Archives New Zealand demystified...

http://www.archives.govt.nz/
http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/

A group of VUW library staff and a couple of MLIS students were shown around Archives New Zealand today by Archivist Donal Raethel, and had the opportunity to see some of the fascinating treasures usually hidden within the bowels of the huge building.

Archives keeps all matter of “records” in its care for the public to access: paintings, sketches, journals, files, posters, car axles (from a murder case!), city and building plans, school journal artwork, film, and digital documents, as well as New Zealand’s constitutional documents…

…although finding what you need can be a bit of a hassle, as collections are kept together, rather than being classified by subject. Archway, Archives New Zealand’s main online finding aid, goes some way towards speeding up the finding process but record hunting can still be a slow process and not all records are present on Archway. Despite this, researchers at VUW might benefit from visits to the archives, especially if they’re after original documents and records. Archives holds a wealth of very beautiful building plans from around New Zealand that might prove particularly interesting to students and staff at the Architecture and Design campus, for example.

The next visit is to the library at the Defence offices in mid-November (date TBC)

OFLC Visit

Visit to the OFLC Library

A very brief write up this time, as assignments are closing in!

Nine people braved Tuesday morning’s stormy weather to get to the Office of Film and Literature Classification Library. The library is a really good example of a small library adapting itself to the specialised needs of its clients. The offices role is to classify films, videos, DVDs, books and any other publication prior to their release to the public of NZ. Pip Wall, the OFLC librarian, works closely with the censors and the information unit staff and will (for example) scan news sites and film focused periodicals to find information on films that may have been controversial, or for other classification related information.

The library itself is very small, but the collection policy keeps the library tightly focused on its subject matter. The small size of the library allows some flexibility in ordering; most items are purchased through Amazon. The leather sofas are gorgeously comfortable…

Please feel free to post comments here if you have any questions about our visit or any comments to make about the library or future visits.

Cheers,
Meg

Parliamentary library note scans

There hasn't been time or opportunity to do a writeup of the Parliamentary Library in Wellington, unfortunately. It's a fantastic place, though, and you should try to arrange a visit if you have the chance.

Tim Grieg took notes during the visit, the links to these are here (you may have to squint a bit) These link to his Website:






Watch this space for comments about other visits, including one to the Office of Film and Literature Classification library (very very cool!)