Strengthening our national archives and libraries

  • Hon Grant Robertson
  • Hon Tracey Martin
Arts, Culture and Heritage Internal Affairs

A new programme of work is underway to strengthen the contribution our national archives and libraries can make to New Zealand’s culture and democracy, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin and the Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson said on Wednesday.

“The National Library of New Zealand, Archives New Zealand and the audio-visual archive Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision have vital roles in our democratic and cultural infrastructure,” says Grant Robertson.

“Tracey Martin and I are leading the work programme to consider options to help these institutions to better meet the challenges they’re facing and to take advantage of the opportunities that a digital environment and fresh thinking might provide.

“Our guiding objectives are to ensure:

  •  these institutions support an accountable, open and transparent democracy
  •  records documenting New Zealand’s history and culture are collected and preserved as taonga for current and future generations, and are as accessible as possible for all New Zealanders, and
  •  the memory of the New Zealand government is managed and preserved for future generations.

“While these three national archival and library institutions have distinct roles they have much in common, including storing and preserving physical collections, managing digital information and increasing access to information through digitisation,” Grant Robertson said.

Tracey Martin said the costs associated with the physical storage of the various library and archival material was a major pressure on the institutions, so it made sense to look at the value of their work to the country as well as how they could better work together. 

Maintaining the independence of the Chief Archivist in New Zealand’s constitutional framework would be a key consideration of this work.

“The Chief Archivist sets the framework for government recordkeeping and for regulating the creation and disposal of public records,” Tracey Martin said.

 “We will specifically consider options to ensure the Chief Archivist has sufficient independence to be an effective regulator of the public sector.

 “This is important work and we will be talking with stakeholders with an interest in our national archival and library institutions to inform this process.”

The Ministers will work with the Minister of State Services Hon Chris Hipkins, Minister for Māori Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta, and the Minister for Government Digital Services and Associate Minister of State Services Hon Clare Curran, and report back to Cabinet by the end of 2018.

The terms of reference for the work programme will be available soon on the Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage website and the Department of Internal Affairs website.