Hawaiian & Pacific Collections

Over the years, the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections have produced numerous indexes and bibliographies to aid in researching specific topics. We have also received other such works from a variety of researchers and organizations. For several months now, Hawaiian Collection librarian Dore Minatodani has been transferring certain of these indexes into fully searchable, online research tools. Among others, these include: The first two volumes (Sept. 1922 to May 1924) of Ka Leo o Hawaii , the University's student newspaper; Amy K. Stillman's Hawaiian Chants: An Index of Published Sources and Audio Recordings and Hawaiian Songs: An Index of Published Songbooks and Helen Chapin's Guide to Newspapers of Hawai'i, 1834-2000 . For a more complete listing of useful Hawai'i-related databases and indexes (which is not limited to tools produced by our library), see the Hawaiian Collection website .

The University of Wollongong and the Australian Museum have collaborated to produce an online collection of 400 Pacific artifacts that allows users to browse and group images based on a variety of keywords. To view the site, click here .

The latest edition of Pacific News from Manoa , the quarterly newsletter of the UH-M Center for Pacific Islands Studies, was recently released. To read it online and for information about subscribing, click here . For further information about the Center, visit the CPIS homepage or e-mail cpis@hawaii.edu

Tuvalu, which has been described as the first independent nation to face extinction via global warming, made news last week by leading the charge in Copenhagen for stricter environmental protection standards than those laid out by the Kyoto Protocol ... which is a prime lead-in to noting that both the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections have a wide variety of materials dealing with the effects of climate change on islands and their inhabitants. To search for them in our Voyager online catalog , select "Basic Search," and using the "Subject Browse" option, search for sea level-- or climatic changes-- or human beings--effect of climate on-- with a specific country or region name following the dashes (for instance, sea level--Micronesia or climatic changes--Hawaii). For information that crosses multiple Pacific regions, use "Oceania" or "Pacific Islands" as the region name. The Hawaii-Pacific Journal Index also contains listings for many article...

The below is quoted directly from an e-mail sent by Byron W. Bender, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Hawaii, regarding the newly online Marshallese-English Dictionary. See also the bottom of Dr. Bender's message for a link to a site hosting online Nauran and Kiribati dictionaries: Iọkwe koṃ otemjej,             We’re on line. Please feel free to spread the word. There are still typos and other infelicities, especially in the new material that has been added, and there’s more editing to be done, but there’s no need to make everyone wait. Some whistles and bells have been added, as many things are possible on line that are not possible in hard copy. I hope you can find time to read the introduction carefully and explore using the new features.             For those of you who knew about the earlier unofficial on-line version, it will now be necessary to mak...

The UH Library's online catalog, Voyager, will be unavailable on Tuesday, Dec. 22 , beginning at 6 a.m. Hawaii time and lasting throughout the day. Connections to electronic database subscriptions owned by the UH Manoa library should not be affected. The shutdown is necessary to move the library's server from a temporary space to its permanent home, marking another step in the Library's recovery from the disastrous flood of October 2004. (For more information on the flood and its aftermath, click here .)

The Pacific Collection recently completed Creating Siapo: American Samoa 1967 , an online collection of images documenting the process of making siapo (a.k.a. tapa or kapa ). Meanwhile, a previously completed digital collection has now been migrated to a new display format: Rapanui: The Edmunds/Bryan Photograph Collection: 1904-1929 , now uses Streetprint software, which (among other things) allows for user comments. This commenting function has added a great deal of depth to several other Pacific digital collections, as viewers from around the world have written in to provide genealogical information, ethnographic details, personal anecdotes and more. The Pacific Collection's single largest online photo assemblage, the Trust Territory Photo Archives , is also in the process of migrating to Streetprint, at which point all of the Pacific online photo collections will run on this software. To date, the Pacific Collection has mounted more than 10,000 images online via six digital ...

The University Librarian announced on Dec. 7 that "the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs has allocated funds so that Hamilton Library will be open during the third week of Winter Interim, January 4-8, 2010, albeit with limited service." This funding does not extend to the Hawaiian & Pacific Collections, which will remain closed during the entire period of the Winter Interim, from December 19, 2009 through January 10, 2010. Hawaiian & Pacific Collection librarians will be answering e-mail reference questions during this period as staffing permits, but all other services will be unavailable. E-mail reference questions may be sent to hawnpac@hawaii.edu . We apologize for any and all inconvenience.

Below is quoted verbatim from a press release distributed by Othila Media Productions : HAWAII A VOICE FOR SOVEREIGNTY - HONOLULU PUBLIC PREMIERE SCREENING Honoring Cast and Native Hawaiian People Sunday, December 13 at 5:00 PM University of Hawaii , Spalding Auditorium Honolulu , HI University of Hawaii Cinema Series, by Don Brown; Sponsored in part by Hawaiian Studies, UH and Pasifika Foundation Hawaii US 2009 84 minutes RECEPTION at 7:00 PM Second screening at 7:30 PM  This documentary film, directed by photojournalist Catherine Bauknight, explores the culture of the Native Hawaiians and their connection to the land. At the forefront of the film are social, economic, and ecological issues that have developed in Hawaii since the takeover by the U.S. in 1893, revealed in the voice and participation of the grassroots indigenous people and scholars such as author, Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask and Professor Kaleikoa Ka'eo, Senator Kalani English, Bumpy Kanahele, and Cliffor...

The Journal de la Société des Océanistes recently joined a handful of Hawaii- and Pacific-related academic journals in posting full-text versions online, and currently allows free access to issues from 1945-2000 . Other major journals that are posting backfiles online include the Journal of the Polynesian Society (which has mounted vol. 1 (1892) through vol. 100 (1991) online) and Contemporary Pacific , which has mounted vol. 1, no. 1 (1989) through vol. 20, no. 1 (2008) on the University of Hawaii's open access Scholarspace site . (The most recent issues of Contemporary Pacific are available in full-text through the paid database Project Muse, which the University subscribes to — UH-M students, faculty and staff with a valid ID can access the database by clicking here ).  All three journals are also indexed within the Hawaii Pacific Journal Index (HPJI), an open-access database created and maintained by the UH-M library. HPJI indexes nearly 140 Hawaii- and Pacific-related ...

Departmental telephone and e-mail service will be generally unavailable. Reference service will be generally unavailable. Reference inquiries sent via e-mail to hawnpac@hawaii.edu will be answered as librarian staffing allows. Books from the Hawaiian or Pacific Collection that are borrowed or renewed after December 12 will be due January 11. Books may be returned to the book return bins at Hamilton or Sinclair Libraries. Books returned to the library during the winter break will not be checked in immediately, but the check-in date will later reflect the actual date of return. We apologize for all inconvenience and difficulty this will cause. The closures were scheduled in response to budget reductions. Contact information for Hawaiian and Pacific Collections: Hawaiian and Pacific Collections hawnpac@hawaii.edu (808) 956-8264 Hawaiian Collection Librarians: Joan Hori, Acting Department Head and Hawaiian Collection curator jhori@hawaii.edu (808) 956-9296 Dor...

Below is quoted from an online release sent out by the UH-Manoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies: "'Homealani' will be shown Sunday, Dec. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Princess Ruth Keelikolani Auditorium of the Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus, sponsored by Ke Alii Pauahi Foundation. Admission is free and there will be a question and answer session following the film. 'Homealani' is a film about filmmaker Ann Marie N Kirk's grandfather Colonel Oliver H Kupan. Kirk, an MA student at the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, says, 'It's a very personal film, but I hope people who see it will see the story of my grandfather speaks to many Hawaiians of his time who had to learn how to navigate and find balance living in a both a Hawaiian world and the Western world.'"

The Royal Society, Britain's academy of science, is celebrating its 350th anniversary this year. As one means of marking the event, the society has mounted the Letters to the Royal Society online, via a site called Trailblazing . Among other items of potential interest to Hawaii and Pacific researchers are the letters of Captain James Cook. Researchers should also note that the UH-Manoa library subscribes to multiple databases which provide full-text, online access to publications of the society, particularly the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, which began publishing in the 1600s. To find the Transactions (which also include various items authored by Cook, among others), search the phrase "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London" (without quotation marks) in the Library's Electronic Resources portal (the majority of these resources are subscription databases, meaning that users are required to have a valid UH-Manoa ID to access the...

If you are a currently enrolled student or faculty member at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and are planning to visit a university library outside of Hawaii (or if you are a researcher from abroad planning on visiting our campus), you should know that the UHM Library participates in two reciprocal programs. T he Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) Reciprocal Circulation Program allows students and faculty to borrow books from more than a dozen university and college libraries in the continental United States. UH-Manoa faculty members are also eligible for the OCLC Faculty Reciprocal Borrowing Card , which allows access to roughly 200 U.S. research libraries. For more information on these programs (including a list of GWLA reciprocal libraries), click her e . For a list of participating OCLC institutions, click here . To make use of these privledges, UHM students and faculty need to contact either Naomi Chow (ILL/ESP Librarian) or Sandra Ohashi (Circulation Manager) in the library...

Poets Angela T. Hoppe-Cruz (MSW/MA Pacific Islands Studies Candidate) & Kisha Borja-Kicho`cho` (MA Pacific Islands Studies Candidate) will read from their work This Friday, November 20, from 5 - 7 p.m. at Halau o Haumea, Kamakauokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies. Both women are Chamoru and were born and raised on the island of Guam. For more information, click on the flyer at left.

Owing to planned server maintenance , UH-Manoa Library's Voyager catalog will go offline Wednesday, November 25, at 4 p.m. It is currently estimated that the catalog will be unavailable until at least noon on Saturday, November 28. Other of the library's subscription databases may also be unavailable during this time-frame. If you are planning on requesting materials from the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections' closed shelf holdings--i.e. if you plan on using anything other than our reference materials--between 4 and 5 p.m. on Wednesday the 25th, you will need to do so by filling out a "manual paging slip" and turning it in to our fifth-floor circulation counter. (Paging slips are available at either our circulation counter or H&P reference desk).

The Pacific collection wishes to announce that this year's Janet Bell Pacific Research Prize contest has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and hope to reinstate the contest in 2010.

The below message comes from Hamilton Library's Interlibrary Loan Department, and includes important information regarding services during the upcoming Winter Interim period ( Saturday December 19, 2009 - Sunday January 10, 2010) . Due to the upcoming Winter Interim Closure and reduced staffing related to Library and University budget cuts, please note the following: UHM patrons should submit their ILL requests by December 4 th To assure processing and receipt before winter interim closure. Closed to the public Dec. 19, 2009 – Jan. 10, 2010 Reopen to the public on Jan. 11, 2010 Online ILL system will be unavailable Dec. 18 th 5 p.m. to Jan. 3, 2010 Requests cannot be submitted; electronic articles cannot be accessed. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.

Below is quoted from a press release put out by the UH-Manoa Department of English (for more information, click here ) : The Ninth Fall Writers' Festival will bring locally and nationally renowned writers to UH Manoa and Kapi'olani Community College campuses. Three literary genres will be represented: fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. The festival has brought a wide range of writers to Hawai'i since 1998. Each festival has offered emphases on culture and location with writers from Samoa, Indonesia, the Caribbean, New Zealand, Hawai'i, Canada and the Mainland USA.  Guest authors have strong connections with the communities of Hawai'i, including Kanaka Maoli authors Carlos Andrade, Davianna McGregor, Brandy Nalani McDougall, Lurline McGregor and Ty Kawika Tengan, who have each just published significant first books, and represent a new wave of literary and scholarly publishing by Hawaiians. In addition, distinguished Hawaiian playwright and alumna Victo...

Following is excerpted from a press release received from East-West Center , for an upcoming art exhibit and performance. For complete details, click here : Exhibition: November 1, 2009-January 3, 2010 East-West Center Gallery, Honolulu, Hawai`i Performance: Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009, 8:00-9:15 p.m. Imin Center-Jefferson Hall, 1777 East-West Road A touring exhibition from Gab Titui Cultural Centre, Thursday Island, Torres Strait, Australia. Guest Curator: Robyn Fernandez. Exhibition Design: Michael Schuster & Lynne Najita. This exhibit features traditional and contemporary dance masks, headdresses, drums, and other dance accoutrements. Video and photography provide context for appreciating this unique indigenous art form. The performance is free and open to the public, and is expected to draw a large audience. The organizers advise coming early as seating is first-come, first-served.

Those interested in the impact of climate change on Pacific islands might visit the website of the Isles of Scilly Earth Summit , which is currently featuring a series of short videos made during the October 2009 summit. Presentors include Ursula Rakova (Cartaret Islands, Boungainville Province, Papua New Guinea); Fiu Mataese (Samoa); Dr. John Ewan (Tiri Matangi, Aotearoa/New Zealand); as well as others representing island communities from outside the Pacific. In addition to the videos linked off the homepage, information about the speakers (and in some cases added video content) can be found under the "Earth" tab on the summit homepage.

Until relatively recently, those looking for information in Hawai'i newspapers published before 1929 had limited options. That was the year in which the first indexes for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser were published; for newspapers prior to that, indexing was at best sporadic (and often non-existent), leaving researchers in many cases to pore over issue after issue of microfilmed paper in search of specific information. The Ho'olapa'i: Hawaiian Nupepa Collection (a joint venture of Alu Like, Inc., Bishop Museum and UH-Hilo's Hale Kuamo'o) now provides unprecedented online access to Hawaiian-language newspapers published between 1834 and 1948. Meanwhile, two projects being undertaken by the UH-Manoa Library are aiding in access to the early English-language newspapers (which also began publishing in the 1830s). The Bob Krauss Index : In 2006 the Hawaiian Collection received the private research index created by the late Bob Krauss, lon...

We regret to note the passing of Douglas L. Oliver , who died peacefully in his sleep on October 30, 2009. Born in Rushton, Louisiana in 1913, Dr. Oliver held an undergraduate degree in anthropology from Harvard and a D.Phil. from the University of Vienna. While his early fieldwork focused on Bougainville, he would over the course of his career write widely about the Pacific. His publications include Studies in the Anthropology of Bougainville, Solomon Islands (1949); Planning Micronesia's Future (1951); The Pacific Islands (first published in 1951, and subsequently published in several revised editions, most recently in 1989); A Solomon Island Society: Kinship and Leadership Among the Siuai of Bougainville (1955); Ancient Tahitian Society (1974); Two Tahitian Villages (1981); Return to Tahiti: Bligh's Second Breadfruit Voyage (1988); Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific (1989); Black Islanders: A Personal Perspective on Bougainville 1937-1991 (199...

Writer, filmmaker and UH-Manoa Center for Pacific Islands Studies director Vilsoni Hereniko will appear on Oceanic Cable's 'Olelo channel 55 on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 8 p.m. to discuss Film As a Colonizing Medium.

The Hawaiian Collection often services community members who are researching genealogies. One popular tool is Ka Palap a la , the University of Hawaii-Manoa yearbook, which was published from 1916 through 1968. Recently, such a researcher was poring through yearbooks for photos of her uncle, a star athlete in the 1930s. In addition to finding numerous photos of her relative, the young woman also discovered a rare photo of famed kumu hula 'Iolani Luahine, who was a freshman at the University in 1936. These kinds of serendipitous finds not only point to the research value of Ka Palapala , but are the type of small event that make our work so gratifying. (Even more gratifying: Our visitor learned that her uncle, in addition to being a student-athlete, also went on to be a multi-sport coach at the University of Hawaii -- something she had not previously known.) In this photo, kumu Luahine (second from right) poses with other members of the Freshman inter-class basketball team. For...

Welcome to the Hawaiian & Pacific Collections blog . On this site, you'll find Collection news, tips on using our materials, and other items of interest to our worldwide community of researchers. Stay tuned!