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!