Brian Rudman: It's a new era - let the library come to us

Brian Rudman

The old guard of the National Library establishment, headed by former chief librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Jim Traue, is leading a rearguard campaign against plans for an extensive remodelling of the institution.

The unkindest cut of all is his claim that the reconstruction plans - "now expected to cost $100 million" is part of a strategy of "Te Papa-isation".

Mr Traue seems strictly old school. He stands for what the existing fortress building in Molesworth St, Wellington represents - a Reserve Bank for the printed word. A fortress where researchers can fossick with the aid of dedicated staff and the hoi polloi can be kept at arm's length.

The new boys want to hack down the daunting concrete facade of the existing building - started in 1974 but not completed and occupied until 1987 - and replace it with see-through glass that reveals what's going on inside.

There will be interactive displays and booths full of computer screens to which the general public can flock for the library experience.

In a scathing attack recently in the Dominion Post, Mr Traue concluded: "Once the barbarians were knocking on the gates. Now they're inside the walls and in charge. Now they are called managers."

What this very Wellington fight seems to overlook is that from outside the capital, where the taxpayers who are paying for this highly expensive project live, the protagonists are missing the point.

The librarians all take it as read that extra space is needed for more books. And that this space has to be in Wellington. No one seems to have suggested that if the place is full, the solution might be not to buy any more books, magazines or newspapers.

It's seems blindingly obvious that old fogies like me and Mr Traue will be the last generation to have been brought up with the expectation that the written word comes packaged on sheets of paper. You have only to look at the recorded music industry to see what is round the corner.

As soon as the electronic book is perfected, it'll only be a matter of time before printed books become quaint relics to be displayed at, dare I suggest, Te Papa.

Instead of making space for kilometres of new shelving, why doesn't the National Library lead the way and, instead of demanding a paper copy of every publication produced in New Zealand, ask for the electronic version instead?

Every newspaper and book is prepared electronically as it is. All the librarians would be doing is taking the green approach and rejecting the old-fashioned packaging.

The librarians are obsessed with bringing "the public or tourists" into the building. They say that around the world, visitor numbers have rocketed after national libraries "redeveloped their buildings". The State Library of Queensland's visitors increased from 300,000 to 1.3 million in the first year.

We're also told the redevelopment will boost Wellington's construction and will "represent 30 per cent of the value of all building projects likely to proceed in the Wellington region in the next two years".

But in a year when the Prime Minister has pledged a multi-billion dollar spend-up on a fibre optic cable network to every New Zealander's front door, why are the librarians still expecting everyone to catch a bus or plane to Wellington to enjoy the National Library?

The oddest passage on the library's website promoting the changes is that while there will be increased digitalisation of the library collections, "the library building will also remain the only access point for a significant amount of digital heritage items. This in turn increases the space allocation and capability the library and its users require of its reading rooms".

As an Aucklander, why with a broadband connection at home and fibre optic cabling in the offing am I expected to go to Wellington to look at my heritage? The library promises in its "New Generation" strategic plan of "developing our services in Auckland to bring the library's wealth of information and expertise to the people of New Zealand". Here's its opportunity.

The promotional material talks about the construction work creating jobs for 400 people from 2009 to 2011. Imagine the tens of thousands of pages of newspapers and books that many people could digitise.

The library already has an online "Paperspast" section which makes "more than one million pages" of historic newspapers and periodicals. But it is limited, the only Auckland papers, for example, being the Daily Southern Cross (1843-1875), the New Zealander (1845-1852) and the Observer (1880-1909). From Waikato, there's the Te Aroha News (1883-1889) and Waikato Times (1873-1886). Where are the Auckland Star and the New Zealand Herald, for example?

To me, a new palatial Wellington book storage facility is so 19th century. We need a 21st century virtual National Library with a keyboard in every home.