Volume 2, Number 5, June 2010 From the Branch VP, Jennifer Middendorf First of all, congratulations to Branch President Megan Clayton and husband Ned on the birth of their daughter Anna last week.
UC Change Thermometer
While Megan’s on parental leave, I’ll be attempting to step into her shoes, ably assisted by our wonderful organisers, Gaby and Paul, and by Caroline Syddall from the Education Library, who is joining our Project Star/Links team for two days a week. It’s been a busy few weeks for us at TEU House, during which we’ve seen the power of Tū Kotahi in action. The TEU and Academic Board stood together and demanded a halt to Project STAR while an external review of the library was carried out, and Council and the VC listened. The Learning Resources change proposal has been extended by six weeks, and two external reviewers have been brought in to examine the proposal. While this review is perhaps not quite as independent as some of us would have liked, I think we can count the fact that it is happening at all as a win for our collective voice. In the meantime, the change proposals continue to roll out, with the AVC Māori change proposal being released last week. While there are no redundancies proposed (for once!), the proposed changes will have a major effect on Māori and Pasifika staff at Canterbury, so TEU has been working closely with Māori and Pasifika members to ensure their voices are clearly heard. Management’s record on Te Tiriti issues has not been great lately, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on developments.
Redundancies:
95
Redeployments: 0 Additional redundancies proposed: 58 The VC admires TEU banners as library members await the arrival of Prime Minister John Key.
A student writes:
Time to get a bigger thermometer...
A little pigeon told us
The Vice Chancellor has told us of his dream of a future where we'll be able to use library services in cafes, lecture theatres, and even at home. It’s funny he should say that, because just last week I was sitting at home in my flat writing an essay and needed some references, so I got on my computer and used the library’s database access to find the full text of the journal articles I needed on-line. I found some useful data too in a thesis that’s been digitised and made accessible through the library’s website. Needing some advice, I used the on-line live chat to discuss my research with a librarian, who recommended I interloan a relevant article from another library. I could do that without leaving my flat too – I requested the article via the on-line form, and I’ll even be able to receive it by email. I found a couple of books that looked helpful, so I used the library’s website to request them (and to renew the loan on the ones I forgot to take back), and they’ll be waiting for me to pick up when I go into university tomorrow. Finally, I checked the on-line APA guide to make sure I was using the correct referencing style. Wake up Vice Chancellor! While you’ve been sleeping, the future you’re dreaming of has already arrived.
Administrators in one school had cause to wonder whether they’re quite literally being targeted for annihilation, when they came into work one morning recently and found a bullet hole in their office window.