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This paper responds to an invitation from the Editor to write about how the COVID-19 virus has impacted on New Zealand and possible future outcomes, which are presented as three scenarios.

This paper uses a scenario-based methodology to outline the implications of COVID-19 in New Zealand. Three different scenarios are presented for consideration.

There is a need for adaptability and flexibility in the way that New Zealand approaches how it recovers from the impact that COVID-19 has had. Specific challenges for libraries are to ensure that they can continue to deliver resources and services to their communities in a fast-changing environment.

There will be a substantial number of research opportunities in the years ahead to identify how libraries were able to contribute to recovery efforts.

This is a thought piece, delivered as scenarios. It only presents the views of the author.

This paper aims to provide an introduction to Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, briefly describing their origin, population structure, language and knowledge structures. There is also a description of the process by which Māori knowledge systems were transformed into a written structure from predominantly oral and visual forms. In the latter part of the paper, there is a discussion about how the growing demand by Māori clients changed the delivery of resources and services in New Zealand libraries and led to the development of Māori collections in libraries.

Using a case study approach this paper outlines the impact that literacy and publishing had on Māori traditional knowledge transfer methods. The implication of these developments and their importance to libraries is considered as part of the Treaty of Waitangi reconciliation process and the growing consciousness of the need to be fulfilling the information needs of Māori clients.

The development of Māori collection has been successful and plays a critical role in meeting the cultural, linguistic, research and recreational information needs of Māori clients.

This case study provides a model for the development of indigenous collections in other countries.

This paper makes a contribution to an area that has not had a significant amount of literature published on it.

This chapter presents results of a study that investigated the social information grounds of 45 Māori students ages 16–18 when they are at school.

A mixed research method was used. The quantitative approach was based on a survey questionnaire that was distributed to the students to gather data about their social information behaviour in four schools. The qualitative approach used six focus groups of students to discuss the behaviour.

Māori students exchange, share and seek information within their social networks in six different places in their schools. These places are best described as social information grounds, as defined by Fisher, Naumer, Durrance, Stromski, and Christiansen (2005).

The research identifies the importance that Māori students place on information obtained through interpersonal transactions particularly within their social networks. These social networks play an integral role in assisting Māori students to understand the social and educational environment of which they are part.

This chapter focuses on information grounds and indigenous teenage youth, an understudied area of research. It uses the information grounds theory to explore the social networks of Māori secondary school students in New Zealand.

This investigation aims to highlight the need for the information professions globally to value diverse knowledge paradigms in a world where people from diverse cultures and backgrounds interact with information on a daily basis. We provide examples from the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession in New Zealand which has been shaped by socially and culturally inclusive education and practices which take into account diverse ways of knowing and understanding the world and information.

An investigation into socially and culturally inclusive LIS education initiatives worldwide contextualizes a discussion of current LIS curricula in New Zealand and their delivery. The achievements and challenges in LIS education, the library profession, and library service are considered alongside the rich and varied nature of New Zealand society and the provision and accessibility of library services.

LIS education is at the start of this process, and New Zealand education providers promote a range of socially and culturally inclusive practices within their programs resulting in LIS graduates who are equipped to make ongoing contributions to an inclusive society through their professional work. We conclude that these three inseparable components of LIS in New Zealand result in social and cultural inclusion, but can always be further enhanced.

This chapter draws attention to the absence of consideration for non-Western knowledge paradigms in LIS curricula worldwide, and brings together diverse examples, mandating for library services and a library profession that reflect the rich social and cultural makeup of the communities we serve. We conclude that three inseparable components of LIS in New Zealand result in social and cultural inclusion, and there is always opportunity for further enhancement.

Discusses research that examines the relationship between user perceptions and expectations of the public library service. Emphasis is not on what expectations and perceptions of the library service are, but rather how they are formed, what influences them, and how they interact. Making use of data from the 1995 ASLIB study, and drawing on research from a variety of disciplines, it was found that the library experience had a significant impact on the perceptions and expectations that are created of the service. The “snapshot” that a user forms during the service experience was found to be crucial to the perception created and the subsequent expectation held. Similarly it was noted that internal and external factors ranging from family influence to the media also have an impact on the way an individual experiences the library. Developments in information technology have resulted in some confused perceptions of the public library service. Some areas of conflict were noted between perceptions of a traditional role, and a potential role making use of IT. Concludes that a knowledge of user expectations and perceptions is vital to the effective management of public library services.