Research Notes

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 23, Issue 2, 1 October 1990, Page 169

Research Notes

Margaret Calder has been appointed Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library. She took up her position during October 1990. She had been Acting Chief Librarian since June when Mr J. E. Traue retired from the position of Chief Librarian after seventeen years with the Library. A tribute to Jim Traue will appear in the May 1991 edition of the Record. The former Chief Librarian, Mr J. E. Traue, has written and published a pamphlet, Ancestors of the Mind: a Pakeha Whakapapa. The text is a revised version of a speech on the nature and values of a written and printed culture. The pamphlet, designed by Hugh Price, the Turnbull’s honorary consultant on typography, is available from the author, 168 Hadfield Terrace, Wellington, at $5 post free.

Henry Raine, American Library Association/United States Information Service Library Fellow, worked at the Turnbull Library for one year from the beginning of October 1989. He planned and started to implement the cataloguing of all books printed before 1801 held in the Turnbull Colleection. Online records for rare books are now entered onto the New Zealand Bibliographic Network. As part of the project, Henry also held training sessions for National Library cataloguers, and for rare books librarians from other institutions in New Zealand. He returned to his job as Assistant Head of Cataloguing at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., in October 1990.

A team from the Manuscripts and Archives Section has recently completed the arrangement and description of the Frank Sargeson papers. The collection, measuring 7.3 metres, includes correspondence, literary drafts, poetry, essays and talks, book reviews, subject files, personal papers, printed material, ephemera and a large number of photo'graphs. It covers the period 1897 to 1982. A detailed guide to this comprehensive collection of personal and literary papers is available (MS group 71).

The Library assisted by the New Zealand Composers Foundation has published a guide to the collection of New Zealand’s most distinguished composer, Douglas Lilburn. Compiled by Jill Palmer, of the Archive of New Zealand Music, the guide The Collection of Douglas Lilburn: Manuscripts in the Alexander Turnbull Library includes details of Lilburn’s manuscript music scores, his writings, correspondence, ephemera, personal and family papers, photographs and original sound recordings. Besides music, Lilburn’s interests include literature, drama and art, which are reflected in the collection. The guide (xvii, 178 p.) includes indexes to composition by form and to authors of texts. Retail price is S2O + $3 p&p. Available from the National Library Bookshop, P.O. Box 1467, Wellington.