Why public singing should be a criteria for Australian librarians' registration

Sorry, this isn’t actually a serious post – although I am very interested in the plans to bring in registration for New Zealand librarians.

I think number one  registration criteria for Australian librarians should be ability to sing publicly. LIANZA is a very relaxed conference, without a lot of fussy ceremony. I’m becoming convinced that this is caused by the major difference between this and an Australian library conference – the presence of public singing.

This morning, after the award of LIANZA fellowships, the audience spontaneously broke into song when the awardees were all on stage. I learned that this was probably the LIANZA waiata , or song.

Tonight at the Masquerade Ball, we were treated to an impromptu performance of “I was made for loving librarians” by three vendors dress as the folk from KISS. During the dancing, one of the librarians was handed the microphone by the lead singer of the live band, and performed part of Roberta Flack’s  Where is the love? . This was not feeble karaoke, this was full-on, gutsy professional belting.

Midnight – a librarian from Manukau took to the stage with a performance of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds”, then George Michael’s Faith and finally Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. Again these were polished and professional. The evening finished with a song – happy birthday to Mirla Edmonson sung in both Maori and English.