Helen Smaill's Photograph Album: Traces of care in the mission archive

For my thirtieth birthday my mother gave me a photograph album she had compiled using an online template that was then printed and sent to her home. She had spent hours looking through old photographic prints that she keeps in a cupboard in her study and in large sealed plastic tubs under her bed as well as digital images she stores on an external hard drive. The photographs were scanned and copied and then lovingly ordered, juxtaposed and captioned to tell the story of me, my place in my family and my adventures out in the world. I was living in Australia at the time, working on my PhD dissertation, and the arrival of this book of personal and shared memories moved me to tears. While the album I discuss in this chapter differs in significant ways to the album my mother made for me in 2011, like my album it was produced by a mother from photographs that were taken, collected, gifted and then lovingly kept safe over the years. In both albums we see the work of women as transmitters of family memory, taking care to preserve images that connect past and present.Peer Reviewe

From glass plate to album: New Hebrides mission photographs in the album of Reverend William Veitch Milne

Mission photography and missionary photographers have been neglected in histories of the medium in New Zealand, as have photograph albums. The wealth of mission photographs held at the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (PCANZ) Archives in Dunedin from the mission fields of New Zealand, the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), China and India have yet to be thoroughly explored and studied. These photographs, the majority of which were taken by missionaries working in the field, were viewed by many New Zealanders in the form of postcards and magic-lantern slides, as reproductions in mission periodicals and newspapers, as well as in albums compiled by mission organisations and missionaries. It is this final manifestation of the mission photograph that interests me for, depending on its placement and framing on the album page as well as the uses to which the album was put, a photograph can take on meanings that go beyond the original intention behind its taking. In this essay I will briefly examine one such mission album compiled by Reverend William Veitch Milne, missionary on Nguna from 1905 to 1937.Peer Reviewe

Exposing New Guinea: The early photographers, W. G. Lawes and J. W. Lindt

This thesis explores the early photographic representation of southeast New Guinea through a close examination of the lives and work of two of the first Europeans to fix the region and its inhabitants on glass plate negatives. It has been acknowledged that the London Missionary Society missionary William G. Lawes and the professional photographer John W. Lindt created images of New Guinea that have become iconic through their repeated reproduction in print media, their global dispersal, and replication by subsequent visitors-with-cameras to the region. However, the immediate circumstances of their photographs’ production have received little attention in the literature. Focussing on the nature of Lawes’s and Lindt’s photographic encounters, traces of which can be read from the images themselves as well as their writings, reveals the significance of the camera as well as the agency of Papuans in shaping the photographic record. The contemporary framings of their New Guinea images are also considered in order to understand fully the different trajectories for the promotion and influence of their photographs, which are now equally widely dispersed in archive collections around the world. In the chapters that follow I reconstitute the histories of Lawes’s and Lindt’s New Guinea photographs in order to better understand their production and circulation. The result of this investigation is a more nuanced visual history that encompasses the specific encounters, networks, technology, and texts that shaped the early photographic record of New Guinea

Two New Hebrides Mission Photograph Albums An Object-story of Story-objects

This paper focuses on two photograph albums held at the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand archives in Dunedin, New Zealand, that relate to the Church's New Hebrides (Vanuatu) mission field. While it is acknowledged that photographs are valuabl

The Photograph Albums of the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission to the New Hebrides

While it has been acknowledged that photographs are valuable sources for the historian, photograph albums have yet to receive the same level of critical attention. This thesis traces the social biographies of seven photograph albums held at the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand archives in order to understand how the narratives contained inside are constructed, as well as to uncover the trajectories of the albums through different social and physical spaces. The albums relate to the Presbyterian Church’s New Hebrides (Vanuatu) mission field, which was established in 1869, and all date to the early twentieth century. While the majority of the photographs contained in these albums were taken with an official function in mind, namely the documentation and propagation of the mission work, it is the ways in which they are ordered, juxtaposed and framed on the pages that determines their meaning. This shift in focus from the contents of photographs to their placement in a visual narrative constructed by a missionary working in the New Hebrides or a mission organisation in New Zealand leads to a classification of the albums that ranges from public to private – from a presentation album compiled to garner support and raise funds for the mission, to a more personal storehouse of images of friends and family in the islands. Further, by approaching these albums as not only collections of photographs but also as objects that traversed certain social and physical spaces it has been possible to uncover the changing meanings attached to them over time. What this thesis demonstrates is that the seven New Hebrides photograph albums are more complex historical objects than they may appear at first glance

The Photograph Albums of the New Zealand Presbyterian Mission to the New Hebrides

While it has been acknowledged that photographs are valuable sources for the historian, photograph albums have yet to receive the same level of critical attention. This thesis traces the social biographies of seven photograph albums held at the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand archives in order to understand how the narratives contained inside are constructed, as well as to uncover the trajectories of the albums through different social and physical spaces. The albums relate to the Presbyterian Church’s New Hebrides (Vanuatu) mission field, which was established in 1869, and all date to the early twentieth century. While the majority of the photographs contained in these albums were taken with an official function in mind, namely the documentation and propagation of the mission work, it is the ways in which they are ordered, juxtaposed and framed on the pages that determines their meaning. This shift in focus from the contents of photographs to their placement in a visual narrative constructed by a missionary working in the New Hebrides or a mission organisation in New Zealand leads to a classification of the albums that ranges from public to private – from a presentation album compiled to garner support and raise funds for the mission, to a more personal storehouse of images of friends and family in the islands. Further, by approaching these albums as not only collections of photographs but also as objects that traversed certain social and physical spaces it has been possible to uncover the changing meanings attached to them over time. What this thesis demonstrates is that the seven New Hebrides photograph albums are more complex historical objects than they may appear at first glance

Listening and learning: myths and misperceptions about postgraduate students and library support

Purpose The University of Otago Library conducted a review of its postgraduate support program in 2018. The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a questionnaire and follow up focus group undertaken as part of the review. It highlights postgraduate student preferences for learning about support services, their ideas on marketing these services effectively and the kind of engagement that works best for them. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was developed and deployed in July 2018. It contained 20 questions and was emailed to 2,430 enrolled Otago doctorate and master’s students by the University of Otago (GRS). A total of 564 responded, 391 completing all questions. A follow-up focus group was held in August 2018. Quantitative data were collected and analyzed using Qualtrics software and qualitative data were coded and analyzed using NVivo software. Findings Respondents highlighted the difficulty they have learning what support services are available to them. In some cases, they also feel a stigma when seeking help because of their status as postgraduate students. They suggest practical ways libraries can better reach out to them. The findings confirm previous literature about the need for libraries to improve marketing of their services to postgraduate students, communicate via supervisors and departments where possible and provide a variety of engagement options. Originality/value Before (re)developing postgraduate programs, libraries can gain valuable insights and test assumptions by surveying students.Peer Reviewe

ORCID Communications Webinar Video: Asia-Pacific

<div>This is a video of the ORCID Communications Webinar, session 2 (Asia-Pacific), recorded June 20, 2018. </div><div><br></div><div>The ORCID Communications Webinar shares effective practices in encouraging adoption and use of ORCID iDs by researchers in your community. Topics covered include:</div><div><br></div><div>* Key messages about ORCID (by audience, where applicable)</div><div>* Successful techniques for delivering those messages</div><div>* Useful resources</div><div>* Community examples of ORCID communications</div><div><br></div

ORCID Communications Webinar 2018

<div>The ORCID Communications Webinar shares effective practices in encouraging adoption and use of ORCID iDs by researchers in your community. Topics covered include:</div><div><br></div><div>* Key messages about ORCID (by audience, where applicable)</div><div>* Successful techniques for delivering those messages</div><div>* Useful resources</div><div>* Community examples of ORCID communications</div><div><br></div