More on "Refresh"regional conference

The Wellington region's public libraries held a well attended one day event focussing on issues of importance to public librarians. The idea was proposed by Wellington City Libraries and a team including representatives from Hutt City, Porirua and Upper Hutt libraries planned and executed the event.

The day opened with a panel discussion chaired by LIANZA President Barbara Garriock in which Penny Carnaby, Sue Roberts, Jane Hill and Jo Ransom delivered their vision of “The Library in 2025”. (See earlier blog text on the "Library of 2025".)

Allison Dobbie, Chair of the eLGAR consortium, then outlined the Auckland experience of forming one library service in the new Auckland super city which will deliver the largest public library system in the southern hemisphere with over 70 service points.

The conference then broke into two streams focussing on a variety of themes including: collection management, outreach to the community, promotion and technology Innovation.
One of the highlights of the afternoon was the presentation on the future of publishing delivered by Noel Murphy, CEO of the New Zealand Book Council.

A key theme was the parallel development of both e-books and new and different ways of continuing traditional publishing so as to enhance the reading experience.

The conference ended with a Library Ideas Bazaar at which attending libraries set up stalls to showcase products and ideas they had developed and of which they were particularly proud.

Overall the feedback was extremely positive with comments such as:
"A brilliant day of stimulating speakers! Nice work."
"Many of the presentations and discussions were engaging and full of inspiration!"
"I hope it becomes an annual event!!" (We’ll have to think about that!)