Studying New Zealand

Who made Lane’s Emulsion? Where should we look to find out? No matter how obscure your question, if it’s about a New Zealand topic, there’s a new book to help you find the answers.

Studying New Zealand by Dr G.A. Wood is an invaluable tool for family or professional researchers, for students, teachers, and librarians. Broad-ranging in its coverage, it is the search guide for anyone wanting to find out about New Zealand past or present. The book has grown out of an earlier book by the same author, Studying New Zealand History, which has been revised and expanded to cover a wide range of New Zealand topics.

Health, manufacturing, science, commerce, law, education – no matter the area of enquiry, sources listed in this guide will help you. Newspapers, maps, diaries, photographs, film, music, electronic and oral records – all media are covered. The vast amounts of information in libraries and on the Internet can be overwhelming. Studying New Zealand will help researchers save time and energy by providing a signpost to the tools or bibliographies which in turn lead to the sources themselves.

One chapter deals specifically with electronic sources of information, although other references to online and CD-ROM sources are also scattered throughout the book under the various subject headings. A chapter on Maori information offers a summary of the more important, and also less obvious bibliographies of Maori sources.

Studying New Zealand fills a gap for New Zealand research. It provides researchers with starting-points, as well as offering an overview of what is available. To be user-friendly, the book is thoroughly cross-referenced, includes a comprehensive index, and the detailed contents list and chapter summaries enable readers to turn immediately to find what they are looking for.