Responding to Online Collection Requests - Panel Discussion | NDF Online Sessions
Watch on YouTubeVideo summary
This panel discussion from the National Digital Forum explored how New Zealand libraries manage online collection requests while balancing public access with cultural sensitivity and ethical responsibilities. The session featured three experts representing Auckland Council Libraries, Tauranga City Libraries, and Hamilton City Libraries, who shared their distinct approaches to digitizing archives that range from photos and oral histories to maps and manuscripts. A central theme was the necessity of maintaining a delicate equilibrium between making collections freely accessible as public institutions and responsibly managing content that might be culturally sensitive, legally restricted, or personally offensive. The speakers emphasized that while libraries strive for maximum openness, they must also navigate complex issues regarding privacy rights, contested copyright, and indigenous cultural protocols like tapu (sacred), okati (restricted access with conditions), and rahui (temporary prohibition).
The panelists detailed their specific mechanisms for handling user feedback, which ranges from simple corrections to requests for content removal. Stacy Smith highlighted Auckland's approach of using a "CU Comments" system where users can flag records directly within the database; while many comments are acknowledged or used to enrich metadata with new context, significant challenges often lead to initial suppression pending review by curators and digital research teams. Harley Cooper introduced Tauranga's unique "Waka Hawa" framework, which integrates cultural ethical states alongside standard legal restrictions like copyright status into their platform settings. This allows them to apply nuanced controls—such as disabling downloads or restricting viewing without removing the record entirely—rather than a binary online/offline decision. Rowan Miller from Hamilton described using moderated comment systems on platforms like Vernon and Vimeo, where staff verify information before publishing it publicly, ensuring that user contributions are fact-checked and properly attributed rather than appearing as unverified assertions by the library itself.
A significant portion of the conversation addressed how institutions handle sensitive content, particularly when dealing with testimonies or images involving private individuals who later request their removal. The speakers agreed on a policy where they do not hide offensive material but instead provide clear disclaimers and context while still respecting requests to take down specific items if necessary. They discussed practical solutions for restricted access, such as using password-protected video hosting services like Vimeo that prevent downloading or embedding of sensitive oral histories. Furthermore, the panelists noted that preventing takedown requests is often more effective than managing them after they occur; this proactive strategy involves robust donor agreements, clear communication about usage rights at the time of donation, and fostering ongoing conversations with local historians and community members to build trust before issues arise. Ultimately, the discussion concluded that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, but rather a shared commitment across these libraries to engage in continuous reflection on their practices, ensuring they serve diverse communities while upholding ethical standards for all users.
Read the full video transcript
Well, Kiaraoto, um we've got about 40
people, which is great. Um so, we'll go
ahead and and get started because um
this is a jam-packed session. Um and we
want to make sure that there's time for
questions at the end. Um so, no,
Harimai, welcome to our NDF online
session, responding to online collection
requests. And this is a bit of a
slightly different um NDF session um
today as we have a panel discussion. So,
we have three fantastic speakers. Um,
Stacy Smith from Auckland Council
Libraries, Harley Cooper from Toranga
City Libraries, and Rowan Miller from
Hamilton City Libraries.
[clears throat]
Um, so this is actually the third in a
series of co-created webinars with
Auckland Council Libraries and co-
Valerie Love Touingua. My name is
Valerie Love. I am the senior digital
archist at the National Library of New
Zealand um here in Ponke in Wellington.
Um and I'm also an NDF board member.
So before we really start things in
earnest um just a few housekeeping notes
um to keep the session running smoothly
um we ask that you keep yourself muted
and also keep cameras off um so that way
the focus can stay on our speakers. The
session will be recorded so you will
have a chance um to review and we'll
share a link to the recording and any
links to resources mentioned in the
presentation um by email the next in the
next few days. Um questions and comments
are most welcome. Um please do use the
chat feature to ask any questions. Um
because some of the questions might
apply to all panelists, we're going to
save the questions until the end of the
discussion.
Um, and so before we um get into the
group discussion, we're just going to
give each of our our three panelists a
few minutes each to set the scene with
how things work at their organization.
Um, and so our first panelist today is
Stacy Smith.
Daisy Smith is the research and heritage
services manager at Nepatika Cordo
Otamaki Makoto Auckland Council
Libraries and she leads the development
and management of the library's research
and heritage collections and is
responsible for the delivery of
researcher services both in person and
online. And Stacy joined Auckland
Council Libraries 10 years ago after
spending the prior decade in the
corporate world. And she describes
herself as a true library nerd in very
good company here. We love that. With a
passion for delivering great experiences
for people who use research collections
and services. And so with that, I will
hand over to our first panelist Stacy
Koto. Uh thanks for that introduction.
Uh and thanks so much to all of you
joining online for um what I hope will
be a really interesting discussion
today. This is definitely something we
suggested because we've been talking
about it a lot ourselves lately
internally. Um, as Val mentioned, I'm
from Oakland Council Libraries and I'm
going to take you on a super fast trip
through our collection platform, what we
put in it, what we don't put in it, and
how people talk to us about what they
see and whether they like it or not, and
how we respond to those um questions
from them. So, first up is our
[clears throat] platform. Um and
hopefully some of you at least because
I'm sure there's some of my colleagues
online will know that Oakland Council
Libraries platform is CUA Heritage
Collections online. Um this is a single
database that we have created out of
literally dozens of predecessor
databases. [sighs] It serves as both our
collection management system and our
discovery tool. Um it has over 1.5
million records and we add about 10,000
new records to it every month or two. Uh
it includes all the sorts of things that
you would expect from a database like
this. Photos, oral histories, ephemera
maps, archives and manuscripts. Um some
of our rare book collection is in here.
And it also contains sort of relevant
especially to this discussion quite
substantial indexes to our serial
collections.
So what goes in, what goes up and what
gets suppressed? Uh, first off, and
probably everyone who speaks today is
going to say this, we're a public
library. Um, that means access is really
important to us and we want our
collections to be as accessible as
possible, but we need to balance that
out with being responsible about
managing the material we hold and
managing what people might stumble
across when they're using our platforms.
Um, a lot of what's in KUA has been
migrated from previous databases and the
data migration was really so massive
that we cleaned it up but haven't
cleaned it up to the standard that we
would expect of ourselves putting new
content up on there today. When we add
new content in, we prioritize um content
based on customer demand, on the um
advice and expertise of our collection
experts who at Oakland uh our curators,
[sighs and gasps] on the commitments we
make at times of commission or donation,
and also to our ongoing commitment um to
representing the diversity of Oakland.
We've had a couple of very interesting
collections that have come through the
digitization process really for
publication on CUA recently and they
have led to some um going back to being
a library nerd really great internal
debate about you know where the line is
between what we publish and what we
don't publish. Um and that's led us to
work on some updated principles to help
guide our decision- making [gasps] in
this area.
So in some instances we have a visible
record but the related images or
material was suppressed and it will have
elements that look a bit like this. Um
so you'll get to see the metadata and
we'll give you an indication of how you
can access that material but we won't
let you just see it um published online.
There's quite a few Whoops. There's
quite a few reasons why we suppress
material. Um that includes it might be
culturally sensitive as per this slide,
some types of nudity, uh sexually
explicit images, graphic violence, um
which is kind of an interesting one for
us. It's not human necessarily graphic
violence. uh materials with contested
copyright. Um those with privacy
restrictions, which primarily for us are
things like oral histories, um and some
archival collections where there are
conditions where permissions are
required or a certain amount of time has
to expire before we can create general
access. And we have some records that
are for collection management um rather
than other reasons. And they might, for
example, have damage negatives that
don't have anything particularly
interesting to load up with them.
On some rare exceptions, we do have
records that are suppressed. So only
staff can see that material. That's
where uh ownership might be contested um
or as a condition of acquisition. For
example, a contemporary working
photographer might not want um the
terrible shots they're taken online for
everyone to see. And in response to
takeown requests, which are usually from
the donor or the subject of the
material,
Some of our content in our collections
is offensive, but we don't use offensive
content as the sole criteria for
suppression. Um, so that means that if
you go on to KUA, you will find things
like this. Um, you will find things that
play on racist or sexist stereotypes.
You will find things that don't fit with
kind of the way that we view the world
today. Where we know that that material
exists, we might include a message like
this on top of it. um just as a bit of a
disclaimer, but we don't hide the fact
that we have this material.
So when someone sees something they like
or they dislike or they think or know is
incorrect, how do they let us know? Each
of our 1.5 million and something records
have something like this embedded into
them. um and we call that CU comments
and we get about 3,000
um CU comments a year via this form. We
also have general inquiry and research
inquiry forms on our Oakland libraries
website. Um some people contact staff
directly, especially if maybe they had
that donor relationship. Um they respond
to material that we or other people
publish on social media. um or they
contact us via sites that aggregate our
information like find zed articles.
What do they ask us for? A lot of the
time they're not asking us for anything.
They're sort of giving us something. Um
they give us feedback which we love. Um
they point out additional information
that gives context to our records and
enriches them. They might point out
corrections like that's my granddad and
his last name definitely has an E in it.
Um, or they might ask for more
significant amendments to our records.
Very occasionally, they'll ask us to
take those records down. And even more
occasionally, they'll ask us to remove
something from our collections
completely.
How do we respond?
Generally, we love feedback. Um, we love
feedback, especially when it enhances
the quality of our records. just going
back to library nerds again. But we also
love feedback that makes us think about
um our professional practices. Um so
it's always good to have someone
challenge what we do so that we really
think about why do we do that? Um and
often we treat these interactions as a
conversation with some of our most
engaged digital users. Um we have a
policy really here where we um put
things up easily, but that also means we
commit to taking things down fairly
easily as well. If someone challenges
something, we're likely to suppress it
in the first instance. That might not be
our final decision. Um, but we'll take
it down at least initially. The final
decision for usually sits somewhere
between our digital research collections
team, and if you've been to one of these
sessions that we've been running with
NDF, you will have met Tim, who is the
team leader of that team, and our
curators who are responsible for their
respective collections. But as I said,
we often will have quite a conversation
[clears throat] around this stuff. And
we have been thinking about or we have a
panel to get things into our collections
um should we have another small panel
where we get together and assess whether
we suppress things. And finally, we
really continue to reflect on what we
publish and what we suppress, the
metadata we use, and how [clears throat]
it could or should change. So, I will
leave it there for now. Um, and I'm
really looking forward to what Harley
and Rowan are going to say next. Thanks.
>> Thank you for that, Stacy. That was
great. Um, our next panelist is Harley
Cooper, the heritage specialist at
Todanga City Libraries. And Harley is in
the heritage and research team at Tail
Mama Tanga City Libraries. And this team
manages the library's off-site ar the
library's archives off-site and research
services within Hipuna Wananga at the
central library. He helped produce and
procure and establish um Pi Kori Toranga
Archives online and co-developed the
Waka Hawa model with the team's former
Tanga Tukuhumari
um which was actually presented at NDF
in 2021. and Harley leads the team's
digital preservation workflows and built
their in-house digital preservation
utility. Um, so over to you, Harley.
>> Hi, thank you. Um, let me just share my
screen.
I should start by acknowledging that I'm
part of an amazing team of seven. Um,
I'm not the team leader. I'm just merely
a heritage specialist within the team.
Um we have heritage specialists uh
information access specialists and a um
manga
mi as well. So what we um what we uh
provide access to the public through is
PY Tonga archives online which contains
archival material, photographic
material, maps, audiovisisual
publications
uh as well as a wiki type information um
which we're trying to build up to cover
our our key people and places and
events.
Um
so I caught a key we receive um
information we receive requests and um
queries and offers from the public
through uh an email address. Um that's
one way and we tend to just um that
comes into a shared email address and we
um uh team members select that they want
to answer that particular query and pick
it up and run with that. We also receive
requests for further information or take
down or um corrections through the
pyordic website itself which is sits on
the recollect platform. So they have a a
way of opening up um requests and
approving declining them seeking more
information.
Uh and we also showcase some of our
material on on a Facebook um page. Uh so
that's another way that we interact and
uh offer information and also sometimes
solicit information from the general
public. Our voice is um this is some
advice that we gave ourselves for
Facebook and it's the voice is similar
for for all of our platforms which is
you know friendly, good-natured,
informative, curious.
Um,
takeown requests are governed by a very
boring looking official policy which um
is quite sort of as you'd expect um in
you know in writing within this time
frame initially offline conversation
conversation decision.
Um, we address issues, we will respond
to issues like copyright, um, private
information or harm according to the,
um, digital communications harms act
2015. But those are pretty low bars. Um,
and so we set all of this within a
larger framework which we have called
the Kitakatanga framework. So that kind
of recognizes that we have center of
gravity on the in the TL Pakia world and
another center of gravity in the TL Mari
world. Those are mostly govern mostly
shorthanded by uh individualism. It's
mine, I made it. Uh versus it's ours, we
connect to it. And part of that um
approach gives us um some cultural
ethical
um tools that we include alongside
copyright, alongside conservation
status, alongside um licensing and um
and other restrictions fields. So our
restrictions field actually draws from
all of those when our restrictions field
will reflect the copyright status, the
licensing, sometimes conservation status
and fragility of the item uh as well as
um the cultural ethical state um of that
item.
These are the states um um most of our
content is no or unrestricted.
um material that's completely restricted
has a cultural ethical state of tapu and
then we have sort of a bounded one for
okati and a timebased one rahui and um
those are some of the guidelines of what
those are. We try to avoid
equating any of those states with a
particular action like taking it
offline. Instead we um we encourage um
an understanding of the platform's
capabilities, the Tonga itself and the
cultural ethical states. Um so that um
we then choose from that point um how we
enact that state. So we might some
something might have an oat on it and we
would agree to take it offline. Another
item might have that same oaty on it and
we've just removed the download status
on that. And all of that's reflective of
our understanding of the item in
question, the capabilities that
recollect have which is that is a very
um capable platform for things like this
as well as our understanding of those
cultural ethical states.
Um
yeah, so here's an example. This is a a
film a film that was uh produced uh and
with the with the complete cooperation
and collaboration of the subjects uh the
subjects situation changed later in life
they came back to us even though the
film wasn't online the metadata about it
was they asked us to um remove that and
uh remove the identifying names and
things and so therefore uh that was um
that was changed the um cultural ethical
status became tapu as you could see
there. [snorts]
Um and that katyakanga statement that a
version of that in one state or the
other exists across uh almost all of our
our content.
Here's another example. This was um the
Taho Ma National Wahoo Festival in 2021.
The um photographer took those photos
actually transferred copyright to us. Um
um but later we realized the um
uh the subject matter also ought to come
under the the manner of um Tuna
Trust. And so therefore we subsequently
turn change that to Okati and remove the
download capability of of of that.
Um, and then here's a an example of
someone who was uh absolutely horrified
that we had photographs of children
online and declared that we should have
no children online at all. Um, and we
declined that um that request to remove
all photographs of children on Pyord
although we did offer to remove any
photographs where that the individual
was within um but they didn't come back
to us on that. So that's um a bit of a
race through um some of our our
approaches and content. You can see more
of that um if you come to porter key uh
to archives online click the more icon
and you can see our wahoo model in that
pull down menu.
>> Great. Thank you so much Harley. Um and
then our third speaker is Rowan Miller.
Um, so Rowan Miller is the current
Fakaputu archives reference and special
collections manager at Teohumari
Okirikoa Hamilton City Libraries and
together with the fabulous team that she
manages um all the non- lending items
held in the library collections um
primarily based at Koku Mani
O Kitty Kiridoa Central Library in
Garden Place and she is passionate about
getting the balance right between
preservation and access for our precious
ious collections. Um, so thanks Rowan
and sorry for stumbling over a couple of
those words.
>> That's okay. We know we have really long
long titles. Thank you Val and thank you
Stacy and Harley and NDF. Um, I am not
as well organized as everyone else and I
don't have a presentation but I do have
our website. Um, so I'm just going to
jump through quickly um some of what we
do here in Hamilton. Uh, so we use
Vernon browser. Those of you who know
Vernon um will recognize the format. Um
and we've recently just upgraded to um
be able to better manage our comments on
our online um Vernon browser. Um so they
are now moderated by staff um behind the
scenes before they become public rather
than just someone commenting straight
away. Um we are also in the process of
updating our policies to better reflect
that. So I wrote a policy when I was in
the digital team around how we deal with
our um our comments and but we are just
about to update that to better reflect
the new system. Uh so if uh the comment
and I've got some examples here um on an
archive
uh someone very kindly just said oh this
person is connected to my grandmother I
must ask her. Um, normally we would have
responded to that and just acknowledged
it, but we won't do anything further
with that information unless they unless
they ask um for further information or
wish to contact them uh um view the
material. Uh this is an example on an
image. We made a typo and we acknowledge
to say thanks, we've corrected that.
They let us know that it was misspelled.
Um
so I'll go back to our frames. Um if
we're just adding uh if they're just
adding color um like uh you know that
the initial one I showed um we just um
publish it without acknowledgement. Um,
if it's further information like they've
added in uh some family information or
where the person lived or something like
that, um, we'll do a little bit of
facteing and publish it and acknowledge
uh the comment um, both online and
usually we'll follow up with an email
direct to the customer, especially if we
have further questions and we want to
get further information from them that
we can then add to our metadata. Um, so
for those of you who haven't used
Vernon, um, it's got our collection
management side of things and then that
pull browser then pulls through
information from that. So we can retain
that information um, off public view um,
and just choose which bits become public
and which bits don't. Um, and so we also
include that if information has been
added by someone through a comment, we
will then add that into the research and
attribution tab on Vernon as well, just
so we know where the information came
from, so in the future people don't
think we made it up. Um, we also share
our material on social media. So we have
a regular post on the Hamilton City
Libraries, uh, Instagram and Facebook.
Um, we have our faukaputu Wednesdays on
Wednesday evenings and we have our
Sunday streets on Sunday afternoons
because we had so many street photos.
Um, so if they're positive, if there's
comments on the images, um, we we react
with a thumbs up or a heart or whatever
might be appropriate. And if there's a
question like where was this taken, is
there more information, etc. um that
then gets passed back to me and my team
and we'll give the digital team the
information to respond or direct them to
wherever they need to find the
information. Um we've also had not so
much on Vern and Braza but more on our
social media um especially being um
around elections we've had um some of
our images were used by people uh
campaigning on various topics um car
parking being the main one um and so uh
that went through our governance team
and they um were asked to not use
council material for the purpose of
their campaign um and but generally it's
a case- by case basis. Um we have had
some people um some images become quite
triggering for people for various
reasons um and we just decide whether
it's worth taking that post down or not.
But again it's usually been on social
media rather than on our browser. We do
have some images that we've taken down
and I think most of our um policies have
been guided by Stacy and Tim and their
team in Oakland. um when she was talking
through it, it was everything I was
going to say because we have very
similar ways of thinking. Um and the
other way that we use our images is we
have a bimonthly newsletter which has an
extremely high read rate of about 70%
and um so a lot of our some of our uh
comments and emails and responses to
especially gathering information comes
through that. Um, and our digital team
leader wanted me to point out that an
image that was used on a social media
post before he started, so about 7 years
ago, is still our highest engaging
social media post on the Hamilton City
Libraries page. People still engage with
it even now. Um, and it is this one here
of the old McDonald's, which everyone
apparently remembers very fondly.
[laughter]
Uh, yeah. So that's a very also a very
brief overview of of some of our
comments here at Hamilton.
>> Awesome. Thank you so much, Rowan. Um,
so people are welcome to add comments
and questions to the chat. Um, I see
that we do have a question in the chat
and I'm just going to um kick us off
with one of them. um because all three
of you um sort of spoke about the
different types of comments that you get
and how you respond to them. Um and I
there was a slide that Harley showed
very very quickly that sort of said, you
know, where people tag just names, they
ignore those. If it's just like basic
information, they just give it a like to
acknowledge it. Um and then the which I
thought was really sensible and it
sounded like you all sort of had
slightly similar processes. Um but my
question is actually for Stacy and that
is um you mentioned the 3,000 um kura
comments and do you respond to all of
those some of those and how do you
decide what gets a response and what
doesn't?
>> We respond to most of them. Um so some
of them will be responded to by uh Tim
and his team who manage the platform and
some will get forwarded the more complex
ones get forwarded into Ref Tracker
which is how we answer kind of
information inquiries. So if someone's
asking for help with something, it'll go
that way into that kind of inquiry
workflow. Um if it's um giving a bit of
a suggestion for edits to content that
it will usually stay with the CUA team
and they'll take care of that. Um
different maybe to both Rowan and
Harley. Our comments are not visible to
uh our users. They only come as an email
thing through to us. So you can't go
into a record in our thing and find
someone's comment, which is very lucky.
I thought about using today um one that
came through this week which was from
someone who I guess is about 10 years
old and had chosen to make an
interesting comment using his school
email address [laughter]
and and we weren't going to respond to
that at all
but most of the time um like I said we
sort of treat that a lot of these people
are um and I don't know what the
percentage is a lot of people are people
who we have common interaction with so
local historians who um will find new
information that they share with us and
say, you know, that street name
definition is incorrect and here's some
information. Um, so like I said, we sort
of treat like that like a conversation
rather than just a static they send
something through, but it really depends
on what the comment is, I would say.
>> Nice. Thank you for that. Um, I'm going
to jump to um our question that's in the
chat and it's from um Tegan at the
Melbourne Holocaust Museum. Um, so the
question is about um reviewing policies
about how to make testimonies publicly
available online and just asking if any
of you have a login or sign up process
to access those collections online or if
things are um openly available.
Basically, how do you manage that access
for things that might be a little bit
more sensitive?
which is a bit of a trick. I was going
to be polite and let someone else, but
yeah, I don't want to I don't want to
take up all the talking space, so if
Rowan or Harley want to speak first, I'm
happy to stay quiet.
>> You go, Stacy. I'll follow you.
>> Yeah, sure. Um we don't have um one of
our things we would like to have is kind
of a virtual reading room. We don't have
that right now. So, usually if people
want to um view or use something that
we've got, say a record for but haven't
put all the information up there for
them, um they'll send us a query about
it. And often that goes to the curator
of that collection and they will then go
into a conversation with that purpose
person, probably partly about what's the
purpose of their request, who they are,
that kind of thing. Um we might send
that material to them virtually just in
an email. Um depends on kind of what it
is. Uh again depending on the material
that might require us to get permissions
from a donor um or people who are in the
content um and in I guess in a in a c in
certain situations they just come have
to come in and see us here in our
reading room um to view particular types
of content. Yeah.
Um, we have put our we are in the
process of putting as many oral
histories that we have permissions for
online if they're fully accessible.
We're putting them on through Vimeo. So,
we have a closed Vimeo account where
everything is in there digitized and
available um to us. And then um if it's
fully available, it's embedded in our
Vernon record and you can just go into
the Vernon record and hit play and
listen to it wherever you are. If it's
available on request, it'll have a
record on Vernon and then it says,
"Please contact us and with our email
address, they'll email through and we'll
send them the link to Vimeo with a
password. They're all password protected
if they're restricted." Um, and then we
will change that after a month so that
they lose access. It's a limited access.
And then obviously we have some that are
fully restricted and they would have to
come to us to access. But by and large,
it's a nice mixture of ones that are
publicly accessible and ones that people
can just access by request. Um, but
yeah, we're using Vimeo as an external
service to um the main reason we went
with that was because of the p the
password ability to to lock it down. Um,
and our next step is to put the full
transcripts on those as well, so they're
fully accessible.
Um because our platform sits on a on a
recollect um um a platform, we've got um
uh access control groups. So we can push
a whole collection into an access
control group, which is an optin only or
a white list. Um so those users that
have signed in can see it. Those who
haven't uh can't. Um that's one of the
one of the options. To be honest, we
aren't using that a great deal. that's
more we might more use that to co-create
something with a with a um a
contributor. Um
we can also make everything private so
that you have to have at least a login
to picorti and that makes content
available by and large to humans um and
uh Google and search engines can't can't
see that content. Um we do we do also
host our video content um in uh third
party we we use YouTube but we have been
um and those are either viewable or not.
So um anything that's sensitive we
haven't really um use that yet. So I'm
I'm really curious and about these extra
capabilities that Vimeo has that might
be quite useful.
>> Great. Thank you for that. Um, so there
was a question about if um any of your
takedown policies um and also your
kitiaki tonga framework are available
online. Um and if so people would love
to um see the links. I know that um one
of the links has already been posted.
Um so there's another question about
sorry my my questions have just skipped
ahead. Um
there we go. Sorry. Oh my goodness, my
computer is of course not behaving.
Um,
so yes, so there's a few questions about
the functionality of um, Vimeo and how
it protects content. Um, are you able to
prevent people from downloading or
making copies of material that's posted
to Vimeo or YouTube or other similar
platforms?
>> Uh, yes, that was another advantage why
we went with that platform. um because
you can lock down in the beha um behind
the scenes, you can make it
non-downloadable
etc. non-mbbedible. Um so that was
another reason that we went with it so
that it can be viewed but not
downloaded.
>> Nice.
Um there's quite um there's a question
about um how to deal with situations
involving more than one member of the
public having conflicting views about
your records um such as disagreements
over the correct information and sort of
how you manage those um competing
interests or opinions
um yeah because that is quite a tricky
one.
Yeah, we we would naturally have a bit
of um research and get a bit of research
involved or or ask what they why they
think um that information is correct. Um
we try to do that using good information
literacy but also respecting
oral tradition as well.
I was I would say that's largely the
same for us to be fair. Try and verify
things independently if we can. I can
only um think of one example where we've
sort of in the end preference taking a
record down and suppressing it um
without actually being able to take it
to the nth degree. But that just seemed
like the right call based on
conversations with people at the time.
Um thankfully it doesn't come up a lot
but it's a great question.
>> Yeah it I can't think of an example
here. We've had more um people then take
their conversation offline with a staff
member to argue the point about where
their information's come from. Um but
not so much two people arguing in front
you know separate to us.
>> Yeah.
any of your organizations have um for
example like a take down um like working
group or an oversight committee to just
sort of um yeah keep an eye on what kind
of requests you're getting and what is
being taken down and what isn't.
>> We do not
>> That sounds like a great idea. Yeah.
>> Sorry. Go ahead.
>> I agree. It sounds like a great idea. So
um one of my colleagues was at I press I
think with a lot of people and I feel
jealousy about that um but had gone to
the photographers forum where there was
actually a session on sensitive um
publishing sensitive information and
they talked about uh just exactly this
kind of thing which I think you have at
national library um and we were like why
don't we have a thing like that we
definitely keep a record of what um
requests we've had and what the decision
is and sort of how we made that
decision. Um, and we it's very rare that
one person will make a decision alone. I
can't really think of a scenario like
that. Um, but we don't have a formal
panel. Um, but like [clears throat] some
other things I've seen in the session
today, there's some great ideas for ways
we can change practice.
>> Yeah, I was just I was just saying that
sounds like a great idea in an
environment where you've got a lot of
take down requests and um but the simple
fact that we don't have a great many
means we haven't really gone down that
track either. Um I I think I think
potentially preventing takedown requests
is the better approach by by applying
better um kind of conceptual frameworks
and things in the in the first place.
>> Yeah, we don't have anything formal
either. Um but it is as Stacy said, not
just one person's decision. Um, and
luckily we've I think we've only had to
do it twice and it was a a senior
management discussion.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> Um, if anyone does have further
questions, feel free to add them into
the chat. I know there's certainly um
lots of lots of things to consider and
and a lot of times the questions come
later after you've had a a few moments
to reflect. Um but one of the one of the
questions that I had while um oh
actually perhaps a new question has come
in just a second.
Oh yes, just agreeing that robust
processes and good agreement forms with
donors help to limit the takedown issue.
Yeah, absolutely. all of that
preparation and conversation upfront is
really really key. Um, a question that I
had um for Harley was um when you were
talking about the the different um sort
of the different categories of
collections for example the the Okati um
does that apply across collections or is
that just for collections with um
specifically that are multianga?
>> Right. Yeah, that's a good question. Um
for us the wakahudo model is both um a
tool that is useful for mai communities
to express content but also it's a tool
that we communicate
um uh information to tiamari. So um an
item doesn't need to come from tari to
be given a cultural ethical state.
>> Does that answer the question?
>> Yes, that does. Thank you for clarifying
that.
Um,
see
I ask a question even though I want the
panel. Harley, can you talk a bit about
how you developed that framework because
it's really great.
Um it actually it kind of began I don't
know if you remember years ago um you
would often find
um in memory institutions declaring
copyright over something or assigning a
creative common license over something
that they actually didn't have the right
to. [snorts] Um and and what it was you
can still see this online um today. What
it was is is
memory institutions intuitively
wrestling with the desire to manage uh
access um you know usually responsibly
but sometimes just because they had that
old-fashioned you shall not pass
mindset. Um so we we began to um work
with our our team to better understand
copyright and licensing. And then we
observed that people started to claim
um kiteyaki
then as a reason to to control things.
Um uh and so it was in wrestling with
what does that mean with our mango
mi that we realized um because we taken
away copyright and creative commons as a
tool of control we were now opening up
tari um to the risk of being
commandeered by um by you know usually
well-intentioned people. And so we
worked together to better understand
that and that produced the um the katya
katanga framework which once it was
fully formed turned into the the
wakahuda model.
Thank you for that Harley. Um we have a
couple of minutes left if anybody has
any burning questions that you haven't
put into the chat yet. Um
but also um all three of our panelists
have said that if you think of anything
afterwards, you are welcome to contact
them. Um and we will be sending a
follow-up email with more um with more
information and with some of these
resources and also a link to the to the
recording.
Um
and it looks like there was a question
about who the um the collaboration with,
whether it was internal staff or
Monofenua. And Harley has put in the
comments that it is it was in fact both.
Um
lovely
So if there are no further questions um
we might give everybody a couple of
minutes back in their day. Um but first
please um join me in thanking our three
panelists today for their codedo and for
sharing their experiences. Um this is a
really um a really great topic in terms
of you know because we all are are
trying to do the best we can for
researchers and making sure that our
access to collections is appropriate and
our metadata is is you know as good as
it can be. So this is um a really really
great quotido. Um and as I said we'll be
sending out um the the email with
recording and links um probably early
next week. Um but yeah thank you all
again for such a great session. Thank
you for taking time and thank you again
to Rowan, Stacy, and Harley for sharing
your insights and knowledge with us.