Living library : print & oral cultures & the bicultural library

Abstract

The essay explores the question of whether the library, as an institution of Western print culture, can adequately house Maori materials and provide services to meet Maori needs. An earlier debate of orality and literacy in nineteenth-century New Zealand raised questions about the primacy of the oral traditions, the loss of these traditions with the advent of print, and the sue of print by Maori. A closer look at some of the attitudes towards print and oral cultures makes it difficult to find clear distinctions between them. There is a dynamic relationship between the spoken and written or printed word, from the nineteenth century to contemporary publishing; and the strength of te reo Maori is an essential part of this relationship. The mnemonic consciousness generated by oral tradition does come into conflict with established library practices; but there are some Western approaches to knowledge which correspond to Maori tradition. A fully bicultural library would need to develop an approach which recognised the open, dynamic relationship between words, meanings, sources and contexts, transcending form and format; it would also need to recognise the corrsepondences and relationships of people, places and phenomena which is essential to whakapapa philosophy. In so doing, it would honour both Maori and Western traditions.