I have been asked a couple of questions about the official names of Libraries, particularly the Central Library. You would think this as an easy question but it took some digging to get an answer.
Q: Has the name of the Central Library been changed officially to the Puaka – James Hight Library? PJH Library appears in our Library pamphlet.
Q: What are the official names for our branch libraries? In particular, Central seems to have more than one moniker. I have seen references to the ‘Puaka-James Hight Library’ and also ‘PJH Library’ in official communications, yet on our website it is Central. And then there is the reference to ‘Puna’ in some places. (Pānui question)
A: There are multiple names for the Library and the branches. The UC Library is also Ngā Puna Mātauraka o Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, sometimes this is shortened various ways including UC Puna. The Central Library is Te Puna Mātauraka (te, single; ngā plural). EPS Library is Te Puna Pūkaha me te Pūtaiao and the Macmillan Brown Library is Te Puna Rakahau o Macmillan Brown. These are the official library names as indicated on our website. UC Communications usually refers to the Central Library (Puaka-James Hight Building) in external communications.
Central Library has been around at least since the main library moved from the town site in 1974 to join the Engineering and PSL Libraries. Sometime in the 2000s the te reo names were gifted to us. Things became complicated just after the earthquakes when a new UC practice on naming buildings was put in place by Facilities Management to get away from the previous practice of naming buildings after the departments that inhabited them, giving FM the flexibility to move people into any safe space available. As a result Central Library as a name disappeared from the outside of the building and from external signage, and was replaced by James Hight. In 2014 the UC Naming Rights Policy was approved by Council and Ngāi Tahu gifted the name Puaka to the “UC Library building”. The building officially became Puaka-James Hight. Over time the lack of the term “Library” on campus signage was confusing to students and visitors so it has crept back into UC signage in a number of places in a variety of ways including Puaka-James Hight (Library). We have also been increasingly using Puaka-James Hight Library or PJH Library for the Central Library, particularly on social media, to give prominence to the bicultural name that has been gifted and help also differentiate us from other Central Libraries as a Marketing strategy and to increase impact. We still occasionally get enquiries confusing the Central Library for Tūranga
Puaka, also known as Rigel, is a blue supergiant star seen above the constellation of Tautoru in the constellation of Orion. It is an important star to Ngāi Tahu as it marks the end of the Tītī (mutton bird) and tuna (eel) season. There is some useful background about the gifting of the name Puaka in this recent video posted to Tū kihi te tahi about Matariki. It says: “Here on campus, Puaka is the name given to our UC Library building – Puaka-James Hight, and Matariki is the name of our central Registry building. Alongside other UC buildings which carry the names and narratives of navigation and exploration, the characteristics of whetū and celestial bodies have been overlaid across our campus in order to provide a map for our ākonga (students) and kaimahi (staff) as they journey through campus, their studies and experiences here with us at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha.” The video. adds more depth and is worth watching. (And yes, I have told Jeanine that Hight is spelt incorrectly and they hope to fix this soon)
If you know more about the history, feel free to add to the comments. Anne
Kia ora Anne, thanks for the informative reply. What is the preferred way for us to refer to the Central Library.
Two things occur to me:
1. I know that before being the ‘Central Library’ it was called the ‘Main Library’. The name changed (in the early 1990s I think) because ‘Main Library’ was felt to disparage the branch libraries (as they were collectively termed back then).
2. In my opinion there should be some circumspection in associating UC Library with Sir James Hight (even if his services to UC and NZ university education warrant his commemoration in a building name https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3h23/hight-james).
In his book on English colonisation (n.d.-b; written it seems in 1905), Hight extols the superiority of the ‘Englishmen’ as a colonising people (p. 19). In accordance with this he maintains:
The strongest reason for the maintenance of the Empire is the influence for good it may exercise upon the whole world. Britain is at the head of the most progressive and most just of modern nations. It is therefore fitting that she should guide and control the destiny of new and infant countries; to her and no other should be committed the fate of the lower races of mankind. (p. 11)
Granted, elsewhere in the book Hight makes a number of positive comments about Māori as a people and he condemns the settler government’s atrocious actions leading up to and during the New Zealand Wars. Hight’s views are probably typical of liberal academics in Aotearoa New Zealand at the beginning of the 20th century and they can be regarded as well-intentioned. It is possible, too, that Hight changed his views in later decades, but it is difficult to determine such a change as his later major works are co-authored. All the same, the values Hight espouses in 1905 are unashamedly paternalistic, imperialist and colonialist, and they are partly reiterated about 1911 in a short chapter (Hight, n.d.-a). As expressed in his writing, Hight’s values do not align well with the values of UC Puna today.
Hight, J. (n.d.-a). British colonial policy. In J. Hight (Ed.), The Empire in the latest age (pp. 22–24). Christchurch Press.
Hight, J. (n.d.-b). The English as a colonising nation. Whitcombe and Tombs.
—John
Sorry, the link above goes awry; try instead https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3h23/hight-james