The What, Who and Why of Te Ara
What is Te Ara?
Te Ara will be:
- The first port of call for reliable information about New Zealand: its land, living things, peoples, culture, history, and identity.
- A gateway to the cultural treasures of New Zealand - the images, sounds, objects, documents and films in regional museums and libraries, the special places in this land, the people who have forged our identity.
- An exciting multimedia project incorporating written text, photos, maps and graphs, sounds, and video.
- Available progressively online and eventually in print
Why a new encyclopedia of New Zealand?
A new encyclopedia is needed to:
- Make new scholarship accessible: The last major encyclopedia of New Zealand, A H McLintock's Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, was published in 1966. Over 31,000 copies were sold within three months and when all 33,000 copies had gone the encyclopedia was never reprinted. Since 1966 there have been huge advances in scholarship, including both new information and new approaches and ways of thinking.
- Showcase New Zealand culture: There is a growing interest by New Zealanders in their own society.
- Encourage overseas interest in New Zealand: Online publication will awaken international interest in New Zealand and encourage visits by tourists to the country. Up to 45% of users are from overseas.
- Provide resources for education: There is an urgent need in schools and tertiary institutions for reliable and multimedia information about New Zealand. Increasingly people under 25 look to the World Wide Web, rather than to the library, for information. There is a strong demand from the education sector for New Zealand material which is accurate and well-researched.
- Make Māori culture more accessible: Previous encyclopedias have been weak in Māori culture, history and identity. There is a need for a clear, reliable reference source on Māoritanga, both for Māori communities and schools and for the wider New Zealand population.
- Showcase E-Government: The spread of computers and the World Wide Web provide a unique opportunity to publish immediately, progressively and in a way which will showcase e-government.
- Make the most of existing reference works: Te Ara will build on the information and expertise collected for the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and the New Zealand Historical Atlas .
Who are the audiences?
The major audiences for Te Ara are:
- Scholars : Researchers and scholars need an accessible and reliable reference work on New Zealand outside their own sphere of research.
- Secondary School Pupils : There is a major shortage of high quality information on New Zealand subjects especially on the World Wide Web.
- New Zealand Families : There is a growing interest by New Zealanders in their own society. Te Ara will encourage cross-generational learning as families plan holidays, do homework together, resolve factual arguments.
- Māori : There is a shortage of accurate information on the World Wide Web about Māori, especially in the Māori language. Māori people and schools will find Te Ara a major source of information. It is intended that at least the sections in Te Ara about Māori will be available in the Māori language.
- International Audience : People overseas who wish to travel to New Zealand or to trade with New Zealand need a reliable source of reference about this country and its possibilities.
Why initial publication on the World Wide Web?
Although Te Ara will eventually be available in print form, it is being made progressively available on the World Wide Web. The reasons for this are:
- Immediate publication : Te Ara became a presence in the community early in the project and awoke public interest in the encyclopedia.
- Multimedia : Publication on the web allows exciting presentation using sounds, photos, paintings, maps, films, texts.
- Nation-wide links : Te Ara links to other websites of interest and to the digitised holdings of the regional museums, galleries and libraries of New Zealand.
- Searchable : Te Ara is much more searchable in digital form. Visitors can use our interactive browser to find relevant entries or use the search box to search by word.
- Interactive : The Web-based nature of the project will allow for community contributions.
- Updateable : On the Web material can be constantly corrected, updated and reviewed.
- International : The Web provides instant access to information about New Zealand from around the world.
- Thematic development of entries : This is more economical by focussing expertise on particular areas of interest and is more exciting to do.
What does an entry look like?
Entries vary in size from 1,000 to 6,000 words. But each entry is divided into units of text of 200-600 words. Entries have links to other relevant subjects and topics within Te Ara. Each entry includes non-text resources, or digital 'objects'. These consist of some of the following:
- Images : e.g. cartoons, paintings, photos .
- Sounds : e.g. oral histories, music, bird songs, radio recordings.
- Moving images : e.g. films or videos.
- Documents : e.g. diaries, letters, newspaper accounts or significant research papers.
- Maps and graphs : These may be interactive in form.
- Objects in museums : There are images of significant objects.
- Community contributions : On all subjects the community are invited to contribute from their experience.
- Further reading/websites : If users wish to pursue the subject further some suggestions are provided.
In addition, most entries include links to biographies from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography .
page topSome statistics
Te Ara will consist of:
- Words : about 2.5 million words (about the same size as the 1966 McLintock Encyclopaedia).
- Entries : about 1,000 entries.
- Media Objects : about 25,000 objects.
- Staff : about 16 full-time staff and over 500 outside writers.
Te Ara will take nine years to complete.