Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 4, 1 ʻApelila 1989 — Library -- History At Your Fingertips [ARTICLE]

Library -- History At Your Fingertips

When asked how Bishop Museum Library ean help people in the community, head librarian Marguerite Ashford tells about the Damien High School student who asked for help researching a class paper on Hawaiian birds and bird catching. For two weeks every day after school, museum librarians brought him books and manuscripts with information on his topic. The hard work paid off: his paper earned him his first "A" ever, and some weeks later his mother eame in to thank the librarians, adding that her son had become excited for the first time about his school work. Bishop Museum's library is- available for reference and research use by anyone interested in the natural and cultural history of Hawai'i and the Pacific. Its resources include books and jour nals, magazines and newspapers, and unpublished materials such as diaries, aeeounī books, letters, genealogies and chants. In addition, the manuscript and archival collections include monarchyrelated records, corporate records of Hawai'i businesses, and family and institutional papers. Resources like this proved useful not long ago to a woman active in the kupuna program at 0'ahu's North Shore elementary schools. Attending a library workshop on resources and procedures, the woman learned of the Emerson family papers as an example of manuscript materials covering a particular time and plaee. The Emersons were a missionary family based in Waialua in the mid-1800s, and Mrs. Emerson's per sonal letters described a smallpox epidemic that was devastating Waialua families, as well as the problems people had paying the taxes of the day The kupuna told Ashford later that Mrs. Emerson's letters helped a great deai to bnng to life the history of the North Shore for her students Bishop Museum's library is one of the few American libraries devoted exciusively to the Pacific. Librarians there ean provide you with documents that chronicle early voyages in the Pacific, as well as mission-printed texts in Ha waiian and Pacific island languages, Hawaiian language newspapers, and Japanese language ma terials on the immigrant experience in Hawai'i. Visitors do not have to be expenenced researchers to use the library. In fact, the library offers a series of orientation workshops and ean

provide guidance or assistance over the phone or by mail. When you visit, you'll be asked to sign in and describe the nature of your research to the reference librarian; a staff member will help find the materials you need. Books cannot be borrowed since most of the material in the library is rare, but photocopies ean be made. The library includes a geography and map collection. Available there are some 20,000 maps dating back to the earliest exploration of the Pacific, hundreds of atiases and gazetteers reference and information files. # In its most recent fiscal year, the library served 2,720 visitors, handled 2,065 phone calls and answered more than 400 letters. People's curiosity about "Who am I?" is what drives us to explore and leam about our past. Whether your interest is in the history of a family or an entire culture, Bishop Museum's collections ean provide you with a link to the past. Bishop Museum preserves the knowledge and material evidence of times past and present, and only your visit ean give it life for future generations. Come visit the Bishop Museum Library — Hawaii's history will be at your fingertips.