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Newsroom
6 days ago
- Business
- Newsroom
How to destroy 500,000 books
The trucks and the industrial strength paper shredders with rows of 330 sharp-toothed knives on spherical roller bearings operated by hydraulic drives are set to roll out this week and destroy 500,000 books from the National Library—an end point in a long, controversial policy which will forever be regarded by many critics with despair and disgust. Objections to the massive cull managed to prevent the shipping of the books to the Internet Archive. Instead, the books will be destroyed on New Zealand soil. The library announced on Wednesday, 'We have decided to securely dispose of the remaining items, starting immediately.' The speed of it came too fast for any further challenges from Book Guardians Aotearoa (BGA), which gained the support of Helen Clark and Chris Finlayson in its various attempts over the years to keep the books intact. 'They're trying to make it a fait accompli – people who are honest and honourable don't have to rush at things like this sneakily, they know they are doing wrong,' said Warwick Jordan, owner of the secondhand bookstores Hard to Find. He offered to buy the original consignment of 600,000 unwanted books for $160,000 (plus GST). He wrote to the Library in 2020 to outline his proposal. 'They never ever showed any interest in even discussing it.' ReadingRoom spoke with Mark Crookston, the National Library's director of content services, on Friday afternoon. The only object of the interview was to determine the physical intimacies of shredding or destroying 500,000 books, the largest number of culled books in the history of the government's archive library. He said: 'Things are ready to go.' Commercial providers are set to collect 200,000 books from the Wellington premises, and the remaining 300,000 from Whanganui, held in a former police facility. BGA and its allies have tried to stop this happening for six years. In an email, BGA spokesperson Michael Pringle said, 'We suspect that the books will be burnt or, more likely, end up in landfill, as they cannot be recycled as the covers would have to be ripped off. A most symbolic end for them: rotting in a hole in the ground, like so much intellectual life in New Zealand.' Mark Crookston from the National Library said, 'My understanding is that there's recycling at the end of the process.' Industrial shredders include the Twin Shaft Shredder Genox M Series-M300-1200. Its strong blades manufactured from high quality steels are suitable for shredding tough materials. 'Successive governments (both National and Labour-led) have supported this appalling decision all the way to the final destruction of the books,' said Michael Pringle. 'BGA is very sad that it has come to this, and sees it as a severe blow to our national culture and heritage, and to independent scholarship and research. It's not what national and state libraries in the other democratic countries of the world are doing – they are increasing not decreasing their collections – and it exemplifies the lack of interest in and support for arts, heritage, culture and independent research which has been typical of every New Zealand government in the 21st century.' Mark Crookston was asked about the readiness of the 500,000 books to be destroyed. He said, 'Some will be in boxes, some will still be shelves near the loading docks. Some may have already started going. And the providers will take them to where their machinery is. It's a secure document destruction certified process.' Warwick Jordan from Hard to Find claimed, 'They are NOT recycling them. They are going to landfill. Recycling requires all plastic covers to be removed and treated separately – I guarantee no-one is doing that. The whole thing's a lie. Got anyone with a camera who can follow the trucks? They will be going to landfill.' The identity of the commercial firm which will destroy the 500,000 books is confidential. They may have access to a machine such as the Wiema ZM 40 four-shaft shredder. Its cutting configuration comes with two cutting shafts. The shafts can be configured according to the desired particle size, and the width of cutting discs can be variably adapted. Pringle from BGA said, 'The collections of the National Library were built up over successive generations by such great librarians as Geoffrey Alley. To see their destruction now at the hands of those who understand so little of our culture, heritage and history is a grievous act of cultural vandalism, which future generations of New Zealanders will lament.' Crookston from the National Library said, 'It's not something we've taken undertaken lightly but that message has been quite hard to sort of get across.' The library dumped a tranche of 50,000 books at a Lions Club sale in Trentham in 2020. Jordan flew down and bought 50 boxes, stored in two shipping containers at the back of his Auckland store. He told the National Library that year, 'About two thirds of them are useful to us which indicates that about 400,000 of the 600,000 books you want to destroy would likely be useful too.' He estimated the total retail value was 'in the millions', although it would take a long, long time to achieve that. He wrote to the National Library in 2020, 'Just housing 600,000 books would be a big ask for us but it feels like my duty to try and find a way, and if you are serious about them getting to the most homes and being preserved for future generations we are probably the only real option.' The process of shredding books is called hogging. Books go up a conveyor belt and into a chute, where they come out ground. Then the shredded books are baled and sold to paper mills to be turned into other types of paper products. 'Once destroyed,' said Pringle from BGA, 'this taonga collection can never be put back together. It is lost to New Zealand forever.' The National Library's Crookston sounded quite wan in his interview on Friday afternoon. He was asked, 'How are you feeling? Are you OK? You sound kind of tired.' 'It's been a long week,' he said. 'Has it been full-on getting the books ready to destroy?' 'It's more–I'd just rather not say. It's just–I've just had to talk to a lot of people about this process and a lot of people have been really upset about it.' 'Thank God it's Friday, eh?' 'Indeed.'
Scotsman
6 days ago
- General
- Scotsman
Inside plans to transform the century-old National Library in Edinburgh founded by McVitie's biscuit money
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It was founded by a generous grant from the entrepreneur behind one of Britain's much-loved biscuits and a donation of books from the Faculty of Advocates, which could no longer manage its extensive collection. Now the National Library of Scotland (NLS) is marking its 100th year as it unveils plans for a major overhaul of its landmark Edinburgh building to create a weddings and events space and 'let in light' to the 1950s construction. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The National Library of Scotland is based on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh. | NLS The library is planning a major appeal to revamp its George IV Bridge building to "open it up" to the public. Due to be unveiled in its next five-year strategic review in September, Amina Shah, national librarian and chief executive of NLS, said the project would involve creating a new, flexible, 'open' space in the library where large scale events could be held. Plans are also likely to include ways of making the building, which she described as 'austere', more welcoming to passing visitors, including the creation of more natural light and increased accessibility. The National Library's history The existing building was finished and officially opened in 1956, more than three decades after the concept of the National Library was established in an Act of Parliament - and following years of delays in the wake of the Second World War. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The collection was boosted by a £100,000 donation from Sir Alexander Grant, managing director of digestive biscuit maker McVitie and Price, followed by a second grant of the same size to help fund the new building. It is believed that by the time the plans eventually came to fruition, architectural tastes had changed, making the new construction, on the site of the former Sheriff Court in Edinburgh, less well received. Ms Shah said: 'When you walk past it, it's austere. It's a listed building, so it's difficult, but we need to let light in.' She referenced a motto used by Fife-born industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who donated millions to establish free public libraries around the world. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She said: '[Andrew] Carnegie said 'let there be light'. There is this whole idea about libraries and light, but actually our building looks closed from the outside. We want to open it up. 'We feel really passionately and strongly that Scotland deserves a beautiful national library space.' However, Ms Shah would not be drawn on the potential cost of the project, saying it was still in its early stages. She recently consulted colleagues at Cambridge University library, which held a capital appeal for a staged project, which she said could be used as a blueprint for the plan. 'A lot,' she answered in response to a question about the cost. 'I think the key is for us to think about stages. We could do bits and pieces in a planned and organised way, rather than asking for an infinite amount of money, which it might be difficult to achieve. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We will definitely start looking at that seriously in our next financial strategy. Just as our ancestors decided it would be a good idea to have a National Library without a building at all, just £100,000 to start, they built that on a conversation and an ambition and certainly, we'll be thinking about what the library could do in the future.' Amina Shah is national librarian and chief executive of the National Library of Scotland. | NLS Ms Shah hopes the library can shake off an historic image of it as a closed, formal building for specialist researchers. Visitor numbers to the library have increased by 30 per cent since the previous five-year strategy was launched in 2020. However, Ms Shah feels there is more to be done. She said: 'We're keen to have a more welcoming space on George IV Bridge. The main building of the National Library was built at a time where it was about keeping books in and people out. But now, we want to be really much more welcoming, so that it's not intimidating for people. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'The library and its collections belong to everybody in Scotland, and we want to make sure that everybody knows that, and that they feel welcome and we reach out to them.' Work has already begun to change the public impression of the library, including the creation of a new 'treasures gallery', established in 2022, which allows the library to rotate some of its collection on display to visitors and tourists. NLS has also recently begun to tour rare and interesting books around Scotland, including Mary, Queen of Scots' last letter, which will next year be loaned to Perth Museum. How a donation from a biscuit entrepreneur allowed the creation of the National Library of Scotland The history of the National Library of Scotland dates back to the late 1600s, when the Advocates Library was founded in Edinburgh. Under the 1710 Copyright Act, the library was given the legal right to claim a copy of every book published in Britain. It subsequently added books and manuscripts to the collections by purchase as well as legal deposit, creating a national library in all, but name. However, by the 1920s, the upkeep of such a major collection was too much for a private body. With an endowment of £100,000 provided by Sir Alexander Grant, managing director of digestive biscuit maker McVitie and Price, the library's contents were presented to the nation. The National Library of Scotland was formally constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1925. Sir Alexander gave a further £100,000 — making his combined donations the equivalent of around £6 million today — for a new library building to be built on George IV Bridge. Government funding was secured that matched Sir Alexander's donation. Construction started on the building in 1938. However, work was halted due to the Second World War. The library was finally officially opened in 1956. 'It's just a connection with history,' Ms Shah said. 'When people actually see the live document, they get really excited and thrilled by it. So we're really excited to dip our toe in the water of this new way of working with local libraries and museums.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Money has been made available through external funders for this specific project, However, the library is looking at other ways of making money out of its assets to expend the initiative. Ms Shah said the library needed to look to alternative funding sources, including potentially charging certain users. A pilot programme with VisitScotland has seen US tourists given special tours of Gaelic archives, which are the largest of their kind in the world. 'We're working on a small-scale project at the moment with VisitScotland, where we're taking visitors from the States and giving them tours of our Gaelic collections,' said Ms Shah. 'They pay for that in advance. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A 1939 letter delaying the construction of the National Library of Scotland building due to the Second World War. | NLS 'These are the sorts of things that we're really keen on looking at. We want to attract more tourists. We want people to be able to drop in and be wowed by the amazing collections that we've got, and feel curious to find out more about their Scottish heritage. We're trying our best with limited resource or within the resource that we have. 'If we want to survive, we need to innovate and thrive, and we need to think of different ways of doing things. And what we have found is that many people from overseas do want to support us. 'We want to make it easier for people to join the library, whether that's for people in Canada or America who could use our resources online. We're working on ways to make that more accessible. We don't want to monetise it for people from Scotland, but in our new strategy we are thinking about entrepreneurial ways forward.' Ms Shah hopes a new events space could emulate the New York Public Library, which features in the Sex and the City film as a possible wedding location for Carrie and Mr Big. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'There, they do weddings and they do events,' she said. 'They have a brilliant event space. Currently, our event space isn't really of that size. It's great, we've got a brilliant event program, but we just feel that with a much more flexible, opened-up space, we could offer so much more for the people of Scotland.' She is also aware of the public interest in 'the stack' - the 11-storey book and paper archive beneath the George IV Bridge library's ground floor. 'People love the stack,' she said, referencing a recent renovation to the V&A's East Storehouse in London, which has opened up the workings of its own archive collection to visitors. 'People can see the conservators at work and you can see the behind the scenes. It used to be that we would try to hide away all that, but there's some really interesting ways, I think, that museums and libraries and others are working to let people see that stuff.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Shah describes the work of the library as being like an iceberg, 'It's not just all floating above the water,' she said. 'What you see is one thing, but actually there's a lot of work that goes underneath, and it's very important work. It's really important that we continue to collect, protect and share the nation's printed and recorded memory. That's what we're here for. 'It's important because [the behind-the-scenes work] is part of that iceberg. We want to stimulate people's curiosity about it.' Despite the 11 storeys, the library is running out of space in its archive, storing a copy of everything printed, from knitting patterns and football programs to government information, children's books, adult books and maps. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A second storage building was taken on in the 1980s on Edinburgh's Causewayside. However, Ms Shah estimates that has just a decade of capacity now still remaining. This is despite work to maximise storage, including the creation of a dedicated factory in Edinburgh's Sighthill area that makes special preservation boxes designed to be space effective. She said the library was in discussion with other organisations, including National Museums Scotland, National Galleries Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland, over possible collaboration on storage and archiving. The renovation plans come as the library marks its centenary year with a new exhibition launching next week dedicated to the importance of libraries. Dear Library will feature the favourite books of celebrities ,including Ian Rankin, Pat Nevin and Val McDermid, as well as Alan Cumming, and is billed as a 'love letter to libraries'. A man who needs no introduction to fans of crime fictions, Rebus-creator Ian Rankin is taking part in numerous events at this year's festival. We're particularly looking forward to 'The Whisky Knight' at 10pm on Friday, September 12. A mixture of chat and song, it will see Sir Ian joined by singers-turned-crime writers James Yorkston and Colin MacIntyre, along with debut novelist Natalie Jayne Clark. Thie audience will also be able to enjoy a wee dram. | AFP via Getty Images Titled Dear Library after a poem by Jackie Kay, whose archive the library acquired last year, the exhibition also features librarians and libraries in popular culture, protest banners and badges reflecting libraries under threat, and vintage film footage bringing past libraries to life. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Shah said: 'While there's a huge amount to celebrate and think about for us - as in what is it to be a national library and in this day, and what will it be in 100 years' time - we have a leadership role for the sector. 'We need to think about the network of really strong school libraries, public libraries, university libraries, mobile libraries, college libraries, prison libraries. I like to think of it more as a connecting role, so that we bring all these others together and consider what we can do for them. 'Libraries as a concept is something that if it wasn't invented already, you'd make it up. Communities coming together to share knowledge, share information. 'It's one of the last really accessible spaces that belong to people and I personally feel that we need it more than ever in an increasingly divided world. Libraries and literacy are the foundation blocks in communities that allow some of that to happen. You know, they support well-being. They support equalities. They empower individuals.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad However, the number of libraries is declining, both in terms of public facilities and in Scottish schools. A recent report from the Scottish Book Trust found the number of libraries in Scotland had dropped from 604 in 208 to 507 last year. A separate study from the National Literacy Trust found reading enjoyment among children and young people in the UK had fallen to its lowest level in two decades. 'Sometimes, libraries are absolutely recognised for the brilliant community, engaging and empowering resources that they are, and they can be right in the centre of the hub of the community,' said Ms Shah, who worked in the public library sector in Dundee for 14 years. 'But other times they can be neglected. And funding is challenging for local authorities and they have to make difficult decisions. 'But it's actually the most vulnerable people in society who use libraries often, and often the people who are the policy makers don't realise that.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
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Business Standard
7 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Jaishankar discusses global rebalancing with Paris strategic community
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday discussed global rebalancing that is currently underway and the promise of a strong India-Europe partnership with the strategic community here. Jaishankar also visited France's National Library at Paris and saw classical Indian manuscripts and texts in their collection and discussed with its president the opportunities for greater collaboration on heritage conservation. A pleasure interacting with the strategic community in Paris today. Discussed global rebalancing underway, the growing importance of data, technology & energy, and the promise of a strong India-Europe partnership, the external affairs minister posted on X. Pleased to visit @laBnF, Paris. Saw classical India manuscripts and texts in their collection. Was a reminder of the depth of Indology in France. Also discussed with President, BNF @GillesPecout opportunities for greater collaboration on heritage conservation, Jaishankar said in another post. On Friday, Jaishankar held wide-ranging discussions with French counterpart Jean-Nol Barrot on a range of issues and the two sides agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation in areas like defence, security, space and civilian-nuclear collaboration. He was on a tour of France from June 11 to 14. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
1News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- 1News
National Library to dispose of 500,000 books from overseas collection
The National Library is set to dispose of half a million books from its foreign books collection to make room for more items about New Zealand. The initial decision - made over six years ago - was met with public backlash. While a fraction of the books were saved, the rest will be pulped from today. 'There are compelling reasons to remove them,' National Library's Mark Crookston told Breakfast. 'It's a decision not taking lightly, they come from a lending collection, which is no longer being lent. 'Only 1% of the items were being lent in the years leading up to the decision in 2018. Over 80% have not been lent for 20 years.' ADVERTISEMENT But author Harry Ricketts, who's been fighting against the cull, says he's 'miffed' at the decision. 'It's partly a generational thing, someone like me comes from a generation in which [believes] - like the character in Ian Forster's Howards End – 'books', said Margaret, 'move by the holy word'. 'The physical object of a book is particularly important. 'The idea that somehow only 'our' books – what are 'our' books? – should be preserved – seems a rather dodgy criteria.' Crookston said it was just 'good collection management' to not retain lending collection items much longer than they are required to be lent. 'This is just basic library practice that we learn in library school collection management 101.' 'They're just taking up space and taking up resources that can be better utilised for collections that are wanted.' ADVERTISEMENT The books are currently being stored in number of locations in Wellington and Whanganui. Crookston estimated the volume of items would take up 'the square metreage of approximately a third of a rugby field.' Internet Archive agreement scrapped In December 2018, the then Minister of Internal Affairs approved the National Library's request to remove the items under the National Library of New Zealand Act. An agreement was then made with the Internet Archive to export the remaining items to their offshore digitisation base, to provide online access as well as retain physical copies. However, Crookston said the library has now withdrawn from this agreement. "Responding to subsequent concerns about copyright issues, the National Library paused this project and now have withdrawn from this agreement." ADVERTISEMENT The remaining disposal options included transfer, sale, donation and destruction. 'While 15,000 collection titles have been transferred to other libraries, the experience with donating approximately 50,000 titles to book fairs in 2020 resulted in a modest pick-up from the public which reinforced the purpose of disposal in the first place.' The National Library said from 2017 to 2020, less than 1% of the items involved were borrowed. "Most of the titles have not been issued for the last 20 to 30 years," it said.
Otago Daily Times
12-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Dealer sickened by plan to destroy half a million books
The country's largest second-hand book business wants to save half a million books from being disposed of by the National Library of New Zealand. The National Library claims they've been trying to re-home them since 2018, that there's no demand, and that most haven't been requested in decades. They say the process of shredding and recycling them, via a commercial service, has started. Book dealer and Hard To Find Books owner Warwick Jordan says he couldn't sleep last night and felt physically sick. His various offers over the years to take all the books himself haven't been accepted. 'To give you some context, this issue actually goes back to the 1990s. In the late 1990s, the National Library wanted to get rid of about this number of books. Initially, what they did was they started putting them up in small groups in tender. They put two tenders out. I won both of them, a total of about 30,000 books.' The process of dealing with the remainder was stalled when the issue became political, he says, until 2018 when only 5000 out of 45,000 were sold via a Lions Club book sale. Jordan labelled the book sale idea as 'dumb' because the books - although valuable to him - wouldn't be of interest to the average person. The library ended up giving him the leftover from the sale. 'I know what kind of books these guys are destroying. I know that two thirds of them I can use. There's about one third that really is just junk. I mean, it's just no one wants it. It's just out of date.' The books are international, mostly non-fiction and cover a range of topics like were bibliography, religion, philosophy and computer science. Jordan says one example of a book that was going to junk was a two-volume set bibliography of UFO books from the 1950s. He believes it could retail for $300-$500. 'I'm not saying they're all worth that kind of money. But there's a lot of interesting and unusual things that wouldn't sell to the average Joe public. But there are people out there who are interested, specialised interest.' Jordan says he continued to make offers for the remainder, including packing, delivery, and paying money for them. Although now he longer can afford to make the same financial offer as he did back then, he's willing to find a way to make it work. 'I mean, if I want to make money, I'd go and sell something that actually sells. I want to save the books. It's a disgrace. There could be books in there that is the only copy in the world. Who knows?' National Library director of content services Mark Crookston told Afternoons they had undertaken a range of considerations before reaching this decision. 'We've found homes for about 100,000 items and haven't found home for about 500,000 items. The sale option is one of those options that we considered and we discounted in this instance.' Rules of disposal of public assets suggest they could not make a deal like this unless it was run through auction or 'time consuming and expensive' tendering process, he says. Another reason was the costs required to stamp every book as 'withdrawn' and remove the sleeves, Crookston says. 'We'd have to either employ our existing people away from doing things that they're currently doing or employ additional people to do this … That's quite a considerable, many hundreds of thousands of dollars undertaken.' Jordan was baffled, saying there's no logic to it because he believes the service doing the disposal would charge a lot to be remove the sleeves and all the materials on books that can't be recycled. 'I don't understand because we could do that for them.' Crookston rebutted that saying 'collection management 101' principles mean they couldn't allow that. 'We think what's in the best interest of New Zealanders via the National Library is for these books to be destroyed. That's the most cost efficient and cost-effective way to deal with this issue. 'Library leaders around New Zealand and the world know that when there's large disposal projects or processes undertaken with books is that there's strong views held about it because a lot of people just don't like books being destroyed. But in collection management, that's just what a lot of libraries have to go through.'
