Documenting Rena by

Smita Biswas

Collections & Information Manager

Tauranga City Library

“Rena, a 236m cargo vessel struck the Astrolabe Reef,

north of Motiti Island, around 2.20am. Authorities are assessing whether oil has spilled from the ship”.

With this began the generation of formal sources of information.

Bay of Plenty Times: October 5, 2011.

Remember this famous image!!

@SueHawkinsNZ

October 5, 2011 uploads this

twitpic

“View of The #Rena from my

place; calm seas, blue skies, good day for a

rescue”

2011 October 6:

TCC calls in Civil Defence

Media releases

Fact sheets

Email

(90% digital)

Tweets up by a few hundred

2011 October 7:

2011 October 8:

Videos appear on You Tube2011 October 10: Two separate Facebook pages went up

•MsAngelaBeswick “ MNZ says beaches will remain off limits until at least Monday”

#Rena pic.twitter.com/ejfxAZ4a 15 oct 1 hour ago

Tweet samples: 7th –15th Oct 2011

Tweet samples: 7th –15th Oct 2011

IntBirdRescue “Bird-Rescue.org

Honored to help @Massey_Uni at #NZOilSpill with six members from oil

spill wildlife team on #Rena disaster”

MaritimeNZ “Maritime New

Zealand Reminder of

community briefing today 2.30pm at

Waihī Beach Community

Centre,Waihī Beach Road, Waihī Beach”

Community_Radio CommRadioHamilton

“CALLOUT FOR #VOLUNTEERS available to

assist with the urgent cleanup of oil leaking from

the container vessel” #Rena bit.ly/qludY5 7 Oct

di_twhitter Di W “If anyone in Wellington feels their skills could be of help and need to get to Tauranga, I can create a

car pool and get you there” #Rena 8 Oct

FairgroundNZ 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 14th oct

SueHawkinsNZ Sue Hawkins

Sea is calm, like a lake. Belies the

tragedy unfolding on the horizon #rena 8 Oct

Libraries have always collected local ephemera

• 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?

Yes it was !!

How did Tauranga Libraries deal with this deluge of born digital,

community and social media generated content?

Printed publications

TCC business documents

Born Digital Official responses

Media responses

Community responses

Content on Rena was divided into following categories

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 tidesstain the beachshovels at work

sitting on the edgethe ocean roarsmetal buckles Rhiannon Bond

Digital Story

http://tauranga.kete.net.nz/rena_nz_s_biggest_ecological_disaster/topics/show/239-papamoa-beach-oil-spill-tauranga-new-zealand

Documenting formal sources of Information

•How exactly to save the material?

Challenges faced:

Not all of the issues are fully resolved.

•How to link it to our catalogue ?

•What to do about intellectual property?

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_biggest_ecological_disaster/