this role was that there’s more going on than I thought there might be and the wide scope of the support we provide to many different groups. The scope is much bigger than the public library area I was used to. I was impressed by how much we do and see that there’s potential to do more with the right resources. As a change agent, this gives me a good opportunity to support LIANZA in its development.
One of the opportunities for LIANZA is to get more young people involved. We do have an ageing membership, and that’s no secret. I worked with some talented young people at Te Aka Mauri who had joined via customer service roles and were unsure about libraries as a career. However, once they became part of the library service, they discovered a genuine enjoyment for the work. I want to help guide and support young people who, like them, may not have considered libraries as a long-term career but find themselves interested and unsure of the next steps.
I think there’s a real opportunity to target this group while supporting our existing members. But I’d also like to see some of our existing members move into mentoring those younger members. So we’ve got a whole circular economy of people who have been with us a long time and have amazing skills mentoring those who are coming in that are brand new.
CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
LIANZA faces the challenge of managing many stakeholders, both internal and external. Ensuring they all receive the time and attention they deserve is something I am committed to doing. Building relationships and showing respect to each stakeholder is important to me, even though it can be a demanding task. While there are many people to connect with, I look forward to engaging with each of them.
One of the things I’ve also got on my list is to streamline our advocacy process. Thinking about how we include members more in our consultation processes, such as the submissions we make.
As I mentioned, I’m looking forward to involving more young people in LIANZA. So doing a targeted membership built around our value proposition, will help communicate the benefits of joining while also identifying additional benefits that could strengthen the organisation’s success.
We can also look at how we steward our members, how we connect with them, all the touch points, and how it works for all the different levels of members. So, if you’re just new to the organisation, what do you need from us as opposed to someone just about to retire?
I’m very excited about Te Tōtara Workforce Capability Project. I think it’s an amazing resource, and I’ve come onto the project to support Annemarie to ensure it is sustainable. We’ve had the learning phase, and now it’s about ensuring long-term sustainability. We are working on linking it into a digitised continuous professional development journey for members. We want to make it easy and fun to use and show the benefits it holds long-term.
We also need to focus on reviewing the constitution and rules of LIANZA and working on a commercial road map and revenue strategy. This means looking beyond membership fees to generate sustainable income and support the organisation’s long-term success. It’s another big key, chunky one for me.
In today’s not-for-profit landscape, simply increasing membership fees isn’t a viable solution—we need to diversify our revenue streams. This is an area I have experience in, and I’m eager to explore new opportunities to strengthen LIANZA’s financial foundation.
