E-services and MB have been working towards a relaunch of Kā Kohika, the library’s public access catalogue  or ‘front end’ for Minisis, our Art and Archives database.

We would love to know what you think of the new site so far, especially if you use the existing Kā Kohika site already. Feedback, critique, suggestions or warm fuzzies are all welcome.

Have a play on the test site here:
http://kohika-dev.canterbury.ac.nz/opac_canterbury/scripts/mwimain.dll?logon&application=UNION_VIEW&language=144&file=[opac_canterbury]search.html

Just be aware that the site is still under development so not all features are working,  it may go down sometimes, and the data might be a bit funny.

Please post feedback as comments here by Friday 10 May. Alternately you can email me if you don’t want to comment here joanna.condon@canterbury.ac.nz

Here is the schedule for the VC’s visit on Monday. Cheryl will be arriving a little later than first expected, but please make sure you arrive before 2.15 so we can make the most of our time with her.

Location: John Britten foyer

2.15 – Cheryl arrives, Alex will briefly introduce her.
Cheryl will speak
Waiata – E tu, Kahikatea
Anne – brief intro to the library
Library managers – 30 second intro each (will ask team members present to give a friendly wave).
Approx 2.45 – time for questions.
3pm finish.

E tū Kahikatea

E tū Kahikatea
Hei whakapae ururoa
Awhi mai awhi atu
Tātou tātou e

E tū Kahikatea
Hei whakapae ururoa
Awhi mai awhi atu
Tātou tātou e (x 2)

Stand like the kahikatea tree
To brave the storms
Embrace and receive each other
We are one together

I thought I’d just give an update on where we’re at since the donations moratorium was lifted by SMT at the beginning of last year, as Erin has recently had a couple of questions about this.

Erin and I have been assessing archive collections offered during the moratorium from 2014-2018. Two collections that had prior agreements for donation have been accepted for the collection. An addition to the Peter Beaven architectural drawings collection arrived in January, and the Peace Collection archives of Kate Dewes, documenting anti-nuclear campaigning in the Pacific is scheduled to arrive in April.

The remaining 66 donation offers are being reviewed in preparation for convening an Archives Acquisition Advisory Group.  Many more collections are offered than are able to be accepted, and the Advisory Group will assist us in making these difficult decisions. We haven’t actively promoted the lifting of the moratorium as we want to avoid raising expectations and becoming overwhelmed by offers of material that we can’t take in.

We have two PACE interns joining our team this semester.

Dannii Quick will be working with Lydia to catalogue a collection of artworks by Florence Atkins. Florence was the first student to be awarded the newly instituted Diploma of Fine Arts by examination (1930) and in 1936 she was appointed to staff, becoming one of the school’s longest serving staff members (1936–69). In 2012 the family of Florence Atkins donated a collection to the Macmillan Brown Library.

Matthew Croft will be working with Erin to research John Macmillan Brown’s photographs of China. This project is similar to the work that Meredith Sim did last year on JMB’s photographs of Japan.

We find that hosting interns is very rewarding, and gives them great experience to take forward into their future careers, whether they be vocational or academic.

Health and safety notice: The two cabinets to the right of the door when you enter the library warehouse have been unscrewed ready to be moved and may be hazardous in the event of an earthquake. Avoid hanging out in front of them.

On behalf of Lydia, here is an overview of UC Art collection acquisitions for 2018.

Following the loss of the 2018 art acquisitions funding as part of the budget challenge, the Art Acquisitions Committee managed to obtain $20 000 from a special VC’s fund for the purchase of artworks.

Seven works were purchased in 2018, and were selected for their teaching and learning potential as well as aesthetic for display on campus. A  puchased work by Julia Holderness and a donated work by Ivy Fife were selected this week by our new VC for display in her office, which was a nice outcome. Textile art works by female artists are a particular strength in the UC art collection. Many of these are historic, dating back to the 1920’s and 1930’s when embroidery was taught as a subject. There is currently a resurgence in craft and textile practice we are actively acquiring. A further small selection of donations were accepted that reflect strengths in the collection and or support research, teaching and learning.

Art Acquisition purchases:

• Julia Holderness, Florence Weir skirt design with Vandyke border (for Veronika, Act 1), 2018, felt, wool applique, 830 x 720mm
• Julia Holderness, Colour Wheel (Florence Akins) #1, felt, wool applique, 332 x 332mm 2018
• Tom Kriesler, Caminito IV, and Caminito, 1989, screenprints on paper (no. 12 out of edition of 20)
• Dan Arps, Baffling (Special Effects Copper), 2018, polyurethane and enamel paint, 60 x 105 x 15cm
• Emma Fitts, The Huntress with silk and felt, 2018, dyed canvas, wool
• Emma Fitts, The Huntress with silk and felt, dyed canvas, wool, 2018, ink jet photograph

Donations:

•   A small donation from the Helen Garrett Estate of stoneware pottery and glass by significant New Zealand practitioners was accepted and will add to the studio pottery collection developed by the College of Education.
• A series of sketch books by artist and graduate Des Helmore. These will be used to highlight a UC graduates practice of several decades.
• Two water colour paintings by Vera Beattie from her estate were donated to support the UC Foundation request to honour her generous financial bequest.
• One framed water colour by Ivy Fife was donated by the family of the artist. Fife was a significant female artist and UC graduate. This adds to an excellent collection of works already held by the artist. An article on her practice will be published in Art New Zealand this year.

Art purchases will continue for 2019, with $30 000 having been secured by the committee from the VC’s fund.

Damian will be changing his MB/EPS hours around to better manage the two roles. This will start from this coming Monday 18 February.

EPS/Research Team: Monday to midday Wednesday

MB: Midday Wednesday to Friday.

Ngā mihi

Jo

From next week Lydia’s hours will be changing slightly, working the same amount on different days so she will still be 0.8.

Current hours: Monday to Thursday 8.30 – 5.00

New hours: Monday to Friday 8.30 – 3.00.

UPDATE: they haven’t been able to fix it unfortunately and will be looking at an alternative solution next year.

Just a heads up that the UC Christmas e-cards have an issue whereby macrons appear as a ? Luckily I tested one before I sent the whole lot out! I’ve alerted the web support team and they’re going to look into it so I’ll update this if I hear anything.

The e-card generator is here https://intranet.canterbury.ac.nz/cards/

On 19 October I was lucky to attend a hui held at National Library in Wellington (I was standing in for Nekerangi who was invited but unable to attend).  The hui was hosted by Paul Diamond, Curator, Māori, and Melanie Lovell-Smith, Digitisation Advisor, to discuss the digitisation of pre-1900 published texts in te reo Māori. Only a small number were able to attend due to the event being adjacent to Labour Weekend, but there was still alot of valuable discussion.

This was the first step for National Library staff to consult on an idea to digitise the corpus of work listed in the bibliography Books in Māori/Ngā Tānga reo Māori 1821-1900, compiled in the Alexander Turnbull Library in 2004(http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE26190530

They were interested in peoples’ views on whether the bibliography is a good starting point, and what type of digital access is most useful (e.g. full text, quality images, type of metadata etc). The works included in the bibliography generally fall into religious texts, government publications, and language related works, with a small amount of works published by iwi. This was one of the most prolific periods of publishing in te reo Māori, which was more widely spoken in Aotearoa at that time. Those involved in the project intend to broaden their consultation and arrange more hui (hopefully one in Te Waipounamu). I personally got alot out of the hui, including the chance to meet colleagues from around Aotearoa…and to practice my mihi!

It was interesting timing for us at MB as the Resource Discovery Librarians are  currently working with Nekerangi and Caroline on cataloguing the Chapple collection of early religious texts which include many written in te Reo Māori as well as a variety of Pacific Languages. We have been considering digitisation as a next step, so the hui was useful in thinking about how we might proceed.

Below is an image of some of the taonga from the Alexander Turnbull collection that was presented for us to view. A real treat!