Research Notes

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XVIII, Issue 2, 1 October 1985, Page 102

Research Notes

Research workers are asked to note that the move of the Turnbull Library collections and staff from 44 The Terrace into interim accommodation before the new National Library building on Molesworth Street is ready for occupation at the end of 1986 will cause considerable disruption to services for an extended period beginning late in 1985, and to plan their research accordingly. The owners have asked the National Library to vacate the building by 31 March 1986, as soon as the lease expires. Present indications are that the contractors will finish construction on the new building about December 1986 and that it will become available to accept materials about February or March 1987. As soon as more definite information is available on interim accommodation a statement will be issued by the Library on the date of closure at 44 The Terrace for the first shift, the nature of the services which might be able to be provided from the interim accommodation, and the likely date of closure for the second shift and the reopening in the Molesworth Street building.

An Editorial Advisory Committee for the Turnbull Library Record has been established by the publishers, the Turnbull Library Endowment Trust Board. Professor W. H. Oliver, Professor J. C. Davis, and Dr Kerry Howe have been appointed members of the Committee on the nomination of the Friends of the Turnbull Library, and Mrs F. A. Porter by the Endowment Trust Board, who are to make two further appointments.

The Lilburn Trust, established last year, has made its first distribution from income: to the Music Department at Victoria University for prizes in composition, and to the Archive of New Zealand Music at the Turnbull to support its oral history programme. The Trust is administered by the Board of the Turnbull Library Endowment Trust with the assistance of an advisory committee, and its objectives are to foster and promote New Zealand music, for the general advancement of music and the preservation of musical archives, and in support of the interests of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

The Research Endowment Fund has made grants to Dr Jonathan White of the University of Essex for a visit to New Zealand from Australia, to Joan Fitzgerald, a lecturer in the English Department at Rome University, and to the New Zealand Early Modern Studies Association for its Tudor conference in Wellington in April.

Ormond Wilson’s From Hongi Hika to Hone Heke was launched by Dr Michael King at a function in the Library injune. Mr L. A. Cameron, the Chairman of the Trustees of the National Library, in announcing Mr

Wilson’s resignation from the Trustees Committee for the Alexander Turnbull Library, thanked him for his long service on the Committee and his contributions to the work of the Library. Mr Wilson was appointed to the Committee in 1966.

Research for a biography of F. P. Walsh, the prominent trade union official whose papers are held in the Turnbull, is being undertaken by Mr Peter Franks, a trade union journalist, and Mr D.J. Morgan, President of the New Zealand Seamen's Union. The project has the official support of the Union.

A revised version of the Chief Librarian's paper delivered at the British Library's Colloquium on Australian and New Zealand Studies in February 1984 is being published by the Victoria University Press for the Stout Research Centre under the title New Zealand Studies: a Guide to Bibliographic Resources. Copies are available from the Library at $3.95 (with a discount to Friends) and from all good bookshops.

The New Zealand Musicological Society held its fourth annual conference in the Library over the weekend 18-19 May. Jill Palmer, the Turnbull Music Librarian, delivered a paper 'Coussemaker's Anonymous XII: A New Edition, Translation and Commentary' in the session on theories and theorists.

Diana Meads and Kay Sanderson of the Manuscripts Section are compiling the first part of an annotated list of the manuscript materials in the Library of significance for women's studies to be published by the Library late in 1985. The first part will cover the period up to the turn of the century, and describe about 500 collections. It is hoped that a second part, also of about 500 entries, will be compiled and published in the near future.

The next issue of the Turnbull Library Record, for May 1986, will feature women's studies in New Zealand. Contributions will include descriptions of the Turnbull's collections of manuscript materials in women's studies and general articles from research workers. Contributions for this special issue have been solicited by a letter to individuals and organisations with an interest in women's studies.