Scooper on libraries

The Community Archive launched by Archives New Zealand last week is described as a "hub where organisations and individuals can register their archives and manuscripts and a place for all New Zealanders to learn more about our history and heritage."

This used to be the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts (NRAM) and gives the New Zealand community a place where they can list the valuable holdings in their collections. Archives, museums, archives, trusts, churches, historical societies, amd individuals can list and describe the collectiosn they hold with contact details. About 200 contributiors are listed.

A great one is the Dunedin Student Flat Names Archive  - this is a collection of photographs of named student flats in Dunedin. The photos depict the flats and their name boards. There are approximately 180 images that have been taken since 2000. E.g. there is the Baghdad Backpackers, Avocado Salad and the Pink Flat the Door (?).

You can see a list of Auckland City Libraries' archive collections here .The library lists 58 collections:

• Voluntary group archives, clubs, societies, etc.
• Religious archives
• Business archives
• Art or literature
• Military records
• Personal papers
• School records
• Maori archives
• Central government records
• Local government

My only quibble re this great initiative is around the name of The Community Archive - the name implies that this is a place where you can see or load the actual archives, manuscripts or collections referred to, whereas it is actually a place to simply list your archives or collections. It is great that you can do the listing yourself directly onto the website but the 'hub' is just a list of lists. It also lists archives and collections of national significance as well as those of local significance. The word 'community' is used to mean 'local', i.e. archives not held by central government agencies. The logo now includes the words National Register of Archives and Manuscripts underneath it. The old NRAM name had the word National in it which was a good indication of coverage. It may have been a bit of a boring name but it was explicit in its meaning.  Maybe it should have been called the National register of community archives or Community archive register or New Zealand Archives, much along the samelines as the New Zealand Libraries website (previously known as Te Puna Search) lists publications currently held in every New Zealand library. However, New Zealand Libraries does not include the holdings of individuals, which is more of a LibraryThing role.  LibraryThing describes itself as "A home for your books. Enter what you're reading or your whole library. It's an easy, library-quality catalog - a community of 700,000 book lovers".

Maybe an ArchiveThing?

The Community Archive also risks being confused with Kete which creates an online community archive into which you can upload your photos, documents, archives.