Nga Taonga Sound and Vision Archive and Jonathan Dennis Research Library
Of interest at Nga Taonga Sound and Vision archive were the community partnerships developed over time. I was surprised to learn that the archive was not a government institution, instead, they are governed by a Board of Trustees and largely funded by the Ministry Culture and Heritage, New Zealand Lottery Grants Board, and Te Mangai Paho, with supplementary funding and donations from corporate and private sponsors. Archive staff described community outreach that included loans or donations of material, collaboration on resource description and exhibition planning, and community events. Central to the work of the archive is Iwi engagement, in accordance with the Treaty of Waitangi. However, archive staff indicated that whilst material had been collected for and about Maori Iwi, more work needed to be done with them to achieve a greater level of community engagement.
The sustainability of preservation, discoverability, and access were key issues for Nga Taonga Sound and Vision given the large amounts of material across a wide range or formats. A complex system of collection management practises was in place to preserve, maintain and update material and playback devices across a number of formats due to changing technologies and obsolescence. This was particularly evident in the case of nitrate film, which requires a high level of specialised treatment and care. Physical and digital materials also had to be made discoverable using the archive catalogue and accessible online and via a number of on and off-site storage facilities. These management issues appeared to be significantly more complex than at other sites we visited.