Alexander Turnbull Library

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XVIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1985, Page 112

Alexander Turnbull Library

J. E. TRAUE

Report by the Director for the year 1984/85

The Alexander Turnbull Library is a national research library, dedicated to the collection and preservation of the records of human knowledge and endeavour and to the enrichment of those records through the fostering of research and publication. The Library is responsible for the long-term preservation of the national collection of library materials relating to New Zealand. Other special fields include the Pacific, early printed books, John Milton and his times, and the arts of the book.

ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS The benefits of access to the New Zealand Bibliographic Network became evident during the year with a marked increase in the number of recently published books catalogued for the collections. Planning the accommodation for the Turnbull collections and services in the new building, and detailed analyses for the shift into the building, made it necessary to reallocate staff time to the detriment of the Library's normal activities. In order to assess more accurately the needs of the various groups of library users, staff have been conducting reader surveys. It is planned to employ an independent expert to conduct a major survey of all users. During the visit of a group of senior librarians from the University of Hawaii a successful professional colloquium was held, at which papers on aspects of New Zealand, Pacific and Hawaiian research libraries were read and discussed before an invited audience of librarians and academics.

Five exhibitions were mounted to display to the public some of the Library's resources: 'The Voyage to New Zealand', 'The Book Beautiful', some early and unusual newspapers, a selection of Hogarth etchings, and a group of Kenneth Quinn's photographic portraits of eminent New Zealanders. The Library has attracted during the year an increased amount of financial support from the community for its endowments and for the activities carried out on behalf of the Library by the Friends of the Turnbull Library. A bequest of $32,000 from the estate of Jean Lenore Paterson was received by the Endowment Trust, and sponsorships (through the Trust) were received from Kodak New Zealand Ltd, Independent Newspapers Ltd, the New Zealand Founders' Society, and Messrs Francis Allison Symes & Co. and Hill Samuel NZ Ltd. The Archive of New Zealand Music received further grants from the New Zealand Composers' Foundation. The Friends raised over $20,000 towards a special centennial fund to assist with expensive purchases for the collections. The Endowment Trust's

accumulated funds at the end of the year were $290,205. Income was $109,879, and expenses $38,849, leaving $71,030 available for application in terms of the deed of trust. The Trust spent $26,049 on purchases for the collections and $54,233 in publishing on behalf of the Library. The Research Endowment Trust spent $12,905 on grants to research workers, conferences and seminars.

THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION For a research library the most effective and appropriate means of making its resources available to the widest possible audience is by encouraging research and publication based on its collections. The Research Endowment Fund made grants to eight scholars (five from overseas) during the year, and grants towards the costs of the Early Modern Studies Association's Tudor conference and a national conference on the preservation of theatre records. The Library again acted as the host for the annual conference of the New Zealand Musicologists' Society. The Research Endowment Fund was supported by grants from the Todd Foundation, the Ilott Trust, the Trustees of the National Library, and the income from three sets of prints.

The Endowment Trust made grants towards the publication costs of a bibliography of the Solomon Islands and a catalogue of mediaeval and renaissance manuscripts in New Zealand. The financial responsibility for the Turnbull Library Record was taken over by the Endowment Trust from the Friends of the Turnbull Library during the year. Publications issued from the Library, with the assistance of the Endowment Trust and sponsors, were Victoria's Furthest Daughters, a bibliography of published sources for the study of women in New Zealand 1830-1914, compiled by a member of the reference staff, Mrs Patricia Sargison; In Search of New Zealand's Scientific Heritage, the proceedings of the history of science conference sponsored by the Library and the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1983; A Search for Tradition by Douglas Lilburn; a new edition of the Library's catalogue of publications under the title Windows Upon Our Heritage; a keepsake for the exhibition of early and unusual newspapers; an illustrated calendar; and two sets of reproductions, one of paintings by Aubrey and Barraud and the other of six photographs by W.J. Harding. The Friends of the Library issued three new greetings cards featuring paintings in the collections, and continued publication of its Newsletter to inform members of the activities of the Library and the Friends. A sixth instalment of the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts was issued during the year. The first volume of the collected letters of Katherine Mansfield, which draws heavily on the letters held in the Library, was published by Oxford University Press late in 1984.

BUILDING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS Donations during the year rose from 409 to 424. The Library continues to receive under the compulsory deposit provisions of the Copyright Act 1962 a comprehensive range of materials published in New Zealand for

the national collection of last resort. A significant collection of New Zealand books was donated by Douglas Lilburn, and a unique set of the New Zealand Bulletin from 1913 to 1915 by the descendants of A. A. George, the publisher-printer. The oral history collection more than doubled in size with the deposits from the New Zealand Oral History Archive and the New Zealand Nursing Education and Research Foundation and now numbers over 1,200 tapes and cassettes. Donations to the Archive of New Zealand Music included the papers of Dorothy Buchanan and Christopher Powell. Douglas Lilburn's papers, formerly on long-term loan, were gifted to the Archive. Collections of personal papers received included those of Allen Curnow, Gwen Somerset, C. S. Perry, Raymond Hansen and Beverley Pentland. Additional materials were received for the Brasch and Gordon Dryland papers, and negotiations completed for the literary papers of Dan Davin. The collection of political papers received major additions from Marilyn Waring, the Hon. Hugh Templeton, Sir Richard Harrison, and the Hon. George Gair, M.P. Institutional archives donated included those of the Values Party, the Society of Friends, J. H. Bethune & Co., and the Wellington Central Baptist Church. Negotiations were concluded for the purchase of the archives of the literary periodical Islands. The first consignment of the photographic negatives of Ans Westra, some 15,000, were deposited during the year. Two other major donations were the A.C. Elworthy collection and some 5,000 railways and tramways negatives from Mr Alan Smith. The very high prices being paid for New Zealand historical paintings and drawings resulted in a decrease in the number of items purchased. Significant purchases included four watercolours by John Kinder, four sketchbooks of James Coutts Crawford, a Gilfillan watercolour and a Heaphy of Mt Egmont. Donations of paintings increased during the year and included two Heaphy watercolours from Miss Helen Nicholls.

CONSERVING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS The Turnbull Library's special role as the keeper of the National Library's documentary heritage collections of printed materials, paintings drawings and prints, photographs, manuscripts and archives, maps, music and recorded sound is not fully appreciated. The accommodation for the collections is below standard and the resources being made available for long-term preservation are inadequate. A major programme to give short-term protection to unique printed materials, fragile manuscripts and sketchbooks by placing them inside temporary boxes of acidfree cardboard was inaugurated during the year. The National Library's Conservation Unit conducted a series of conservation workshops for all curatorial staff and assisted with a collection survey to assess the physical condition of all materials in the Library as a preparation for the move to the new building in 1987. Good progress was made during the year in the programme to provide photographic copies of important New Zealand paintings and drawings to reduce handling of the originals.

Publications, Lectures, etc. by the Staff, 1984/85 BARTON, P. L. A Directory of U.K. Map Collections, compiled by Barbara A. Bird (review), New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter, 16 (May 1984), 28-29.

'Maps for Direction Finding and Navigation with Emphasis on those held in the Map Collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library', New Zealand Mapkeepers Circle Newsletter, 17 (November 1984), 2-7. 'New Zealand Historical Map Collections', Imago Mundi, 35 (1983), 102. LONG, M. 'Samuel Daniell and John Webber: Some Recently Identified Drawings', Turnbull Library Record, 17 (May 1984), 24-27. Descriptive notes for the Brees Calendar, 1984.

Text sheets for 'Wellington to the Wairarapa', the Turnbull prints 1984. MINSON, M. 'Over the Moketap: Explorations Old and New', Turnbull Library Record, 17 (October 1984), 98-105. The Turnbull Picture Collection: paper delivered to the TurnbullUniversity of Hawaii Colloquium, 10 September 1984. PALMER, J.M. Directory of New Zealand Music Organisations, compiled by Dorothy Freed (review), New Zealand Libraries, 44 (September 1984), 132-33.

'Turnbull Music Librarian's Trip to Australia and the I.A.S.A. (Australia Branch) Conference', Crescendo, 9 (1984), 12-16. 'The Zillah and Ronald Castle Musical Instrument Collection: Part of our Cultural Heritage', New Zealand Crafts, 11 (Spring 1984), 15-16. Reprinted in Early Music New Zealand, 1 (1985), 13-16. PARKINSON, P. G. 'Amend the Provisions of the Code dealing with the Gender of Generic Names', Taxon, 33 (1984), 348-50.

'The Concept of Nomenclatural Illegitimacy, including 32 Proposals to Amend the Code', Taxon, 33 (1984), 469-92. 'Lesbian and Gay Archives in New Zealand: a Minority Gathers its own History', Archifacts, 1984/4, 7-14. 'New Light on Katherine Mansfield', Pink Triangle, 47 (May/June 1984), 6. 'Wideawake at the Wakefield', Pink Triangle, 47 (May/June 1984), 7.

'Centenary of New Zealand Gay Novelist [Hugh Walpole]', Pink Triangle, 49 (September/October 1984), 13-14. (comp.) 'Gillian Cox' (obituary), Pink Triangle, 50 (November/December 1984), 14-15. 'The Hagley Park Killing', Pink Triangle, 51 (Summer 1984/5), 13.

(comp.) 'Good in Bed and Good on the Beach' (short reviews of 23 lesbian and gay books), Pink Triangle, 51 (Summer 1984/5), 17-19. Lord Alfred Douglas: a Biography, by H. Montgomery Hyde (review), Pink Triangle, 52 (March/April 1985), 17.

'A Note on Nomenclatorial Nomenclature', Auckland Botanical Society Newsletter, 40(1) (January 1985), 18-19. The Age of Consent: a Brief on the Age of Consent in Relation to the Legal Control of Sexuality in the New Zealand Statute Law (Wellington, Gay Task Force, 1984), 87p.

(September/October 1984), 15-16. from Cocoon of Neglect', Australian Antique Collector, 28 (July/December 1984), 54-58.

RAINER, P. (ed.) National Register of Archives and Manuscripts in New Zealand, v.2, pt. 2 (Wellington, 1985). The National Register of Archives and Manuscripts in New Zealand: paper delivered to the Turnbull-University of Hawaii Colloquium, 10 September 1984.

RALSTON, B.J. The Hawera Census of 1881; a reconstruction: paper presented at the A.R.A.N.Z. conference, New Plymouth, 16-19 August 1984. SALMOND, R. 'The Doves Press: Some Letters of Cobden-Sanderson to St John Hornby, 1906-17', Turnbull Library Record, 17 (May 1984), 5-11; Matrix, 4 (Winter 1984), 61-66. SANDERSON, K.M. 'Arrangement and Description of Private Archives', Archifacts, 1985/1 (March 1985).

SARGISON, P. A. 'The New Zealand Listener as a Source for the Study of New Zealand Music: an Index being compiled at the Alexander Turnbull Library', Crescendo, 8 (1984), 4-8. Victoria's Furthest Daughters: a Bibliography of Published Sources for the Study of Women in New Zealand, 1830-1914 (Wellington, 1984), 107 p. The Alexander Turnbull Library: address to the Petone Historical Society, 29 August 1984.

SORENSEN, J. A. New Zealand entries for Historical Periodicals Directory, 5 (Santa Barbara, ABC-Clio, 1985). SULLIVAN, J. 'William James Harding, 1826-1899' (biographical note), in Portraits by W.J. Harding, chosen by Brian Brake and John Sullivan (Wellington, 1984. Imagers of a New Land, Series 3). TRAUE, J. E. Bibliographic resources for New Zealand studies: paper delivered to the Turnbull-University of Hawaii Colloquium, 10 September 1984.

Selection for preservation; the message and the medium: paper delivered at the Library Association of Australia-New Zealand Library Association Conference, Brisbane, 30 August 1984.

In addition members of the staff lectured to students of the Department of Librarianship, Victoria University; the School of Library Studies, Wellington Teachers’ College; the School of Journalism at Wellington Polytechnic; the Department of History, Victoria University; and spoke on the Access Radio programmes organised by the Friends of the Turnbull Library.

ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY

Research Endowment Fund

The Board of the Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust invites applications for grants from its Research Endowment Fund. The Fund has the general objectives of'the advancement of learning and the arts and sciences through the support of scholarly research and publication based on the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library' and it may create scholarships and fellowships, make grants for research and publication, and sponsor seminars, conferences and lectures.

Grants are now being made available to provide additional support for scholars at.all levels who wish to conduct research towards a publication based on the Library's collections.

Applications should be sent to: The Secretary, Alexander Turnbull Library Research Endowment Fund, Box 12349, Wellington North.

The Research Endowment Fund's programmes are supported by grants from the Sir John Ilott Charitable Trust, the Todd Foundation, the Sutherland Self-Help Trust, the Minister of Internal Affairs from Lottery funds, and from the profits on the Cooper Prints 1980 (published in association with the New Zealand Wool Board), the Heaphy Prints 1981 (in association with the Fletcher Holdings Charitable Trust), and the Hoyte Prints 1982 (in association with the ANZ Banking Group (New Zealand) Ltd).

ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY

Director: Mr J. E. Traue, MA, FNZLA Deputy Director: Miss P. A. Griffith, BA, DIP NZLS Acquisitions Librarian: Miss D. M. Sherratt, BA Curator of Drawings & Prints: Ms M. F. Minson, MA, DIP NZLS Assistant Curator of Drawings & Prints: Ms M. Long, BA, DIP NZLS Catalogue Librarian: Mrs M. F. Collyns, BSC, DIP LIBR First Assistant, Catalogue: Mrs H. Loftus, MA, NZLA CERT

Catalogue Assistants: Mrs B. G. Matthews, BA, NZLA CERT; Mr T. Ralls, MA; Ms H. J. Stace, BA, DIP NZLS Manuscripts Librarian: Ms D. Meads, BA, DIP NZLS First Assistant, Manuscripts: Mr D. C. Retter, MA, DIPLIBR

Editor, National Register of Archives & Manuscripts: Mr P. Rainer, MA, DIP NZLS Manuscripts Assistants: Ms K. M. Sanderson, MA, DIP LIBR; Mr K. L. Stewart, MA, DIP ED Maori Materials Subject Specialist: Ms S. E. Dell, BA (HONS), DIP NZLS

Map Librarian: Mr P. L. Barton, ANZLA Music Librarian: Miss J. Palmer, MA, DIP NZLS Photograph Librarian: Mr J. P. Sullivan, BA, DIP NZLS Reference Librarian: Miss J. V. Horncy, BA, DIP NZLS First Assistant, Reference: Ms V. Y. Curtis, BA, DIPLIBR Reference Assistants: Mrs A. L. Buchan, MA, DIP NZLS; Mrs J. A. Sorensen, BA, DIP NZLS

Serials Librarian: Mr P. G. Parkinson, BSC, DIP NZLS HONORARY CONSULTANTS Dr A. G. Bagnall, OBE, FNZLA New Zealand bibliography and Regional history Professor D. G. Lilburn, HON D.MUS (OTAGO) Honorary Curator, Archive of New Zealand Music

Mrs J. E. Paul, BA (HONS) New Zealand art history and Typographical design Mr A. A. St. C. M. Murray-Oliver, MBE, MA, FMANZ, ANZLA New Zealand and Pacific art Mr V. G. Elliott, MA, B.LITT., DIP NZLS Early printed books Mr D. G. Medway, LL.B.,FLS Historical ornithology