From left: Norasieh Md Amin, Donna Salmon, Adrian Jenkins, Sana Saleem, Dipti Vora and Susan Eady (Team Leader).
Our Subject Librarian team – Susan Eady (Team Leader), Norasieh Md Amin, Donna Salmon, Adrian Jenkins, Sana Saleem and Dipti Vora – have, like all of our teams, been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the lockdown looming, they responded by adapting the way they work and partnering with other teams and organisations so they could best support our students with their library needs.
The team achieved some great successes over the lockdown and since we’ve been back on campus. Here’s a snapshot of what they’ve been up to…
Partnering to ensure the library service continued
As Unitec prepared to close for the COVID-19 lockdown, Yvonne Sang from the Library’s Resources team moved the library website to a new platform so that it could be easily updated from home. This was a major project completed in a short space of time. The Library ‘Click and Collect’ service was popular throughout lockdown. Library teams worked together, providing access to physical resources such as books, DVDs and journals that were requested via the Library catalogue.
Transition to online learning and teaching
Face-to-face appointments are an important part of the service that our Library team offers – they meeting with students to discuss their resource needs. With the campus closed, most booked sessions and one-to-one appointments were able to go ahead due to quickly moving online, using Zoom and Skype. The team also created short, bite-sized video clips, directed at academic staff, covering how to use the Library’s online tools and other support for teaching. The move to online meetings and sessions was a great success and is something the team has decided to continue with, alongside the ‘in person’ services in classrooms and one to one.
Meeting the need for online resources through collaboration with vendors and other libraries
Due to the physical libraries being closed, the demand for e-book and article usage increased for both staff and students for assignment and research purposes. Our valuable relationship with other libraries and organisations came to the fore, and the inter-library loans service (where we request materials on staff or students’ behalf from other libraries and organisations) allowed us to fulfill many online article requests. Our Subject Librarians worked
Susan Eady’s cat helped out while she worked from home!
tirelessly to provide an alternative source, finding electronic materials for students and staff to use, where they had previously used print. They worked with a consortium of libraries to find and obtain online access to e-books from CCH (a legal publisher). Some resources weren’t available in electronic format, so the Click and Collect service was invaluable in filling that gap.
Some vendors, to support us during the lockdown, offered additional or pro-bono electronic resources such as e-books and databases.
Reference Management Software
EndNote is a computer programme that can help with referencing and in text citations for our students’ work. Our licence for Endnote will end in October, so the Library team has been investigating alternatives. To help with their research, they’ve designed an online survey to analyse the use of reference management software (Zotero, Mendeley and Endnote) among staff and postgraduate students. The survey is currently open. You can read more on Endnote on our website.
Move of Te Kohinga Māori collection
A much-anticipated event for the Library team this year was the move of Te Kohinga Māori collection. This significant collection of reference books has moved to a bright, light-filled space on Level 2. The team delayed the move of the collection due to the COVID-19 lockdown and enjoyed celebrating the occasion during Matariki.
During the lockdown Sana Saleem re-created her mum’s Fijian inspired recipe – banana and coconut loaf
When reflecting on the past few months, the team shared these highlights:
“My home and work life was very well balanced.”
“It was lovely to talanoa and connect with a lot of students I had not met before for 1:1 library support online.”
“I loved the short commute (from the bedroom to my home office – about 30 steps).”
“With the extra time spent at home I re-created my mum’s Fijian inspired recipe – banana and coconut loaf.”
“My cat helped out at my home desk!”