Media release 1 August 2005

Botany Library Wins Information Technology Award

Manukau City Council is proud to announce Botany Library has won the 2005 Computerworld Excellence in the Use of IT in Government Award, at the Computerworld Excellence Awards at the Hyatt Regency in Auckland on Friday evening.

In accepting the Award, Library Technologies Manager, Adele Nairn paid tribute to Manukau City's vision and leadership, as well as acknowledging Council's technology partner Checkpoint Meto.

The Computerworld Excellence Awards celebrate the achievements of New Zealand's leading information technology users and were first held in early 1998.

The 2005 awards featured 14 categories with over 100 initial entries and 34 finalists. In the Excellence in the Use of IT in Government category four finalists were announced in May 2005. Three finalists were from central government (Ministry of Education, Transit NZ and the NZ Fire Service), and one from Manukau City Council, for the use of IT deployed at the newly opened Botany Library.

City Librarian, Chris Szekely says, "The Awards publicly salute the efforts of those individuals and teams who successfully apply information technology to meet the needs of users in their organisations. The awards raise the profile of the IT community in the eyes of senior business executives and showcase the highly successful, high integrity side of the IT industry.

"On 6 October 2004, Manukau City Council opened New Zealand's first 'retail library' at Botany Shopping Centre. Fundamental to the retail concept is the smart use of technology, in particular the deployment of radio frequency identification (RFID). Manukau is the first public library in New Zealand to deploy this technology which enables books to be issued more quickly.

"These Awards have high profile and respect, not only within the information technology industry, but also amongst the mass of influential IT decision makers working in the wider community - and through them to business and government at all levels throughout New Zealand.

"With a network of 13 community libraries attracting over 2 million visits a year, Manukau Libraries is one of New Zealand's largest, busiest and fastest growing library systems. This win reflects Manukau Libraries are on the right track in the digital age."

ENDS

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