Opinion: Loss and Libraries
‘Waterfront 1982’ was produced during the drawing courses run by Claudia Pond-Eyley and the late Pat Hanly. The drawings produced by these classes have become a wonderful record Auckland’s changing cityscape – such as the demolished His Majesty’s Arcade and the Simunovich fishing wharves shown here, now Wynyard Quarter.
Like journalism, libraries are hugely affected by our developing online and digital lives. How we produce, consume and archive the written word, and imagery, has changed dramatically in recent decades – and in the wake of change is always loss.
The pending closure of the Architecture and Planning Library at The University of Auckland (Te Herenga Whaihanga), as part of the planned closure of three NICAI Libraries starting in 2019 (Music, Architecture and Fine Arts), is one loss the architectural community is aware of, and very likely to have an opinion about.
A strong reaction from all sectors of the architecture community has emerged, with many articles published (print and online)1, blogs2, student protests3, meetings, lectures, videos and exhibitions.4 The profession added their voice5, and current academic staff have been working with care to maintain communication with worried students, alongside their huge effort to save the specialist libraries.6 Others are more accepting of the changing role of libraries globally, and that our academic libraries are affected.
Discussion around the closure of Auckland’s ‘Architecture Library’ has proven to be a sensitive topic, and as a registered architect, a member of staff at The University of Auckland, and a Fellow of the Institute, there are many toes that I can stand on with these words. I will try to tread lightly.
I view the planned ‘closure’ as two separate losses – the first being the relocation of the specialist collection and archive to the General Library on Princes St, and the second being the demolition of the 1970s Conference Centre building, designed by KRTA and occupied by the library since 1982, and which includes the Design Theatre.7
Strangely, the losses are unrelated, each with their own effects. They become conflated due to over three decades of experience and memory, which can result in nostalgia leading the discourse and action. The dissipation of a highly-respected academic collection has at times been lost amongst the nostalgic affection for a building.8 Here I address the first issue only, with perhaps the discussion around (yet another) 1970s New Zealand architecture casualty for another time,
Both the specialist architecture collection and the architecture archives, established in 1927, are considered as taonga, nationally and internationally significant assets of cultural importance. Relocation may result in a dissolved, reduced collection that is less accessible to architecture students, due to the physical dislocation from the architecture school and lack of browsing opportunities. (We all know what ‘in storage’ means for access to a library book.)
Yet it may also be an opportunity to slightly re-frame the collection – archiving and the control of collections has always been a political act. The power lies with specialist librarians who select, preserve and provide access to a broader community.
The shaping of collections can both reveal and obscure knowledge – on the one hand, canons are protected and preserved for future generations, and on the other, access to certain areas of knowledge is controlled, contained, or edited out - tending to support existing power structures. The decisions made around collections ‘influence the remembering or forgetting of our past’.9 For example, the decision to include non-English texts reflects a changing, broader user-group and may strengthen the community. This would be especially powerful for publications in Te Reo Māori.
Specialist Collection librarians, as shapers of collections, are as critical and political as ever - the real loss in this relocation process would be the lost opportunity to shift Nineteenth Century library models of power.
Other losses already covered in other media are of community cohesion, collection cohesion, reduced access to material not available online, (have you ever tried to find a Home & Building article from the 1960s online, or a pre-2009 NZIA Awards list?) and of a particular school identity. There is also a possible loss of trust in the longevity of the archives - and as Lucy Treep has so eloquently pointed out,10 the thread of trust is essential to future bequeaths.
In Library: An Unquiet History, Matthew Battles11 describes the endurance and destruction of libraries over millennia, with the control of collections used to erase history or support communities. The historical survey shows that libraries survive cultural change as well as natural disasters and book-burning rulers, and that adapting to the digital era is not a new challenge, and not insurmountable.
This positive view of the survival of libraries is welcomed at this critical time, and that despite the reduction and re-modelling of the careers of librarians, they will indeed continue to affect generations of future thought.
[1] See Treep, L, The Spinoff, ‘The Chaise-Lounge and the Library’ 17 Dec 2018, L, Treep. Noted, ‘The closure of a specialist architecture library reminds us of its great impact.’ Gilderdale, P, The Spinoff, ‘The university library row reveals a seismic shift in NZ’s middle class.’ 22 April 2018, Byrt, A. ‘Critical Thinking’, Metro Jan/Feb 2019, pp 66-73
[2] E.g. The Eye of the Fish blog, Pantograph Punch
[3] Newshub 30/4/18, 17/05/18, RNZ 21/6/18), SANNZ No. 4 (2018), an example of a student video to save the library can be found here
[4] E.g. ‘Conversations at The Architecture & Planning Library’ 16 May 2018, Ex Libris: Samuel Hartnett, Objectspace (24 Nov 2018–3 Feb 2019), A Tour of Three Soon to Be Closed Libraries in association with Ex Libris, Objectspace. 14 Dec 2018, (eds) Miles, A & Treep, L. Ex Libris: Regarding Three Publications, (2018) Objectspace, Auckland.
[5] NZIA The Bulletin: 20 April 2018, 4 May 2018, 18 May 2018, 1 June, 8 June 2018, 22 June 2018, 17 August 2018 / NZIA AGM minutes 10 April 2018: the NZIA supports a library with ‘the current relationship with the school’.
[6] Staff Petition calling for review of Library consolidation decision April 2018
[7] McKay, B. (2017) ‘The Counter-Culture and its Containment’, pp 74-101, in (ed) Gatley, J & Treep, L. 1917-2017 The Auckland School: 100 years of architecture and planning, School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland.
[8] Personal communication anonymous academic staff, 29 November 2018
[9] Randall C Jimerson ‘The Archive is Politics: Neutrality is Not an Option’ ARANZ Librarian conference, Wellington, August 2010 Keynote speaker. Joanna M A Newman, Vice President, Archives and Records Association of NZ, Press Release 29/8/10.
[10] Treep, L. (2018) ‘The closure of a specialist architecture library reminds us of its great impact.’ Noted, 23 November 2018
[11] Battles, M. 2015 Libraries: An Unquiet History, WW Norton & Co, Fifth Ave, NY 10110.
NB:
The single illustration that accompanies the column (published originally in Architecture New Zealand magazine) is a student drawing selected from historical or contemporary collections. In this way my own love for drawing, and its importance in architectural education, is reflected alongside the words. This drawing is by Sharon Jansen, and is selected from the Architecture Library’s drawing and model collection, initiated by Dr J D Dickson. The drawing has always resided in the New Books reading bay, the spot where the profession crossed paths with students and staff. Jansen’s drawing won the Chisholm Prize in 1982, the year the library moved into the building.
This article first appeared in Architecture New Zealand magazine.
