One of the best ways to explore Te Papa’s collections is through the dozens of books published by Te Papa Press. The objects discussed within their pages also appear on Collections Online, which records over a million items from Te Papa’s collection. Seeing an opportunity to connect its titles with these digital object records, Te Papa Press is creating publication records for its titles on Collections Online and Museum and Heritage Practice student Thomas Arnold describes his part in the process.
Since November 2024, Te Papa Press has been creating publication records for each of its titles that prominently features Te Papa’s collections. These records link these titles to the public Collections Online records of each Te Papa object they feature. Collections Online visitors can use these records to preview titles and the objects they discuss, find resources to learn more about these objects, and explore the trends across Te Papa Press’s publication history.
I joined this project through the practicum component of the Museum and Heritage Practice course at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. A large part of my role involved reading back in time, from the most recent titles to the oldest. As of now, we have created records for most titles going back to 2010, with the project still ongoing. Many of these titles are out of print, making publication records a helpful public archive.
What is in a publication record?
A publication record is a digital overview of the physical book. It provides links to the collection’s objects featured in the book by order of appearance. You can find these objects at the bottom of the page under a list titled “related objects”. You can click on an object to visit its Collections Online record, where you will also find links to all the publications it appears in. For example, Flora, Celebrating our Botanical World includes 398 related objects from the collections.
Some objects appearing in the books may not appear on Collections Online. This can be for a variety of reasons, including the featured object not belonging to Te Papa’s collection (such as with objects loaned from other institutions), or, in rare cases, the object’s record being restricted.
Discovering Te Papa’s collections and publications
Publication records can help you discover more about Te Papa’s collections. Perhaps you were inspired by the painting Puss puss, by Teuane Tibbo at the newly reopened Toi Art galleries, and wanted to find more art like it. Finding this painting on Collections Online and scrolling down to the section titled “publications and topics”, you will find a link to the publication Flora, Celebrating our Botanical World. Here you can scroll to “related objects,” where you will find links to hundreds of floral artworks as well as specimens, crafts, and more blooming from Te Papa’s collections.
Researching publications with Collections API
Publication records are an excellent resource for investigating the trends and themes in Te Papa Press’s publications. Te Papa’s Collections API (Application Programming Interface) is a useful tool for this advanced research. The API provides additional information and metadata about objects and publications, displayed on one page. You can also use this API in your own applications and websites with a free registration key.
Take, for example, Te Papa Press’s most recent book, Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen, exploring the Walter Cook Collection. You could compare the publication record’s catalogue of ceramics, metals, and glassware to the larger Walter Cook Collection on Collections Online, examining which objects the book includes and excludes. You could also read into these objects to find out if they appear in other publications. Which objects are most popular? And why do authors prefer to feature them?
View the Related Objects list for Towards Modernism, on Collections Online.
What next?
As this project continues, we plan to create records for every Te Papa title featuring Te Papa’s collection.
One of the most intriguing questions this project will help answer is: what is Te Papa Press’s most published object? My theory is Colin McCahon’s Northland Panels, which features in at least 10 titles! Can you find an object with more?
See what has been published and what is coming up from Te Papa Press
- Find more of the records on Collections Online for books published by Te Papa Press
- View all titles from Te Papa Press on our website
Kia ora,
When you say you can ‘read into these objects to find out if they appear in other publications’.
How would I do this?
Ngā mihi,
Andrew
Kia ora Andrew,
Thanks for the question!
To “read into an object”, you can visit its Collections Online record to find a list of “related records”, which will include every Te Papa Press publication that the object appears in.
You can visit an object’s Collections Online record by either searching for the object on Collections Online, or by finding it in the “related objects” list at the bottom of a publication record for a title that features this object.
For example, say you wanted to find out if the object “Blackthorn Wallpaper” featured in Towards Modernism appears in any other publications. On the Collections Online page for Towards Modernism, you can find “Blackthorn Wallpaper” in the related objects list (it should be amongst the first few items). Click on this object to visit it’s Collections Online record. Scroll to the bottom of the record page, to the section titled “related records”. Here, you can see that this object appears in two publications: Towards Modernism: The Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa and Flora: Celebrating our Botanical World.
I hope that helps answer your question!
Ngā mihi,
Thomas
https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/258701?page=1&rtp=1&ros=1&asr=1&assoc=all&mb=c
kia ora — Your caption for this image gives the creator’s surname as “Cook” … which surprised me.
I see that the sample pages from the book give the creator’s surname as “Cameron” — so you may wish to double-check.
ngā mihi
Penny Griffith