112 Day Challenge: The changing nature of libraries

EMBARGOED UNTIL 16:00, SATURDAY OCTOBER 29

112 Day Challenge: The changing nature of libraries will be a hot topic at the Library Conference this week

From Sunday 30 October to Wednesday 2 November librarians from around New Zealand and the Pacific will gather at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington for the annual Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (LIANZA) Conference.

LIANZA Conference is a landmark professional development event providing a platform for debating and working on the key issues for the library and information profession.

The 2011 Conference theme, Te Ihi, Te Wehi, Te Wana – Passion, People and Power, reflects the need for the library profession in Aotearoa to take responsibility for their own destiny and engage politically to influence the future.

This year’s high profile keynote line‐up includes Martin Molloy, Chief Officer of Derbyshire County Council, past President of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and recipient of a Library Association Royal Charter Centenary Medal.

In his session “Public Libraries: the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?” Molloy will discuss the position of the public library service in a rapidly changing public realm in England and Wales, highlighting the successes and failures of leadership at national government level, within the top tier local authorities with responsibility for delivering library services, and in the non‐governmental agencies which act as a bridge between the two.

Molloy will cover the position of the public library service and analyse how the sector arrived at its present position, identifying the options for its future and the opportunities and threats presented by an unprecedented combination of circumstances.

Molly Raphael, addressing the conference on Sunday, has served in urban public libraries for over 40 years and is currently the 2011‐12 President of the American Library Association (ALA), serving as the chief elected officer of the oldest and largest library organisation in the world with nearly 61,000 members.

Raphael’s keynote “Libraries: Essential for Learning, Essential for Life” highlights how libraries of all types must change rapidly in order to survive in this current economic climate, how libraries need to position themselves not just to survive but to thrive as they serve our diverse communities and how to find opportunities to move libraries to a place where they are recognised as both essential for learning and for life in the communities we serve.

Other Keynotes include: Jenica Rogers, one of the American Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers for 2009; Michael Houlihan, Chief Executive Officer of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; Andrew Green, Librarian of the National Library of Wales; Aroha Mead, Senior Lecturer in Maori Business in the Management School of Victoria University of Wellington; Andrew Booth, the world’s most prolific author in Evidence Based Library and Information Practice and Karen Coyle, Consultant in the field of digital libraries.

LIANZA Conference 2011 has an outstanding group of international and local speakers who will focus on the power and influence of the profession during these dynamic times. View the key topics and Conference Programme at: http://www.conference.co.nz/lianza11/home

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