Collecting plan – New Zealand and Pacific Published Collections: 2016-2018
Purpose of this plan
The purpose of this collecting plan is to describe the extent of collecting to be undertaken and any subject priorities for the Library’s New Zealand and Pacific collections during the period 2016 to 2018. The plan includes physical and electronic (both online and off-line) publications.
This collecting plan was developed in accordance with the collecting principles outlined in the National Library of New Zealand’s Collections Policy.
The purpose of the Alexander Turnbull Library’s New Zealand and Pacific collections is to preserve and provide access to current and historical printed and digital material, to support research in New Zealand and Pacific studies and access to information essential for participation in the cultural and economic life of New Zealand.
The National Library’s New Zealand and Pacific collection is available for use both onsite at the Library’s Wellington premises and throughNew Zealand and overseas libraries via inter-library loan.
Scope of the collection
The collections covered by this plan comprise publications in the New Zealand and Pacific collections of the National Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library (together termed ‘the Library’).
Legal deposit collecting
The Library builds its New Zealand published collections chiefly through legal deposit, and is New Zealand’s only legal deposit library. Formats collected include written publications (books, newspapers, serials, scores and maps, both printed and electronic), audio-visual recordings (both online and offline), and websites. The Library receives 2 copies of all physical format publications unless fewer than 100 copies are published or the price of a copy exceeds $1000 or, in the case of a periodical publication, the annual subscription exceeds $3000. If any of these situations applies the Library only receives 1 copy.
The Library retrieves electronic publications from websites and may also receive such publications directly from publishers. The electronic publications collected include those from commercial publishers based in New Zealand, publishing by businesses and non-Governmental organizations, self-publishing by New Zealand-based individuals, and New Zealand central and local Government publications. The Library stores a single copy of each electronic publication in its National Digital Heritage Archive.
The Library collects websites and undertakes regular whole-of-domain harvests. Whole-of-domain harvests of the publicly available NZ Web took place in 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2015. These datasets are not currently easily available to the public for a range of technological, logistical and policy reasons, but they are available to search on request.
Non-legal deposit collection
The Alexander Turnbull Library also collects publications relating to New Zealand and the Pacific which are outside the scope of New Zealand legal deposit. Formats collected include written publications (books, newspapers, serials, scores and maps, both printed and electronic) and audio-visual recordings, both online and offline.
Exclusions and related collecting plans
The following are not collected:
- Variants of similar publications, e.g. booklets about health issues and procedures issued by District Health Boards
- Catalogues and trade advertising
- In-house material such as training manuals, teaching or course notes and minutes of meetings
- Local variants of national association publications and newsletters, unless there significant variation between them
- Offprints such as excerpts from publications, separately printed
- Media releases
- Reprinted or reissued publications with no alternations to text or illustrations
- Printed theses
- Versions other than initial and final drafts of annual plans and reports
- We do not generally collect formed collections or personal libraries.
Also excluded from this plan are New Zealand and Pacific collecting areas with their own collecting plans.
Collection strengths
- Works about New Zealand and Pacific history, politics, culture and the arts
- Māori and Pacific language material
- Literature by New Zealand authors
- The exploration and discovery of the Pacific and Antarctica
- Wellington regional published resources (as a representative collection of this type of resource)
- NZ websites dating back to 1999
Collecting principles
The National Library of New Zealand collection policy provides a suite of principles that guide all collecting across the published and unpublished collections by the National Library and Alexander Turnbull Library.
The relevant principles from the collection development policy are provided below, with an explanation of how they will be realised for the New Zealand and Pacific collections.
Principle no 1
Developing breadth and depth in the Library’s research collections requires decisions to be informed by, and responsive to, current and emerging research trends as well as the anticipated needs of future generations of New Zealanders.
Actions
The Library encourages a dialogue with any member of the research community regarding the collection of publications and websites which support an existing or identified future research need.
Principle no 2
Active engagement with iwi, hapū and whānau helps build collections of documentary heritage and tāonga created by Māori and relating to Māori, for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
Actions
The Library will continue to comprehensively collect print and electronic publications created by Māori, about Māori and in te reo Māori.
The ongoing active selection and collecting of websites created by Māori, about Māori and in te reo Māori remains a priority.
Principle no 3
The Library has an important leadership role in collaborating and coordinating collection related activities across institutional and national boundaries to enable New Zealanders to connect to information important to their lives and to support strong documentary heritage and taonga collections for all New Zealanders.
Actions
The Library will continue to seek to fill gaps in its New Zealand and Pacific collections and will work with institutions which are reviewing their collections in these areas.
The Alexander Turnbull Library will work with other New Zealand collecting institutions to ensure there is a co-ordinated approach to the acquisition of and access to older heritage material.
The Library recognises that it has the only capacity and capability to collect and preserve websites. Therefore we are open to discussions with other collecting institutions in New Zealand about collecting websites that may support the documentation of a person, community, organisation or subject they are collecting.
Some international institutions are better placed to collect, preserve, and provide access to certain types of web content than the National Library of New Zealand. In these situations we will look to explore options for providing access to New Zealand content in other collections.
The National Library of New Zealand utilises the services of the Internet Archive to support biannual collection of the whole-of-domain harvests, and will explore using their services to collect publically available social media during this period.
Principle no 4
Where publications in scope for legal deposit are produced in both print and digital format, the Library will move to give preference to collecting born-digital formats. Exceptions may be made in cases where the print version has some special value or where restrictions to the digital version limit New Zealanders’ ability to access these works.
Action
The Library will consult with stakeholders on a proposal to review the requirements regarding the collecting of both print and electronic government publications in scope for legal deposit.
Principle no 5
Resources digitised by New Zealand Libraries and other institutions and made available to the public on the Internet may be collected by the Library. The Library will work with institutions on a case by case basis to enable this.
Action
The Library will work with other institutions to develop a strategy which will ensure that New Zealand digitized heritage resources and resources in New Zealand research repositories are preserved and accessible to future generations.
Principle no 6
The Library takes into account the cost of acquiring, storing, managing and making accessible collection items when building its collections.
Actions
Exceptions will continue to be made to the collecting of physical format publications (see above under Exclusions).
The Library will consult with stakeholders on a proposal to review the requirements regarding the collecting of both print and electronic government publications in scope for legal deposit.
Collecting priorities 2016 – 2018
Physical format publications
With the exceptions given above in the ‘Exclusions’ section, the Library will generally continue to collect comprehensively physical format New Zealand and Pacific publications so that a copy can be preserved in perpetuity.
Electronic publications
The sheer volume of online content in scope for legal deposit makes it impossible for the Library to be comprehensive in its collecting of such material, but it does aim to build a significant collection which is representative of New Zealand’s published documentary heritage.
Websites
Not all websites can be collected. Therefore the Library chooses to prioritise websites to collect around certain subjects or themes. Some of the subjects are chosen because they align with and support existing collection priorities in the unpublished collection areas, and others are selected to deliberately document communities on the web and events that are not often documented in New Zealand collections.
Priorities for websites may change from time to time during the 2015-2018 period. The current priorities include, but are not limited to, the list provided below.
The Alexander Turnbull Library New Zealand and Pacific Collection
Ongoing priorities
Legal Deposit
One copy of all publications, both physical and electronic format, which are in scope for New Zealand legal deposit. Formats included are written publications (books, newspapers, serials, scores and maps, both printed and electronic) and audio-visual recordings, both online and offline.
Overseas publications
Where material does not come in scope for New Zealand legal deposit, we comprehensively collect works published overseas which meet the following criteria:
- The work has been created by a New Zealand or Pacific or Antarctic citizen or resident, and/or;
- Has significant New Zealand, Pacific or Antarctic content in the subject areas of history, society, voyages and discovery, politics, culture and the arts, and;
- Was published in or after 1800 with a print run or five or more copies, and intended for sale or public distribution.
Māori
There is comprehensive collecting of overseas publications created by Māori, about Māori or in te reo Māori.
Literature
There is comprehensive collecting of literature by New Zealand authors based overseas and literature set in New Zealand. There is comprehensive collecting of critical analysis of New Zealand authors and New Zealand literature.
Foreign editions are collected for selected New Zealand authors.
Antarctica
There is comprehensive collecting of published monographs relating to discovery and exploration (in particular expeditions involving New Zealand and New Zealanders), natural history and environmental issues and literature.
Pacific Islands
There is comprehensive collecting of published resources from and about American and Western Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Niue, Pitcairn Island, Tokelau and Tonga. Works relating to other island nations may be considered. Priorities for selection relate to historical relationships and current links, and Pacific Island communities in New Zealand.
New Zealand's diverse ethnic communities
Collecting which reflects New Zealand's diverse ethnic communities.
Collection gaps
The Library will seek to acquire single copies of publications, in both physical and electronic formats, not currently held in the Turnbull’s New Zealand and Pacific Collection. We welcome donations of any material that is within the scope of the current collection policy.
Emerging priorities
- Zines will be collected representatively, where practically possible.
- Published datasets.
- Scientific publications not in scope for legal deposit will be considered selectively. Their status as a collecting area is being reviewed.
Websites
Read our information on nomination of websites for collection
Priorities
- Music, including musician sites and music festivals
- Sports, including individual and organisational blogs and events
- Climate change
- Arts, including digital/new media art, graphic arts, literature, including, documentary photography
- Politics (especially blogs), from the range of political perspectives
- NZ History
- Auckland Transport
- Computing/ICT and the Web
- Government departments
- Māori sites, including Iwi sites, Treaty of Waitangi settlement process, and websites that substantially use Te Reo
- Rebuild of Christchurch and Canterbury
- Social concerns, including poverty, living wage, crime, globalisation
- Parenting experiences
- The New Zealand gaming community, but not the games themselves
- A whole of domain harvest for 2016 and 2017
- Selected publically available social media from online identity channels such as Twitter and Facebook
The National Library New Zealand and Pacific Collection
Ongoing priorities
One copy of all physical format publications which are in scope for New Zealand legal deposit. Formats included are written publications (printed books, newspapers, serials, scores and maps) and offline audio-visual recordings.
Copies in addition to those supplied under legal deposit will be purchased as needed, for example for reference-only in the Library’s Reading Rooms and for the National Children’s Collection.
Download the NZ and Pacific published collections collecting plan
NZ and Pacific published collections collecting plan (pdf, 173KB)