Documenting Rena by Smita Biswas Collections Information Manager

Documenting Rena by Smita Biswas Collections & Information Manager Tauranga City Library

Bay of Plenty Times: October 5, 2011. Remember this famous image!! “Rena, a 236 m cargo vessel struck the Astrolabe Reef, north of Motiti Island, around 2. 20 am. Authorities are assessing whether oil has spilled from the ship”. With this began the generation of formal sources of information.

“View of The #Rena from my place; calm seas, blue skies, good day for a rescue” @Sue. Hawkins NZ October 5, 2011 uploads this twitpic

2011 October 6: TCC calls in Civil Defence Media releases Fact sheets Email (90% digital) 2011 October 7: Tweets up by a few hundred 2011 October 8: 2011 October 10: Two separate Facebook pages went up Videos appear on You Tube

Tweet samples: 7 th – 15 th Oct 2011 • Ms. Angela. Beswick “ MNZ says beaches will remain off limits until at least Monday” #Rena pic. twitter. com/ejfx. A Z 4 a 15 oct 1 hour ago

Fairground. NZ Brian N “Driving from Akl in the AM, helping clean up oil on Manganui Beach, then coming back in the PM. Anyone keen to join me? ” #rena #nzoilspill 18 hours ago 14 th oct Community_Radio Comm. Radio. Hamilton “CALLOUT FOR #VOLUNTEERS available to assist with the urgent cleanup of oil leaking from the container vessel” #Rena bit. ly/qlud. Y 5 7 Oct Tweet samples: 7 th – 15 th Oct 2011 Int. Bird. Rescue Sue. Hawkins. NZ “Bird-Rescue. org Sue Hawkins Honored to help Sea is calm, like a @Massey_Uni at lake. Belies the #NZOil. Spill with six Maritime. NZ tragedy unfolding members from oil “Maritime New on the horizon spill wildlife team on Zealand #rena 8 Oct #Rena disaster” Reminder of community briefing today 2. 30 pm at di_twhitter Di W Waihī Beach “If anyone in Wellington Community feels their skills could be Centre, Waihī Beach of help and need to get to Road, Waihī Beach” Tauranga, I can create a car pool and get you there” #Rena 8 Oct

Libraries have always collected local ephemera

Yes it was !! • As librarians we were finding it hard to ignore the kind of valuable born-digital information that emerged about the Rena disaster as it was unfolding. • Should we consider social media contributions irrelevant just because of their origins in Twitter or being created uploaded by the community of Tauranga on the Tauranga Memories Kete?

How did Tauranga Libraries deal with this deluge of born digital, community and social media generated content?

Content on Rena was divided into following categories Printed publications TCC business documents Born Digital Official responses Media responses Community responses

October 7 2011: (two days after initial disaster) New Zealand Room Staff begin to save all materials generated about Rena, irrespective of format

October 7 2011: (two days after initial disaster) Specialist Librarian begins background research • How did Astrolabe Reef get its name? • What other vessels have been wrecked (or nearly wrecked) there?

October 10, 2011. Kete basket setup

Tauranga Kete Items Digital New Zealand Formal content Newspapers and T. V.

black tides stain the beach shovels at work sitting on the edge the ocean roars metal buckles Rhiannon Bond

Digital Story http: //tauranga. kete. net. nz/rena_nz_s_biggest_ecological_disaster/topics/s how/239 -papamoa-beach-oil-spill-tauranga-new-zealand

Documenting formal sources of Information

Challenges faced: • How exactly to save the material? • How to link it to our catalogue ? • What to do about intellectual property? Not all of the issues are fully resolved.

Conclusion Accessible and comprehensive Capturing both fact and feelings

Thanks • References : Rena- NZ's biggest ecological disaster. Tauranga Memories . url retrieved from http: //tauranga. kete. net. nz/rena_nz_s_big gest_ecological_disaster /