(7 Sep 2026) Leading historians have slammed the Government’s proposed axing of nearly 50 staff positions at the state repositories of books, papers, and memory, the National Library and Archives NZ.
Staff were told last week that a restructure proposal will target the loss of 47 full-time jobs. Chief Archivist Anahera Morehu and National Librarian Rachel Esson admit the cost-cutting exercise “will likely have impacts on service levels”.
Newsroom sought comment from New Zealand’s most prominent practising historian, Vincent O’Malley. He said, “It’s difficult to imagine the National Library and Archives New Zealand could shed an eighth of their staff without this having a significant effect on frontline services for researchers. Historians, Treaty researchers, genealogists, academics, writers, school and university students, and everyone else who rely on these services will suffer as a consequence. And this comes on top of previous cuts to staffing levels, and other programmes being canned altogether, such as the digitisation of archival records.
The proposed cuts target staff across offices in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin. They include:
- Librarians and specialist roles disestablished, with a 22 percent cut to team
- Music access service axed
- Research archivist, research librarian and librarians reduced by 18%
- Literacy and learning capability team reduced by 36%
Find out more here.
