Takedown or request a review process
We collect and provide access to heritage material. Find out about our process for considering requests to remove material from public access. Requests can be made for digital or physical material.
Purpose
The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa has a legal mandate to collect and make New Zealand’s documentary heritage available to the public. We recognise that despite our best efforts there may be occasions when material made available is considered to breach copyright or other relevant law or is culturally sensitive.
This Position Statement documents our procedures and principles for considering requests that material should not be publicly available. It includes the process for making a:
request that digital content provided by the National Library be taken down, de-referenced, or its access restricted or
request a review of physical format material in the collections.
Background
Under the National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) Act 2003 the National Library has a legal mandate to collect, preserve, protect and make accessible New Zealand’s documentary heritage and taonga. To fulfil its purpose, the National Library (including the Alexander Turnbull Library) makes its collections available to the public. The collections include the general, research and schools collections (1) of the National Library, and all the collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library. The collections include physical, born-digital, and digitised content.
The National Library acts in good faith providing access to content and is committed to making every reasonable effort to ensure that it has appropriate rights to the content that is part of its collections and provides lawful access to it.
There may, however, be occasions when material is made available that is considered to breach copyright, privacy, defamation, other relevant legislation, or contain material that is considered objectionable or harmful under New Zealand law. Our commitment is to provide access to the Library’s collections while at the same time respecting intellectual property, privacy and other rights, and agreements with donors and suppliers.
Scope
This Position Statement applies to digital content and physical format material made available by the National Library of New Zealand.
It may be beyond our control to ensure full or permanent takedown of digital content on platforms other than those managed by the National Library of New Zealand.
The permanent removal and disposal of content from the Library’s collections will be managed under the Library’s Removal and Disposal Policy (currently under development) and associated processes.
Definitions
Access: The ability to find and retrieve content in the National Library’s collections.
Access restrictions: For digital content, this includes material being taken down for a fixed period, or access to it is limited to the Katherine Mansfield Reading Room onsite at the National Library’s Wellington premises. Digital content in the Katherine Mansfield Reading Room can only be viewed on computers from which you cannot print, email or download.
For physical format material, this includes items being temporarily removed from public access or the application of restrictions requiring permission to view.
De-referenced: digital content that is blocked from appearing in search results.
Digital content: Means born-digital and digitised content in the collections of the National Library of New Zealand and the Alexander Turnbull Library. It also includes the Library’s online metadata records for all collection items and the provision of links to content on non-National Library sites.
Physical format material: Includes published and unpublished material in the National Library’s collections.
Guiding principles
Below are the six guiding principles of this Position Statement.
Kaipupuritanga and Kaitiakitanga
The Library is a holder, kaipupuri, of documentary heritage and taonga which have been collected through purchase, donation or deposit. In line with the Waitangi Tribunal’s 2010 Wai 262 report, the Library acknowledges that “Māori are the kaitiaki of their own mātauranga”, the mātauranga knowledge holders and creators. (2)
Te Pae Tawhiti - the Wai 262 work programme identified areas of relevance:
Enabling katiaki to exercise their kaitiakitanga – where possible and appropriate, the Library will seek collaborative relationships with kaitiaki connected to taonga which is the subject of a takedown request.
Protection of mātauranga Māori – the Library will give careful consideration of cultural and ethical issues relating to material.
In addition, each takedown request will be considered in relation to the principles mentioned in Te Mauri o te Mātauranga (3), which are applicable to both digital and physical format materials:
Kaitiakitanga | Guardianship
Te mahi tahitanga | Relationships
Te whakaatu i ngā kōrero mō te kaituhi | Attribution
Te whakapakari i ngā kaimahi | Cultural development
Balancing rights
Each request will be considered on a case-by-case basis, weighing the legal obligations of the Library and the right to access information, including documentary heritage, and balancing these with the grounds given in the request.
Good faith
The Library is committed to resolving all requests swiftly and amicably. The Library will make its best efforts to provide temporary and permanent solutions in accordance with its technical capabilities.
Collection integrity
The assessment of each request will consider the material individually and as part of a collection.
Access
Any material restricted for more than 10 years will have a date for the restriction to be reviewed.
The takedown, restriction, or removal of any content will be aligned with the Library’s Access Policy.
Access provided by the Library will follow New Zealand law, and in particular the Copyright Act 1994.
Transparency
The Library may change metadata for personal or legal reasons.
When it is possible the National Library will openly acknowledge the takedown, removal, or the permanent or temporary restriction on access with a statement that is available to the public in association with the affected content.
Reasons for request
Your request should clearly highlight the grounds for your request and, if applicable, your legal interests in the material. Among possible reasons are that the material or making the material available is:
a copyright infringement
defamatory under New Zealand law
unlawful under New Zealand legislation, for example, it is objectionable as defined in the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993
personal information and making it available breaches the Privacy Act 2020
has been found to cause harm under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015
has been subject to a Court Order directing that the material be taken down or removed
breaches an agreement entered or accepted by the National Library
culturally sensitive and making it available is not appropriate or requires consultation.
Process
After we receive a request, we will follow this process.
We will contact you about your request within three working days. If we are contacting you via post this may take a little longer.
We will do an initial assessment of your request.
In most situations, if we can, we will immediately stop access to the material until we make a final decision. However, the material in the Schools Collection will usually stay accessible until a decision is made.
We will consider your request and if necessary, will contact you to ask for additional information or clarification.
Within 20 working days, the Library will contact you either with a decision or a progress update. Where a final decision has not been reached and access to the material has been suspended this will continue.
Once a decision is reached, we will notify you.
Outcomes
The National Library is committed to resolving all requests swiftly and amicably, and the following are some of the possible outcomes:
access to the material is restored
access to the material on the Library’s websites is restored but with changes
access to the material is restricted to the Library’s onsite Reading Room
access to the material is suspended until an agreed date in the future
access to the material is suspended, with this to be reviewed at an agreed future date
the material is de-referenced
the metadata is modified
material is permanently removed from the collections.
Note: the removal and disposal of content from the Library’s collections will be managed under the Library’s Removal and Disposal Policy, under development at the time of confirming this position statement. However, a takedown request can lead to the triggering of that process.
Make a request
Complete our Takedown or request a review form if you would like to make a request that we take down, de-reference or restrict access to digital content provided the National Library or request a review of physical format content in the collections
Takedown or request a review form
Download the position statement
This is the web version of the Takedown or request a review: Position statement and process.
You can also download the PDF version Takedown or request a review: Position statement and process (pdf, 350 KB)
Footnotes
The Schools Collection is a curated collection to support literacy and learning in New Zealand schools and the development of young New Zealanders as engaged readers. The criteria for this collection are listed in the Schools Collection collecting plan. In making content available the National Library will respect the obligations made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and that may be made under Te Pae Tawhiti — the Wai 262 work programme.
Waitangi Tribunal. Ko Aotearoa Tēnei, 188
Te Mauri o te Mātauranga: Purihia, Tiakina! Principles for the care and preservation of Māori materials — National Library of New Zealand
