by Christine Dann
The National Librarian Rachel Esson told us at the end of last month: “We are now in advanced discussions with an overseas digitisation partner.”
In her OPC [Overseas Published Collection] Update on 28 June, she went on to say it was her view that “…digitisation will safeguard New Zealanders’ access to the titles from the OPC now and in the future.”
This strikes Book Guardians Aotearoa (BGA) as a weird thing to say, when clearly New Zealanders’ access to the books they paid for has been safeguarded ever since the creation of the National Library by keeping them on shelves, in New Zealand. But things were to get even weirder…
ROSA WOODS/Stuff
Macnaught was born in Scotland. Starting in his hometown at the public library, Macnaught, now 69, says he had no great career ambitions then – “You certainly don’t go into libraries to make lots of money.” But he did have a lingering curiosity about all aspects of human knowledge. He supposes he did become more ambitious through the years, spending 14 years at Gateshead Council, in northeast England, as director of libraries and arts, and later head of cultural development. In the 1980s Gateshead was primarily a working-class town on the southern bank of the River Tyne. It was experimenting with technology to improve the lives of its residents, including a home shopping and information service in partnership with supermarket chain Tesco.