Could libraries do more than store books? Explore how Te Awe Library is designing a new classification system rooted in Māori tradition and storytelling.
How do we even begin engaging with the vast stores of knowledge and wonder in a library? For many of us, the Dewey Decimal System gives us an entry point, breaking the library catalogue into more manageable groups. However, this system was developed in the 1870s and designed for American libraries. In today’s modern, global society, it can feel a little outdated.
This is why one library in Aotearoa/New Zealand is trying something a little different. The team at Te Awe Library in Wellington is trialling an alternative way to organize and classify the Māori literature on their shelves, and bringing more readers into contact with great writers and great works from this culture.
The Project at Te Awe
For Bridget Jennings, Senior Cataloguing Specialist at Wellington City Libraries, the way books are organised is a big deal. Organisation is our first point of contact with the library, and the grouping and placement of books feed both our practical discovery of them and our psychological response to the resources we encounter.
This is why it’s so important to use a system designed for the books it categorises. While reviewing the cataloguing at Wellington, Bridget became concerned that the existing system did not serve works from the Māori tradition, so she and her team began to consider an alternative method.
They began planning groupings based on the Te Ao Māori classification system. This system reflects Māori atua (Māori gods), and the sections of knowledge, activity, and thought associated with each of these atua.
A More Suitable System
The team at Te Awe did not build this system by themselves, nor were they the first to consider this. Māori have used the domains of specific atua to classify knowledge for generation upon generation, and these structures of wisdom are greatly influential on the Māori worldview.
The Ngā Upoko Tukutuku project was designed to achieve the same ends, and Bridget and the team drew upon this tool as they built their system at Te Awe.
They also worked with Māori librarians and experts in the cultural and literary history of Māori people. This collaborative effort brought about a new method of ordering Māori books at Te Awe, grouping works around the atua and their associated systems of knowledge.
Māori Traditional Knowledge, Literature and Culture
Under Te Awe’s new system, books about traditional artistry, woodwork, and carving are grouped under Tangaroa, who is the atua associated with these modes of expression. Tangaroa is also the atua of natural bodies of water, and so books related to the ocean, lakes and rivers, fish, and other aquatic creatures are contained here too.
Rongomatāne is associated with agriculture and cultivated foods. Therefore, any books on the subject of growing crops, tending to gardens, or the culinary arts are contained within this section. As Rongomatāne is also the atua of peace, books on this subject are also organised in this area of the library.
Under the Dewey Decimal System, books on wood carving and river systems would not be placed together, nor would books on conflict resolution and gardening.
The age-old associations between these topics – intrinsic to Māori Mātauranga, or knowledge – are broken down and lost. With a system more closely linked to the root of this knowledge, these deep cultural associations are preserved for new generations.
A Resource that All Can Engage With
Bridget Jennings is clear that this is designed to be a resource accessible to all. Those well-versed in Māori culture will certainly find it easiest to traverse the different sections. But for those without this background, the classification becomes an opportunity to learn about the cultural links and connections that have shaped Māori understanding and identity for generations.
While the project is still in the trial phase, Bridget hopes it will be adopted permanently, not just at Te Awe, but right across Wellington.
Bridget leaves us with an important thought on the nature of classification and libraries as a whole. Libraries and systems of classification are intended to support both the reader and the works they want to engage with, and so both the library and its classification system must reflect the knowledge contained within.
“There are lots of people all around the world who are creating classification systems to meet their needs, especially in indigenous communities,” Bridget says.
“We want people to find it genuinely useful and relevant. That is the most important thing. It’s not about me, the cataloguer. Cataloguers just want people to find what they’re looking for.”
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John Burns
John has been writing ever since he was small, and is delighted to be able to make his living as a writer now he’s not quite so small. Literature has always been a big part of John’s life, and he loves sharing this passion with readers from all over the world.
