Complete reference library

NZSPA Reporter

Hamilton: In a few cubic feet in an obscure corner of Waikato University stands the world's most complete anthropology reference library. But the 890,000 pages from Yale University's file have been reduced to miniscule size on microfilm.

The collection, which arrived just before Christmas, is the first instalment of a microfilm library which will be added to over the next 15 years to cover the whole 2.5-million-page Yale collection, itself the most comprehensive anthropology file in the world. Imported for a research project undertaken by Professor J. Ritchie. it will also be available to students studying under him and, as it is the only copy in Australia or New Zealand, scholars elsewhere in the country will have access to it.

The collection, covering 100 cultures, cost Waikato £3000— it cost Yale £30.000 to compile the original—and includes translations not otherwise available. Complete texts, often weighty tomes in the original, have been reduced to a few slides.

Lesley Smith taking names of students enrolling before being photographed This is the first year the university administration has decided to photograph all students.