National Library of New Zealand

NEW RELATIONSHIP FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION PORTAL SITE SIGNED

The Ministry of Education’s online portal for schools, Te Kete Ipurangi - The Online Learning Centre,has gained significant support with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Library of New Zealand.

The Memorandum details the nature of the relationship and identifies particular areas of co-operation including the encouragement of student access to and interaction with the Library collections.

Te Kete Ipurangi is a bilingual portal website which provides New Zealand school communities with easy access to useful and relevant information on the Internet. The site is located at www.tki.org.nz

The Learning Centre Trust develops and manages Te Kete Ipurangi on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

Trust Chairman, Ron Perkinson, said today: "It is most appropriate that the first strategic partnership we enter into is with the National Library. We have a shared objective of encouraging schools’ use of online information and of ensuring the quality of that information."

National Librarian Christopher Blake said, "One of the Library’s strategic objectives for its schools’ service is to develop electronic resources to complement our extensive book and video collections. Te Kete Ipurangi can help schools integrate these resources into their teaching and learning programmes."

Mr Blake confirmed the National Library’s role in preparing New Zealanders for life in a knowledge society. "Today’s agreement reflects the National Library’s stated commitment to ensuring that New Zealanders can access a comprehensive range of resources through a national electronic system, and that all schools have tools to use and manage information effectively."

A particular shared goal is the adoption of an international metadata standard for education which will establish consistent indexing terms to aid information discovery on the web.

"Consistency in the description of online materials is crucial for Te Kete Ipurangi to reach its full potential," said Mr Perkinson. "The portal is all about making it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for, and resource description is the key to that."

Learning Centre Trust and National Library personnel have been in consultation over the application of metadata in recent months. They are jointly contributing to the international Dublin Core Metadata Initiative’s discussions on a metadata set for education.

Carol Moffatt of the Ministry of Education acknowledged the importance of the agreement: "It’s so important for us all to work together on this. It’s the only way we can be sure that Te Kete Ipurangi will truly meet the needs of all our schools."

For more information:

The Learning Centre Trust

David Copeland
Communications Director, The Learning Centre Trust

Tel: (04) 382 6518
Fax: (04) 382-6509
Email: david@tki.org.nz

Click here to link to On TKI: Partners and Friends