The Intricacies of Freepost (ongoing)

As I have definitely decided that I will be using a survey to capture information from whakapapa researchers (as opposed to organising focus groups or conducting interviews) this leads to certain questions about how to actually do that. Heidi Kuglin noted in her research project (see further reading) that she received the most responses to her questionnaire via the freepost address that she set up, so this seems the way to go.

As I've just been discovering via the NZ Post website there's a bit more to getting a freepost address than I thought.

• You can't get freepost mail delivered to a physical address. It's a P O box or nothing.
• You can get a P O box for 12 months, there doesn't seem to be a shorter option available which is a pain because 3 months would be more than enough.
• The cheapest option is over $100.

It would irk me to have to pay for something for a whole year that I only really need for a month or so but to put things in perspective some of my textbooks have been more expensive than that and I barely read some of those so...

I have spoken to a colleague who is also studying and will be doing a survey so it may be possible for us to "go halves" on a P O box together. I wonder if you can get 2 different freepost addresses for the same box? I think I will have to go to the post office and ask a few questions.

UPDATED

The good folks here at work (Christchurch City Libraries) have said that it is okay for me to use their P. O. Box so that I don't have to fork out $$$ for my own. I am extremely grateful.

So I've been in touch with New Zealand Post and I am now the proud "owner" of my own freepost address. Anyone sending mail to "Freepost Whakapapa" will now being doing so on my dime.

Further Reading

Taking on this research project has involved doing a literature review. The following works have been particularly relevant to my research so far :

Genealogists

Drake, P. J. (2001). Findings from the Fullerton Genealogy Study – a master’s thesis project. http://psych.fullerton.edu/genealogy/

Kuglin, H. (2004). Granny hunting: the information seeking behaviour of genealogists in open access libraries : submitted to the School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Library and Information Studies. Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington. May 2004. http://www.lianza.org.nz/events/conference2004/papers/kuglin.pdf#search=%22%22granny%20hunting%3A%20the%20information%20seeking%20%22

Lambert, R. D. (1998) Roving reporters: a study of genealogists and family historians, Pt. 1. The Global gazette : Canada’s online family history magazine, vol. 2, no. 17. http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazrr/gazrr19.htm

Lambert, R. D. (1999) Roving reporters: a study of genealogists and family historians, Pt. 2. The Global gazette : Canada’s online family history magazine, vol. 2, no. 17. http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazrr/gazrr20.htm

Litzer, D. S. (1997). Library and genealogical society cooperation in developing local genealogical services and collections. Reference & user services quarterly, vol. 37, no. 1

Sinko, P. and Peters, S. (1983). A survey of genealogists at the Newberry Library. Library Trends, no. 32 (pp. 97-109).

Yakel, E. (2004). Seeking information, seeking connections, seeking meaning: genealogists and family historians. Information Research, vol. 10, no. 1, http://informationr.net/ir/10-1/paper205.html

Māori/Whakapapa

Auckland City Libraries in consultation with Heather Worth. (1995) The customer's voice - a quest : a survey : improvement of services to Maori at Auckland City Libraries. Auckland, N.Z. : Auckland City Libraries.

Hemara, W. (2005) Whakapapa : as curricula & pedagogical practice : an historical, social & philosophical discourse on Māori engagement with traditional & contemporary education : a thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education.

McDonald, T. (1993). Te ara tika : Māori and libraries : a research report. Wellington [N.Z.] : New Zealand Library & Information Association.

Makoare, B. (1996). Kaitiakitanga i roto i ngā Whare Pukapuka : Appropriate care for Māori materials in libraries and archives. Archifacts, Oct. 1996 (pp. 18-26).

Parker, B. (2003). Maori access to information technology. The Electronic Library, vol. 21, no. 5 (pp. 456-460)

Royal, T. C. (1992) Te Haurapa: an introduction to researching tribal histories and traditions. Wellington: Bridget William Books.

Simpson, S. (2005) Te ara tika : Ngā Ingoa Kaupapa Māori : pūrongo tuatoru = Guiding words : Māori Subject Headings Project : phase 3 research report. Wellington, N.Z. : Te Rōpū Whakahau. http://www.trw.org.nz/publications/Te_Ara_Tika_Guiding_Words.pdf (recently added)

Szekely, C. (1992) Māori people in libraries. Sites, no. 25, Summer 1992, (pp. 63-68)

Szekely, C. (1997) Te ara tika : guiding voices : Māori opinion on libraries and information needs. Wellington [N.Z.] : New Zealand Library & Information Association ; Te Rōpū Whakahau

Ta'ala, T. M. (2006) No wai koe? Whakapapa, records and the role of iwi runanga in defining Maori identity. Wellington, N.Z. : Victoria University of Wellington.
Have you come across any research in the area of genealogists, whakapapa, or libraries that you think ties in with my research? Then let me know about it by posting a comment.

Introduction

Mihi

Kia ora ki a koutou katoa,
Nau mai haere mai.

Ko Te Arawa te waka
Ko Tongariro te maunga
Ko Taupō-nui-a-tia te moana
Ko Ngāti Tuwharetoa te iwi
Ko Ngāti Turumākina te hapū
Ko Moata Tamaira tōku ingoa.

Greetings to all and welcome. My name is Moata Tamaira and I am currently undertaking a research project focused on the use of public libraries by whakapapa (Māori genealogy) researchers in New Zealand. This project is towards my completion of a Masters of Library and Information Studies, a qualification that will allow me to be known as a fully-fledged librarian!

The Kaupapa

Since I started working in libraries about 5 years ago I have become increasingly interested in the subject of family history and genealogy. I have made tentative steps at investigating my own here and there, and I have helped many library customers use library resources to fill in gaps in their family trees also. When it came time to choose a topic for my research project it seemed only natural that I choose something that I had experience of in my working life and something that interested me personally, and so I settled on the topic of whakapapa research.

In the course of investigating other work that had been done in this area (surprisingly little as it turns out) I found that an earlier Victoria University student, Heidi Kuglin, had done an interesting project on genealogists in public libraries and so I decided to attempt to do a similar study but specifically looking at those researchers looking for Māori ancestors. Some of the questions I that I wanted to find answers to included -

• Do whakapapa researchers fit the stereotypical mould associated with other genealogists of being (a) female and (b) elderly?
• Do whakapapa researchers always have Māori ancestry themselves? In my working life I have often found this not to be the case but wondered how common it might be.
• The increasing popularity of genealogy as a pastime is often explained by academics as an effect of "third generation syndrome" - wherein first generation immigrant families distance themselves from their roots in an attempt to assimilate within the predominant culture but by the third generation family members are seeking to re-acquire their lost heritage and roots. As an indigenous culture Māori cannot be said to be affected by this syndrome but could the post-war rural-urban shift have had a similar effect?
• Whakapapa is a key concept in Māori culture but Māori are often not high-users of library services. How can public libraries make their resources more appealing or easier to access for Māori users?
• Does the "digital divide" have an effect on how whakapapa researchers find their information?

If any of these questions interest you, please check out the further reading section.

The Plan

With my research project I aim to create a questionnaire which I will first circulate amongst colleagues and volunteers. After receiving feedback from these helpful volunteers a revised version will be distributed to public libraries in the four main centres. The questionnaire will be anonymous and confidential and I will be supplying a freepost address for respondents to send their completed forms to. I will then have to cross my fingers and hope that enough whakapapa researchers take the time to fill in the survey and return it so that I have enough data on which to base some conclusions and recommendations.

The questionnaire should be circulating during April 07. If you visit any of these libraries during this time please, please, PLEASE fill it out and send it back to me! My focus is on people who do whakapapa research, so even if you are not Māori yourself but do research on behalf of your Māori children/spouse/friend you can still fill out the questionnaire. You'll be contributing to the body of research on genealogists and their information needs. That's a good thing, really.

Recent additions to "Searching for Tūpuna" here.