Status of 20,000 titles digitised by Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

Emma Jean Kelly made this Official Information request to Ministry for Culture and Heritage

The request was successful.

From: Emma Jean Kelly

Dear Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Hon Minister Maggie Barry

I am contacting you to ask about the status of digitisation of our nation's television heritage and related taonga such as sound and film. On August 1st 2014 Broadcasting Minister Craig Foss said in a statement that the "highest heritage value" items in the TVNZ collection will be digitised and made available online free of charge. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zeal... He went on to say that "The first clips are expected to be online before the end of the year, with about 20,000 titles made available over the next three years," says Mr Foss. According to the statement, the Government has invested $24 million in the purchase, improvement and ongoing operation of the archive and it was to be managed by Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision. I believe that in 2013 the Sound Archives were also transferred to Crown guardianship.
I was wondering if you could please tell me the status of the TVNZ digitisation project given that it's three years since his statement and also how the amalgamation of Sound and TV and Film archives is going - I know from my studies of overseas amalgamations that it's a huge project which takes commitment over time from many parties and transparency and accountability is key.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Emma Kelly
Researcher
Wellington, New Zealand

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From: Emma Jean Kelly

Dear Ministry for Culture and Heritage,

Please respond to my request for information about the status of the 20,000 titles to be digitised within 3 years from August 2014.

Yours faithfully,

Emma Jean Kelly

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From: Ministerial and OIA Enquiries
Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Dear Ms Kelly,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

Your original request of 12 November 2016 was inadvertently missed by the
Ministry for Culture and Heritage – the person checking that mailbox was
on leave on the day you sent your request, and unfortunately it was not
picked up on their return.  The Ministry apologies for this oversight.

 

The Ministry will consider your request as quickly as it can.

 

You retain the right to ask an Ombudsman to review this delay to your
request for information.

 

Regards,

 

Ministerial Services

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Public Trust Building, 131 Lambton Quay

 

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From: Ministerial and OIA Enquiries
Ministry for Culture and Heritage


Attachment Signed OIA Response Emma Kelly Digitisation Project.pdf
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Dear Ms Kelly,

Please find attached the signed response to your recent request for
information.

 

Regards,

 

Ministerial Services

Manatū Taonga - Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Public Trust Building, 131 Lambton Quay

 

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Joss J. left an annotation ()

Dear Dr Kelly,

You may be interested to learn that I have had a very different response (https://fyi.org.nz/request/6767-tvnz-arc...) from the Ministry for Culture & Heritage to similar questions around this wonderful digitisation and access project.

The Ministry now says that out of the 20,000-or-so thousand titles that Minister Foss trumpeted that would be online by 2017, Nga Taonga has only digitised 2,139 - with ZERO items actually making it online for the public to access.

MCH goes on to say that ZERO TVNZ Archive items were digitised in 2014/15 and only 504 (out of a target of 3,000) in 2015/16.

MCH notes that they have never met with Nga Taonga to work out a schedule or policy for the digitisation of the TVNZ material (something promised annually in the MoU between Nga Taonga the Minister for Arts Culture & Heritage), nor has Nga Taonga made the TVNZ archive database available online.

There was also a recent report on RNZ (http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-ins...) that quoted Nga Taonga as saying "We can't find any evidence that Ngā Taonga knew of or were a party to that number [i.e. the 20,000 titles]". The report goes on to say "Rebecca Elvy, who has been chief executive since mid-2015, said when she became aware of the target it was made clear to the ministry soon after that it was "unrealistic". "They agreed with that view," she said.

The Ministry would have been aware of all of these things prior to your OIA request - and yet none of them are recorded in their official response to you OIA... which seems to me an appalling lack of openness and accountability from the agency. You should consider taking a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman.

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