Author: trailfinder

At the end of November 2022 Book Guardians Aotearoa (BGA) wrote an Open Letter to the National Librarian of New Zealand setting out what we believe needs to happen to improve the National Library's current collection and disposal policies. On 16 January 2023 the National Librarian responded with her own letter, which we have published … Continue reading Open letter to the National Librarian re book retention and disposal process

Ask Vladimir Putin. The current destruction of Ukraine’s electricity grid by Russian missiles is literally a war crime, as it will badly damage the lives of millions of Ukrainian civilians, and lead to many deaths. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s video message on Holodomor Memorial Day 2022 drew comparisons with the millions of deaths from starvation … Continue reading Why destroy a library?

Providing sound advice to the nation’s library Three years ago the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Tracy Martin, made a decision which since then has been causing nothing but trouble for the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), the National Library (NL) and – much more importantly – for the researchers, writers, scholars and citizens of … Continue reading Open Letter to the National Librarian of New Zealand

If it did, then it would have put the minutes of its meetings for the past ten years on its webpage. Check it out now – Library-Information-Advisory-Commission – and see if you can find any minutes at all, or any annual reports after 2012.  Is this acceptable for a government-established and supported organisation which is … Continue reading This is the information that the Library and Information Advisory Commission doesn’t want you to have.

Just how competent is management at New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs? Christine Dann has been digging, and has some answers: When Book Guardians Aotearoa (BGA) started questioning the National Library of New Zealand’s (NLNZ)  plan to completely dispose of over 600,000 books (which make up most of the oddly-named Overseas Published Collections/OPC) we were … Continue reading Smooth operators? DIA incompetence exposed

It’s a topical question. I found out the answer in the National Library. Christine Dann digs into the records... The peoples of the islands first named Te Wai Pounamu and Te Ika a Maui became connected with the states currently known as Ukraine and Russia as soon as the first Europeans began arriving to settle … Continue reading How long have Ukraine and New Zealand been connected?

Dr Christine Dann on why the disruption of Wellington means New Zealand needs the knowledge in books rather than the ‘information’ on screens more than ever. Book Guardians Aotearoa has expressed its concern and support to the staff of the National Library who have been effectively locked out of their work place for the past … Continue reading What is good for New Zealand?

Part 1 of The unbearable costs to Aotearoa’s culture and heritage of leaving the National Library and Archives in the Department of Internal Affairs This morning, on Waitangi Day 2022, the Waitangi National Trust Board Chairman, Pita Tipene, said to the RNZ interviewer: “It is strange, also, that certainly in my memory I have never … Continue reading A tohu of the times?

On November 29 the National Library (NL) announced in a media release that it was “reconsidering its plans for the Overseas Published Collections in light of concerns raised by interested parties, including issues associated with copyright.” It said it would not export any of the Overseas Published Collections until it had considered its next steps. … Continue reading National Library ‘reconsiders’ Internet Archive deal – what next?