An example to follow

Rachel Esson’s letter (July 1) makes me feel deeply concerned about the future of knowledge in New Zealand when a member of the National Library staff can describe books that are older than 20 years as ‘‘depreciated’’.

She also makes the spurious claim that the 625,000 books can be found on the ‘‘internet’’. This is not true for books still under copyright, which she must know as a librarian, nor in 322 public libraries which may lack electronic catalogues and interlibrary loan facilities. In making those claims she is really discounting the value of the National Library, a public taonga for which she speaks.

I have known many admirable librarians and archivists, including a courageous archivist at the National Archives in Washington DC who refused to backdate Richard Nixon’s records.

She defended the truth of the documents in the National Archives against a vindictive president. She was hidden in an office from Nixon’s wrath and later received a commendation from the archivists’ association for speaking truth to power.

Mary Walton Livingston valued knowledge and was also a civil rights activist despite being descended from the earliest settlers in Virginia.

I hope New Zealand librarians follow her example.

Dolores Janiewski, Highbury