Bibliography of articles from landscape architecture journals held in NZ libraries 1979-1983 : a dissertation completed in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Diploma in Landscape Architecture, Lincoln College, 1984

Abstract

The objectives of this dissertation are 1) to survey all landscape architecture periodical literature held in New Zealand, within a defined time period; 2) to evaluate this material, both at the level of individual articles and at the level of the periodical title as a whole; 3) to arrange this material in bibliographic form so that it is easily accessible and useful to all New Zealand landscape architects as a ready reference source of material available in New Zealand. The material will be of a dateless, and not ephemeral, nature, so that the bibliography will be of lasting value.

Landscape design, the British Landscape Institute's journal, publishes each issue a bibliography, indexed by their Library staff, and at first it appeared that any bibliography might repeat work already done there. On investigation, however, it was apparent that the Landscape design bibliographies were not comprehensive, nor were they geared specifically to information available in New Zealand. Approximately 168 articles per annum are indexed in Landscape design, totalling 840 in 5 years. This bibliography, with a more limited range of periodicals covered (13 compared to Landscape design's 24) contains 1354 in the 5 year period. Using the Landscape design articles as a basis for compiling this bibliography, it soon became evident that many individual issues of overseas journals, especially NZILA's The Landscape, and Landscape Australia, were not indexed. (A reason for this could be that the Landscape Institute Library never received the copies, and only issues actually received are indexed.) In addition, from periodicals indexed, quite a few articles were omitted. (Perhaps they were considered not relevant to British conditions.) So that it can be seen that many articles (approximately 40%) slipped by unmentioned. Aside from the aspect of not being comprehensive, the Landscape design bibliographies are not easily accessible - each issue of the journal must be consulted and because the bibliographies appear in the 'Green supplement' which is often removed, there are various issues whose bibliographies are not to be found in New Zealand. In addition, the Landscape design bibliographies use only approximately 20 subject headings, many of which are far too general and inaccurate for a researcher's purposes - each article title has to be scanned for possible relevance. And a final difference between the Landscape design bibliographies, and this one, is the difference in journals indexed. Some of the journals indexed by Landscape design unfortunately are not held anywhere in New Zealand. (Where it has been possible to secure a sample copy, these have been included in my general summary of landscape architecture journals.) There are also a couple of journals (Landschaftsarchitektur, and Garden history) held by New Zealand libraries but not indexed by Landscape design. In New Zealand, the NZILA library in the Landscape Section at Lincoln College, is the only specialised collection of solely landscape architectural material, and periodicals are not included in their indexing, nor does the library have a subject index to its holdings. One of the particular aims in compiling this bibliography is to supplement the material held there, so that landscape architecture students have a wider source of easily accessible material, and the bibliography has been designed so that it could be updated there manually or mechanically. Therefore, a bibliography which was specifically designed for New Zealand requirements and of material readily available in New Zealand libraries, was considered to be worthwhile, and not a duplication of existing resources. Because the bibliography is to fulfil the dissertation requirements for the Diploma in Landscape Architecture, limitations had to be set because of the time factor, and lengthiness of the proposed work. Therefore, articles have been selected from landscape architecture periodicals appearing during the period 1979-1983, and no articles from peripheral-subject journals have been included.