Small beginnings

Woohoo! On Friday there was one completed questionnaire in the dropbox here at work (Christchurch City Libraries, Central). So that's one!

Keep them coming people!

QUESTIONNAIRE NOW AVAILABLE!

The kind folk (namely Bruce Mathers) at the NZSG Māori Interest Group have now posted a PDF version of my questionnaire on their webpage.

If you can't get to these libraries below to pick up a copy there then you can download a copy, print it out, fill it in, and send it to me freepost. Cheers!

• Auckland City Libraries, Central City Library, Auckland Research Centre


• Manukau Libraries, Central Research Library


• Wellington City Libraries, Central City library, New Zealand Collection


• Christchurch City Libraries, Central City library, Aotearoa New Zealand Centre


• Dunedin Public Libraries, City library, 3rd floor

Grrrr - unexpected hitches already

I popped into the Postshop to buy the pre-paid post bags that my helpers (lovely helpers) at the public libraries will use to send back any questionnaires that people may leave in a dropbox. I'd sussed out that I wanted the A4 pre-paid bag that cost $5.30 with the postage included, as I'd been in there 2 days ago scoping out the sizes and prices etc.

Got in there this morning and the whole display is different and a staff member was putting out new stock. He informed me that there were now no such thing as pre-paid bags and that I would have to buy a bag, weigh it, and buy postage to put on it. Which is all very nice, but I DON'T KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH IT IS GOING TO WEIGH - THAT'S WHY I WAS BUYING A PRE-PAID BAG!!!

So now I will have to "guestimate" how much will be in the bag. I will have to err on the side of caution, therefore probably paying more than I would otherwise have had to. How is this an improved service to customers? Well, it's not is it?

Now I'm kicking myself for not having bought them when I was in there last week. Story of my life.

UPDATE - ...and then at lunchtime the pre-paid bags were back. Possibly NZ Post man was lying, or didn't know, or at seeing my dejected little face decided to put them back. Who knows?

On your marks. Get set. Go!

Well, I have now got the official Human Ethics Committee stamp of approval. I'll be posting questionnaires out to participating libraries tomorrow (during my lunchbreak probably).

You whakapapa researchers all make sure you pick one up, fill it in, and send it back to me!

I've also got a revised due date of 1 October.

A-Labelling we will go

Still waiting on Human Ethics Committee approval but in the meantime I thought I would make good use of my time by broadening my stationery horizons.

That's right people, today, for the first time ever, I, printed LABELS!!

(Pause for applause)

As I'll be supplying freepost self-addressed envelopes along with the questionnaires at the distributing libraries I thought some nice address labels might be the go. I got myself down to Whitcoulls at lunchtime and bought myself a pack of Avery labels and have just finished sticking them onto some self-sealing business envelopes (oh the glamorous life I do lead!).

I would recommend doing them yourself if you are in a similar situation. I went to a copy/print place which shall remain nameless (but it rhymes with mintstop) and they quoted me more to get 100 labels printed than it costs for a packet of 350 labels. I guess the extra is for the time and energy to format the print job etc. but given that I have never printed a label before in my life, and that it took me less than 10 mins to figure out how to do it (who knew that Word "Help" would finally come in useful one day, or that the product codes for Avery labels are already there for you to choose? Revelatory stuff), I would say that you're best just doing it yourself. That way you save a bit of money, and have the satisfaction of knowing that you can print labels anytime you want. What you do with this newfound power is up to you. Just make sure you use your printing skills for good, not evil.

Hurry up and wait

Well, I submitted my Human Ethics Committee approval form on Friday so it should be a matter of days before I get the go ahead.

As soon as that happens I will be distributing questionnaires to the libraries involved and then this project will really be up and running. After that the only left to do is everything!

Slight change to freepost address

The lovely Susan has very generously let me have the use of her P O Box for receipt of my questionnaires. I was going to use the one here at work but because of the amount of mail received through that box and various other accounting things it turned out to be a bit of a hassle.

So the address I will be using is -

Freepost "Whakapapa"

PO Box 26-121

North Avon

Christchurch 8148

My sincerest thanks to Susan, and Jane the NZ post lady (who sorted the whole thing out for me).

Manukau Libraries is on board!

In addition to the libraries I mentioned in my earlier post the good folk at the Manukau Central Research Library have agreed to distribute my questionnaire from there as well.

The wheels on this research machine are finally moving. Yee ha!

Congratulations!

My colleague and fellow MLIS student Susan has received her marks back for her research project on New migrant services in public libraries. She seems happy and relieved which is something I hope to be once I have finished. If I hadn't had to suffer the "administrative delays" that I did then I would be finished now too. Sigh.

Pilot survey underway!

Well finally there is some movement with my research project. I have begun circulating the pilot survey amongst members of Te Rōpū Whakahua - Māori in Libraries and Information Management and in a couple of weeks the public survey should be ready to go in the following libraries -

• Auckland City Libraries, Central City Library, Auckland Research Centre
• Wellington City Libraries, Central City library, New Zealand Collection
• Christchurch City Libraries, Central City library, Aotearoa New Zealand Centre
• Dunedin Public Libraries, City library, 3rd floor

I will keep you posted!

Administrative Delays

I am currently waiting for Human Ethics Committee approval so that I can start my research. Hopefully it will be soon but in the meantime I will not be able to distribute my survey. If you would like to take part in my research don't worry, in the words of that great scholar Rachel Hunter, "it won't happen overnight but it WILL happen." I'm just not sure when at this point. I will keep you posted.

Your experiences

As part of this research project it would be really helpful to get feedback from whakapapa researchers on what using libraries has been like for them.

• Are you totally comfortable in the public library environment and know your way around?
• Would you rather go anywhere but a public library to do your whakapapa research? Why?
• Have you, in the course of doing your whakapapa research, had a really great or really terrible experience at the library? Why was it great or terrible?
• Are there specific resources that you'd like your public library to have that it's not currently providing?
• Do you think that staff at public libraries have enough experience and training in the area of whakapapa research?
• Do you use library catalogues to help you find things in the library?
• What do you think public libraries should be doing to make life easier for people researching whakapapa?
• Anything else you're dying to get off your chest about public libraries and whakapapa research?

If any of these questions strike a chord with you, then please post a comment below or email me.

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.