I’m not sure if I really qualify as one of the Library Managers to be able to write this Inside Out – but my name was next on the schedule, so here we are! These last few months have been such a learning curve for me, finding out more about all the wonderful taonga that reside under the Kaitiaki (guardianship) of the Macmillan Brown team.

I’ve said this a few times,  but I’ve mainly been learning about how much I didn’t know – and as someone who has been here at UC for over 6 years now, there was a lot! So I wanted to highlight just some of the  amazing things that I’ve recently learned about MB.

Did you know that Macmillan Brown Library’s cultural heritage collections reflect UC’s place in Aotearoa, the Pacific and beyond? Well it most certainly does. The Library also:

• Holds over 5,000 works in the UC Art Collection, which is one of the largest in the region and at a university. It also acts as Kaitiaki for most other art works on campus, even those that aren’t officially within the UC collection. Fun fact – did you know a special tree out the front of Okeover is actually a registered piece of art? I’ll leave you to guess which one.
• MB holds over 5 kilometres of archives! (Someone of average height can expect to take around 6250 steps over a 5k distance, so a lot of walking!) There are a couple of FT Archive Cataloguers currently doing work on the Architectural Drawings  – again of which we hold one of the largest collections in NZ! Hence why you could have a full team of Archive cataloguers and always have work to do. Thanks to those members from LAC too who provide great support either working a number of days over at MB to help further digitise the collection and supporting the minisis work.
• It also holds a wealth of ephemera, newsletters and magazines from diverse local communities and organisations, which offer an often-rare glimpse into the culture, activities, and issues facing segments of our society—past and present. My favourite ephemera was that given to us by Patricia Wallace when I somehow got roped into helping her move offices (I therefore had to rope Jemma in too.)
• In MB’s Special Collections, we have rare books dating back to 13^th century manuscripts, right up to contemporary ‘artists’ books.’ One of my favourite Special Collection items is a copy of the King James Bible – of which we have ‘The Wicked Bible’ version. This is just from the copious amounts of emails I have read in regards to this one item alone (mainly from one academic who is passionate about it!)
• MB’s specialist staff have taught in to 38 tutorials and lectures this year so far, across a broad spectrum of subjects including Art History, Criminal Justice, Fine Arts, History, Māori and Indigenous Studies, Music, and Sociology.

I’ve also learnt  about the different trust funds, donations,  MOUs, Collection policies and Insurances that are more complex then I thought!  We were able to use the MB trust fund towards staffing this year (aimed at making the collection more accessible) and had a Pasifika Postgrad Student position lined up before lockdown unfortunately occurred.

Another thing I’ve been blown away by is the sheer amount of connection and collaboration the team has across the University and beyond. Whether it’s working with academics to embed some of their subject matter expertise into courses or providing support for an obscure item that a visiting academic is researching, they go above and beyond. They have connections with local High Schools, Ngāi Tahu,  the Canterbury Museum, Art Gallery , Teece and many more.

They also run Internships at MB which are a lot of work for the staff that support them but are such a huge benefit and reward to the students who get the opportunity.

I’ve enjoyed my time immensely at Macmillan Brown and want to thank the team again for allowing me the honour to be part of it and will finish by saying that their greatest treasure by far is the people that work there.

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei

Rā Steer