We are the Librarians

Here on permanent display are three of our Nation’s most precious Taonga. 1835 He Whakaputanga: The Declaration of Independence of the United Tribes of New Zealand, 1840 Te Tiriti O Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi, and The 1893 Women’s Suffrage Petition. The documents have been lovingly cared for by the best conservators, housed in atmospherically-controlled and alarmed display cases, and sit alongside state of the art technology such as searchable touch screen displays that provide a wealth of knowledge about the signatories, videos, and background to these historical events. In creating this beautiful exhibition are the unseen years of research by information professionals.

Getting back to the Librarians. You could be forgiven (though not by me) for thinking Librarians just check out books and read all day, but behind the frontline there is a ton of highly specialised work going on: indexing, cataloguing, digitising, researching, deciphering, organising, conserving, sourcing, buying, processing, shelving, mending, reviewing, and exhibiting our highly valued taonga. All this work is to give our community and beyond access to the wonderful collections and resources we lovingly care for. Big Ups to the Librarians!!