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Matapihi was launched on  8 September 2004 at www.matapihi.org.nz

This free collaborative service is a window onto the heritage collections of New Zealand's archives, galleries, libraries and museums. Matapihi provides a single point of access for around 50,000 selected images, sounds and objects, and this number will increase as new partner organisations join in the future.

What is Matapihi?

Matapihi is a new free web-based service that lets people search the online collections of multiple organisations at the same time.

At launch, Matapihi will provide a single point of access for around 50,000 selected images, sounds and objects from:

• Alexander Turnbull Library
• Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
• Auckland City Libraries
• Christchurch City Libraries
• Otago Museum

Matapihi will continue to grow and change as new partner organisations join in the future.

What can I find through Matapihi?

Most items available through Matapihi are about New Zealand, made in New Zealand or created by New Zealanders.

There are photographs, drawings, paintings, sculpture and some 3-d virtual museum objects, as well as a small number of sound files. 

Arts and culture, places, historic events, the natural environment, people and society are all featured.

Most material accessed via Matapihi will be historical, however contemporary resources will be included where the appropriate permissions have been obtained by the partner organisation.

Who is Matapihi for?

The benefit for participating organisations is that there is an increased awareness of their collections and in the numbers of people viewing their online resources and visiting in person.

The benefit for the audience is that it offers a one-stop search that will cover the collections of a range of organisations - some of which people may not already know about. 

The audience for Matapihi is likely to be:

• Students and teachers: Primary and secondary levels; students and staff at tertiary level, in specific areas such as art history, New Zealand history and architecture; in a lifelong learning context such as community education or self-directed study. 
• Information professionals and researchers: Professional and semi-professional users such as reference librarians, researchers and genealogists. These users have good knowledge of New Zealand collections already. However the ability to search multiple organisations is likely to appeal as a ‘first step’ before moving onto more specialised searching.
• The general public: Non-professional users; perhaps using the web for ‘infotainment’ rather than work or study. These users may have varied experiences with using the Internet and little specialised knowledge of the collections held in organisations across New Zealand. 

As a one-stop shop for large quantities of New Zealand content, Matapihi may meet the needs of commercial organisations like publishers and media producers. However PictureAustralia experience suggests that this is unlikely to represent a major use for the service.

How does it work?

People can do a simple keyword or an advanced search. The Matapihi search results contain a thumbnail for each retrieved item, along with the title and the name of the contributing organisation. Users click on the thumbnail to open a new window containing the partner’s website with the full version of the item and further information. 

Matapihi will also have Showcases. These theme-based selections include highlights from the contributors' collections. Showcases will be regularly added and will cover a range of  topics. 

A Lucky Dip function selects an item at random that users can use as inspiration for further searching.

People need to contact the contributing organisation if they want to order a copy of an item or reproduce it.

Te reo Māori in Matapihi

Te reo Māori has been incorporated as fully as possible. Te Taura Whiri The Māori Language Commission advised on bilingual aspects of the development, and Māori staff from the National Library, Te Papa, the New Zealand Film Archive and Archives New Zealand provided valuable input into the design of the service.

All ‘static’ content on Matapihi is available in both te reo Māori and English versions. This means that the homepage and search help are available in both languages, as well as the pages that provide information about the service, its contributors and how to use and order items. Users can navigate these pages in either language and can easily switch from one language to the other.

Matapihi’s ‘dynamic’ content is not totally bilingual though. It is not possible to provide fully bilingual searching since the database records supplied by the contributing organisations are only available in English. However, you will still find included in these records many common Māori words, including names for people, places, animals and plants.

Do people need any special features to use Matapihi?

You only need a standard web browser to search Matapihi and display your search results. 

Once you move to a contributor's website, you may find that you need a plug-in or that there are other special requirements. For example, you will need an MP3 player for the sound files from the National Library. 

Users should check the information on the contributor's website to find out if there are any special requirements.

What about copyright?

The New Zealand Copyright Act 1994 applies to all items that users will discover through Matapihi.

Matapihi does not store any images, sounds or objects. Matapihi only provides a gateway to the online collections of a number of New Zealand organisations, which are already made available on the web for research or study. 

Images, sounds and objects remain in the care of the contributing organisations. These organisations are responsible for ensuring that the appropriate permissions have been obtained for digitising the items and making available on the web.

To use an item for any purpose other than research or study or to order a copy, users need to contact the contributing organisation. 

Examples of other use include:

• putting items on a website or intranet
• publishing in a book, journal or other publication
• using an item in a display, exhibition, live performance or broadcast
• any other public context.

Reproduction fees may apply, and prices will vary from organisation to organisation.

Matapihi has been collaboratively planned and developed by a number of organisations, under the umbrella of the National Digital Forum (NDF).

Discussion at the inaugural National Digital Forum event in May 2002 centred on the concept of a pilot project along the lines of PictureAustralia (<http://www.pictureaustralia.org>).

At the NDF Steering Committee meeting in December 2002, the National Library offered to lead development of a distributed service following the PictureAustralia model. Development of the project was approved by the Steering Committee.

Who has been involved in creating Matapihi?

The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa has developed Matapihi in collaboration with the following organisations:

• Alexander Turnbull Library
• Archives New Zealand 
• Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
• Auckland City Libraries
• Christchurch City Libraries
• New Zealand Film Archive
• Otago Museum
• Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand

What is the relationship between Matapihi and other projects, e.g. the Online Encyclopedia of New Zealand?

Matapihi will promote New Zealand culture and heritage by showcasing organisations and their collections. 

This makes Matapihi similar to other current and planned initiatives designed to assist with the discovery of New Zealand resources, such as the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara: Online Encyclopedia of New Zealand, and a range of projects at individual organisations in the cultural sector. 

The role of Matapihi in relation to these other initiatives will be:

• facilitative: Matapihi is a stepping stone to exploration of the content held by individual organisations, and 
• complementary: Matapihi provides a relatively unmediated breadth of coverage while other services (such as the Encyclopedia) provide in-depth and highly contextualised content on a much smaller range of topics.

Is Matapihi the same as PictureAustralia?

Matapihi is similar in concept to PictureAustralia (http://www.pictureaustralia.org) and Images Canada (http://www.imagescanada.ca).

The key difference is that Matapihi is not limited to images. Matapihi already allows access to virtual museum objects from Otago Museum and a small number of sound files from the National Library. Other formats - such as movies and interactive resources - may be added in the future.

This provides opportunities for interaction that may not be available with image-only databases. For example, Matapihi provides access to resources that will let you not only see what a kiwi looks like but also listen to its call, and zoom in and rotate a 3-d object to view the bird close-up and from different angles.

Why do organisations digitise their collections?

Organisations digitise items from their collections for a number of reasons. The main benefit of digitisation is that it is possible for people to access collection items regardless of what time it is or where you are located.

Before digitisation, people had to visit organisations in person during opening hours. Now it is possible to use the Internet from anywhere in New Zealand or around the world to look at selected collection items at any time of the night or day.

How Matapihi is funded

The cost of Matapihi is covered within each organisation, as part of their on-going work around digitising their collections for wider access. 

The National Library will underwrite the cost of managing the service. The Library wants to encourage participation and believes that even a small financial contribution could be a disincentive for many organisations. 

Partners underwrite costs associated with contributing their data, and will also be asked to help with user testing, strategic development, marketing and other tasks as resources allow. 

Relationships between partners will be formalised using a Memorandum of Understanding.

What is the future for Matapihi?

The distributed model that has been used for Matapihi has been proven to be scalable. PictureAustralia has been in operation for over five years. PictureAustralia has more than thirty-five partners and recently reached a milestone of one million metadata records. 

Matapihi will continue to grow, as new partner organisations come on board and current partners continue to expand their online collections. 

For organisations with limited budgets for web development and marketing, participation in a high-profile service like Matapihi will be a cost-effective way to tell New Zealanders and the world what their digital collections have to offer.

How can organisations join Matapihi?

To participate in Matapihi, an organisation needs to have:

• digital resources that are freely available online and copyright cleared
• existing sources of metadata or the resources to create new metadata
• a commitment to meeting the specified standards
• at least one contact person who can oversee the project in that organisation.

We will work closely with organisations and their vendors to try to achieve a successful outcome for everyone that wants to participate in Matapihi.

For more information contact us for A Quick Guide to Contributing to Matapihi.

The architecture

Although Matapihi seamlessly displays multiple collections, its underlying architecture is distributed. At its heart is a metadata repository that is hosted by the National Library. 

Only metadata is stored centrally: all digitised items (including thumbnails) remain with the partner organisations. The metadata records that are contributed contain URLs for the digital objects available on the partner websites. 

When users search the metadata repository, the Matapihi search results contain a thumbnail 
for each retrieved item, along with the title and the name of the partner organisation. Users click on the thumbnail to open a new window containing the partner’s website with the full version of the item and further information; alternatively users can view the full Dublin Core record stored centrally.

Standards: Dublin Core and XML/RDF

Metadata is information in a structured format that describes a resource. The metadata standard used for Matapihi is the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. Organisations supply metadata as eXtensible Markup Language (XML) files using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) syntax.

The Dublin Core is a set of fifteen elements. It is an approved NISO standard that has been successfully implemented by a range of organisations, including libraries, archives and museums. It is possible to create Dublin Core metadata from scratch or to re-purpose existing data by 'mapping' from existing systems to the Dublin Core elements.

XML is emerging as the de facto standard for presenting material on the World Wide Web. 
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is an application of XML that enables the reuse and extension of metadata among disparate information communities.

More about Dublin Core – http://www.dublincore.org

More about RDF – http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may98/miller/05miller.html

For more information about Matapihi, please use the contact form or contact the Matapihi co-ordinator:

Virginia Gow

Business Development Analyst, Digital Innovation Services

National Library of New Zealand

PO Box 1467

Wellington 6140

New Zealand

Tel: 04 474 3000 ext 8786

Fax: 04 474 3042

email: info@matapihi.org.nz