Memories from the 1950s

The heavy canvas-bound accession volumes

 

I joined the staff at the beginning of 1953 as a 17year-old straight from College. I was ‘the Accessioner’ in the Catalogue Department which was upstairs in the corner room facing Hill Street.  I recorded all books in huge and very heavy ledger books which was fine for the new books but when I had to alter information on books in earlier volumes it was difficult to lift them down from the shelf.  Soon after I started I had to accession The Kinsey Report. I remember being constantly watched by the chief cataloguer to make sure I didn’t read anything that would harm my supposed innocence!  I  progressed to typing catalogue cards and of course filing them in the catalogue downstairs.  Eventually I went downstairs and did all the ordering of new books.

My six years working in the General Assembly Library were very happy ones.

 

My best wishes

Margaret Beauchamp (Mead)

 

Calling former WGA staff

The plans for the 150^th celebrations are progressing. Nearly 140 former staff have registered with the Library to receive information about the activities. If you are a former staff member and want to join us please contact the Library 150^th project group. Go to the about page on the blog to find the email contact address.

Zappo weaves his magic

The Library Social Committee recently organised a magical family night with Zappo the magician. Staff and their families were thrilled and amazed as a space robot materialised, a green alien visited, and a magical wand achieved the unimaginable. Highlights included a staff member being fitted with a space helmet that had an amazing and unbelievable result, and a friendly space bunny letting everyone pat it.

Issues and Returns

Nedra Shand (left) assists MP Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan at the issues desk

 

In the nineteenth and early twentieth century the Library used handwritten Day Books, Member’s Ledgers and Recess Ledgers to record book issues. Today circulation is controlled through a computer system. Between these two methods existed the system described by Jenny - a staff member in the 1960s.

 

 

 

 

‘My last position in the Library was as Issues Librarian in the main lobby downstairs. This was a great spot to observe all the comings and goings and you came to recognise many MP’s and their wives and the staff from their offices. Staff from other areas in the buildings also used the library as did ‘Recess Privilege’ holders when Parliament was not in session. We had quite a large fiction collection as well as biography and travel etc. It is really funny thinking back to the Issues system of the time. We noted items on large cards for MP’s and had ‘pockets’ for everyone else. We had a system of different coloured clips which were used week and week about and this was how we identified any overdue items. Parliament always went into a long summer recess and I used to send out baskets of books to the MP’s and their wives for holiday reading. You soon got to know the many tastes they had in reading …one particular wife was addicted to hospital romances.’

Memories from Western Australia

I started off as an office assistant toward the end of 1976. I got this job through the Labour Department, after returning from a trip to France to find out about what was happening in Cambodia at the time. I was hoping to be able to return to Cambodia, however I found out that the Pol Pot regime would not tolerate people like me. I received a Colombo Plan Scholarship to study in New Zealand for one year in 1975.

 

I was fortunate enough to obtain the job at the Library. This job led me to a position as a Library Assistant in the Catalogue section. During my time at the Library, I was very much touched by the many kind gestures of the Chief Librarian and his Deputy. I was allowed to take a leave of absence, not just once, but three times, to go to work in the refugee camps and try to get my family out of Cambodia. People showered me with their generosity of spirit, which helped me tremendously to cope with the fact that I did not know what happened to my family in Cambodia. When they finally arrived in New Zealand as refugees in 1980 and 1981, Library staff provided great assistance through the donation of clothing and other necessities.

 

Many fond memories are flooding back when I think of the time I worked in the Library. I am forever grateful to all.

 

Tholla Chan, 1976 to 1981.

Somewhat quizzical?

The winning team

The Library Social Committee organises various social events during the year with the most recent being a Quiz Night. The winning team was ‘I am Smartacus’ followed by ‘The Mothers’ and ‘Turnbull’s Third Storey’. Teams were asked questions under various categories. These were: general knowledge; movies; geography; the New Zealand Parliament; and music. Other events have included a ‘Bake-Off’, a petanque challenge, an Easter egg hunt, and Christmas dinners where a surprise guest dressed in red with a sack of parcels has been known to mysteriously arrive.

 

 

What MPs read

EP, 11 March 1958

From time to time the reading habits of MPs become the subject of public scrutiny. The library used to keep publications prohibited as being of an immoral or seditious nature. These were kept behind a curtain in the Chief Librarian’s office, to be issued to MPs on request. Flamboyant Labour MP and Minister Mabel Howard seemed to have a peculiar fascination for this, having been mischievously shown some by fellow Labour members. In the mid 1950s she threatened to expose this collection and its readership in the House.

 

In 1958 she alleged that nineteen out of twenty books in the parliamentary library were murder stories. Truth blew up the story by surveying issue cards and suggested that she herself had a personal interest in ‘ghost stories and tender romance’. It published photos of previous Prime Minister Holland captioned ‘Gin and Lilies’ and of Hilda Ross by ‘Lovers Disturbed’ – titles which they had borrowed. Holyoake obviously enjoyed crime thrillers as indicated by ‘Fingers of Fear’, ‘Shroud of Darkness’ and ‘Give Me the Knife’. The Library Committee excluded Truth’s reporters from the library for a year.

 

The library is no longer required to keep prohibited literature. It is understood that it was quietly removed from the shelves and buried at the rubbish tip!

Memories from the Netherlands

 

Johan Stoffels (right) assists MP George Gair

I worked at the General Assembly Library from August 1983 until August 1986. First as deputy head of the reference section and later as head. I have since returned to the Netherlands and sadly enough will not be able to attend the reunion. This blog is wonderful alternative way of participating. I often wonder what has become of the wonderful colleagues during that period.

I look back upon this period with a lot of warmth. Not only in a professional sense did I learn a lot but for me as a a Dutchman there was no better way to get to the heart of what makes New Zealand such a fantastic country.

The late night sessions were exciting. Hearing the information you had just provided being used in the House is so rewarding. The chats with the MP’s when you were setting up an item from the Radio and Television service. Politicians whose names I would still hear about years later when back here in the Netherlands.

In that period we produced a Guide to services for Parliament. With for example photographs of Doug Graham or George Gair to illustrate some of the services. I still page through it now and then bringing back so many memories.

Not sure if it is still the case but on Fridays it was a great custom to go to the bar in the Beehive and mingle with journalists and other Parliamentary workers. Obviously we saw it as part of great PR for our services.

Remember the banned books in the office of the Chief Librarian behind the curtain? Always fascinated me. “Forward base”, the upstairs stacks I could go on for hours so many fond memories of a wonderful building. Some years ago I did return to New Zealand but it was no longer possible to just walk in and visit. I had to peep through various windows.

I hope more people will post information.

Johan, Amsterdam June 2008

Processing the news

As a 17-year old straight from school I joined the staff in 1954 under W.S Wauchop, the Parliamentary Librarian of the time. My first job was entering news items on index cards from the “Evening Post” and “Dominion” newspapers … now, with the advantage of computerisation, the mind boggles at the inefficiency of such a system. I remember quaking when Jim Wilson [Chief Librarian from 1955] came looking for something on the index cards and hoping I had made a sensible choice as to where to enter it so it could be easily retrieved. I always remember feeling very proud to work in such a handsome building and it was a pleasure to walk through the swing doors each day. (JD)

 

The newspaper card index was vital to the library’s reference service. Established from 1926 for Wellington papers it was over time expanded to other major centres. Staff spent much time laboriously noting entries by hand for a myriad of subjects; the catalogue grew to fill many catalogue cabinets. In 1989 the cards were replaced by an electronic index but the cards are still preserved for reference purposes and form an extremely valuable historical resource.

The infernal machine

Reading room, early 1980s

As a youngish researcher in the early 1980s I remember coming into the General Assembly Library. Upstairs, having ordered newspapers two days in advance, you could not take them downstairs to the photocopier – but salvation was at hand, if only you could master the infernal machine, an ancient portable device akin to a clothes press in a laundry. As far as I remember none of the staff would go near it – and wished you the best of luck! First you positioned the newspaper page on a pad, fed special heat-sensitive paper into the machine, brought down the heating pad which was on a spring-loaded shaft, held it down with steady pressure, and set the timer by guesswork. If 1 minute produced a dark brown to black mess you set the timer to 45 seconds and so on. Once you got the gist of the machine and it warmed up you got into a rhythm and the results were semi-legible. In those days any reproduction, however poor, was a considerable advance on endless taking of notes and I learned to appreciate its idiosyncracies. Does anyone else remember dealing with this particular device? (JM)