Panning for gold: An annotated bibliography of treasures in Auckland Libraries’ special collections of children’s literature from 1880-1889

The catalogue entries for much of the items housed within Auckland Libraries special collections of children’s literature contain many gaps and limitations. In order to illustrate these limitations this project has focused on the collection’s holdings of items dated from 1880-1889. As the collections are arranged in date order I was able to examine the selection of items in a systematic fashion with the help of special collections staff, working through the items as they appeared on the shelf, annotating each item and noting discrepancies with and gaps in the catalogued information as I went. It is hoped that this project will not only assist library staff in updating the records for the items contained herein, and act as a guide to researchers wishing to learn about and access the collection, but also highlight issues of access to and cataloguing of rare books for the profession. Addressing the issues of subject headings, publication dates, and call numbers, as well as the cataloguing issues across the wider collections would of course require further work, but would be of great benefit to the library, its staff, and its patrons.