Exciting withdrawals: Reviewing restrictions in the Turnbull’s manuscript collection

Speakers

Joan McCracken and Jared Davidson

Mihi and acknowledgements

Joan McCracken: Kia ora kouotu. Welcome to our Connecting to Connections Online from the Alexander Turnbull Library. Ko Joan McCracken ahau, I'm with the Alexander Turnbull Library's Outreach Services team, and I'm delighted you've joined us today to learn more about our project to review Chief Librarian permission requirements for the Turnbull's manuscript collections.

To open our talk today, we have whakataukai, a verse from the National Library's waiata, Kōkiri, kōkiri, kōkiri, by our Waikato Tainui colleague, Bella Terawhiti.

Haere mai e te iwi. Kia piri tāua. Kia kite atu ai. Ngā kupu whakairi e.

I am now delighted to introduce Jared Davidson, Research Librarian Manuscripts in the Turnbull Library's Research Enquiries team. We're really looking forward to your presentation, Jared.

Introduction

Jared Davidson: Thanks, Joan. Kia ora koutou everyone. Thanks for attending this talk this afternoon. I'm going to start with a quick introduction to the discussion today. So the title of my talk is 'Exciting withdrawals — reviewing restrictions in the Turnbull's manuscript collection'.

And the talk is going to be in two parts. The first is a behind-the-scenes insight into the project. And the second part will be a bit more like a PechaKucha, images of the collections and some of the stories behind those collections as well. So 20 slides for those.

So the manuscript collection at the Alexander Turnbull Library is a little bit like my talk in terms of parts, we have about 13 kilometers of shelving in terms of linear meterage of manuscript material. And they range from the playful, scrapbook-type material, such as this one from the Journal of Thomas Hensman, right through to the quite historic and serious, such as this telegram from the fall of Singapore during the Second World War. And I'll talk a bit more about Cecil Franks and this particular telegram a bit later on.

What is a Chief Librarian Restriction?

So jumping right into the talk and the topic of today. What is a chief librarian restriction? In short, a chief librarian restriction is an access condition that has been placed on a collection series or item by a donor or the Library. They are essentially a way to manage privacy, sensitive material and/or the wishes of the donor when the material was donated to the Turnbull Library.

Researchers can access this material. And I do want to emphasize that just because there might be a restriction on something, it doesn't mean that you can't see it. There's just a bit more of a step to get access to that. So researchers, in this case, need to submit a written request to the Chief Librarian. And these are answered, generally, within three to five working days if not sooner.

So the Alexander Turnbull Library has used these types of restrictions for about 50 years. They often came about during negotiations with a donor. And they, as I said, are used to manage access to sensitive material. And they were often placed on material by the Library as well if there wasn't a deed of gift or it wasn't quite clear what the intention of the donor was.

Today, we only really apply these restrictions in a limited case by case examples. So we encourage donors these days to decide on the most appropriate access condition and for them to be the access point for researchers for restricted material. We also set release dates now, so that researchers have a really clear idea when a restriction will end and that material will be easier to access. But as you'll see, as I go on, that wasn't always the case.

However, it's entirely appropriate that Chief Librarian restrictions are placed on some material, whether for privacy reasons, for legal, or ethical reasons, or to respect the wishes of the donor. A restriction ensures that both researchers and the Library are really clear about how to access sensitive or private material and how that material can be shared in their research.

However, as you'll see as we go on, a lot of collections have a Chief Librarian restriction for no apparent reason or perhaps the terms of the deed that were signed in the 1970s have since lapsed and they are no longer valid, such as limiting access to bona fide researchers, which from the Library's point of view, every researcher is a legitimate bona fide researcher. Some collections have no release dates. And some collections have no deeds at all.

So in 2019, the Library began to develop a framework to address some of the manuscript collections with a Chief Librarian restriction. This became the Chief Librarian restriction review. And it had a number of aims. So the main one being to reduce the amount of unnecessary access restrictions on the manuscript collections.

To reduce the amount of staff time used to clear and manage these restrictions. To ensure that restrictions that were in place and that stay in place are appropriate and are timely. And also, we wanted to increase the accuracy of the information, the metadata on our unpublished catalogue Tiaki.

So the project had three main phases and it's ongoing. And the phase one was scoping and discovery. And I joined the Library and the project around phase two. And that initial work was done by Audrey Stratford, Rata Holtslag, and others in the Library who found that there were 243 manuscript collections with a Chief Librarian restriction.

Now that could either be the entire collection. It might just be a series, or a part of the collection, or even right down to a single folder. So part of the phasing and the scoping was to figure out how to address these collections. And we created a framework, and some guidelines, and criteria to help us do this work. And so what I'm touching on today is a very distilled version of a much lengthier documentation.

You can see the timeline here. A lot of material was gathered in the 1970s or donated. In 2019, the project was scoped and then kicked off properly in 2020. And then I joined in 2021. And we're now in phase three, which is essentially me doing the actual implementation of the work.

So part of the frameworks that were developed were guidelines and things to consider when we're reviewing restricted collections. So these include the original intent of the donor, what are the terms of the deed of gift. We want to honor those terms. Is there sensitive or personal information about a living person that could cause harm if shared? Now, that's quite an important point in terms of privacy.

A lot of past collections were restricted and simply said something like, if there are living writers in this collection, you need their permission. So it was just a blanket restriction if that person was alive. Now, under the Privacy Act, it's more about, is that information sensitive? So if I'm writing to a friend, and I'm talking about how great my holiday was, and the weather was lovely, that's not going to cause harm if someone accesses that. So it's less about the person being alive and more about the nature of the content.

Another really important aspect is what amount of Matauranga Māori included in these collections or items. Are there any other cultural ethical considerations? For example, we have material that was left at the Kilbirnie Mosque after the March terrorist shootings in Christchurch. Are there considerations, therefore, we need to consider around that material? And obviously any other legal requirements. So we actually hold quite a lot of public politician's papers. So the Public Records Act becomes something we need to think about as well.

We've also developed some really clear criteria about how to decide when to remove a restriction completely. And so these are some of those criteria. The age and nature of the material, such as material that is more than 100 years old or material that would not cause serious harm to a living person if shared. Is the material published or already in the public domain? Was the material restricted to so-called bona fide researchers or similar clauses?

Is there a deed with a Chief Librarian condition on it but no real justification? So it's not telling us why that collection was restricted. Is there an example where the donor has died and the executor or there's no delegated authority to speak with? We can't find them. And there's nothing else there preventing us from lifting that restriction. Have the terms of the deed or the review date lapsed? And in terms of those public records I was talking about, are they more than 25 years old? Are there no cabinet restrictions on that material?

So as a result of all this hard work, we have a really clear workflow now that we can follow within the Library about how to remove these restrictions or if we're not removing them, to set an appropriate restriction with a release date and an end conclusion to that access condition.

Implementing the review guidelines

So as the Research Librarian, Manuscripts, I'm now applying these guidelines in my day-to-day work. And sometimes I feel like this chap going through the collections and trying to figure out from documentation what exactly is going on. And my work in phase three, I guess, of the project involves drawing on the excellent work of Audrey, and Rata, and others.

Looking into background documentation, what we call the back files, going through old deeds, old correspondence. As you'd probably guess, being a library we've archived most correspondence with donors, that's really useful. I'm often looking at physical material, emailing out-of-the-blue donors to get their perspective and understand if they're happy with the Library doing this work.

Working with curators across the various collections and the unsung heroes of the Arrangement and Description team who do the hard work of updating the catalogue Tiaki as we review the material as well. And obviously, at the end point of this, I make a recommendation to the Chief Librarian, who then makes it certain about releasing the collection. Now, all of these steps are documented. And so the process — we have a clear record keeping of the entire process and how we landed on the end result for the collections.

Now, I wrote a blog for the National Library six months ago about the review and where we got to at that stage. And in that blog, I wrote that this kind of work isn't exactly glamorous. It's quite time-consuming. And it's not riveting. It doesn't make for riveting reading. But having the right tools to do our job makes it so much easier for us at the Library. And it also benefits our donors and our researchers both now and in the future.

The guidelines help us balance the need to uphold the original intent of the donors while removing unnecessary barriers to access. It also means that where appropriate, we can remove unnecessary restrictions, which is I think the exciting and fulfilling part of this work.

Now, this week's pretty much exactly one year since we started the phase three of the restriction review, so once it was signed off and implemented. And these are just some very rough statistics. It's very hard to get exact figures because folders are across boxes and things like that. But today, we've reviewed 68 collections encompassing around 372 boxes of material, 4,610 folders, and 1,790 volumes.

Now, obviously, I can't look at all of those physically. So sometimes it's using the metadata of the collection, and the dates, and scoping a collection in that way. But often, I am going downstairs into the basement and looking at material such as this one by Percy Hodgkins, who I'll talk about a little bit later. So it does sometimes feel like I'm going into the underworld of the collections.

PechaKucha — examples of reviewed collections

So this is a PechaKucha-style part of the presentation now. So I'm going to be talking about some of the collections that we have reviewed and pull out some of the stories about those. So behind the statistics I just showed lie some very human stories in the collections.

Cecil Franks — Second World War

Cecil Franks pictured here served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force 488 Squadron during the Second World War. A month before he departed to Singapore in September 1941, he married Eunice Francis Hudson. Soon he was writing detailed letters back to his new wife, peppered with lots of 'don't worry' and other reassurances that he was keeping out of trouble, but trouble soon found him.

Amongst the official telegrams to Eunice announcing her husband's evacuation from Singapore when it fell to the Japanese in February 1942, some really interesting letters in accounts of the day. The fast-moving Japanese advance through coconut trees. The flames lurking in the skyline. And a hasty evacuation aboard the crowded steamship Empire Star.

Quote, "I raced down to Ramsgate Road to throw my belongings together," wrote Cecil. "While there, the area was machine-gunned by low-flying enemy fighters. Time only permitted the packing of essentials. And I had to leave all my uniforms and much other material."

However, Cecil saved three things at all costs, "your letters, the photograph album of the trip, and pop's camera". The salvaged photographic album is now in the Turnbull's collections as well. And it's been digitised. So it's really interesting to look at the photographs and now match up to his letters. So his wife, Eunice, passed in 2013. And after reviewing the collection and the deed of gift, it was decided to remove the Chief Librarian restriction. So this collection and the letters are now open access.

Sir Geoffrey Cox — Expatriate journalist, writer, soldier, civil servant, and television executive

Another insight into the major conflicts of the 20th century is provided by the papers of Sir Geoffrey Cox, an expatriate journalist, writer, soldier, civil servant, and television executive who died in 2008. The collection of 184 folders and 9 volumes cover the decades from 1920s to the 1980s with some newer material of the 2000s as well.

And amongst them are an extensive collection of diaries, drafts, correspondence, and other papers relating to Cox's work as a prominent British journalist, and author diplomat, and intelligence officer with the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, as well as papers on his own work with various independent British television stations.

Pictured here, on the right, are his field notes to a visit in Russia in 1932. And I just love the reporter's notebook. It flips up as you'd expect. And on the left, his notes from the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940. So he was on the ground reporting on these momentous events in Europe both to Britain and the wider world.

Rhoda McWhannell — Waikato farming life and running a eucalyptus nursery

A less-known figure, but still a very exciting collection, the letters and diaries of Rhoda McWhannell. So this collection of 91 diaries and journals written between 1938 and 1986 document the Waikato farming life of Rhoda McWhannell in rich detail, including events like the Second World War that Sir Cox reported on. She also writes about becoming a widow, international travel, and uniquely running a eucalyptus nursery.

Rhoda recorded her sharp observations of people and place in these journals, which are also complemented by 31 photographic albums. So again, having her insights, day-to-day insights with the photographic album, means this collection is a social historian's dream, a really important collection in terms of studying gender and also very relevant in terms of the new Aotearoa New Zealand histories curriculum. So they're currently being digitised at the moment. And they'll be made available online via Tiaki, our unpublished catalog.

Very Reverend Donald Scott — Diaries about being Presbyterian minister in Onehunga from 1906-1933 and in Khandallah from 1933-1944

Speaking of diaries, the collection of the Very Reverend Donald Scott includes three very full boxes of diaries. They recount his career as a senior Presbyterian minister in Onehunga from 1906 to 1933 and also in Khandallah from 1933 1944. And Scott was also the moderator of the Presbyterian Church from 1933.

Now, there was absolutely no deed for this collection, no correspondence, pretty much nothing there to go on. But based on the age of the material, knowing that the writer, his wife, and the various people he was writing about have long since passed away, it was made — we made the decision to make these diaries open access. So hopefully people will be able to access them a bit more and get some insight into the religious comings and goings and the day-to-day work of Reverend Scott.

John Pascoe — Mountaineer, photographer, writer, editor, historian, and archivist

Here's an even larger collection from a figure with a long association with libraries and archives. So John Pascoe was a mountaineer, photographer, writer, editor, historian, and archivist. And in fact, he was the chief archivist of the National Archives from 1963 to 1972. His photographs at the Turnbull Library are a rich documentary record and so are his papers, which consist of 275 folders and 15 volumes of diaries, correspondence, writings, testimonials, and documents from his varied career.

Shown here is a page from the diary Pascoe kept as he was acting Chief Archivist, which is meta on so many levels. And I have to admit I was pretty excited to go in and look at what a former Chief Archivist was recording about his day-to-day work, having worked at Archives New Zealand. Apparently, he had such a bad cold one night in August 1971 that he wrote, "teeth sneezed out and panicky search at dawn". And you can see that at the top there where he's put cold in red. He goes on to have quite a full day nonetheless.

So the collection, previously, had a restriction around the correspondence of living writers in the collection, but again, the age and nature of the material, meant we were able to remove the collection [restriction] from pretty much all folders but a few.

Colin Scrimgeour — popular Methodist Missioner and radio broadcaster from the 1930s onwards

The age and nature of the material mean we were also able to lift the restriction from most of the papers of Colin Scrimgeour a.k.a. Uncle Scrim, a hugely popular Methodist Missioner and radio broadcaster from the 1930s onwards. The collection of 136 folders and 11 volumes relate to the full range of Uncle Scrim's interests and activities throughout his life.

They cover his work as a Methodist City missioner, his Friendly Road broadcasts, and his career as controller of the National Commercial Broadcasting Service, also his work in China, including correspondence with and material about Rewi Alley and his private interests in aviation, open heart surgery, and current affairs. He died in 1987. And the collection goes right up to that year. So Uncle Scrim's scrapbooks are a particularly interesting set of documents. And they cover the concerns of the common people he spoke about and spoke to, on air.

They include clippings, photographs, and correspondence, such as this letter from Jim Edwards of the depression riots fame in 1932, as well as material about his non-denominational radio church on 1ZR, which repeatedly clashed with the coalition government of the time, who constantly threatened to shut it down. And in fact, they did shut it down by buying out the station in late 1933. You can see from this letter in September that the radio station saw that it was coming and wanted to thank Uncle Scrim for making it the most popular show that ever aired.

Freda Cook — Socialist, internationalist, and peace activist

We also had a rich collection of material donated by the infatigable Freda Cook, a long-time socialist, internationalist, and peace activist who died in 1990 aged 93. According to her biography on the New Zealand — Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, excuse me — Freda was a true rolling stone and virtually no possessions— with virtually no possessions apart from her papers.

These papers, now held by the Turnbull, include 10 boxes of diaries, correspondence in multiple languages, magazines, pamphlets, and photographs relating to her interests in Vietnam and other social causes, including the movement to stop the Springbok tours.

Now, there was a restriction on accessing the diaries and correspondence. But again, with her passing, and the age, and nature of the letters, it meant we could remove the restriction in almost all cases. And this is a lovely shot by Ans Westra who recently passed away, of Freda at a protest in 1971.

New Zealand Christian Pacifist Society — 1965 to 1973

On a similar theme, we hold papers from the New Zealand Christian Pacifist Society, covering the years 1965 to 1973. These include inwards and outwards correspondence, periodicals, newsletters, conference papers, and both local and international anti-war material. The Riverside Community and Lower Moutere is also well represented as are other groups, churches, and leagues across New Zealand and further abroad.

So this collection had an access condition and a restriction around its use, which noted that quote, "The private or personal state of any person that might be shown in the correspondence shall not be published or used against them." And this was because pacifist and anti-war views were relatively unpopular at the time and were considered sensitive at the time of donation. However, the age of the material, a real shift in societal values in thinking about this topic, as well as general privacy guidance, we have available, at the library, means we can now make this entire collection open access.

Arthur Carman — Wellington bookseller writer and pacifist

The papers of Wellington bookseller writer and pacifist Arthur Carman had no deed and no clear restriction for why they were restricted, but like the papers of the New Zealand Christian Pacifist Society, it was probably due to sensitivities around conscientious objection at the time of the donation.

Jailed during the Second World War for his anti-militarist activities, his papers include newsletters, inwards correspondence, and notes written while he was in jail, and also material relating to subversion cases, appeals against military service, pacifism, and conscientious objectors.

You can see in these files, he kept extensive notes on various objectors during the Second World War, their treatment by the State. And this one, which I've enlarged is a record of escapes from the various detention centers and prisons that were set up for these men. So you can see there the name, where they were being held, the date of escape, and when and if they were recaptured. So again, really important research material for anyone researching this material. And I assume David Grant, who wrote the history of this period used them excessively, too.

Bob Adams — Union stalwart

The papers of union stalwart Bob Adams also had no deed. The collection came to the library via the solicitors administering his estate, who acted on his directive that his papers should go to the Turnbull after his death. Full of interesting union material such as ephemera and personal papers, the collection also includes information on the legal disputes within the Seamen's Union of what he was an integral part.

These bitter disputes are also documented in other union papers we've recently reviewed, including the papers of Conrad Bollinger and Fintan Patrick Walsh. Now, both of these collections have been used extensively for publications, which is a reminder that people can still access collections with a Chief Librarian restriction. It just means that there is a process to go through. But now that we've removed the access condition from both of these, there are much easier for researchers to use.

Other Union papers that have been reviewed

Other union papers that were recently reviewed and lifted the restrictions from include the New Zealand Seamen's Union and the Lyttelton Ships Tally Clerks, the Westland Maltsters, Brewers, Bottlers, Bottlewashers, and Aerated Water Employees Industrial Union of Workers, the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, the Denniston Coal Miners Union, the Westland Painters and Decorators Union, and the Greymouth Clerical Workers Union.

And it seems that when a lot of union papers were coming into the library or when the Chief Librarian at the time was going out to seek material, they were just given a Chief Librarian restriction as a matter of course, but there's often no documentation about why.

We've also lifted the restriction from the Millerton State Colliery Medical and Accident Relief Association, which was set up to support injured miners. And it's full of rich information.

Robin Scholes — Trade union movement

And a similar material on the dangers of working life can be found in the papers donated by film producer Robin Scholes in 1973, which includes interviews with unionists Jack Callanan and Bill Richards about their lives and the trade union movement. Tucked among the papers are two volumes of accident reports. This image of volume one shows a range of injuries received by miners in 1922, including jammed feet, crushed fingers, strained backs, and a pick in someone's leg.

Now, the Turnbull's well known for its literary papers. And a collection that we've recently reviewed are the papers of the writer Bill Pearson, author of Coal Flat, which is one of New Zealand's finest realist novels. Except for three series of correspondence which now have a release date, the 11 boxes of papers no longer have access restrictions.

They include Bill's earlier literary works, full drafts of and annotated copies of his novel Coal Flat. Excuse me. And you can see this is page 1 chapter 1, the draft of Coal Flat, Numerous lecture notes, articles and reviews, scrapbooks, and subject files. So the collection dates from around the 1890s, actually, because he's done various research on other topics and include a wide variety of literary and academic interests.

Maggy Sundborn — Katherine Mansfield material

Other literary papers were reviewed include the papers of Michael Kennedy Joseph, Maurice Duggan, Walter D'arcy Cresswell, and the papers of Maggy Sundborn, whose material about Katherine Mansfield is an interesting snapshot into multiple creative projects. So Sundborn had a lifelong interest in Katherine Mansfield.

And following her graduation from the Australian film, television, and radio school in 1987, planned to make a film on Katherine Mansfield's life. The papers include Sunborn's assignment on Mansfield, which includes the proposed film treatment, the film script, interviews recorded with Katherine Middleton Murry, photo essays of Mansfield's European residences.

And she also photographs scenes taken through windows as they were described by Katherine Mansfield in her letters and journals, and also research notes organized under heading such as sex, death, writing, and philosophy. And you can see some of her index cards here. There's also cassette recordings of potential music that Maggy was going to use for the film, but she died in 1990. And it appears she never had a chance to finish the project.

And it was restricted — I think we could find out, possibly, to ensure that maybe her creativity and her project was restricted in case someone came along and used it by having talked to the family now they're very open to making this material more available to researchers. So it is a little treasure trove, especially with Mansfield's centennial of her death this year as well.

Percy Hodgkins — Younger brother of the artist Francis Hodgkins

Now an interesting part of reviewing collections is coming across strange or completely unexpected material. And this was definitely the case with the papers of Percy Hodgkins, who was the younger brother of the artist Francis Hodgkins. Born in Dunedin, by the 1900s, Percy was working in the Prime Minister's Office in Wellington. And some of his papers includes that material.

He served during the South African War. And by the 1920s, he was living in Lower Hutt. And he seemed to have writing retreats along the Kapiti Coast. He died in 1956. And the 1970s restriction was intended to inform the donor of any major use of his material such as a biography of Percy himself.

So Hodgkins sketched, painted, and wrote under the pseudonyms Maui and Atlas. And in the 1940s, he published three books on early New Zealand. And as you can see, the papers contain a series of illustrated stories and essays from the 1930s, both of his own writings and also adaptions of well-known stories such as Alice in Wonderland and a number of Shakespeare productions, including Macbeth.

Most of the illustrations are of maps that take on forms to illustrate the stories, such as this one for Alice in Wonderland. And there's maybe about 14, 15 of these in this format, really quite raw and unpublished with these little watercolors dispersed throughout the papers. I think they're really interesting.

Judge Hugh Ayson — Lawyer and resident commissioner in the Cook Islands

Geography also features and the papers of Judge Hugh Ayson, a lawyer judge of the Native Land Court and High Court in the Cook Islands, and eventually, the resident commissioner, in the Cook Islands. As well as correspondence and papers about his role in the Pacific, there are reports of visits made to the outer islands of the Cook Islands group such as the one pictured here.

His own record in the Pacific, however, was mixed. Possessing great ability and goodwill, Ayson was nevertheless a man of flawed character, notes his DNZB entry. And he often abused the power he held and the Pacific. Instead of reflecting this patchy nature, it appears we only hold photocopies of the original papers.

And looking at the back files and the correspondence, it appears the restriction was meant to stay in place until the donor, who was the art dealer Brian Groshinski art dealer, sorry, Brian Groshinski, had received the originals back from the writer Elsdon Craig, who had borrowed the papers from Brian in 1971 to work on a biography of Walter Gudgeon, another resident commissioner.

So those originals never came to the Library. And I'm not quite sure where they are now. So if anyone does know, it would be good to know where they are. But yeah, at least the Library does have photocopies of those papers. And they are now accessible.

Brandons — New Zealand's third oldest law firm

This detective-like work means I'm often tracking down donors, or their executors, or in the case of companies that have merged or since dissolved, their successor firms. We're currently in conversation with Buddle Findlay, the legal firm, about the historic records of Findlay Hoggard & Richmond & Co.

And another legal firm that has donated its papers to the Turnbull as Brandons, New Zealand's third oldest law firm. Dating from 1840, the 30-plus boxes include early deeds, wills, and estates, and over 350 ledgers and letter books, such as this one from 1844 and 1845, which covers the dealings of prominent Pakeha colonists in Wellington.

As part of the review, it was agreed with the firm that material more than 80 years old would have no access restrictions, making them easier to access. There are some exceptions, however, such as divorce files, which have a 100-year restriction. But yeah, that's going to be a really gem of a collection in terms of historic legal records.

Martin Hampson — Lawyer representing Hoani Te HeuHeu Tukino of Ngati Tuwharetoa before the Privy Council in London

On the legal theme, another family we've corresponded with are the descendants of Martin Hampson, who was the lawyer who in 1940 represented Hoani Te HeuHeu Tukino of Ngati Tuwharetoa before the Privy Council in London. Now, this was a milestone case. And the Privy Council did not recognize the Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi, as a constitutional document. And it affirmed that it could only have force and law if it was incorporated in domestic legislation. And that's continued right to this date.

So the ruling influenced the direction of treaty jurisprudence for years to come. And it's a trademark case for legal studies and legal students. So it's great that the papers, including the Memorial of the Māori people to the Privy Council and Hampson's letters home about the case, about wartime, London, the blitz, things like that, his dealings with lawyers, his notes back to Tuwharetoa, to Te Puia from Waikato Tainui, are now easier to access. And what's really neat about working with the family here is that they're really keen for the entire collection to be digitised and made available for students of this topic. So that's great.

Bookstores and business records — Modern Books, Paul's Book Arcade, Blackwood & Janet Paul Ltd

Unsurprisingly, the Turnbull's manuscript collection has a strong focus on books and publishing. One of the reviewed collections is the papers of the Wellington Co-operative Book Society, which traded as Modern Books, a bookshop located on Manners Street. Covering the years 1938 to 1970, the papers include correspondence with subscribers and suppliers, annual and financial reports, meeting minutes, book drafts outlining the activities of the society, and advertising copy about books for sales, such as this one sent to the Listener in the 1940s.

We've also removed the restriction from a small collection of records relating to Paul's Book Arcade and Blackwood and Janet Paul Limited, a bookstore and publisher based in Hamilton, as well as correspondence in various publications and papers about the bookshop and the booksellers. There's a folder called programs and miscellaneous papers. And whenever you see "miscellaneous papers", there's often gems in there, by the way.

And in this case there includes some lovely printed material, which is, I guess, a reminder that all sorts of different formats, and ephemera, and curios, and objects can be found hidden within a manuscripts folder. Business records like these are well represented in the Turnbull's collections including larger entities, such as the New Zealand Press Association, whose 112 boxes of archives are no longer restricted, thanks to the Chief Librarian restriction review.

Company records — Ellis & Burnand sawmilling and timber retailing company and Dalgety New Zealand and the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency

The archives of sawmilling and timber retailing company, Ellis & Burnand are also unrestricted now. So formed in 1891, the company's minute books and records cover their business activities up to 1965. They include letter books such as these, balance sheets, reports, and annual statements, wages books, timber price lists, and a wealth of related material about their economic activity across the Waikato, Manawatu and the Wanganui regions.

And finally, another set of company records that we've reviewed are those created by Dalgety New Zealand and the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. Over 60 linear meters in size, the archives reflect the involvement of these companies and the agricultural sector across Australia and New Zealand, especially wool. And at one time, the company was the largest wool house in the world.

The papers include correspondence, notebooks, financial records, and reports, and stock records from both the Wellington head office, Wanganui branches, and various South Island agencies. There's also a corresponding set of records in Australia as well. So I was able to see that their records were open access and used that as part of the review to release the restriction on these papers.

So records like this one, which is a stock sales register dating between 1913 and 1917 provide a really important insight into New Zealand's economic activity, land use, and the environment. And I really hope these economic records such as Dalgety and Ellis & Burnand, and other company records are used more often.

In conclusion

So, in conclusion, the work has been a really amazing way for me as a relatively new person to the Turnbull to get to know the manuscript collections. And I'm constantly surprised by the breadth and extent of what we hold here. It's just phenomenal. And although there are still many collections to go in terms of the review, this work really can't be rushed.

Some of the collections are really significant in size and scope. They're quite complex. They have a range of different access conditions, especially the papers of former politicians. And you can imagine more recent research and papers have more correspondence of living writers today, but we'll continue to review these collections.

And I'll do another blog based on this talk to update you of some of the other collections we've reviewed with a bit of a list of the papers we've been going through. And I really hope, based on this talk and the blog posts, that you'll make use of some of the materials as we go on and lift these restrictions. Kia ora koutou.

Questions and answers

Joan McCracken: Ngā mihi nui, Jared. That was absolutely fascinating. And I'm not the only one who found it so because we have already got 10 questions waiting for you. So let's get underway because we do have a little time, which is marvelous. Starting at the top.

When you say volumes, do you mean books?

Joan McCracken: So Imogene Kelly asks, kia ora, Jared. When you say volumes, do you mean books?

Jared Davidson: Yes, yes, sorry. Yes, so essentially bound volumes is the way the Library lists those on the catalogue, yes.

Joan McCracken: So they can be published or unpublished, can't they? That would be true.

Jared Davidson: Exactly right. So that stock register, we call that a volume. That Brandons legal register, ledger from 1844, we'd call that a volume as well.

Can we request that a review of a specific restricted material be expedited?

Joan McCracken: Thank you. From Rosanne Hawarden, can we request that a review of a specific restricted material be expedited? If yes, what is the process? Or can we be given a date that a specific batch of material will be reviewed and released to researchers?

Jared Davidson: Sure. No, you're welcome to. The way it operates at the moment is, essentially, based on the good work of phase one and phase two. We have a list. And I'm working through that list based on the use of it. If it's high-use or based on just what I can get to amongst my day-to-day work. So very happy to be prompted and have collections suggested. I will just point out, I'm only reviewing material with the Chief Librarian restriction.

So if there's manuscript material with a donor restriction, that's not part of this review, but we can always look at things like that. So the process I would encourage people to use is just to use the Ask a Librarian form on the website, and just note 'restriction review' or something like that, and that would come through to me that way. But yes, happy to be guided by that.

Why were restrictions placed on some of these items in the first place?

Joan McCracken: Thank you Nina Finigan at Auckland Museum asks why restrictions were placed on some of these items in the first place. She sent us this message about the time you were talking about the World War I and II diaries. And was it the personal nature or the war related nature of them?

Jared Davidson: Yeah. So it can be a case by case basis, but my understanding was that the Franks family, while Eunice was alive, wanted to know who was accessing this material because there was husband and wife talking to each other. So with their passing and talking to the family, it was decided that those restriction was no longer needed.

But yeah, it really is a case-by-case basis. Sometimes, as I've said, it was just, send the material to us and we'll make sure the right people see it. Other times, there is no deed. Other times, the donor really did want to know who was accessing it or maybe to protect the correspondents they were writing to. So yeah, it's a real mix.

Is national security a factor you consider as part of your assessment of removing restrictions?

Joan McCracken: Thank you. Charlotte McGillen asks, is national security a factor do you consider as part of your assessment of removing restrictions? This may not be covered by the 25-year rule under the Public Records Act. I.e. there could be good reasons to restrict material longer than the state, especially in the intelligence foreign affairs areas.

Jared Davidson: Yeah, for sure. And that's some of those complexities I mentioned in terms of papers of former prime ministers, or people, foreign diplomats, people who've worked for external affairs. Now in fact — so yes, it's definitely a consideration. And we work quite closely with colleagues at Archives New Zealand around some of those complexities of what is sensitive and what should be considered when we review the collection.

But there's also a bigger discussion about whether those papers should actually be at the Turnbull or not. So that's partly why I haven't dived into papers like the Mackintosh papers, or Holyoke, or things like that. So yeah, so it's definitely a consideration. So thank you.

Have you examined a collection and chosen not to open it?

Joan McCracken: Someone is interested to know if you've examined a collection and chosen not to open it or if you've presented a decision to the Chief Librarian and they have decided not to open and why.

Jared Davidson: Yeah, we haven't decided not to open a collection yet, but we have had examples where part of a collection remain with the condition but have a release date added. So an example would be there's a big series of correspondence in the Uncle Scrim files from the '80s, late '80s. So they're a bit more recent. And the sheer volume means I couldn't check everyone to see if people are still living.

So in that case, we've put basically a 70-year release date. And they can be lifted as we go along. So no, there hasn't been a collection that we haven't opened up, but in some cases, we've decided that the conditions do need to remain in place for a longer period.

How much of the material where a decision was made to lift a restriction were digitised and made available online?

Joan McCracken: Another one from Sharon Frost. What a fantastic project. How much of the material where a decision was made to lift a restriction were digitised and made available online — where they put online that the allocation of open access mean accessible in the Library only or online worldwide?

Jared Davidson: Yeah, I guess that's a bigger question beyond the scope of this review. And that's more of a work with a donor or just material being digitised and then made available. And so the material I have been reviewing hasn't been digitised so much yet. There might be one or two digitised things within it that might have been set to only access within the Library's premises, based on the restriction.

But having lifted the access conditions, my expectation would be that material would become available to everyone worldwide. But in terms of other collections that have been digitised and then put up on to our catalog and why they've been set the way they have, that's really dependent on each collection and what the wishes of the donor were.

And the content of the material, for example, does that include lots of whakapapa, for instance, that shouldn't necessarily go up beyond access to the library or the iwi. So yeah, that's a much bigger question that is something that curators and the digital archivists at the Turnbull grapple with each time they digitise material.

Rhoda’s diaries

Joan McCracken: And speaking of digitalisation, there's a nice note from Cassi, who's one of our colleagues. I have to go early, but thanks, Jared. I've been helping to digitise Rhoda's diaries, but I didn't realise quite how prolific she was.

Jared Davidson: Yeah, and that's been a really nice story. And that came to us because her descendent is a scholar based in UK who is studying gender and widows and couldn't access the diaries and wondered if we could digitise it. And so at the same time, we discussed with her the access condition.

And she agreed that we could lift the condition and then make the digitised material available to the wider world. So it's a really nice example where this review means we do sometimes work with donors or their descendants. So that's a really nice one win. And yeah, she had some very sharp observations. Yeah, so check those out, very interesting.

How does the project intersect with copyright are new agreements referring to retention or assignment of copyright entered into with donors' descendants?

Joan McCracken: Here's a question, how does the project intersect with copyright are new agreements referring to retention or assignment of copyright entered into with donors' descendants?

Jared Davidson: A lot of the older material has not considered copyright at all. In saying that though, the Pascoe papers, the copyright was gifted or administered to the Library around the photographs. And newer collections, there is a bit more guidance around copyright. But now for a lot of those earlier ones, there's nothing. And so we just have to go on general copyright law and guidance that way. So no, it's not a specific part of the review. I'm mainly looking at access as opposed to use. If that makes sense, but often there are use conditions as we've already seen.

How did you get the time to do this work given that so much time in the job is taken up clearing restrictions?

Joan McCracken: Now, the next two questions, I really love. But one in particular comes from a former colleague, Joce Chalmers — people will remember her who've used the Library's collections. Congratulations Gerard, well done. How did you get the time to do this work given that so much time in the job is taken up clearing restrictions?

Jared Davidson: Yeah. And I want to thank people like yourself who have done this work in the past. I try and do one a week, that's my goal. And some are easier and some are harder than others. And I do have to balance it with other work. But the flipside is by reducing the time needed for me to vet for inquiries.

It frees up to do this work. So spending time on one lessens time on the other, if that makes sense. But yeah, at this rate, it's going to take a few years. But yeah, I'm trying my best. And there's people who are helping me, obviously. And I do want to shout out to the arrangement and description team who do the hard work of updating the catalog.

Has the restriction been cleared on the Alastair Mackintosh collection?

Joan McCracken: And Joce also had a specific question about the Alastair Mackintosh collection. And is the restriction cleared on that as yet?

Jared Davidson: It's not at the current point in time, just because of ongoing discussions with Archives New Zealand, but it's essentially a default yes to researchers with that because the terms of the deed, while confusing, we have worked through them. So yeah, it hasn't been listed, but it's on my list, lifted, but it's on my list.

Is the Library's correspondence with donors permanently restricted or will it become open at some time in the future?

Joan McCracken: Here's an interesting question from Peter Green. Is the Library's correspondence with donors permanently restricted or will it become open at some time in the future?

Jared Davidson: That's a good question. A lot of the historic legacy files are already at Archives New Zealand, from the 1920s onwards. So you can read all that material. It's open access. Some of it does require the permission of the Library. But yeah, legacy archives do become open access.

And the correspondence with donors and stuff that we hold now is part of our evidence and archives of a government agency. So they will become public records eventually in the part of record keeping of the Public Records Act. So yeah, in time they will. I'm not sure now if someone could ask for that. I guess it would be a case-by-case basis. But the short answer is yes, they will eventually all become open access and available to researchers.

What is the consultation process when it comes to removing restrictions related to tangata whenua whānau, mātauranga Māori?

Joan McCracken: Thank you. A last couple of comments in two which are addressing the issue of what is the consultation process when it comes to removing restrictions related to tangata whenua whānau, mātauranga Māori, generally is part of that.

Jared Davidson: Yeah. And you'll notice there weren't too many in this review talk because a lot of the collections donated by or about tangata whenua have quite clear donor restrictions. And there's already good relationships through the curator Māori around that.

So the Chief Librarian doesn't really monitor or access too much of those. It's more of a direct relationship with the iwi, with the trust, with the runanga. So those are quite clear cut, so quite different to this review. But yeah, essentially, nothing would be removed without building on those relationships and in consultation with iwi. But yeah, that's a different thing altogether.

Thank you

Joan McCracken: Thank you, Jared. I'd just like to say to Rosanne that, I will pass her comments on to you. There's some more comments here but also if she would follow your suggestion of using our Ask a Librarian link on the National Library website, that will get her direct answers to her specific questions.

And I think to end the questions, we've got some other lovely comments here, Jared, that we'll pass on to you. But I'd like to give you two — oh, hang on. There's one more down here that I hadn't noticed. One from a colleague in Australia, which says, not a question, but just wanted to say, well done to Jared. Having worked in this field and with these issues for many years, I appreciate the challenges faced. Found this webinar very useful. Many Thanks. Sandra Burt, State Library Victoria.

And then from Sean McMahon, the curator of manuscripts at the Alexander Turnbull Library, fantastic work Jared, Audrey, and Rata on lifting these restrictions. Wonderful project. Also great presentation. It really highlighted the breadth and depth of the manuscripts collection. Cheers, Sean.

And there are other similar comments, Jared, that we'll certainly pass on to you, but we're running out of time. So I will finish up now with a whakataukai. But thank you again, Jared. That was really fantastic.

Jared Davidson: Thank you.

Joan McCracken: Mā te kimi ka kite, Mā te kite ka mōhio, Mā te mōhio ka mārama.

I do hope we'll see you again at our next Connecting to Collections talk in May. Thank you everybody.

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