A message from New Zealand’s Acting National Librarian, posted on the blog of LIANZA, the national professional organization for the New Zealand library and information management community:

The National Library staff in Christchurch are all safe, although some staff have severely damaged homes and may not be able to move back in to them. … The Christchurch offices in Manchester Street are badly damaged and have been red stickered.  The ability to salvage assets and belongings is unknown at this stage.  The building remains within the cordon. …

Conservation staff are working out what support they may be able to provide once we know if there are heritage collections which have been damaged in the quake.

The post has been recently updated with more detail. Read the full post here, http://www.lianza.org.nz/blog/2011/feb/22/our-thoughts-go-out-people-christchurch.

From the SLA Blog:

Libraries and SLA members have been affected by the disaster, and the SLA Emergency Preparedness and Recovery Advisory Council is in communication with the Australia and New Zealand Chapter to provide support.

Read the full post here.

Our thoughts go out to our friends and colleagues in Christchurch.

The Government of New Zealand announced on 25 March 2010 a reorganization affecting the National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand. The two agencies are to be merged into the Department of Internal Affairs.

The Cabinet paper [PDF] describing these changes covers these two agencies as well as other NZ government entities. The sections concerning the Library and Archives are on pages 9 and 10 of the document.

It’s great to see government information librarians receive attention in SLA’s members-only magazine, Information Outlook. The January/February 2010 issue features 10 Questions: Kevin Adams, an interview with one of our first DGI members. [You must log in with your member ID to view the article.] Kevin, librarian for the Institute of Environmental Science and Research in Christchurch, says “I’m a jack of all trades, which is what being a solo librarian is all
about.”