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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: a catalogue with indexes

History of the Catalogue

History of the Catalogue

The first cataloguing of the Stout pamphlets was done by Mr Miller and his assistants in the 1930s. This effort was devoted to preparing a subject index to the New Zealand material. In the 1950s this was supplemented by the Reference Librarian who prepared extensive annotations for the author cards for the collection. When Iris Park described the collection briefly in her Study of Two Special New Zealand Collections (Wellington: Library School, National Library Service, 1961) she considered that this was a fully adequate level of cataloguing to make the pamphlets accessible to their potential users.

This previous work has been drawn on heavily for the catalogue published here. It suffered the major inadequacy of ignoring completely the non-New Zealand material, and therefore disguising the very real strength of the collection in showing Sir Robert's membership of the liberal intellectual community of Victorian Britain, and its Australian associations. As examples: Iris Park found 28 references to Temperance in the subject index, there are 57 references under Temperance and related headings in this page xii catalogue; for 43 references under the Land question, with a further 40 under Native Land Courts (etc.), this catalogue has 130 references under Land and related headings. These additional references are to non-New Zealand material, such as the publications of the English Land Restoration League, and the South Australian Land Nationalisation Society.

When Miss Julia Moriarty was appointed to the newly established position of Special Materials Librarian in 1968 she realised the potential interest of the collection and began the task of cataloguing all the pamphlets. The original cataloguing of the New Zealand items was not really compatible with the rules in use by 1970 (the cards had been kept in a separate file) and she was forced to catalogue the entire collection from the beginning. When she retired early in 1974 the basic draft cataloguing, and some of the bibliographical searching, had been completed and these entries form the basis of this catalogue. Other demands on the time of the Special Materials Librarian stretched the completion of the task out over most of the next eight years, but it was finally finished late in 1982. The serials were catalogued by Mr T.D. Phillips and the completion of work on the bulk of the New Zealand items was greatly helped by the publication of A.G. Bagnall's New Zealand National Bibliography to 1960 especially Volume 1 (to 1889) which we were able to consult in proof. Cataloguing of the non-New Zealand material was assisted by the completed publication of the National Union Catalog of pre-1956 Imprints; its incomplete state had hampered Miss Moriarty's work considerably.

The publication of the catalogue has been assisted by a substantial donation from Dr Vida M. Stout towards the typing costs. In 1970 Dr Stout, with her brothers Robert and Dr John, gave the Library the collection of their uncle Dr Robert Stout, and this further assistance to the Library is a most gratifying continuation of the generosity to the University first exemplified by Sir Robert and commemorated in a small way by this catalogue.

The decision to publish the catalogue was taken in 1976. This decision influenced the mechanics of preparing the subject and author-title indexes, and was the only reason that many of the pamphlets have received detailed indexing. In 1976 we, very optimistically, expected to be ready to publish by 1980 at the latest. The delays in getting the catalogue to publication have had many causes, but we hope that no-one other than ourselves has been inconvenienced.