FEATURE INTERVIEW

FEATURE INTERVIEW In the service of knowledge

Elaine Marland has been with us for 29 years and has seen a few changes in that time. She talks with Anna Knox about her long and interesting career, and tea ladies.

WRITER: Anna Knox IMAGE: Dave Marland

Tell us how you came to work at Historic Places Trust, as it would have been then.

I started work as part-time Librarian for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust in 1992; nobody can believe I’ve been here this long, and I have had younger staff who point out they weren’t born then!

What was the job like when you started? My job involved managing the library and providing an information service for staff. The library (known as the Sir Alister McIntosh Memorial Library after a former Chairman) has always been a reference library rather than being open to the public, although we are available for researchers to visit. I loved Antrim House from the moment that I first walked in, and I still feel a sense of welcome when I walk through the doors. Antrim feels like my home, and I wind the grandfather clock in the hall, water the pot plants, and generally act as though I own the place. Like most workplaces at the time, back in 1992 we had a tea lady who wheeled a tea trolley into the hall at morning tea time, complete with a massive public service teapot, and biscuits or home-made scones. We’ve still got the tea trolley and the big teapot, but the tea lady is no more. And what does your job as Manager Knowledge Services involve now?

My job now covers records management and management of our intranet as well as library services. The biggest changes are probably in the information technology area, and we are continuing to develop our ability to use modern technologies and digital opportunities to advance our work. I’ve heard you might have sent the first email from our organisation. How has technology changed your work and the organisation’s work? Yes, there was great excitement when the organisation got its first email address in 1996. I managed this email address and would print out the emails and place them in staff pigeonholes or fax them to our regional staff. Not long after that we looked at creating a website, and after a graphic design company provided us with a test website that took 10 minutes to download over a dial-up modem, I contacted a friend of mine and she created our first website over the weekend for $50. They were different times! What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your work? Finding information for our staff is the best part of my job; I enjoy the detective hunt through all of our information resources and being able to come up with answers is extremely rewarding. The people that work here are so passionate about what they do, and it’s a privilege to be able to assist with their work. Can you tell me about a favourite archival item you’ve worked with or found?

That’s hard to say, there have been so many; possibly the tin trunk that was found recently in an obscure storage cupboard in Antrim, that appeared to have been languishing there for 30 years; it belongs to our property Fyffe House in Kaikoura, and I’m planning a holiday down in the South Island so that I can deliver it to them personally! What does heritage mean to you? To me, heritage means our identity, both tangible and intangible. My work is probably around making it tangible; documentation is my passion. Storage and retrieval of information depends on accurate documentation, and nothing makes me happier than when our information systems turn up the right information at the right time. You’re a potter/ceramic artist, and a pretty good one I’ve heard. Tell me about that.

Ceramics are an important part of my life, I find it very grounding; and my interest in heritage has probably transferred into my ceramic work, as I have been inspired by various historic ceramic styles. The photo here shows some of my works on the Antrim House Library mantelpiece, including a piece created as a Heritage Award for NZHPT for the 50th anniversary in 2005; a faux scrimshaw whale’s tooth featuring Antrim House. “Our Lady of Perpetual Grievance”, is a Greek statue look-alike that is actually a sculpture of a former curator of Old St Paul’s in Wellington (a whole other story!) n