Other Issues

Information Literacy - I was talking to one of my colleagues today and she mentioned that often when she is dealing with students wanting material for their assignments they can't explain what it is they want. They can tell her what the assignment is on but if she is not familiar with any of the terms - they can't elaborate. They have managed the first step of information literacy - recognising an information need - but don't have much hope of progressing further if they don't fully understand the assignment.

Biculturalism - we are very lucky to have a Maori services librarian who speaks Te Reo. We also have the support of 2 Maori services council staff and access to kaumatua and kuia when we have powhiri and poroporoaki. I am not aware of any bicultural issues.

Misinformation - I am not aware of this being an issue in our library

Freedom of information - this is sometimes an issue in the Children's and Young Persons' section. Occasionally parents will object to a book. This has only happened a couple of times in the last 5 years and in both cases the book was retained in the library although it was placed in the parent resource section rather than being freely available. This is a form of censorship.
A couple of months ago we were alerted by one of our patrons that someone in the learning centre was looking at pretty hardcore porn and taking photos of the screen with his mobile phone. One of the librarians went in and told him he wasn't allowed to access such sites and he left. We have an agreement that patrons have to agree to before accessing the Internet that lists the type of item that should not be accessed - pornography is one of them.