Alexander Turnbull Library

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 20, Issue 2, 1 October 1987, Page 109

Alexander Turnbull Library

J.E. TRAUE

Report by the Chief Librarian for the Year 1986/8 7

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. It functions as the Library of national record with responsibility for the accumulation and 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 the seventeenth century, and the arts of the book.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES While not all goals were achieved, sometimes due to circumstances outside the Library’s control, many have been successfully completed. The major goal was to provide the best possible service to the users despite the disruption caused by the interim shift. Direct services were provided until the end of August in a reference section at the Atlas building, and a temporary reading room at the Castrol building serviced by the Manuscripts staff. The Photograph Section was open to the public until mid-June. Correspondence and telephone enquiry services were maintained according to accessibility of material. The cooperation of Reference & Interloan Services staff in providing access to Turnbull microfilms throughout the year has been appreciated. Work on the collections in preparation for moving and for different storage arrangements in the new building have been very expensive in terms of labour and materials, but have significantly improved both conservation storage and security control of the collections. The major projects were the interfiling of the various serials sequences (18,000 titles) into one sequence, resequencing the entire manuscripts collection (3 kilometres of shelving), the shelf-checking of the New Zealand and Pacific book collections, separation of the photograph negatives (some 300,000) into glass and film, and the comprehensive checking of the card catalogue prior to microfiching. Planning for new building services has resulted in the establishment of and recruitment for 13 new positions, staff training, systems planning, and the preparation of guides for users. A close working relationship with Reference & Interloan Services staff has been developed to ensure that enquiries are directed to the most appropriate service points. A similar relationship with Collection Management and NZBN is resulting from the better coordination of effort on automated indexing projects. A new management structure for the Library was introduced in March 1987. The special collections (Manuscripts and Archives; Pictorial; Newspapers) are grouped under the Keeper of the Collections; a Technical

Services Librarian is responsible for Cataloguing, Acquisitions and Serials; and a Reader Services Librarian for Reference and the Pictorial Reference Service. Financial support from the community, additional to funds supplied through the National Library, continued at a high level. A bequest from the estate of E.G. Jacoby was received by the Endowment Trust, and sponsorships for publication from the Woman’s Weekly, F.A.S Macquarie and Francis Allison Symes and Co., Indosuez New Zealand Limited, and the New Zealand Composers Foundation. The Research Endowment Trust received grants from the New Zealand Composers Foundation and the Lilburn Trust for the work of the Archive of New Zealand Music, and grants were also received from the Lottery Board.

The Friends of the Library’s centennial fund, created to assist with expensive purchases, now stands at $76,399. The Endowment Trust’s assets at the end of the year were $331,038. Income was $51,013 and expenses $42,881 leaving $8,132 available for application in terms of the deed of trust. The Trust spent $1,982 on purchases and $100,286 on publications. The Research Endowment Fund spent $11,119 on grants to research workers and conferences. The Library was unable to mount any exhibitions of its collections during the year. Items were made available to the Dunedin Public Art Galleries, the Auckland City Art Gallery, and the Robert McDougall Art Gallery for public exhibition.

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 through research and publication based on its collections. Grants were made to four scholars (three from overseas) from the Research Endowment Trust. The Fund was supported by grants from the New Zealand Composers’ Foundation, the Ilott Trust, the Trustees of the National Library, the Scientific Research Distribution Committee of the Lottery Board, and the income from three sets of prints. The Endowment Trust made a publication grant for Na to hoa Aroha: the Correspondence between Sir Apirana Ngata and Sir Peter Buck, 1925-50 edited by M.P.K. Sorrenson from the originals in the Turnbull collections. Publications issued from the Library with the assistance of the Endowment Trust and sponsors were the third volume of Early Eyewitness Accounts (d’Entrecasteaux’s visit of 1793 and Duperrey’s of 1824), and A Woman’s Work, a set of six photographs. The Friends of the Library issued a limited edition print of two botanical drawings by Martha King in association with the Westpac Banking Corporation. The Friends’ Newsletter and the Turnbull Library Record continued publication during the year.

BUILDING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS Donations during the year fell from 346 to 325. The Library continued to receive, under the compulsory deposit provisions of the Copyright Act 1962, a comprehensive collection of materials published in New

Zealand for the national collection of last resort. During the year 22 commercially produced videotapes relating to New Zealand were purchased for the research collections. Notable book purchases included the facsimile of the Bligh Notebook published by the National Library of Australia and the Genesis Publications edition of The Private Journal of Matthew Flinders 1803-1814, and a hitherto unrecorded pamphlet by C.O. Torlesse The Canterbury Settlement Topographically Described . . . 1851. The New Zealand sections of Banks Florilegium began to arrive during the year.

Significant manuscript acquisitions included the papers of Shirley Barton, Betty Curnow, Jack Lovelock and A. A. St. C.M. Murray-Oliver, and the records of Community Volunteers Inc., H.A.R.T, Aotearoa, and the Riverside Community. Eight oral history projects, totalling 200 tapes, were deposited by the New Zealand Oral History Archive. The Archive of New Zealand Music acquired the records of the New Zealand Opera Company and the National Opera of New Zealand, the papers of Alan Heathcote White, and the scrapbooks ofj. Maughan Barnett. Five rare nineteenth century French hydrographic charts of the New Zealand coast dated between 1847 and 1868, and a copy of the 1853 version of James Wyld’s chart of New Zealand were purchased for the cartographic collections.

Important collections of photographs of World War 11, Samoa in the 19205, and of areas of Wellington were donated to the Photographic Archive, and several early albums were purchased overseas and at auction in New Zealand. Purchases for the drawings and prints collection included 2 sketchbooks by John Gully, an 1860 watercolour of New Plymouth by Edwin Harris, Charles Heaphy’s portrait of his fiancee, sketches by Janetta Cookson, Charles Harrisson, Sir Julius von Haast, and three watercolours by Cuthbert Clark done in 1849. Portraits of Oliver Duff, T.A. McCormack, Tony Fomison, Terry Stringer and Peter McLeavey were also purchased. Another twenty photographic portraits by Kenneth Quinn of New Zealanders prominent in cultural and intellectual life were purchased.

CONSERVING THE RESEARCH COLLECTIONS The Conservation Laboratory has been effectively closed for the past year and been unable to undertake restoration work on the collections. Turnbull staff have accelerated internal conservation programmes to improve the storage and environmental condition of the collections. The condition of the collections has been monitored closely while they have been in interim accommodation and in general high standards have been maintained. On the weekend of 17-18 May water entered the premises of 22 Ghuznee Street and flooded parts of level 4 and 5. Several hundred boxes of books were affected by water but fortunately less than a hundred volumes were damaged. The National Library’s wide-ranging conservation review which began in March 1986 was suspended in June 1986 after a great deal of preparatory work had been done by staff. The review is to be reconstituted once the collections have been moved into the new building.

The Library appointed its first Newspaper Librarian in April 1986, and the survey of the location and condition of New Zealand newspapers from 1940 onwards was completed in February 1987. DR A G BAGNALL, OBE

Graham Bagnall, the fourth Turnbull Librarian (1966-1973), died on 16 April 1986. Tributes were published in the October 1986 issue of the Turnbull Library Record. THE YEAR AHEAD During 1987/88 the Alexander Turnbull Library will focus its activities on improving public access to the collections and services; developing and preserving the collections; working with other institutions to improve the co-ordination of national research resources; analysing the needs of the library’s various research communities; and assisting in promoting the National Library building and its contents as an enrichment of the cultural and intellectual life of New Zealand.

Publications, Lectures etc, by the Staff 1986/81

Curtis, V. ‘Katerina Nehua; Endurance Swimmer’, Turnbull Library Record, 17 (May 1986), 83-86. Dell, S.E. ‘A Screening Expedition’, Information Bulletin, Federation Internationale des Archives du Film, 32 (September 1986). ‘The Hokinga mai ki Wanganui’, Newsletter, N.Z. Film Archive, 15 (February 1987). ‘The Maori book or the book in Maori’, New Zealand Libraries, 45 (March 1987), 98-101. The Maori book or the book in Maori: 150 years of printing in the Maori language of New Zealand; paper delivered at 52nd IFLA Conference, Tokyo, 24-29 August 1986. Griffith, P.A. ‘1915 National Library Prototype’, New Zealand Libraries, 45 (February 1987), 102-3. iment (review, PSA Journal, July/August 1986, 16). Kitchingman, L. Lecture on the cataloguing of manuscripts and archives; Continuing Education Training Course, Wellington, 19 November 1986. McCracken, J. and Sullivan, J. ‘Women Photographers in the Turnbull Library’, Turnbull Library Record, 19 (May 1986), 53-60. Meads, D. ‘The New Zealand Women’s History Research Collection 1975-1985’, Turnbull Library Record, 19 (May 1986) 47-51.

Defining collection policy and the appraisal of private archives and manuscripts. Panel discussion, Selecting Archives and Manuscripts, A.R.A.N.Z. Conference, Wellington, August 1986. hives: the Custodian’s View, A.R. A.N.Z. Conference, Wellington, August 1986. Lectures on the arrangement and description of archives, Continuing Education Training Courses, Wellington, 25-28 August and 17-20 November 1986. Moffat, K. and Heenan, L.D.8.. ‘lnter-regional Migration of Older New Zealanders; a Preliminary Exploration of Recent Census Data’, New Zealand Population Review, 12 (July 1986), 107-126. Palmer, J.M. ‘The Finer Things in Life: An Overview of Frederick Page’s Papers at the Alexander Turnbull Library’, Crescendo, 15 (1986), 9-11. ‘Her Kiwi Excellency, Dorothy Davies’, Turnbull Library Record, 19 (May 1986), 76-82. ‘A Late Fifteenth-Century Anonymous Mensuration Treatise: (Ssp) Salzburg, Erzabtei St Peter, a VI 44, 1490; cod. pap.’, Musica Disciplina 39 (1985), 87-106.

‘Moves Toward the New National Library Building’, Crescendo, 13 (1986), 13. ‘Ross Somerville —Music Librarian, National Library of New Zealand’, Crescendo, 14 (1986), 13-14. Sound and Music in the New National Library Building: joint paper with Ross Somerville, I.A.M.L. (NZ) Seminar, N.Z.L.A. Conference, Wellington, 12 February 1987. Parkinson, P.G. ‘Proposals on Homonyms and Parahomonyms (Art. 64.1 and 64.2)’ Taxon, 35 (1986), 843-846. ‘Adanson’s Generic Names for Plants: Status and Typification’, Taxon, 36 (1987), 87-97. ‘Adanson’s Generic Names for Seed Plants: Validation and Typification. Part 1, Nomina Conservanda and Nomina Conservanda Proposita’, Taxon, 36 (1987), 81-87.

‘Greater Expectations: Library Service to Lesbians and Gay Men in NZ’, New Zealand Libraries, 45 (1987), 92-97. ‘Positive about AIDS’, Agenda, (March 1987), 11. Prevention Education and the Gay Community in New Zealand’, in AIDS Foundation Prevention Education Workshop 5 and 6 November 1986, Proceedings, (Auckland, 1986), pp. 1-7. ‘A Soldiers Tale’, Pink Triangle, 61 (Spring 1986), 15. AIDS and HIV disease—a medical overview: lecture to Pharmaceutical Society of N.Z. Wellington Branch, March 1987. AIDS —A community perspective: lecture to Australian and N.Z. Society for Epidemiological Research in Community Health, Wellington, August 1986.

and HUGHES, Tony. ‘The gay community and the response to AIDS in New Zealand’, New Zealand Medical Journal, 100 (1987), 77-79. Ralston, B.J. ‘Chore or Challenge? The Librarian and Family Historians’, New Zealand Libraries, 45 (December 1986), 78-81. The National Register of Archives and Manuscripts in New Zealand: panel discussion, A.R.A.N.Z. Conference, Wellington, August 1986. The Not the Turnbull Library Show: address to the Wellington Group, New Zealand Society of Genealogists, 18 August 1986.

Retter, D.C. Lecture on mixed media in the arrangement and description of archives and manuscripts. Continuing Education Training Courses, Wellington 26 August and 18 November 1986. The purposes of microfilming: panel discussion, Microfilming archives, A.R.A.N.Z. Conference, Wellington, August 1986. Sanderson, K.M. ‘A Cabbage, a Bohemian, and a Genius, or Ordinary Middleclass Folk?, Turnbull Library Record, 19 (May 1986), 61-75. Review of Proud to be White by Angela Ballara, Archifacts, 1987/1, 29-30.

Preservation, Protection, Access; Ownership/Copyright; Where Oral Archives could be located; Cataloguing Existing Material: address given at National Oral History Seminar, Wellington, 20 April 1986. Copyright and Archival Collections: address given at A.R.A.N.Z. conference, Wellington, August 1986. Lectures on arrangement and description of archival collections, Continuing Education Training Course, Wellington, August and November 1986. Sargison, Pat. From Candles to Computers: A Bibliography of Printed Sources on the History of Nursing in New Zealand (Wellington, 1987). Traue, J.E. ‘The Alexander Turnbull Library: Present Trends and Future Policies’, Archifacts, 1986/2, 37-41.

‘Selection for Preservation: the Message and the Medium’, Libraries After 1984: Proceedings of the LAA/NZLA Conference, Brisbane 1984, 320-325. After the Smith Report; professional prespectives eight years down the track: paper delivered at the A.R.A.N.Z. Conference, Wellington, August 1986. Archives and New Zealand historiography: paper delivered at the A.R.A.N.Z. Conference, Wellington, August 1986.

Austin Graham Bagnall, 1912-1986, Bookman: valedictory address, Old St Paul’s, 22 April 1986. The Collectors; the fourth Turnbull Winter Lecture 1986; paper delivered at St Andrews on the Terrace, 8 July 1986. Tony Murray-Oliver, 1915-1986: valdeictory address, Old St Paul’s, 21 November 1986. Training needs and career structure: contribution to panel discussion, A.R.A.N.Z. Conference, Wellington, August 1986.

ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY

Director: Mr J.E. Traue, MA, FNZLA Deputy Director: Vacant Systems Librarian: Vacant

Keeper of the Collections: Ms S.E. Dell, BA (HONS), DIP NZLS Curator of Manuscripts & Archives: Mr P.H. Hughes, MA, DIP NZLS, DIP TCHG Music Librarian: Miss J. Palmer, MA, DIP NZLS Editor, National Register of Archives & Manuscripts: Mr B. Ralston, BA, NZLS CERT Lirst Assistant, Manuscripts and Archives: Mr D.C. Retter, MA, DIP LIBR Manuscripts & Archives Assistants: Ms E. Kitchingman, BA, DIP LIBR; Mr T.J. Lovell-Smith, MA; Mr K.L. Stewart, MA, DIP ED Curator of Pictorial Collections: Ms M.F. Minson, MA, DIP NZLS Assistant Curator, Drawings & Prints: Ms J.J. Carter, BA, DIP LIB, ALA Curator of the Photographic Archive: Mr J.P. Sullivan, BA, DIP NZLS Curator of the Cartographic Collection: Mr K.J. Moffat, BA Newspaper Librarian:Ms N. Frean, MA, DIP LIBR

Reader Services Librarian: Miss J.V. Horncy, BA, DIP NZLS Te Kai-tiaki o nga Korero Maori .Vacant Pictorial Reference Librarian: Ms J.M. McCracken, NZLA CERT Pictorial Reference Assistant: Ms H. Cor mack, NZLS CERT Reference Librarian: Mr P. Rainer, MA, DIP NZLS Reference Assistants: Ms A.W. Brownlie, BA, DIP LIBR; Mrs P.M. Harries, BA, DIP LIBR; Mr E.J. Hyde, BA, DIP LIBR; Ms S. Knox, BA, NZLS CERT; Mrs H. Loftus, MA, NZLA CERT; Mrs B.G. Matthews, BA, NZLA CERT; Mrs P. Sargison, BA, DIP NZLS; Ms C.J. Tuitubou, BA, DIP LIBR; Ms D. Woods, BA, DIP LIBR

Technical Services Librarian: Mr R.N. Burke, BA, DIP LIB, ALA Acquisitions Librarian: Miss D.M. Sherratt, BA Acquisitions Assistant: Mr J. Etheridge, BMUS, DIP LIBR Special Materials Cataloguer: Vacant Serials Librarian: Mr P.G. Parkinson, BSC, DIP NZLS

HONORARY CONSULTANTS 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 V. G. Elliott, MA, B. LITT., DIP NZLS Early printed hooks Mr D. G. Medway, LL.B., FLS Historical ornithology Mr H. C. L. Price, MA, DIP TCHG, MNZSlD Publication