Is the National Library’s book cull really cultural vandalism?
Opponents of a 600,000 book cull at the National Library call the move ‘cultural vandalism’, but supporters say the big chop means more room for stories and information that better represent Aotearoa. Andre Chumko reports.
Anahera Morehu breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the National Library was clearing its shelves of unused overseas collections.
While the project to cull 625,000 books from the collections to make way for Ma¯ori and Pasifika literature has attracted controversy – with some like Book Guardians Aotearoa labelling the axing ‘‘ cultural vandalism’’ – for many Ma¯ori, the biggest critique has been why the project hasn’t happened sooner.
‘‘We could’ve had more Ma¯ori information stored within this facility, [which is also] part of their role,’’ Morehu, president of the Library and Information Association of New Zealand, said.
‘‘I was shocked when I saw ‘cultural vandalism’ – what do you mean by that? Whose culture? None of this stuff has anything to do with Aotearoa.’’
The items on the list of things to go were on all manner of topics, from computer science and religion, to philosophy and social sciences. There were also a number of duplicates.
The National Library Act, which stipulates the library’s purpose is collecting, preserving and protecting documents ‘‘particularly those relating to New Zealand’’, is interpreted by Morehu as the national library ‘‘receiving national content’’.
‘‘As an indigenous person in Aotearoa, where are our resources which are culturally relevant to this country?
Where is that? ...
That’s where our culture is. We might be a minority, but this is our whenua.’’
Morehu said the project particularly makes sense from the perspective of national identity, and making sure intergenerational stories, information and language are not lost.
Peter Adds, an associate professor for Te Kawa a Ma¯ui, the school of Ma¯ori Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, said it was healthy for the overseas books to be de-accessioned.
All libraries – not just the National Library – were under ‘‘huge pressure’’ regarding space, and hard decisions needed to be made.
Adds teaches classes relating to New Zealand topics, classes which rely on accessing locallypublished material. It’s for this reason that he also supports the cull.
Rachel Esson, director of content services for the National Library, said the mandate to preserve and make accessible locally published content was the primary responsibility of such a national institute.
‘‘Other countries [are responsible] for collecting, protecting and making accessible what’s published in their countries ... We know this is hard, because change is hard... We’re shifting to providing access, rather than having to own everything.’’
It’s common practice for any library to de-accession works no longer being used. Esson says this, coupled with the desire for further growth of its Ma¯ori and Pacific literature, meant the overseas collections had to be axed.
Last year, out of the 167,000 items acquired for collection with the National Library, more than 81,000 were New Zealand or Pacific items.
About 25 per cent of the titles slated for axing have already been digitised, with other digitisation happening at a rapid rate, Esson says. More axed titles were available at other libraries or could be ordered online. Lockdown had showed the importance of digital access to literature, she says.
Perhaps most important, is that less than one per cent of the books in the firing line were borrowed in the last year.
The library feels it had been transparent, with the list of books slated for culling made public. Some have found new homes in public and prison libraries, the Holocaust Centre, the Catholic Theological College and national libraries in Greece, the Philippines and Scotland.
Lions and Rotary clubs accepted a donation of 57,000 books, which are due to be auctioned off for charity. The book fair, which runs from November 11 to 14 in Upper Hutt, will sell the books at a flat $2 rate.
In the meantime, following a meeting with Book Guardians Aotearoa, a group set up with an aim to save the books, the library has paused releasing further lists of books slated for culling.
It has also paused decisions on what will happen to books on existing lists which haven’t been requested by another library or retained. So far, the National Library has kept more than 33,000 books which were initially slated for axing after consultation.
‘‘We’re listening,’’ Esson says. ‘‘[It would be] awful if we did this and no-one cared ... that would be even worse. We should be held accountable, and should be transparent about this.
‘‘We want people to work with us on this. There’s a perception that [we’re] faceless bureaucrats. We’re professional librarians, we care about this.’’
‘‘As an indigenous person in Aotearoa, where are our resources which are culturally relevant to this country? Where is that? ... That’s where our culture is. We might be a minority, but this is our whenua.’’ Anahera Morehu