Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the session which examines the role of library associations in New Zealand.
In 2015, LIANZA (Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) held a Future of Libraries Summit daring the sector to envisage our best possible future. We had over 150 attendees from around the country come together to brainstorm what the next ten years could make happen for libraries. What we didn’t examine was the role of Associations in that future. At present in New Zealand there are upward of seven associations supporting the Library and Information sector:
- LIANZA
- Te Rōpū Whakahau
- NZLLA
- SLANZA
- Public Libraries of New Zealand (APLM)
- SLA
- IAML
- ANZTLA
And this list has compiled only the ones that relate specifically to librarians – the list gets longer and longer. With resourcing in the sector declining and funding available for memberships decreasing every year, the luxury of supporting multiple associations is vanishing. In addition, many of the services that we used to be relied upon to deliver are now possible without our support – networking is occurring via social media, relationships with suppliers can be built digitally, training is available from multiple sources. We have pulled together a panel of LIANZA council members and staff to discuss the Future of the Library Association. What does it look like? If we were starting from scratch right now what would we want? What would the New Zealand Library profession look like without LIANZA? Join us to think about whether we should be doing things differently!
