Images from Conference 2010

Here’s a link to our Flickr pages where images snapped during conference have been uploaded.

LIANZA Flickr - Conference 2010

What’s happening on Twitter during Conference?

Want to follow the action on Twitter as LIANZA 2010 unfolds?

We’re using the Cover It Live service to capture selected tweets from those in attendance in Dunedin using the official hashtag #lianza10

Coverage started 8am Monday 29th November and there’s a different daily feed to feast your eyes on.

• LIANZA Centennial Conference – Day 2
• LIANZA Centennial Conference – Day 3
• LIANZA Centennial Conference – Day 4

Thanks to @paulhayton for hosting the pages on his website.

No more sleeping

In 1910 the Dunedin Mayor welcomed 15 delegates from seven libraries to Dunedin. Today, 100 years later, that same welcome will be extended to over 600 people from all over the world. Though the libraries, the profession and Dunedin have all evolved since that time one thing has remained unchanged – that desire to serve, promote and better the interests of the New Zealand library and information world.

Welcome everyone to the LIANZA Centennial Conference – 100 years in the planning.

What does your sign say?

Two things came together this morning – the first was an article in the Chicago Tribune News about how libraries are reinventing themselves  to stay relevant in the digital age; and the second was a sign on a bus “I’m a bus but one day I’m going to be a 747″. Actually there was a third – the article mentions a t-shirt with the words “Shhh is a four letter word”. Seeing this reminded me of the only time I have said” Shhh” in a library – I had accidentally slammed the drawer on the reference desk. The patrons standing nearby laughed. I am still not sure whether it was because I was the least likely to say it or whether it was a recognition that libraries were no longer considered to be the quiet hallowed institutions of old, and noise in a library was generally accepted. Recalling this incident I also remembered what those patrons were doing – filling out slips of paper so that they could get their books issued. And quite close by was the card catalogue. This was the pre-computerisation age. Several years later this library moved – not just to a new building but also into the 21st century. Though it looked to many as a natural progression it relied on people having the vision to see what could be achieved, the energy to see it through and the skills to navigate the minefields.

The profession may only be 100 years old, but libraries have been around a lot longer. And they have evolved, they have changed and they have survived a lot of the recorded  “ages”.  How? By having people who are willing to step out and to move forward. Would the library user of 1910 recognise the library of 2010? Probably. So what is your vision for the library of 2110 and what are you doing today to make it a reality?

That bus that I followed this morning is still dreaming of being a 747, and the speed that it went down the hill it might just achieve it.

Why are you coming to conference?

When asked why he thought a Library Association was needed in New Zealand, Mark Cohen drew on his experience of overseas conferences:

It was acknowledged on all sides that these conference, bringing together as they did the ablest men and women engaged in library work for the exchange of ideas and the examination of administrative methods, had been productive of such good. [Evening Star (Dunedin) 26 January 1910]

Reminiscing on library conferences held between 1938 and 1945, Dorothy Neal Ballantyne says:

A conference at this period in New Zealand was conceived as an instrument by which certain goals could be achieved. Most of the people at them were to take part, to speak, to act. There was this over-riding feeling that decisions taken would result in change and forward march – which indeed the did. [Library Life, no.62 August 1983.]

The often cited reasons for coming to conference include being able to hear some great speakers, the opportunity to catch up with the trade exhibitors all in the same place, the networking opportunities,  and catching up with colleagues and friends. All of these are valid reasons but I am impressed with Dorothy Neal Ballantyne statement that most people were there “to take part, to speak, to act” and because they did changes happened, and the Association and the profession moved forward.

What is your motivation for coming to conference? How do you intend to contribute to the proceedings?  How to you plan to utilise (not just report on) the knowledge gained during the conference? How will the Centennial Conference be remembered – for the great speakers or for the actions that flowed out from the Conference? Time will tell.

I see that hand

100 years of the Library Association; 84 terms of office for the President undertaken by 77 people (32 women and 45 men). People doing more that one term have included:

E. Ellen Melville	1926, 1928, and 1943
T.W. Leys	1910 and 1911
J. Barr	1939 and 1945
Desmond B. Black	1960 and 1960-61
Maida J Clark	1962-63 and 1963-64
M.C. Sexton	1968-69 and 1969-70

The most “capped” President is  Ellen Melville. Ellen was a solicitor, an Auckland City Councillor and a pioneer in many areas – the second woman to qualify as a solicitor of the supreme court; the first women to practise law independently; the first women councillor in New Zealand (re-elected at every election from 1913 until she was forced to retire after 33 years of consecutive service owing to illness); the first president of the Auckland Branch of the National Council of Women; and chairman or member of many of the Auckland City Council’s committees.

An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 concludes: “Ellen was a woman of strong and perhaps conservative opinions, but will always be remembered as one of those people who paved the way for women both in the legal profession and in civic affairs”

The Association is fortunate to have had (and to continue to have) people of this calibre as their President. Check out the photos of the Library Association presidents on our Flickr account and remember that these are people who have put themselves forward to bring the Association to where it is today.

Small beginnings

At the 1910 Library Association Conference the number of papers given totalled four. Topics included the Dewey Classification scheme, mobile libraries, and ways to prevent the spread of disease via library books.

Delegates at the 2010 Centennial Conference have the choice of 42 papers, workshops and discussion panels. Besides covering the historical aspects of the occasion, sessions will cover such diverse topics as the “new” technologies (e-readers, e-books, mobile), sustainable libraries, New Zealand’s place and contribution in a global world, leadership, information technology, redefining and repositioning of services to our communities, and  the introduction of new international standards such as RDA.

The Conference Programme Committee has worked hard to ensure that the programme has something for all the library and information management sectors. But the proof is in the pudding. For those not familiar with this saying – to fully test something you need to experience it. And believe me the Centennial Conference will be an experience and a half.

Abstracts for the 1910 conference

Abstracts for the 2010 conference