Thanks for your reply Simon

My apologies, I thought Mike's initiative and yours were the same.

I agree that this isn't perhaps the correct forum, but I would just like to clarify that (at least in my case) it isn't opposition to your plans at all, quite the opposite in fact. Rather it was an attempt to flag the importance of communication, co-operation and hopefully collaboration on these projects; to help them be a success.

I'm not speaking for my institution here, but I am excited about the amount of attention that is beginning to be paid to our more recent musical heritage and it's preservation needs. I just wish for us to be able to leverage the combined expertise, knowledge and enthusiasm that is spread about at present.

I suspect what opposition has been picked up on by Andrew may spring more from this sense of a lack of communication than any stick-in-the-mud opposition.

Incidentally, I am in the process of preparing an overview report on archival music collections and their current activities in NZ which I would be more than happy to send you a copy when completed.

In response to the debate over a/the Archive of NZ music (and I apologise for coming late to the discussion):

I think we are all in favour of collecting, archiving and making accessible as much of our heritage as possible. That is not in doubt, but what perhaps is of concern is the lack of dialogue between those proposing an Archive of NZ Music at the Film Archives, and those curating the Archive of New Zealand Music at the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Archive collection, storage and preservation is a hugely expensive activity and involves a high level of expertise and training. For this reason it is crucial that every little piece of the tiny pie that is allocated to the heritage sector be used as wisely as possible.

I personally applaud Mike Chunn, and those behind the NZ Music Archive for their initiative, however I also think that it is of vital importance that such an activity works intimately with those already involved in “officially” collecting our music heritage. Unfortunately this communication hasn’t been occurring, and the great fear is that there will be an attempt to reinvent the wheel at the cost of the small (and sadly diminishing) amount of resources allocated to the heritage sector.

Likewise Simon, I am immensely grateful that private collectors such as yourself exist, indeed this is more often than not the origins of our nation’s most significant collections (Alexander Turnbull's for instance). But to an extent, it is up to the collectors themselves when they might wish to gift their collections to the nation. A good example is the fabulous archive of one of NZ’s greatest private archivists Dennis Huggard; a collection of thousands of live NZ jazz recordings that he recently donated to ATL. Similarly, we would almost certainly welcome your collection if you chose to offer it.

And finally Russell, I would ask you not to presume that those involved in documenting and preserving our culture aren’t also stakeholders in that culture. Indeed, I think you’ll find that that’s exactly why we’re doing it.