Kia ora,

We have added  two new content blocks on Kā Kohika:
Activism and Social Justice showcases our holdings of groups and people who have campaigned for change, such as anti-nuclear, HART, Amnesty International etc. This links to collection level records
Workers and Unions highlights our significant trade union collections and industry related archives. This links to both individual items and collection level records

We plan to keep these in place for S1 next year, and will be adding to them over time.  Huge thanks to E-services, the RDLs, and the MB team for their help!!

Please take a look and  let me know what you think. There is still a bit of metadata to tidy, but better to have the info out there 🙂

Erin

A new exhibition at the Ilam Campus Gallery features books, artworks, and archives from the MB collection. Leo Bensemann: Illustrator, designer and printer has been curated by Peter Vangioni from the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū .

The artist Leo Bensemann was a key figure in Christchurch’s cultural life from the 1930s to the 1980s. Throughout the mid-20th century he and others working at the Caxton Press were instrumental in introducing modern typographical design and typefaces to New Zealand’s printed culture.  The exhibition includes a wide selection of original drawings, wood engravings, book designs and letterpress printing, and highlights and acknowledges the Bensemann Family’s  gifts of Leo’s work and personal papers to the Macmillan Brown Library and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū Library.

All are welcome to attend the exhibition opening on Thursday 1 October at 5pm.  Peter is giving a talk in the gallery on Friday 2 October at 12.30

You can see some images from the exhibition on UC Puna’s Instagram page 🙂

On behalf of the recruitment panel (Caroline, Lisa, me), I’m pleased to announce that Cherilyn Clark has been appointed to the role of Library Assistant AYO in MB. She will start on 17 February.

Erin

Kia ora

My S1 intern Matthew Croft and Richard Bullen (Art History) will be giving a talk about the John Macmillan Brown and the Russo-Japanese War exhibition today at midday, in the exhibition space on level 2, PJH.  All welcome

Kia ora

My S1 intern Matthew Croft and Richard Bullen (Art History) will be giving a talk about the John Macmillan Brown and the Russo-Japanese War exhibition on Thurs at midday, in the exhibition space on level 2, PJH.  All welcome 🙂

Lydia and I were the only people who expressed interest in  FedEx Day. That means we have been given the go-ahead to  explore our ideas around diversity and library services. We want to start by asking  what does diversity mean, and what can the library do to support diversity initiatives on campus?  We’ve been doing some work in this area, and I’ve started doing some research. UC has a statement on Equity and Diversity ,  but the American Library Association recognises  a wider range of target groups for services including

• those who may experience language or literacy-related barriers
• cultural or social isolation
• religious background
• economic distress

It has really got us thinking! So if you want to come along on FedEx Day and work towards making a positive impact in the library and on campus, let Brian know by the end of this week (Friday 27 Sept).

Erin

As part of Diversity Fest 2019, MB have worked with Pieta Gray in the Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee  to put together a display of LGBTQI+ archives, ephemera, and publications.  The display is on the ground floor of the Karl Popper building, if you feel like taking a walk to check it out 🙂

Erin

Kia ora,

I’m curently installing a new display on level 2. The exhibition features photos and archives from the collection of John Macmillan Brown. It has been curated by student intern Matthew Croft, as part of his College of Arts internship, supervised by me and Art History Assoc. Professor Richard Bullen.  Here’s some info:

John Macmillan Brown (1846-1935) was one of the founding professors of Canterbury College (today UC). From 1874 he taught English and Classics, but he was also very interested in Polynesian anthropology and ethnology. As a consequence, he spent much time reading about the countries in the Pacific region. The Russo-Japanese War interested him and, unlike many of his contemporaries, he correctly foresaw that Japan would win. In 1908, Macmillan Brown travelled to Japan, Korea, Manchuria and China, to see these places for himself and discover first-hand the consequences of the War. The photographs in this exhibition come from his collection.

The Russo-Japanese War of 8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905, resulted from a rivalry for military dominance in East Asia between Russia and Japan. Russia had forced China into leasing the key strategic territory of Port Arthur on the southern coast of the Liaodong Peninsula, in Manchuria. As a result, Japan was forced to relinquish its control of the area, which it had governed since the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95. Numbers of Russian forces grew in Manchuria in 1903, prompting Japan to use force to take back control of the area.

If anyone has questions, they can contact me 🙂

Erin

Kia ora,

Stuff is linking to this Facebook  page with information on donating non-perishable food and other items to assist the victims’ families.

Erin

Back in 2015, we had some interns working on a project to conserve a donation of drawings by the 1930s Chch architect Cecil Wood. Now, thanks to a huge amount of work by E-services, the drawings have been uploaded to Kā Kohika.

They are really really stunning.  Look at the beautiful  Tai Tapu Memorial Church,  or this chair design, or this living room.Or search all of them by entering ‘Cecil Wood’ into the search bar of Kā Kohika

(The first page doesn’t have any images, but you can see them from page 2 on).

I cannot stress enough how grateful I am to Bronwyn Collins for her work on this.

Please share this info with anyone you think would be interested. They can contact me directly to find out more about the collection.

Erin