Alexander Turnbull Library

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 12, Issue 2, 1 October 1979, Page 133

Alexander Turnbull Library

J. E. Traue

Report by the Chief Librarian for the Year 1978179 The Alexander Turnbull Library is responsible for developing, maintaining and encouraging the most appropriate use of, the National Library’s research collections of materials relating to New Zealand, the Pacific, early printed books, John Milton and his times, English literature and the development of the art of printing. It is responsible for the long-term preservation of the national collection of library materials relating to New Zealand and for the production of the New Zealand National Bibliography.

THE USE OF THE COLLECTIONS The trend towards increased use of the collections by research workers has intensified in the past year. As well, the level of general public demand has increased. The high level of use by the public of research material relating to New Zealand which the Library is obliged to preserve in perpetuity would be a cause for concern in normal circumstances; with the present staffing restrictions and increasingly inadequate accomodation it is a major worry. Proposals for organisational changes and modest increases in staffing made in the last few years to meet reasonable public demand have not been accepted, and the interim measures adopted to ration services have already provoked criticism of the Library.

A comprehensive range of proposals designed to give some short-term relief was agreed to by the Trustees Committee for the Turnbull Library and approved by the Trustees late in the year and forwarded to the Minister of Education. The Alexander Turnbull Library Research Endowment Fund was registered during the year with the general objectives of advancing learning and the arts and sciences through the promotion and support of scholarly research and publication based on the Library’s collections. The Fund is empowered to create fellowships and scholarships and to promote lectures, seminars, conferences and other meetings. Foundation grants to the Fund were made by the Sir John Ilott Charitable Trust, the Sutherland Self-Help Trust and the Todd Foundation. The Fund’s first grant was a substantial subsidy to the New Zealand Journal of History to publish the proceedings of the Turnbull Conference on New Zealand Social History sponsored by the Library and held in August 1978. The

Library also acted as the host to a conference in June of historians working in the early modern period. The New Zealand-United States Educational Foundation has announced that it will award research fellowships for comparative history studies at the Turnbull in 1979 and 1980. Professor Alfred W. Crosby of the University of Texas at Austin will be the first Fulbright-Hays research fellow at Turnbull in 1979.

Progress has been made during the year on the Library’s programmes for the publication of manuscripts in the collections and the provision of specialist bibliographical guides. Manuscripts being readied for publication include the journal of John Boultbee (1799-1854), the 1825-27 journals of Samuel Stutchbury, the letters of Katherine Mansfield and her Urewera notebook. Work has begun on an edition of the letters of Frances Hodgkins. A descriptive bibliography of the Library’s early editions of John Milton is now in press and due for publication in 1980. A microfilm edition of Katherine Mansfield’s manuscripts is almost complete and negotations have begun for a calendar of the Gideon Mantell papers.

The importance of the Maori language collections has been recognised by the creation of a new position of Subject Specialist, Maori Manuscripts, with a special responsibility for developing a programme for the microfilming of important Maori language documents both in the interests of conservation and to facilitate their wider use by scholars. The Library has with reluctance curtailed the lending of items to other institutions for display. The staff mounted only two exhibitions, ‘Aviation in New Zealand’ and ‘Early Music’, and these were supplemented by two prepared by outside organisations, a touring von Tempsky exhibition from the Waikato Art Museum and a special display prepared by Oxford University Press to mark the quincentenary of the press.

The Friends of the Turnbull Library published two issues of the Turnbull Library Record in a new format and the Endowment Trust issued three coloured prints from paintings by Augustus Earle. The National Register of Archives and Manuscripts , a cooperative venture with the National Archives, is well under way and the first instalment of 250 entries will be published in mid 1979. Regular monthly issues of the New Zealand National Bibliography appeared during the year, as well as the 1977 cumulation. Most of the work on the first volume of the retrospective New Zealand National Bibliography (from the beginning to 1889) has been completed and the entries typeset.

CONSERVING THE COLLECTIONS ‘The library of Congress and the entire library world must pay more attention to the essential task of preserving the deteriorating materials in their collections.’ (Report of the Librarian of Congress’s Task Force on Goals, Organization and Planning, 1976.) The over-use of some collections, in particular the pictorial collections, combined with the inability to carry out a minimum programme of conservation and the increasingly inadequate accommodation, are placing the long-term preservation of the collections in jeopardy. Further delays in the construction of the National Library building will necessitate several major shifts of the stock within existing buildings and to further temporary accommodation. Each shift will, despite the strictest controls, result in further damage to fragile books, maps, pictures and glass photographic negatives. The growth of the collections has placed an increasing strain on the accommodation at 44 The Terrace. Overcrowding in the Art Room is affecting the proper care of unique paintings, drawings and sketches and the proper development of the map collection has been severely hindered by lack of space.

The courses of action open to the Library to safeguard the national collections of last resort are limited. An adequate conservation programme will require extra staffing and it may be necessary to reduce some public services in order to free existing staff for conservation work or to look to outside sources for help. The Newberry Library in Chicago attracted large sums from donors to launch its conservation programme. The Conservation Laboratory, staffed by one technician, has continued to produce good work. Two seminars on the conservation of works on paper were conducted during the year. One was led by Mr Roy Graf, Restorer of the Queen’s Drawings, Windsor, and the second was held in conjunction with the Archives and Records Association and the National Archives. The Conservation Officer attended the conference of the Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials, Sydney, and studied library conservation units in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

BUILDING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS The Library has been much more selective in the last year and the rate of growth of the collection has fallen. Donations fell from 484 to 317, less than half the number in 1976/77. Manuscript accessions are being curtailed to bring the collection into a better balance with the accommodation and staff available; and institutional donors are

being asked to do more preliminary sorting and arranging of their records. Notable donations during the year included the papers of several New Zealand artists and a group of watercolours by Joseph Rhodes donated by Mrs B. Rhodes of Australia. Purchases were maintained at a high level during the year. The most important acquisition was the Guy and Maude Morris collection of Katherine Mansfield books and papers. Although it lacks original Mansfield manuscripts its very substantial strengths in Mansfieldiana make it a major research resource. The letters of Archdeacon J. F. Lloyd, purchased in London, consisting of some 90 letters covering the period 1849—90, provide an illuminating commentary on events of the colonial period. Purchases for the pictorial collections included the sketchbooks of the military artist E. A. Williams, six important early Maori portraits by an unknown artist, and the portrait ofTu, Pomare I of Tahiti, painted by John Webber in 1777 on Cook’s third voyage (see Turnbull Library Record, October 1978, p. 112-114).

The Library continues to receive under the compulsory deposit provisions of the Copyright Act, administered by the General Assembly Library, a comprehensive range of materials published in New Zealand. The Library is once again indebted to those who have contributed by donation to the growth of the collections and acknowledges their generosity. The Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust has continued to make funds available for the purchase of highly priced books, manuscripts, maps and paintings and for related activities.

Publications by the Staff, 1978179 BAILLIE, W. J. H. “British Standards Association. Recommendations for the Storage and Exhibition of Archival Documents” (review), Archifacts 6 (June 1978) 144—146. BARTON, P. L. “Maori Geographical Knowledge and Maps of New Zealand.” New Zealand Library Association Conference. 45th, Hamilton, 1978. Papers. Wellington, NZLA, 1978, p. 181-189. “Map Librarianship; Readings, by R. Drazniowsky” (review) New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter 4 (May 1978) 8. “Map Scale Indicator.” New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter 4 (May 1978) 9. “N.Z. Maps: Selection and Acquisition.” New Zealand Libraries 41:3 (October 1978) 76-77.

“New Zealand Metric Topographical Maps; 1:50,000 and 1:250,000.” Association of Canadian Map Libraries Bulletin 27 (June 1978) 8-9; New Zealand Geographer 34:2 (October 1978) 110; Special Libraries Association. Geography and Map Division. Bulletin 114 (December 1978) 38-39. “New Zealand Topographical Maps: A Status Report.” Western Association of Map Librarians Information Bulletin 9:3 (June 1978) 219-20. “Recent Publications” (reviews) New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter 5 (August 1978) 5. BUCHAN, A. “Research in Alexander Turnbull Library.” New Zealand Genealogist 9:86 (July 1978) 118-122. FRANCIS, S. “Artists’ Papers; Base Materials for Art History.” Art New Zealand 9 (Feb/March/April 1978) 46-48.

GRIFFITH, P. A. “Featon’s Waikato War: A Bibliographical Note.’ Turnbull Library Record 11:1 (May 1978) 37-39. GROVER, R. F. “Amokura, byj. Mitchell” (review) New Zealand Listener 91:2041 (17 February 1979) 68-69. “Archives in New Zealand: A Report” (review) Comment 6 (February 1979) 4-5. “Fatal Necessity: British Intervention in New Zealand 1830-1847, by P. Adams” (review) New Zealand Listener, 89:2017 (26 August 1978) 60—61. “The Fragmented Life of Don Jacobo Lerner, by I. Goldemburg” (review) New Zealand Bookworld 51 (Sept-October 1978) 22.

“The User’s Viewpoint [on the Smith Report on Archives in New Zealand] Archifacts 7 & 8 (Sept-Dec 1978) 42-43. “What is Oral History?” New Zealand Libraries 41:2 (July 1978) 36-37. HoARE, M. E. “Captainjames Cook: Man, Myth, and Reality.” Pacific Studies 1:2 (Spring 1978) 71-76.

“Cook Studies: Whither Now?” Pacific Studies 1:2 (Spring 1978) 195-217. “Training in Manliness: Some Historical and Contemporary Participants and Perspectives on Boys’ Brigade Work in an Australian and a New Zealand Setting.” Dip. Ed. thesis, Massey University, 1979, 128 p. “Two Centuries’ Perceptions of James Cook: George Forster to Beaglehole.” In Captain James Cook and His Times, 1918 Conference, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, 8.C., Simon Fraser University, 1978, vol. I.

“The User’s Viewpoint [on the Smith Report on Archives in New Zealand]” Archifacts 7 & 8 (Sept-Dec 1978) 37—40. MURRAY-OLIVER, A. A. St. C. M. “Alexander Turnbull: Merchant and Collector.” Art New Zealand 9 (Feb/March/April 1978) 33-34. “Earle and Angas: Two Important New Watercolours.’ Turnbull Library Record 11:1 (May 1978) 40-41. “Portrait of Tu, Po mare I of Tahiti.” Turnbull Library Record 11:2 (October 1978) 112-114.

“The Turnbull Library and the Public.” Art New Zealand 9 (Feb/March/ April 1978) 55. PARKINSON, P. G. “Natural History Drawings and Watercolours byjohn Abbot, ‘The Aurelian’, Naturalist of Georgia, in the Alexander Turnbull Library.” Turnbull Library Record 11:1 (May 1978) 26-36. A Consideration of the Systematics of the New Zealand Rhytididae (Mollusca: Pulmonata) with a Repudiation of the Nonsensical “ring Species” speculation Lately Indulged in by Dr. Climo. Auckland, Pettifogging Press, 1979, 22 p. Paul, J. E. “The Art Collections in the Alexander Turnbull Library.” Art New Zealand 9 (Feb/March/April 1978) 38-45.

“William Matthew Hodgkins, 1833-1898.” Turnbull Library Record 11:1 (May 1978) 7-17. PETRE, R. “A New Piece by Henry Purcell.” Early Music 6:3 (July 1978) 374-379. STARKE, J. S. “Effusion XV: A memory ofPantisocracy.” Turnbull Library Record 11:1 (May 1978) 18-25. SULLIVAN, J. “The Photograph Collections.” Art New Zealand 9 (Feb/March/April 1978) 49-51. “Historical show [at Photoforum Gallery]” (review) Photoforum Supplement (Summer 1978/79) 6. Traue, J. E. “Alexander Turnbull’s Library: The Evolution of an Idea 1918—1978.” Art New Zealand 9 (Feb/March/April 1978) 35-36.

“The National Research Collections: An Idea Realised.” Art New Zealand 9 (Feb/March/April 1978) 36-37. “A Sort of Appeal to the People: A Recent Acquisition of English Broadsides and Broadsheets 1641-1714.” Turnbull Library Record 11:2 (October 1978) 104-111. “The Professional Viewpoint [on the Smith Report on Archives in New Zealand].” Archifacts 7 & 8 (Sept-Dec 1978) 15-17. Williams, K. S. “National Bibliographies: The Paris Congress.” New Zealand Libraries 41:3 (October 1978) 79-82. WILSTED, T. “Historical Research Using Library Materials” In Seminar for Local Historians. Palmerston North, Dept, of University Extension, Massey University, 1978, 8-17.