How do we keep the momentum going? This was the question asked by Te Pouhuaki Rachel Esson at the Sustainable Libraries Symposium in Wellington on November 14 An inspiring event, the symposium presented project work developed through New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme (NZLPP) $58.8 million COVID recovery package to support libraries. This included the Data, Research and Evidence Strategy, the Workforce Capability Framework, strategic partnership grants, and Whiria te Tāngata. Feedback from the evaluation of the NZLPP was also provided.
EVALUATION OF THE NZLPP PROJECT
In January 2022, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand asked Martin Jenkins to evaluate the short-term outcomes of the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme (NZLPP), to help it understand the NZLPP’s impact on the library sector and communities across Aotearoa. The evaluation included interviewing key stakeholders, surveying library managers and secondees, with visits to three libraries.
Matthew Fanselow from MartinJenkins explained the outcomes of the NZLPP identified through their evaluation. Three areas of NZLPP were evaluated: the secondee project, fee waivers and free public internet. The evaluation identified that the NZLPP has provided considerable benefits to library users and communities.
The secondee project aimed to expose non-library staff to the library sector and to provide professional development and upskilling for the library workforce. More than 200 secondees took part, bringing a diverse range of experience and technical skills to the library sector, including Māori liaison and engagement, archiving, digital learning, community engagement and outreach, learning and discovery, and youth engagement.
There was very little negative feedback with 95% of those surveyed agreeing that there were positive outcomes. The secondee project was one of the most positive response areas, while the fee waiver gave a much-needed boost to libraries. The most far-reaching outcome of the NZLPP was the impact on the workforce of secondees, expanding the range of perspectives and skills in the sector from te reo Māori to digital inclusion. Although many have moved on, over half of secondees indicated their desire to stay in the sector. MartinJenkins reported that more than half of the library managers interviewed (60%) said they would be able to retain secondees beyond the end of the NZLPP. Many managers were able to use the success of the NZLPP to convince their council to let them retain the additional staff, or to recruit to fill the secondee’s role if the secondee did not stay on at the library.
Read the evaluation here.
Another significant strand of the NZLPP programme is Te Tōtara, a workforce capability framework to strengthen a diverse workforce for the long-term sustainability of the library and information sector. A hybrid holistic model was created as a practical tool for reflection and development. Guided by Kaupapa Māori, cross-referenced with best practices, and adaptable to suit the many different library and information sector roles, the framework helps individuals, teams and managers think about their current level of knowledge, skills and behaviours, and to identify areas for growth.
The model is based on Te Tōtara tree as shown in the image below.
The detailed framework, implementation plan, module, and workbook can be found here Library sector workforce capability framework project | National Library of New Zealand (natlib.govt.nz).
WHIRIA TE TĀNGATA – SUSTAINABILITY MAHI
The aim of Whiria Te Tāngata is to further the mahi of the projects commissioned by the NZLPP building on the capability and skills of the sector and using an ‘action-learning’ approach to:
- explore a cross-sector partnership model that focuses beyond the sector
- address the enablers for communication and collaboration
- and implement the data research and evidence strategy and workforce capability framework.
An eight-month learning and development opportunity for 12 library and information sustainability champions (kākaho) is central to this mahi. This is an opportunity for the kākaho to grow their networking, collective impact, and strategic leadership skills through both online learning and face-to-face noho marae.
With the support of their workplace, kākaho will apply practical skills to areas such as Mātauranga Māori, the workforce capability framework, supporting the implementation of the sector data, research and evidence strategy, collaboration in workforce development, and establishing the foundation for a sector-wide collaborative model.
Participants identified that funding clearly works, noting the significant amount of new sector projects and partnerships developed through NZLPP grants as examples of what can get done when funding is available. To keep building on these relationships and keep the work going, participants were keen to find ways to leverage this work for a wider impact in the sector. LIANZA, NZLPP and other sector groups will explore how we can do this through articles and events in 2023.
In addition to the NZLPP projects already mentioned, NZLPP strategic partnership grants were made available to sector organisations and partnerships, resulting in a number of new and extended projects in the sector.
TE RŌPŪ WHAKAHAU MĀTAURANGA –TE TAKARANGI KI TE AO is an acknowledgement and celebration of Māori-led scholarship across time and genres. Bringing together 150 non-fiction publications, this collection provides an overview of some of the most important Māori leaders, thinkers and authors of our time. The NZLPP grant enabled the project group to take the publications out to marae and communities. Te Takarangi starter kits will be released later 2022.
TE RŌPŪ WHAKAHAU – MATURANGA MĀORI PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT is an n interactive workshop designed to provide a targeted development opportunity for information professionals, this was to be two days on a marae but changed to virtual with the COVID environment. Care packages were sent out to online participants to acknowledge a marae Kaupapa.
SLANZA – A BIT SUS is a pilot training programme for school librarians to develop knowledge and resources to support youth to counter misinformation. SLANZA worked in partnership with Tohatoha to train 15 school librarians. The use of an online ‘escape room’ activity was negotiated with the University of Washington. Due to the success of the first cohort additional funding was provided for an extra 23 school librarians to take part in the training.
Foundations set early on, such as bringing on a project manager had many benefits. The operating model chosen resulted in Perpetual Guardian acting as grant administrators. There were 51 applications in March and 36 grants were made. In the second grant round in October, 48 applications were received. . Grant rounds will be held in October every year. However, tuition grants and support for additional study costs are only one part of the puzzle – it needs more people involved to get the message out about working in the library and information sector.TAITUARĀ AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES NZ – LIBRARIES CO-CRE8 WELL-BEING PROJECT.
This strategic project capitalises on existing assets: PLNZ’s 10 years of public library statistics and Taituarā’s web dashboards to demonstrate how public libraries contribute to the local government four wellbeings. A library of best practice was set up through the Co-Cre8 team site. An Ask an Expert webinar series was provided, and surveys were set up to gather qualitative data. This is a series of dashboards that council and public libraries can use to provide evidence about on economic, social, environmental, and cultural well-being. Data gathering is based on verbatim coding. A report on the data gathered will be available towards end of 2022.
HE KUPENGA HOROPOUNAMU -A programme of work to inform and change libraries practice and service design to achieve better outcomes for Māori communities through taking a kaupapa Māori approach, improving whānau well-being, and increasing confidence in using library services to support success in education. The governance of this project was shared by CONZUL, National Library of New Zealand, Auckland Council Libraries and University of Canterbury. Some of the early findings were that relationships with mana whenua are key; the need for better access to research and heritage collections – aligned to school curriculum; provision of Manaakitanga spaces; heritage and taonga need to be more visible and available; more Te Reo and Te Ao Māori capability in libraries; and the creation of career pathways in libraries.
PŪTOI RITO COMMUNITIES OF READERS PHASE 2 – Supporting the National Library’s He Pā Rito strategic direction to grow a nation of readers by extending the project into phase 2. Phase 2 is still in progress and covers South Dunedin, Canterbury, and is proposed for Dargaville and Waikato. Pūtoi Rito Phase 1 demonstrated that reading is both an individual pursuit and a social activity that can be stimulated, influenced, inspired and actively enabled by others. Phase 2 saw the project increasing community, mana whenua and schools’ engagement, and expanding locations for books in support services and information sessions for social workers and carers.
This project shows that the more communities surrounding tamariki and rangatahi understand their influence in creating young readers and the potential impact of reading for pleasure, the more effective they are in encouraging and supporting reading.
There were several other projects funded through the NZLPP, only the ones presented at the Sustainability Forum were included in this article. Read more here.
