Collection growth until 2030 and beyond
Determining our future collection growth, a.k.a my struggles with maths
National Library Director Documentary Heritage Mark Crookston
I confess I only got 14% in 7th form statistics. I think that was after it got rounded up, which should fill you with confidence that I’m the right guy to be figuring out exactly what the National Library collection growth projections will be up until 2030 and then to 2045.
This is needed for the Tāhuhu Programme to help us determine exactly what spaces are required for the new repository based in Levin and any changes required for the National Library building (the Heke Puna Library project).
It’s genuinely interesting work, involving analysis of existing collection growth against prediction of trends in publishing (shape, size, length of NZ published material), and alongside projections of when the digital tipping point will come for our significant paper/analogue archival collections – manuscripts, organisational archives, photography etc. (short answer – the paper will be flowing in for a while yet).
I’m looking to finalise this thinking in the coming weeks.
The author trying to figure out our collection growth to 2045. Luckily, he has had excellent input from Peter Whitehead, Amy Cosgrove, Shobna Hillman, Kevin Moffatt and Steve Knight.
Counting – a job in itself
Archives NZ and Tāhuhu Holdings SME Sandra Falconer
People don’t seem to believe me when I say my job is mostly counting boxes and shelves, but it really is. My very first piece of work for Tāhuhu was measuring and counting every storage unit in the building. This was combined with earlier data from Archives NZ projects to estimate the quantity of physical records still with government agencies, waiting to be transferred to our care.
There’s the aspiration to fix our current storage problems. We will be storing some materials differently; we’ve allowed for a 400% increase in plans storage after packaging the plans more appropriately. A survey of all the framed works was completed by a paintings conservator who measured every frame and confirmed whether it was strong enough to hang on a specialist rack. Kia Rite Archives Team have measured every roll plan, oversize volume, and a few more things besides.
Luckily, I quite like spreadsheets so we’re able to combine all this information to help us work out what size shelves will be the best fit, and how many of each size we need. These numbers have been used to estimate how long it will take us to move everything (up to 2 years and over 7 million documents) and to plan the storage fit-out of the new buildings. Whew! We have a few years to prepare and a top-notch team complete this work.
Some of you may recognise the Inch Worm song from Sesame Street. Just like the inch worm our counting doesn’t end, but our arithmetic should take us far.