The man helping take Waipā District Libraries’ public services into the age of technology has been nuts about computers since he was about four.
Joe Poultney with the erosion table he set up for Te Awamutu Museum’s Tui and Tama Eco Expo. Photo: Viv Posselt
Now in his late 20s, Joe Poultney is a self-confessed techno-nerd who has spent much of his working life in and around libraries. He sees them as spaces where technology should sit comfortably alongside books as tools for disseminating information to the public.
“For me, a library has always been about two things… as repositories of knowledge and using different ways to share that knowledge with people,” he said. “Libraries have been more than about just about books for over 20 years now. As I see it, it’s crucial to make them interesting places where material is shared with communities in relevant ways, and that now includes technology.”
Poultney stepped into the role of Waipā District Libraries’ outreach librarian late last year, filling the shoes of his high-energy predecessor Dee Atkinson. One of his early outings in the job’s events-support space was at the Te Awamutu Museum’s Tui and Tama Eco Expo in March, where he used technology in an erosion table which demonstrated how water erosion impacts differently sized sediment particles. Science and technology in practice, that’s his thing.
Joe Poultney with some of the tiny robots he is incorporating into the programme. Photo: Viv Posselt
He is now busy with ideas and resources in the programming and 3-D printing space, is looking into aspects of AI (artificial intelligence), and is running a series of Edison bots (robots) classes for school students. In addition, he is helping provide technological support for anyone in the community, of any age.“The library has been helping people work with their computers and phones for a while now, but I’d like to build on that. People of almost any age can embrace technology. The biggest difference between someone who is 15 or in their senior years isn’t the content, it’s how you package its delivery,” he said, “it’s about engaging them. Same content, different delivery.”
Poultney’s Welsh family moved around for his father’s military career and came to New Zealand in 2008.
“I got hooked on computers at around four. Much later, I got interested in the law surrounding technology, and when I moved to Hamilton in 2012, I did a conjoint degree in law and computer sciences. I’m fascinated by things like the ethics surrounding 3D printing and AI.”
After that, he started working across various Hamilton libraries, moving through the spaces that were then starting to buzz with the introduction of new technologies and systems.
Poultney and his wife settled in Te Awamutu two-and-a-half years ago. “I really like the small town, country living. It’s the ‘high-street’ I never had growing up.”Technology, of course, is part of that country living, and a part of what he’s doing both at home and in the libraries of Cambridge and Te Awamutu.
He has a box of ‘Raspberry pi’, tiny portable
robots that can do a raft of things under instruction and can run off a USB stick; 10 of them fit into a shoebox. He’s also looking at ways youngsters can programme their own video games… it’s what he calls ‘crunchy hands-on technology’.
Beyond that, he’s handling events and liaising with other council departments .“At the end of the day, technology is now just part of life.”
Joe Poultney at his laptop programming the robots. Photo: Viv Posselt
