Memory of the World / Nga Mahara o Te Ao

The UNESCO New Zealand Memory of the World Committee / Te Komiti o Aotearoa mo Nga Mahara o te Ao is now asking for nominations for Aotearoa/New Zealand documentary heritage to be inscribed on the UNESCO Aotearoa/New Zealand Memory of the World Register.  Information including the nomination form is at unescomow.org.nz .

The nominations to the New Zealand register close on Tuesday 15 November 2011.

New inscriptions to the register will be decided by Monday 28 November and an announcement made on the successful inscriptions.

A successful nomination will raise the profile of your institution and the work that you do to preserve documentary heritage.

 What is Memory of the World?

UNESCO launched the Memory of the World programme in 1992 to guard against collective loss of awareness of documentary heritage. Memory of the World aims to recognise significant documentary heritage in a similar fashion to the way UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention and World Heritage List recognises significant natural and cultural sites.

Countries may develop their own national registers. The most significant items can also be nominated for inscription on the international or regional Memory of the World Registers.

 What is happening in New Zealand?

The New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO supports the Aotearoa/New Zealand Memory of the World Committee / Te Komiti o Aotearoa mo Nga Mahara o te Ao to coordinate nominations for the register of New Zealand documentary heritage. The first inscriptions to the Aotearoa/New Zealand register were announced on 30 June 2011.

Two collections of documentary heritage were inscribed on the New Zealand register in June 2011. The nomination forms for these collections are on the website www.unescomow.org.nz and provide an exemplar for submissions.

What can be nominated?

To be selected for registration on the New Zealand Memory of the World Register the documentary heritage should:

•  be unique and irreplaceable (in that it has demonstrable historic, aesthetic or cultural significance to a community or the nation)
• be a primary or significant source that documents an historical or cultural event that has had a lasting impact and influenced the course of New Zealand history
• be an outstanding example of a document or an  experience

Documentary heritage can be digital or analogue. Examples include but are not limited to textual items such as documents, manuscripts, books, newspapers, posters and non-textual items such as photographs, films, discs, drawings, prints, maps; online media items, social media databases, mobile digital devices etc

Enquiries

For enquiries or more information, please visit unescomow.org.nz , or contact us at enquiries@unescomow.org.nz. If you would like to receive further information about the New Zealand Memory of the World Register, please email enquiries@unescomow.org.nz.with a request to subscribe.

Jill Durney
Macmillan Brown Library Manager
University of Canterbury – Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha

 

First look at the Methodist Archives since 22 February 2011

Jo Smith, Archivist, Methodist Church of New Zealand Archives updates us on the state of the collection :

After 7 months of worrying about how the Archives Collection had fared, on 5 October, clad in safety helmet and high-vis vest, I finally gained access to the Methodist Archives Collection Store in our building at 25 Latimer Square.  At last I could see for myself what state the collection was in.

 To cut a long story short, it looks like the Methodist Archives will be closed for the foreseeable future. We have been told by our engineer that 25 Latimer Square is sound and safe, but the building needs repair.

 I could see immediately that the bank of mobile shelving which contains the collection was badly damaged and will need to be replaced.  Shelves have collapsed from their fittings within the rows.  We do not have lockable units, so each row moved round with the shaking, and one has jumped off the tracks.

 The building is still within the CBD Red Zone cordon, (plus no electricity or water is connected to the building), so we are still waiting for this restriction to change before any real progress can be made.  Once this happens we will be able to more easily access our building and with electric light, be able to assess the situation better.  Let’s hope that when the Red Zone cordon is reduced at Christmas, that will include us.

 Because we can’t safely move the mobile shelving, I could not tell how much damage has occurred to the majority of the archives; but I picked up all the boxes of the floor in the aisle which were in a waist high heap – there was some crushing of contents due to boxes falling on top of boxes. 

 No signs of water damage and the collection is securely locked up within the building.  I am reasonably optimistic that the majority of the Archives Collection is undamaged, and if this is the case, it will because of the massive effort the volunteer team has put into boxing the collection over the last 5 years.

 One worrying sight was silverfish scuttling away in the torchlight, so pest control will also be on the agenda.

In the meantime, the Archives volunteer team is continuing with our work at our temporary premises at 1 Maydell Street, on a variety of research, indexing and typing projects which do not require the collection. 

 Contact Jo Smith, email archives@methodist.org.nz

 

Kaiapoi Heritage Weekend

The historic Canterbury town of Kaiapoi was an important trading centre in the 1850s and 60s when the Kaiapoi River, running through the centre of town and a tributary of the Waimakariri River, provided a means to service the needs of the pioneering settlers. The area was also an important trading post for the principal Maori tribe of the South Island, Ngai Tahu, who in earlier times had its largest settlement in Kaiapoi.

To celebrate the rich heritage of this river town, Kaiapoi Heritage Week provides a feast of events for visitors (Christchurch is just 20 minutes’ drive from Kaiapoi) as well as the local community.

Join in the fun and add to the atmosphere by being dressed in period costume. Be a gentleman of distinction, a lady of wealth or a simple colonial settler!

Kaiapoi Promotions Association and Real NZ presents Kaiapoi Heritage Weekend

FRIDAY 14TH OCTOBER

From River to Sea, 7pm

Riverview Function Centre, Working Men’s Club, 113 Raven Quay

Kaiapoi Museum

Gold coin donation

Dale Brown will give an informative talk and PowerPoint presentation on a period when the Kaiapoi Port was the main highway into the North Canterbury hinterland.

SATURDAY 15TH OCTOBER

Antique Roadshow, 9am – 4pm

Kaiapoi Borough School, 20 Hilton Street

Kaiapoi & District Lions Club

$2 per item, spectators free, qualified valuer.

Trash and Treasure Sale, 9am – 4pm

Kaiapoi Borough School, 20 Hilton Street

Kaiapoi & District Lions Club

Discover tomorrow’s heritage today. Sausage sizzles, chocolate wheel, raffles and more.

Farmers Market, 9am – 12pm

Morgan Williams Reserve, Charles Street

Come and gather locally grown or produced food in a relaxed and welcoming environment. Don’t miss out on traditionally made European breads and pastries and Oma’s famous capsicum sauce.

Parish Spring Fair, 9.30am–12.30pm

St Bartholomew’s, Cass Street

St Bartholomew’s Parish of Kaiapoi

Fair includes white elephant, jewellery, cakes and sweets, craft, plants, books plus lots more.

Trace Your Ancestors, 10am – 1pm

Riverview Lounge, Kaiapoi Working Mens Club, 113 Raven Quay

Waimakariri Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists

Find out more about your family’s early history. Club members will show you how to trace your ancestors.

National Scout Museum, 12pm – 3pm

Blue Skies, 12 Williams Street

Gold coin donation

Kaiapoi had the first registered Scout Patrol in NZ. Come and learn about the Kaiapoi identities involved and how the NZ Scout Movement was organised from the school at Tuahiwi and of the local sites that have a special place in Scouting history.

MV Tuhoe Presentation, 1.30pm

Riverview Lounge, Kaiapoi Working Men’s Club, 113 Raven Quay

Gold coin donation

Listen as John Thompson tells you the fascinating history of this iconic schooner which still sails on the Kaiapoi river today.

MV Tuhoe Open Day, 2pm – 4pm

Kaiapoi Wharf, off Charles Street

Gold coin donation

Take a look aboard this wonderful Kaiapoi vessel.

SUNDAY 16^TH OCTOBER

National Scout Museum, 1pm – 4pm

Blue Skies, 12 Williams Street

Gold coin donation

MV Tuhoe Open Day, 2pm – 4pm

Kaiapoi Wharf, off Charles Street

Gold coin donation

Sunday Bandstand Concert, 1pm – 3.30pm

Kaiapoi Band Rotunda, Charles Street

Bring a picnic and a deck chair and enjoy entertainment from McAlpines North Canterbury Pipe Band and Kaiapoi Brass Band, with a special appearance from His Majesty King Arthur III of New Albion.

Heritage Service, 5pm 

St Bartholomew’s, Cass Street

St Bartholomew’s is one of the most significant heritage buildings in Canterbury built in 1856, the oldest surviving church in Canterbury. Enjoy an old-fashioned Book of Common Prayer Evensong, with hymns to match.

Fuller Street Grandstand, 8pm – 10.30pm

Kaiapoi Baptist, 67 Fuller Street

Community rugby – bring the whole family and watch the second semi final live on the big screen. Alcohol free.

 

Update: Radio New Zealand Sound Archives

We have successfully recovered New Zealand’s largest, oldest and most treasured archival sound collection. On Thursday morning, the 23rd of July, we unloaded the last load of crates containing fragile items from the archive. Despite the severity of the ongoing quakes, there appears to be little physical damage to the collection.

The archive recovery operation is part of a larger Radio New Zealand plan called the Christchurch Earthquake – Business Continuity Recovery Plan. Many people in Wellington have been involved behind the scenes to help reinstate our normal operations and cover New Zealand’s biggest news story in recent times.

As well as recovering the archive we retrieved other Radio New Zealand Christchurch equipment and personal items. Our new Cashel Street archive is stacked with grey security crates and pallets of boxes. Most of our equipment is stored nearby in the lock-up space. We have air-conditioning installed in the new space and are keeping a close watch on temperature and humidity as well as other potential hazards.

During the February post quake lock-down, there was a risk of water entering the archive and a potential mould outbreak. Despite the obvious building damage and loss of flashing on the west wall, there were no leaks. This autumn and winter have been exceptionally dry and mild and we were lucky there were no wet southerlies.

So we had sufficient time to plan the recovery, though there were many variables to juggle and we were never completely sure when we would be allowed in. The recovery plan is also a long term storage solution. We are using polypropylene security crates and have ordered industrial strength shelving for the new archive. Needless to say, earthquake bracing and restraint are being incorporated into the new space.

The risk assessment for the health and safety plan was an interesting exercise. Though not particularly scientific, the greatest risk factors that could not be eliminated, minimized or isolated were “emotional stress” and more earthquakes. This was reassuring because despite the damage, the building itself was safe and stress is something we talk about regularly these days in Christchurch. The most stressful part was waiting to get in. Once we were there we soon settled into a fairly brisk, but not hurried routine.

As for more earthquakes, yet again the old leviathan would have the last word. On Monday the 13th of June at 1.01 pm, from across the road, I watched the front of the building flex and ripple, as Tony, Robyn and Nathan ran from the barbecue under the drive-through. Nick Guy and Matthew O’Sullivan were in the archive and Doug and I met them on their way out, a little shaken but O.K. At this point we decided not to re-enter the building. After hearing the quake was centred near Taylor’s Mistake, I headed home to Heathcote Valley to clean up the inevitable mess, before the inevitable post quake traffic-jam. I had just mopped up the last of the milk and broken glass when I held the bench and watched everything not screwed to the walls fall down again: phew! – another big one.

The June the 13th quake meant we were locked out for another week until our engineer cleared the building. There was little, if any, more external damage, though inside we noted more broken windows, cracks in gib and lifting carpet tiles. Good thing we weren’t working on the last disc row, as two of the units toppled, spilling a thousand or more “acetates” on the floor. The final phase took another two and a half days.

Among the recovery crew were ex-RNZ operator, Phil Swallow, who took time out from building work to pitch in. National Library archivist, Nick Guy, brought a cool systematic approach. Timaru’s Museum’s Tony Rippen brought his steel capped boots curator’s packing finesse and Matthew O’Sullivan of the Air force Museum brought his rather large pro-format camera and a highly energetic approach to dealing with collapsed shelving.

Jump movers turned out to be a great little family firm who really took our special archival concerns on board as well as cooking a tasty lunch-time burger. The team work was superb with everyone pitching in and things happened a lot quicker than we expected.

Marie O’Connell and me have a very large sorting job ahead and we are looking forward to this opportunity to create more archival order out of the quake chaos. Its also an opportunity to significantly improve the storage and accessibility of the collection.

I wish to thank all those involved in the project. Big thanks to: Karen Neill (team support and permissions), Trudi Jarvis (safety watch), Marie O’Connell (safety watch), Robyn Crocker (Jump – safety watch) Nathan Crocker (Jump), Tony Crocker (Jump), Doug Dee (Jump), Paul Allerby (Jump) Darian Keane (Jump), Terry Klenner (Jump), Nick Calvert (engineer), Lynn Campbell (Christchurch City Art Gallery – Disaster Recovery Network) and Ian Johnson (driver). Extra special thanks to Wayne Jarvis (technical taonga) who put in many long hours and days away from home.

John Kelcher
Sound Archivist
Radio New Zealand Christchurch

 

Meeting notice

Hi all, a reminder about a Cantage meeting to talk about collections, access and storage issues, following the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.  This Friday, hosted by CCC Archives.

 

Christchurch City Council Archives re-opening

The Christchurch City Council archives have been closed since the September earthquake in the Canterbury region but will be re-opening on Tuesday 15 February 2011. 

The Christchurch City Council Archives are housed at Recall, 12 Braeburn Drive, Hornby. This is a temporary location whilst Recall build a new facility which will be completed at the end of 2011 and includes a specifically built archival vault.  Access to the archives is by appointment only on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, 9.30am-1pm.  Please send any requests for information or queries to archives@ccc.govt.nz or contact direct by calling (03) 941 8614.

There was no damage to the archives at all as the result of the earthquakes and aftershocks. I am looking forward to seeing our regular customers again, and once again getting familiar with the collection.

Eva Sullivan
Archivist
Christchurch City Council

 

Methodist Archives to close for storage development in February

 The Methodist Church of New Zealand Archives national repository in Christchurch will be closed from Wednesday 2 February 2011 for a long-awaited storage development. We apologise for the late advisement of the date of closure; this is another side-effect of the Christchurch earthquake.

We hope to re-open the Archives, along with our expanded storage area, on 7 June 2011. Any change to this date will be advised as soon as possible on the Methodist Church website.

During the period the Archives are closed, there will be limited facility to answer written enquiries. This is because the present storage is going to be sealed off to prevent dust and damage to the collection (we are sealing round the door). Our Reading Room is also being used for storage, while the areas being fitted out with new shelving are built, so researchers are not able to visit.

The Archives volunteer team and I will be working on the typing backlog, which will mean we can put more information about our holdings on the Methodist Church website.

During our closure, access to Methodist Church publications, newspapers, photographs and information can be found in the following repositories:

• Auckland Methodist Archives
  409 Great South Road, Penrose, Auckland.
  Phone 09 525 4179
  Email: Auckland.archives@methodist.org.nz
  Open Tuesdays 10-3
• National Library
• Hocken Collections
• John Kinder Library
  College of St John the Evangelist
  202 St John’s Road Remuera, Auckland
  Phone 09 528 3950

Jo Smith
Archivist
Methodist Church of New Zealand 

 

Kaiapoi Museum – update

Kaiapoi Museum was demolished after the earthquake and will be closed until further notice.  All items are in storage, but any enquires can be made to kaiapoimuseum@kaiapoi.co.nz  or PO Box 341, Kaiapoi 7644 and we will endeavour to answer them.

Jean Turvey
Secretary
Kaiapoi District Historical Society

 

Methodist Archive – 2010

The volunteer team and I have been working hard over the past few years to document the collection here, and get lists up on the Methodist Church website under our Archives tab on the site.

This year, a list of all baptism registers held here was posted, and we have just included a descriptive list of Taranaki and Wanganui parish and church records held (we will be posting details for other areas of NZ as they are completed). We hope this will give researchers a greater understanding of the records available here.

Looking ahead to next year, we hope that now we have received the building consent for our storage extension, that this will now happen after 5 years of waiting! However the 4 September earthquake has caused difficulties in us getting a builder.

We will advise of closure dates as soon as we know – the present storage area is going to be sealed to prevent dust etc, and the Reading Room will be used to store furniture, shelving and boxes of the collection which don’t have homes, so we will be completely closed when the storage development happens, rather than running a reduced service.

When this happens, the volunteer team are going to divert their activities to tackling the enormous pile of handwritten indexes, lists etc so we will be able to include even more information on the website once it is transferred to electronic form.

On the topic of our volunteer team, on 14 December we farewell Esther Trim, who at the age of 90, is retiring after 21 years of volunteering. One of the main projects she has worked on recently, documenting and boxing the parish records held in the Archives, involved her filling over 800 boxes of archives.

Jo Smith
Archivist
Methodist Church of New Zealand Archives

 

Christmas closures

The Methodist Church of NZ Archives at 25 Latimer Square, Christchurch, will be closed from Tuesday 14 December 2010, re-opening Tuesday 11 January 2011.  The archivist will be away over this period, so no written enquiries will be answered either.
Our usual opening hours are Tuesday mornings 9-12.30, other times by prior arrangement.

Akaroa Museum is closed on Christmas Day.
Otherwise, open every day for researchers (genealogy and others) from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm.

The Documentary Research Centre at Canterbury Museum will be closed from Christmas day and will re-open on 5 January 2011.
The rest of the Museum will be open every day except Christmas Day, including The Heart of the Great Alone, our special touring exhibition in the Robert McDougall Gallery.

The Macmillan Brown Library will be closed from 23 December to 4 January inclusive.  Reopening 5 January.

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Southern Regional Office will close 1pm Friday 24th December and reopen 9am Wednesday 5th January.

Christchurch City Council archives will hopefully be open in the New Year.  The date at this stage is 18 January 2011 but this could change.

The Anglican Archives will close on Wednesday 22 December at noon.
We  will be open on Wednesday 26th January, but not on Wednesday 2 February, and then back again for the year on Wednesday 9th February. Written enquiries will be attended to.

Christ’s College Archives will close on Tuesday 21 December at 4.30pm and reopen again on Tuesday 21 January.  It will not be open on  February  3rd and 8th, but from February 10th we will be back again for the year.
Written enquiries will continued to be attended to.

Air Force Museum of New Zealand – Reading Room. The Research facilities at Wigram will be closed from Christmas Day and re-open on the 5th January.
The Museum will be closed on Christmas Day only. Admission is free!

Sumner Redcliffs Historical Society The Sumner Museum has re-opened and we are open 1.45 p.m. to 3.45 p.m. on Saturdays except over Christmas and New Year.

Archives New Zealand (Christchurch Regional Office) will close at midday on Christmas Eve and resume normal hours on the 5th January.