Saturday, November 10, 2007

5.4.4 Librarian produced materials used by whakapapa researchers

Respondents were asked which kinds of librarian produced materials they had found useful in their whakapapa research (Appendix 2, Question 12). Respondents ticked 115 items (including those written in themselves), resulting in an average of 3.6 items per respondent (Table 4). This is a slightly higher level than the findings in Kuglin’s study, though this may be due to additional options being provided for this question in this study. Respondents were given 3 additional options, a guide on the library website about the library’s whakapapa sources, a video/DVD about the library’s whakapapa sources, and a guided tour of the collection containing whakapapa sources. These options were added as the researcher felt that whakapapa researchers might be making use of information available from library websites. Also Kuglin’s study found that 70% of respondents were interested in watching an introductory video about genealogy sources in the library if one were available and the researcher wondered if this was actually occurring. Finally, guided tours were offered in the public library environment in which the researcher works and this seemed a reasonable addition to the list of options available.
Table 4. Librarian produced materials used by whakapapa researchers

Interestingly respondents in this study seem to have a preference for a printed list of sources arranged by geographic location. This may be due to the fact that many whakapapa sources are tied closely to tribal rohe/regions and that whakapapa researchers find sources grouped thematically by geography, particularly useful. Guided tours were also ranked quite highly, and this may support the idea that Māori library customers appreciate face to face interaction with librarians while conducting their research. Information on library websites also seem to be well used by whakapapa researchers suggesting that this may be an area that librarians should continue to develop. Very few respondents had found an introductory video or DVD useful to their research but it is not clear whether these are available in many libraries. This could be an area for further study.

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