News - New Zealand Encyclopedia online
New Zealand Encyclopedia online
3 March 2005
Te Ara (The Pathway), the online encyclopedia of New Zealand, was launched on 8 February 2005. The site combines text with photographs, sounds, moving images, documents, graphs and maps: all New Zealand Government Web Guidelines compliant.
Te Ara will be a comprehensive guide to the natural environment, history, culture, economy, institutions, peoples and social development of this country.
Te Ara combines short essays with a variety of multimedia additions in an exciting, entertaining and instructive way. Links provide pathways to the digital collections of libraries, archives and museums around the country, and it is hoped that the project will encourage nationwide digitisation of information.
The project, begun in 2003, will run until 2011, for a total estimated cost of approximately NZ$12 million. There are currently more than 1,150 entries and somewhere near 3 million words. There are about 26,00 resources, comprised of:
- 20,000 photos, artworks, cartoons etc
- 2,500 maps, graphs and diagrams
- 1,000 music and speech recordings
- 1,500 articles, poems, stories, whakapapa
- 1,000 film clips
An important feature is its Māori content. There are currently few reliable and accessible reference sources on Māoritanga; the Māori history, culture, science and stories contained in Te Ara will be a significant contribution to our understanding of the development of New Zealand.
Te Ara allows for the inclusion of community contributions such as photographs, oral histories, or updates of information. It is being published online progressively over a nine-year period, and access to the website is free of charge. A print publication may also be produced at a later date.
