Posts by paynter
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Speaker: This is your National Library, in reply to Lisa Black,
I love Papers Past!
Who doesn't? We're always finding amazing stuff in there (or noticing other people finding amazing stuff). We even had our own meme: Lobsterotica.
I'm not a historian, librarian, or media type, but I've been staring at these pages for years now. The recurring themes that I think are the most interesting and unexpected include the gruesome descriptions of violence (and not just against penguins), the prominence of local and classified advertising (it was front-page material), the high quality of the world news, and the advertisements for what we consider hard drugs.
The best stories we hear are from users who learn something about a family member or ancestor. No matter how terrible the story -- theft, adultery, suicide, murder -- it turns an distant and historical figure into a real person who they can relate to.
Also, people tend to think of their ancestors as old people, as old as they are when they die. But you're more likely to get into the Court News when you're young.
Gordon
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Speaker: This is your National Library, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Hi Ian:
I've commented on this in a more general sense here.
I'm not sure I have much to add. The changes I referred to are still underway, and as public servants we now have to make sure the new organisational structures work for the National Library and the wider DIA.
Gordon
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the kind of exclusive access that comes with Nat Library endorsement
A career in libraries may not be as glamorous as you imagine.
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Speaker: This is your National Library, in reply to Sacha,
Thanks, Gordon. I'd be interested in hearing more about the logic behind restricting access to digital taonga rather than encouraging it. What cultural base is the policy drawing on?
Ooh that's a tough one. There's a whole body of research about why cultural instituions might choose to restrict access to collection items.
First, it depends what you mean by access. I'm going to assume you mean online access, and refer specifically restrictions on reproduction and re-use.
My feeling from the discussions thus far are that we the National Library have a couple of key concerns. One is our donors. All collecting organisations take donor obligations and expectations extraordinary seriously, so as to enhance the reputation of the organisation and encourage future donations. (Nobody wants this.) A second is that we're obliged by the Act to treat documents "in a manner consistent with their status as documentary heritage and taonga", which can be interpreted to mean that they ought not to be made available in such a way that they can be treated disrespectfully, particularly if they're pictures of living people, ancestors, or symbols. That's potentially a real showstopper for online access to many items. A third is that the ownership of the Turnbull collections is complex. (I don't understand it fully, but the Crown owns them and ATL manages them on the Crown's behalf, and there are limits to what we can do to the Crown's property. Also, the implications for management accounting are mindbending.) And then there's all the other issues noted above, which make us want to increase or restrict access.
I'd also, as an enrolled Kai Tahu, be extremely interested in knowing who the gate keepers are...
All our decisions are guided by the Access policy, but (as noted above) it needs a refresh. The Access policy is a fundamental document for the Library, and will have to be signed off all the way to the top, so I would say that ultimate responsibility will lie with Bill.
There's probably a whole other post in this topic, but I'm wary of speculating too much further while our thinking is still being formed.
Gordon
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Speaker: This is your National Library, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Something I’m not entirely comfortable with at the moment re. the Nat Library – is it perhaps just a touch Wellington-centric?
Absolutely! However, I did not expect that opening to lead to:
It would have been great to have a rather more humanised record, with some involvement from local photographers. Instead the Library appears to be producing the kind of record that perhaps should have been CERA’s responsibility.
which I tend to agree with, but know nothing about. I do note that CERA does seem to be involved.
Islander:
we both know CHCH photographers with literally decades of experience in & around the city – so, Gordon - just how did this photographer get selected? And just who drew up the access parameters?
Sorry, I have no idea. I don't know how this project came about (I saw those pictures at home before I heard that the National Library was involved).
I do know that since the first quake the Library has been intensively collecting Christchurch-related material in many formats, as well as providing advice and assistance where that is helpful and the photographs are likely to be related to that project.
I could speculate that it was an opportunistic thing, in the sense that this particular photographer was contactable and available right away, whereas photographers in Christchurch may have been difficult to engage right after the quakes, and may had other priorities. But I stress that's speculation.
Gordon
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Speaker: This is your National Library, in reply to Simon Lyall,
A project I’m working on right now is to get photographs of all New Zealand MPs (past and present) on their wikipedia pages. This involves getting “CC-By” or better pictures of each.
Hi Simon:
I'm not sure how much we'll be able to help you with recent material. There will of course be a lot of images in the ATL Photographic Archive, though most are donations that come with conditions. I speculate that in most cases we'd still be looking at CC-BY-NC or even -ND (though I might be wrong). I do know there is at least one effort underway to identify completely open material, but it's usually not something we can do automatically.
On approach would be to try asking: we offer online service where you can Ask a Librarian for help with a general research question.
I assume you know that photos published before 1944 are out of copyright so you should have no problem before that date. DigitalNZ explains.
I wonder if ArchivesNZ might be a better source of material for you? A lot of past politicians will have lodged their papers with ArchivesNZ. They may well have similar concerns about re-use to the National Library. On the other hand, they do have a very different approach to collecting and access to us, so you may be surprised.
Gordon
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Hard News: Introducing: The New Zealand…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Actually Gordon, do you think you or someone else could do us a guest blog explaining some of those acronyms – and, more particularly, what’s available digitally and how to get at it? I think there’d be a lot of interest in that.
It might be fun, though I think that if you're "the media" then I'm supposed to get somebody's permission. I'll flick you an email.
And if you think we have too many acronyms now, just wait until we start to talk like we work at Internal Affairs.
Gordon
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Hard News: Introducing: The New Zealand…, in reply to Sacha,
preventing disasters like last time’s damage to the nation’s founding document
Is there any evidence this actually happened?
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Hard News: Introducing: The New Zealand…, in reply to Russell Brown,
Perhaps better to think of it as certain relationships rather than skills. People don’t trust others with their taonga only because of skills.
That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to say.
It cuts both ways though. Publishers simply wont trust us with their stuff unless they believe we'll do the right thing around copyright and other IP rights.
Which is one reason that collecting instituions like NatLib are historically risk averse when it comes to allowing uses above and beyond what the donor/publisher has explicitly permitted. (Which is a particular problem when most donor agreements predate the internet.)
Which I think we all find frustrating.
Gordon
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Hard News: Introducing: The New Zealand…, in reply to Russell Brown,
David actually raised the issue by suggesting that Simon’s idea might be “a further waste of resources” when the Turnbull already had its own music archive. It really seems evident to me than an independent archive, within in a structure that facilitates best practice, will do things the Turnbull couldn’t. And more the point, isn’t.
Yep, and the final word is the kicker: isn't.
I could never get a price for digitising a work for republication, and not for want of trying. I had no problem with the idea that it had to be done properly, but I couldn’t find a way of doing it at all.
Yes, we are struggling with and working through these issues within ATL and NatLib. We hope to update our access policies to cover (verbatim) reproduction and reuse soon (in line with NZGOAL). And in this sense published works are relatively simple (unless they're orphaned). It's the donated (and particularly unpublished) material that has the real fishhooks.
Gordon