Music collecting plan

Purpose

The purpose of the General Music Collection is to support New Zealand's libraries in meeting demand for resources to support performance and the general study of music in New Zealand. The purpose of this collecting plan is to describe the extent and scope of collecting to be undertaken and any subject priorities for the Music Collections of the National Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library during the period 2021 to 2023. The Plan includes print 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.

National Library of New Zealand's Collections Policy.

The purpose of the Alexander Turnbull Library is to acquire, preserve and provide access to documentary heritage material of various formats in order to support research. Turnbull Library collections will be preserved in perpetuity. Music-related material in the Alexander Turnbull Library collections can be accessed at the National Library building in Wellington and in some cases online.

The purpose of the General Music Collection is to support New Zealand's libraries in meeting demand for resources to support performance and the general study of music in New Zealand. Music in the National Library’s General Lending and General Serials Collection (National Library’s General Collections) is available for use both onsite at the Library’s Wellington premises and through New Zealand and overseas libraries via inter-library loan. The National Library also provides a hire service for performance sets of choral and orchestral works.

Scope of the collection

The collections covered by this plan comprise the Archive of New Zealand Music, music publications in the Alexander Turnbull Library’s New Zealand and Pacific Collection, and in the National Library’s General Collections and the National Library’s Choral and Orchestral Hire Score Collection.

The Archive of New Zealand Music

The Archive of New Zealand Music (ANZM) is New Zealand’s most extensive archive of unpublished material relating to New Zealand music and musicians. It was established in 1974 by the Alexander Turnbull Library with the objective of building a comprehensive national collection of material relating to New Zealand music, composers, musicians, and musical organisations, capable of sustaining advanced research in New Zealand music studies.

The ANZM contains original music scores and unpublished recordings, manuscripts and correspondence, master tape recordings, organisational and company records, photographs and ephemera, and oral histories. Audio-visual media range from acetate discs through to open-reel tapes and born digital files.

All music styles and genres are represented, including classical, popular, Māori, opera, rock, jazz, folk, Pacific Island, country, world, theatre music, electroacoustic and sonic arts. In keeping with the aim of building a national collection, emphasis is placed on appraising and acquiring original, unique and authentic primary materials of national significance. In addition, material is collected from individuals and organisations who may not be nationally well known, but whose collections record evidence of significant national musical developments and experiences.

Included are unique collections of material created by New Zealand musicians, composers and songwriters, record labels and other musical organisations and companies. Other important collections relate to music education, criticism, patronage, librarianship, radio broadcasting, publishing, and musicology.

These collections may contain material of a single format or multiple formats with shared provenance, in which case collections are acquired in consultation with other relevant curatorial sections.

Items from other parts of the world may be collected when they have been brought into the country by immigrants and provide context for immigrant music cultures in New Zealand, or if they document the musical activities of New Zealanders overseas.

Music in the Alexander Turnbull Library’s New Zealand and Pacific Collection

The New Zealand and Pacific (NZ&P) collection contains the most comprehensive set of New Zealand music publications held by a public repository. As at February 2019, it includes over 36,000 sound recordings (including over 7,500 born digital items), and nearly 8,000 scores and sheet music items.

New music items are added to the NZ&P collection through New Zealand legal deposit and, where they are not in scope for legal deposit, through purchase and donation.

The NZ&P collection includes music recordings and scores published in New Zealand, together with overseas publications that relate to New Zealand musicians or composers, or which have other relevance to New Zealand.

It also includes numerous print publications about New Zealand and Pacific music, both monographs and serials, and websites relating to New Zealand and Pacific music.

Music in the National Library’s General Collections

This collection contains over 100,000 sound recordings and 55,000 scores. In addition to its collection of New Zealand music and works about New Zealand music it has a wide range of printed works, including music encyclopaedias and other reference material, serials, biographies, books on musical styles, techniques, musicianship and music teaching resources.

The National Library’s Choral and Orchestral Hire Score Collection

This is a collection of multiple copies of the standard repertoire for choirs and orchestras. It currently comprises more than 5000 orchestral sets, over 3000 choral sets, and nearly 600 band sets. The orchestral works of Douglas Lilburn form an important part of the collection.

Exclusions

The following are not collected as part of the Archive of New Zealand Music:

• Records of government departments and other official records covered by the Public Records Act 2005, such as those of music-related agencies and organisations.

• Collections from a community, or on a regional theme which have particular relevance to their local area, where there is a suitable local collecting repository.

• Duplicated items already held by the Alexander Turnbull Library and the National Library of New Zealand, unless items are particularly rare or form an integral part of a collection.

• Material in scope for Legal Deposit.

• Items in poor condition or which pose a risk to the collections, unless these are very rare, are integral to a larger collection or include important provenance evidence or content, and where any risk can be managed, based on the Curator’s discretion.

Collection strengths

The Archive of New Zealand Music comprises an extensive collection of unpublished material (including paper, audio-visual, and born-digital) relating to New Zealand music and musicians. Highlights include:

• Music scores, recordings and papers of New Zealand composers, such as the collections of Douglas Lilburn, Jenny McLeod, Gillian Whitehead, Jack Body, and John Psathas.

• Records of music organisations such as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music New Zealand and Composers' Association of New Zealand.

• Master recordings of music companies, such as Flying Nun Records, Viking Records and the Ode Record Company

• Popular artists’ papers, unpublished recordings, and photographs, including those of Johnny Cooper and Dinah Lee.

• Collections of notable New Zealand classical performers such as Oscar Natzke, Warwick Braithwaite and Donald Munro.

• Recordings, scores, and papers relating to Māori music, composers, musicians, and organisations, including those of Ngāti Poneke Young Māori Club, Margaret Orbell and Richard Nunns.

• The Dennis Huggard Jazz Archive.

• Research papers of New Zealand musicologists and music scholars, including John Mansfield Thomson, Peter Downes, and Allan Thomas.

• Papers of individuals who have notably influenced New Zealand music, such as Fred Turnovsky and Frederick Page.

• Oral histories of musicians which include Sir Donald McIntyre, Sister Mary Leo, Wayne Mason, Gillian Whitehead, and Chris Knox.

• Nearly 14,000 unpublished New Zealand music recordings across all genres.

The New Zealand and Pacific Collections contain a comprehensive array of New Zealand music publications, with many scarce items. Highlights include:

• Colonial New Zealand sheet music, such as The New Zealand maid’s lament (ca.1848) and The Waikato waltz (1864).

• Nineteenth-century songsters, including by Charles Thatcher.

• First New Zealand edition score of God defend New Zealand (1879).

• Early 78rpm disc recordings of New Zealand compositions and performers, including Rosina Buckman, Ernest McKinlay, Gil Dech, Ana Hato, Rotorua Maori Choir and The Tahiwis.

• Scores from Price Milburn, Waiteata Music Press, Artaria Editions, Promethean, and SOUNZ.

• Recordings from Kiwi, Viking, Ode, Propeller, Flying Nun and other independent record labels.

• Born digital music files covering a wide range of genres, including many independently produced, ephemeral releases, some of which are no longer available online.

• Over 1800 archived New Zealand music websites, including relating to record labels, music organisations, bands, singers, musicians, and composers, many of which are no longer online.

The National Library’s General Collections contain an extensive collection of sound recordings covering a wide range of Western classical and popular music, and an extensive collection of performance and study scores, including many complete works sets.

Choral and Orchestral Hire Score Collection includes Lilburn’s orchestral performance scores.

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 Music collections.

Principle 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

Staff working closely with the ANZM take an active role in the New Zealand music studies community. This active role enables the Library to be informed about research trends and to identify what music-related material of today could be preserved for the researchers of tomorrow.

Priority areas will be targeted from time to time to address gaps in the ANZM collection and the documentary heritage of New Zealand music, so that future researcher needs are more likely to be addressed by the ANZM collections.

The Alexander Turnbull Library welcomes and encourages dialogue with any part of the research community regarding the collection of New Zealand music-related material that supports an existing or identified future research need.

The National Library welcomes and encourages dialogue with New Zealand librarians regarding the music component of the Library’s General Collection.

Principle 2

Active engagement with Māori helps build collections of documentary heritage and tāonga created by Māori and relating to Māori, for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

Action

The Alexander Turnbull Library is committed to ensuring that music-related material created by Māori is collected, preserved and made available to the highest possible standard, in ways that are acceptable to Māori, and are carried out in consultation with appropriate iwi and pan-iwi representatives.

Principle 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 tāonga collections for all New Zealanders.

Actions

The Alexander Turnbull Library always considers the most appropriate repository for a collection prior to acquisition, which can often be another institution within New Zealand or further abroad. Unpublished material with provenance in the Pacific Islands is not collected in competition with any recognized collecting institution of the Pacific Islands.

The Library will continue to seek to fill gaps in the ANZM and New Zealand and Pacific Published Collections, and will work with institutions which are reviewing their collections in these areas.

The Alexander Turnbull Library will continue to investigate ANZM collecting of music production processes, especially in the area of digital music production.

The Library will seek to work with music distribution platforms both in New Zealand and overseas to acquire sound recordings of New Zealand music.

Principle 6

The Library takes into account the cost of acquiring, storing, managing and making accessible collection items when building its collections.

Action

With the exception of acquiring access copies for physical format NZ&P audio-visual material, the Library will not usually accept items which duplicate those already held in its collections but will advise donors about other possible repositories for such items.

Principle 7

The Library’s General Collections will increasingly focus on published resources relating to New Zealand and the Pacific, with only selected areas of collecting outside this.

Action

The Library will selectively collect general works in music studies, and works about musical styles, traditions, people, and areas of musicological study that have crossover significance for New Zealand and the Pacific.

Principle 8

For content in the Library’s General Collections other than New Zealand and the Pacific focus area, the Library will facilitate access for users in preference to acquiring and owning such content.

Action

The Library will review current print journal subscriptions with a view to moving these to online subscriptions.

The Library will investigate options to deliver purchased digital resources directly to users.

Collecting priorities

With its focus on collecting New Zealand and Pacific materials, the National Library will prioritise its areas of music collecting and will be selective within these priorities. The list below gives the areas the Library has chosen to collect in and indicated the extent to which it will collect.

The Archive of New Zealand Music collecting priorities

The ANZM is built to sustain advanced research in New Zealand music studies and international comparative work, and to preserve heritage taonga in-perpetuity for all New Zealanders. The Library prioritizes certain collecting areas in order to focus limited resources and build on existing collection strengths, to fill gaps in the collection, and to respond to the changing needs of researchers now and in the future.

Collecting priorities are grouped into two categories:

Proactive priorities: Proactive priorities are recognised emerging research trends; areas where there is a known gap in the Library’s collection or national documentation. The Library will proactively collect in these areas to in order to fill gaps to meet researcher need and balance the ANZM collection.

Ongoing priorities: Ongoing priorities are areas in which the Library welcomes offers that complement existing collection strengths.

Proactive priorities — The Archive of New Zealand Music

During the 2021-2023 collecting period the Library will actively focus on acquiring ANZM collections in the following areas:

• Studio master recordings

• Collections relating to digital music production

• Supporting the ability for current and future donors to create, manage and donate born digital collections

Ongoing priorities — The Archive of New Zealand Music

• Scores, recordings, and papers of composers and concert performers

• All styles and genres of popular music

• Māori music (including with te reo Māori), composers, musicians, and organisations

• Pacific Island music, composers, musicians and organisations

• The archives of music organisations

• Unpublished sound recordings of New Zealand music and by New Zealand musicians

• Papers of New Zealand music scholars, critics, and writers

• Records of music publishers, retailers, studios, record labels, and other companies

• Music of migrant individuals and groups resident in New Zealand

• Music education and librarianship

Alexander Turnbull Library New Zealand and Pacific Collection collecting priorities

One copy of all publications, both physical and electronic format, which are in scope for New Zealand legal deposit. Formats included are written publications (printed books, serials, scores, both printed and electronic) and audio-visual recordings, both online and offline.

Musical works and performances by New Zealanders which are published overseas and overseas publications about New Zealand music.

Collecting priorities for the selection of material for purchase or donation (where out of scope for legal deposit) are grouped into two categories: proactive priorities and ongoing priorities, as defined above.

With physical format NZ&P audio-visual material, the Library collects up to two access copies in addition to the heritage preservation copy.

Proactive priorities — Alexander Turnbull Library New Zealand and Pacific Collection

During the 2021-2023 collecting period the Library will actively focus on acquiring music publications in the following areas:

• Vinyl and shellac disc releases currently not held by the Library.

• Recordings of Pasifika music and musicians.

• Limited edition releases and examples of new publishing techniques.

• Born-digital classical music recordings, especially where there is no physical equivalent.

• Digital releases that are available for only a short time.

• Digital music from publishers and distribution platforms that the Library has an existing relationship and or rights agreement with.

• Working with musicians and publishers to archive streaming-only digital releases.

Ongoing priorities — Alexander Turnbull Library New Zealand and Pacific Collection

• Expatriate New Zealand musicians and composers who still have an association to New Zealand or if New Zealand is used as a source of inspiration and/or is reflected in their works.

• Musicians, bands or composers that are recognised overseas but not well-known in New Zealand.

• Different format versions (e.g., digital, vinyl, CD) of releases, especially where there are significant differences in content and packaging.

• Re-mastered or digitised works released on overseas labels or publishing platforms.

• Overseas compilations that feature New Zealand musicians, especially if the tracks are not available elsewhere.

• Music produced in New Zealand but published on foreign platforms and labels.

National Library General Collections collecting priorities

One copy of all physical format publications which are in scope for New Zealand legal deposit. Formats included are written publications (printed books, serials, scores) and offline audio-visual recordings.

The Library will continue to develop its collection of Pacific music and works about music in the Pacific.

Alongside the focus on collecting New Zealand and Pacific materials, the Library will selectively collect to support demand for the general study of music in New Zealand.

The Library will maintain its current subscriptions to collected editions.

The Library will continue to support performance primarily through the choral and orchestral score hire collection (see below).

National Library Choral and Orchestral Hire Score Collection collecting priorities

• Replacing damaged or incomplete high-use scores

• Filling gaps in the standard repertoire, with new titles only being added where there is known demand or reasonable expectation of use

• New scholarly editions of the standard repertoire

• Band music only added in response to requests

Supporting documentation

This collecting plan is supporting by further documentation that outlines some of the criteria and objectives for assessing and documenting music collecting decisions.

Contact

Michael Brown, Curator Music, Alexander Turnbull Library
Email — michael.brown@dia.govt.nz

Sholto Duncan, Web Archivist, Alexander Turnbull Library
Email — sholto.duncan@dia.govt.nz

Christopher Anderson, Coordinator, Music Access (Choral and Orchestral Music Hire Service)
Email — christopher.anderson@dia.govt.nz

Dale Cousens, Team Leader, Collection Development (Acquisitions), National Library of New Zealand
Email — dale.cousens@dia.govt.nz

Download the Music collecting plan

Music collecting plan (pdf, 270KB)

Last updated 2022