Communiqué from LIAC meeting of 19-20 February 2004
The Library and Information Advisory Commission (Ainslie Dewe (Chair), Karl du Fresne, Diana Kelly, Paul Reynolds, Chris Szekely, Evelyn Tobin and Penny Carnaby ex officio) attended their second meeting in Wellington on 19-20 February.
The first meeting in November 2003 had concentrated on Commissioners getting to know each other’s interests and priorities in order to be able to work together as a cohesive, functional group. Time was also spent on ensuring that administrative matters were in place to ensure the smooth running of the Commission.
The Commission’s current priorities are to develop the work plan for the future. A facilitated planning day was held to develop a vision and begin scoping the work plan.
The Commissioners have had the opportunity to formally meet and exchange views with the Minister Responsible to the National Library, to whom they report. They have also met and had a very useful exchange of views with the President and Vice President of LIANZA, Mirla Edmundson and Steven Lulich, Dr Seddon Bennington, Chief Executive of Te Papa and Dianne Macaskill, Chief Executive of Archives New Zealand.
A paper on the Māori title of the Commission, Ngā kaiwhakamārama i ngā kohikohinga kōrero, was presented and agreed to be valuable background which should be publicised in the future. The Māori title has the broad, literal meaning of “those who clarify or explain or advise on collections/collecting of information”. This may be interpreted literally to mean all knowledge workers. However, idiomatically, together with the English name, the title means “the advisers on the library and information sector” or “the official advisors on the library and information sector”.
At each meeting the National Library has presented updates on strategic issues and on the World Summit for the Information Society.
Commissioners have accepted an invitation to hold a session at the LIANZA Conference in September and are very much looking forward to this opportunity.
LIAC’s next meeting will be held in Wellington on 20 April, and a meeting in Christchurch has been proposed.