ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


206 /  C&RL News

strength. In a year when the University profited 
from a significant enrollment increase, our budget 
received double the highest increase received by 
the colleges of the University. It also was the largest 
increase in funding received by the library in its re­
cent history. Our visibility throughout the year was 
enhanced by continued media, especially local tel­
evision, coverage of our “Year of the Reader” pro­
grams. Secondly, our faculty and staff gained con­
siderable expertise in developing and sustaining 
promotional activities.

Academic libraries should look at National L i­
brary Week as an excellent opportunity to increase 
library awareness on the campus. While this could 
certainly be done through various promotions at 
other times of the year, I think the academic li­
brary can benefit from:

•the national attention being centered on li­
braries that week;

•from the materials and other support provided 
by ALA in its efforts to promote National Library 
Week;

•from the activities simultaneously occurring 
that week in public and school libraries;

•and finally, from the possibility of joining 
with public and school librarians to cooperatively 
develop National Library Week programs benefit­
ing all kinds of libraries.

E d itor‘s note: This is a revision o f a presentation 
given at the National Library W eek W orkshop, 
ALA Midwinter M eeting‚ San Antonio. January
11,1988.

A visit to the 
National L ib rary of New Zealand

By Ja n e  Kemp

C irculation/Reference Librarian 
Luther College

Less than a year old, New Zealand’s library is a national 
treasure.

D u r i n g  a trip to New Zealand for the holidays I 
had planned to visit several academic libraries in 
the various cities in which I would be staying. Ly­
dia Klim ovitch, general secretary of the New 
Zealand Library Association, had suggested a 
range of libraries to visit in the course of our corre­
spondence over the previous months. However, 
during our Air New Zealand flight, a program was 
aired over the plane’s sound system in which dep­
uty librarian Adam Smith of the National Library

of New Zealand was interviewed. His responses in 
the interview made this newly opened national li­
brary sound so interesting and impressive that I re­
solved to alter my travel arrangements so as to be in 
Wellington for a day to visit that facility.

Although the National Library of New Zealand 
was established by Act of Parliament in 1965, it 
was not completed until July 1987. At the site se­
lected for the new library, only a hole in the ground 
remained for many years for various reasons—



April 1988 /  207

The National Library o f New Zealand.

strikes of construction workers and changes in gov­
ernment and fund allocations were some of the jus 
tifications given for the slowness of construction. 
However, when it opened last year, the facility 
brought three existing libraries together under one 
roof. The Alexander Turnbull Library, a private li­
brary given to the nation in 1918, housed impor­
tant volumes of New Zealand material, newspa­
pers, manuscripts, paintings, and prints. The 
National Library Service, begun in 1938 to provide 
books for people in country areas, and the General 
Assembly Library, which had served the govern­
ment of New Zealand since the 1860s and was lo­
cated in the heart of Wellington in the midst of the 
government complex, were combined.

The responsibilities of the National Library were 
also laid out in the 1965 Act: to collect, preserve, 
and make available recorded knowledge, particu­
larly that relating to New Zealand; to supplement 
and further the work of other libraries in New 
Zealand; and to enrich the cultural and economic 
life of New Zealand while enriching its cultural in­
terchanges with other nations. The maori name of 
the National Library, Te Puna Matauranga o 
Aotearoa, the well or spring of knowledge, symbol­
izes these functions.

The library building itself was designed by the 
Ministry of Works and Development and finally 
built over a period of 13 years at a cost of $NZ 50 
million. It is climate controlled and protected from 
fire with a system that “floods” an area with inert 
gas to smother fire. Most of the books are stored on 
the lower floors (there are six levels) and are deliv­

ered on a computer-controlled monorail delivery 
system that snakes its way through the building. 
The system runs both horizontally and vertically at 
about 5 miles per hour.

Currently the collection consists of 5 million 
books, microfiche, and single-issue journals that 
were collected via purchase, donations, and be­
quests, and legal deposit. The library has copies of 
almost everything published in New Zealand and 
so can readily provide copyright evidence if 
needed. In addition, an extensive sound and music 
collection of old records, early recordings of 
speeches on subjects such as the royal visit in 1953, 
and the New Zealand oral history archive are being 
enlarged. A paper preservation program has also 
been instituted to conserve early papers and books.

The staff of 320 in Wellington plus additional 
staff in three regional centers and 13 district centers 
are directed by the National Librarian. This person 
in turn is responsible to the Minister of Education. 
The library is divided into six divisions: Collections 
Management, Reference and Interlibrary Loan, 
Corporate Services, New Zealand Bibliographic 
Network (NZBN), Regional Services, and the 
Turnbull Library.

The NZBN was of particular interest since it is a 
computerized catalog and information retrieval 
network for the nation established in 1982. De­
signed in the U.S. by the Boeing Aircraft Company 
for the Washington State Library Network, the li­
brary purchased a license to use the system. It con­
tains records of books and other materials held at 
the National Library as well as other major public,



208 / C&RL News

university, government department, or private 
company libraries in New Zealand. Over 500,000 
records per year are added to the network. The 
NZBN is regularly updated with records from the 
U.S. Library of Congress and the national libraries 
of Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Great Brit­
ain. Currently 54 members pay on a full member­
ship basis, and 106 casual members dial in on the 
New Zealand Post Office packet switch network.

Future emphases for the National Library are to 
supplement its School Library Service and refer­
ence services to the nation’s public libraries with di­
rect collection management assistance. Mail ser­
vices to rural users are also being augmented as a 
result of a review that studied the needs of families 
without library access. In addition, increased em­
phasis is also being given to a program of depositing 
collections of books in rural area school/commun­
ity libraries. SATIS (Scientific and Technical In­
formation Service), a nationwide information ser­
vice offered for industry and business, is also being 
expanded.

The goal of the National Library to be the mem­
ory bank of New Zealand is certainly being met. 
The Children’s Collections of the library include a

comprehensive range of books for children and 
young adults written in New Zealand, Australia, 
Great Britain, and North America. The emphasis 
on publications printed in New Zealand and books 
that would have been read by children living in 
New Zealand from colonization (ca. 1800) to 1940, 
makes this a valuable resource for researchers. The 
Pictorial Collections of photographs, paintings, 
draw ings, p rin ts, maps, ch arts, and printed 
ephemera (posters, programs, greeting cards, etc.) 
encompass New Zealand and the Pacific from early 
times. In addition, the Sound and Music Centre 
provides collections in all media including scores 
from the Radio New Zealand library of orchestral 
and chamber music, collections of New Zealand 
music, and materials from the Oral History Ar­
chive.

Browsing members of the public, researchers, 
genealogists, students, and tourists are all encour­
aged to use the facilities of this new National L i­
brary. Featuring the library on the “all about New 
Zealand” sound service channel of New Zealand’s 
largest air carrier gives some indication of the stat­
ure of this lib ra ry  to the people of New 
Zealand.

Nine university libraries attack journal inflation

Directors and collection development officers 
from nine university libraries met January 28 in 
Lawrence, Kansas, to plan ways to confront the 
devastating impact runaway journal and other se­
rials prices are having on the abilities of libraries 
across the country to buy needed materials for fac­
ulty and students.

Average inflation rates for serials of 12 % to 20 % 
were reported, depending on the mix of foreign 
and domestic subscriptions received by the individ­
ual libraries. Most alarming is the fact that these 
rates have been accelerating over the past few 
years. The continuing high increase in prices has 
already led to major subscription cuts and many 
campuses are anticipating even larger reductions 
over the next few months. The cuts are coming 
when most of the libraries are expected to support 
increased research as the basis for greater economic 
development and as their state governments strive 
to attract new industry.

All of those present predicted that inflation will 
continue at current rates for at least the next few 
years. The major culprit is a weakened dollar mea­
sured against European currencies, a serious prob­
lem for universities where research requires heavy 
reliance on foreign journals. Another factor is the 
practice of price discrimination that many Western 
European publishers apply when selling their jour­
nals in North America— U.S. libraries pay more for 
a serial than their European counterparts. Also

contributing to the problem is the ever increasing 
number of new journals being published in support 
of developing areas of knowledge. Whatever the 
causes of price increases all agreed that continued 
subscription cuts are inevitable and that coopera­
tion among university libraries is essential.

As a result of the meeting, a common database 
will be developed listing all serial titles priced at 
more than $200. Each library will then indicate the 
titles it owns. The ultimate hope being that as fur­
ther subscription cuts are made, one copy of each 
important title will be maintained by a minimum 
of one library in the region. The next step will seek 
improved document delivery among the nine insti­
tutions. Outside funding may be sought for the de­
velopment of electronic means of document trans­
fer. F in ally , the participants agreed to share 
information on the overall problem and to cooper­
ate on efforts to inform local campus constituencies 
and funding agencies on the seriousness of the issue.

Institutions represented at the Lawrence meet­
ing were Iowa State University, the University of 
Missouri-Columbia, Kansas State University, the 
University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska- 
Lincoln, Oklahoma State University, the Univer­
sity of Colorado, Colorado State University, and 
the University of Wyoming. The University of 
Oklahoma also plans to participate in the effort. 
The database development project is being coordi­
nated by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.



From Washington to Reagan—200 Years of American History

SPEECHES OF THE 
AMERICAN 
PRE

E

S
dited by

I
 Jan

D
et Podell an

E
d Steve

N
n Anzovin.

T
 

S
Introduction by John Little, Associate Editor, W oodrow  W ilson Papers 

850pp approx. 1988. ISBN 0-8242-0761-0 
$60 U.S. and Canada, $70 other countries.

180 Major Speeches by 
40 U.S. Presidents
Since the birth of the Republic, 
the great issues of Am erican 
history— war, peace, slavery, 
suffrage, taxes, and trade— 
have been the subjects of 
speeches by U.S. Presidents. 
Now, for the first tim e in a 
single volume, the m ost 
m em orable and im portant ad­
dresses of each of the 40 
Presidents have been gathered 
to g ether in Speeches o f the 
Am erican Presidents.

The Presidents Speak— 
And History is Made
Covering the decisive events of 
each administration, Speeches o f 
the A m erican Presidents contains
both landmark and lesser-known 
addresses, among them :

■  Adam s' “ The Nature o f the 
Federal G ove rn m e n t”

■  Harding's "The Rights o f 
Black Citizens.”

■  Lincoln's "G ettysburg A d­
dress."

■  JFK's "Ich Bin ein B erliner”  
speech.

■  FDR's "N othing to Fear b ut 
Fear Its e lf" speech.

■  Eisenhow er's "D on't Join 
the Bookburners”  address.

■  Reagan's "E vil E m p ire " and 
"S tar W ars" speeches.

 

“Politics is mostly talk, 
and this volume 
brings together 
many of the 
consequential and 
elevating moments 
of presidential 
rhetoric."
—George F. Will

A Reference Source 
for Everybody
W ith  an extensive Subject Index 
that highlights the recurring 
them es of Presidential ad­
dresses, Speeches o f the 
A m erican Presidents devotes a 
chapter to each President, and 
contains:

■  Four to ten speeches, 
m ost in full.

■  An introduction describing 
the circum stances surrounding 
the com position and delivery 
of each speech.

■  An account of each Presi­
dent's rise to pow er and the 
key events of his adm inistra­
tion.

■   An introductory essay on the 
history of Presidential 
speechmaking.

To Order 
Call Toll-free 

1-800-367-6770
In N ew  York State call 

1-800-462-6060; 
in Canada call collect 

212-588-8400

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50 University Avenue 
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