ABOUT the Pacific Collection

The Pacific Collection at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Hamilton Library offers materials relating to the island regions of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Internationally recognized for the excellence of its holdings, the Pacific Collection contains over 100,000 volumes. Approximately 3,000 volumes are added to the collection each year. The Pacific Collection receives 1,200 journals and periodicals annually, subscribes to 33 newspapers, and has over 10,000 reel of microfilm materials. In addition, over 350 videotapes and other audiovisual materials concerning the Pacific Islands are located in the Wong AudioVisual Center in Sinclair Library.

The history of the Pacific Collection dates back to the origins of the Hawaiian Collection at the University of Hawaii. As the holdings of materials on Hawaii grew, there was also an expansion of interest in the Pacific Islands. Janet Bell, who oversaw much of the development of the Hawaiian Collection, included Pacific acquisitions in her work. By the late 1960s the Pacific Islands holdings had grown to such an extent that the formerly integrated collection was separated and two unique collections were created. In 1969 Renee Heyum, formerly of the Musee de lHomme in Paris, arrived in Honolulu to take up her post as the first Pacific Curator. Under Ms. Heyum's expert guidance, the Pacific Collection grew and began to assume major prominence in the world of research. Renee Heyum worked closely with the Pacific Islands Studies Program (today known as the Center for Pacific Islands Studies), and with support from the Program began a series of annual acquisitions trips to the Pacific. The first took place in 1974, when Ms. Heyum visited the various districts of what was then the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Micronesia).

Renee Heyum instituted and acquisitions policy that became the standard for future development of the Pacific Collection: the Library would obtain any and all materials in any language of format that related to the island nations of the Pacific. This comprehensive acquisitions program marked the Collection for special distinction, as no other library in the world attempts to collect comprehensively for all of the Pacific region. The acquisitions travel enabled the Curator to obtain the elusive publications produced in the islands (government documents, church items such as Bibles and hymnals, private sector studies and reports, and books from local publishers), and the Collection quickly became known for its strength in this area. When Ms. Heyum retired in 1987, Dr. Karen Peacock became curator, Pacific Specialist Lynette Furuhashi and Curator Peacock have worked to build on the strengths of their predecessors and to expand Collection activities in the areas of instruction and use of new technologies.

The close alliance with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies (CPIS) has continued over the years, and Center funding provided staff as well as acquisitions travel. The Collection also benefits from the generosity of donors, including the many gifts from Robert Kiste (Director, Center for Pacific Islands Studies), Leonard Mason (Professor Emeritus of Anthropology), Norman Meller (Professor Emeritus of Political Science) and Douglas Oliver (Professor Emeritus of Anthropology), among others. The Pacific Collection receives donations of books and archival materials from University of Hawaii faculty and students, colleagues in the island nations and researchers from the U.S. mainland, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

A brief summary of selected features of the Pacific Collection's wealth of resources is listed below:

• PERIODICALS. The Pacific Collection contains comprehensive holdings of popular news magazines, scholarly journals and a host of other periodicals that concern the region. The Library has made special efforts to obtain newsletters and other serial publications produced in the island nations. The Pacific Collection also subscribes to all of the newspapers published in the island region.

• ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDIES. Conference proceedings, and publications of political parties and movements document the social, cultural and political changes in the island nations.

• LITERATURE. Short stories, poetry, literary magazines, anthologies and novels by Pacific Islands authors reflect the rise of indigenous literature over the last thirty years. The Collection also includes fiction by all Western authors.

• DOCUMENTS. The Pacific Collection houses the world's most complete holdings of post-World War II government documents published in the island nations, especially Micronesia. Annual reports of government agencies, planning documents, surveys, census studies, legislative journals, legal codes and statistical series record the history of colonial governments and independent Pacific governments.

• LINGUISTICS. Extensive linguistic materials such as dictionaries, grammars, and original works that represent all the Pacific Islands languages form an invaluable resouce for the study of Pacific linguistics

• SECRETARIAT OF THE PACIFIC COMMUNITY. The Pacific Collection is a repository for all publications of the South Pacific Commission, a regional body with publications that relate to the many facets of development.

• PACIFIC MANUSCRIPTS BUREAU. The University of Hawaii Library is a founding member of the Pacific Manuscript Bureau, and houses all microfilm produced in this cooperative venture to preserve archival records concerning the history of the Pacific Islands.

• MAPS. Historical and modern maps of the Pacific Islands are held in the Map Collection of Hamilton Library, and include holdings of aerial photographs of the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

• VOYAGES. The Pacific Collection has the published accounts of nearly every major voyage to the Pacific, and has also collected the many reprints and facsimile editions of the more significant of these travels. The Library also houses microfilm of many of the logs and other archival records from those voyages most heavily studied by scholars.

• TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS ARCHIVES. This record of 2,169 reels of microfilm documents the entire American period in Micronesia through correspondence, memoranda, reports, surveys, maps, and other documents, all preserved on microfilm. A computer index to the Archives is part of the Library's online catalog. Other institutions housing this microfilm collection include the U.S. National Archives, and the archives of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Republic of Palau.

• PHOTOGRAPH ARCHIVES. Over the past ten years the Pacific Collection has begun to acquire photograph collections. While a number of small collections contain material of great interest, the most prominent is the Trust Territory photograph collection. Through a federal grant the Pacific Collection has been able to create a digitized database of selected photographs and slides from the Trust Territory Collection. This exciting resource contains over 6,000 images that can be viewed at special workstations in the UH Library. Other important online photograph collections include Rapanui: The Edmunds/Bryan Photograph Collection and the Steve Thomas Traditional Micronesian Navigation Collection.
  

• The Pacific Collection previously published a quarterly Acquisitions List, which was distributed to scholars and librarians throughout the island region and worldwide. The List serves as both a current awareness tool for researchers and a selection source for librarians. Publication is currently on hold as we work to resolve formatting issues. For information on recent acquisitions, see the "New Books & Media" search function of Voyager, the university's Online Public Access Catalog.

• Pacific Collection staff publications also include Curator Karen Peacock's work as resources editor for The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs and

• Pacific Specialist Lynette Furuhashi's bibliography of U.H. dissertations and theses related to Pacific Studies (Occasional Papers from the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, 1996).