What are NZETC visitors after?

Like many other websites, we use Google Analytics to monitor our web traffic, and it allows us to easily see trends and patterns in who is using our site and the content they are accessing.

For example, in the latest month-on-month comparision (October traffic compared against September traffic), amongst other interesting developments, we notice

• Absolute unique visitors are up by 9% (to 157,174)
• The number of visits are up by 7% (to 185,877), as are pageviews by 4% (to 402,357)
• However, the average time visitors are spending on the site is down slightly by 7% (to 2:01 minutes). This, we think, is because our server is performing much faster than previously, and therefore visitors are waiting less time for pages to load, so consequently we are not too worried about this figure
• Almost 80% of our traffic originates from search-engines (i.e. Google), though the figure being referred from other websites is gradually increasing, and is currently 16.5%

Looking at the type of material that visitors are accessing on our site, we see the usual culprits appearing in the top ten most used resources:

• George Pratt's Grammar and Dictionary of the Samoan Language, with English and Samoan vocabulary, with 12,981 pageviews over the month
• Herbert Williams' Dictionary of the Maori Language, with 3,561 pageviews over the month
• The predecessor to the Edmonds Cook Book, the 'Sure to Rise' Cookery Book, with 5,073 pageviews over the month
• Edward Tregear's Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, with 2,661 pageviews over the month
• The Cyclopedias, with 44, 098 pageviews over the month
• The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War, with 40,148 pageviews over the month

Interestingly, apart from the large series (WH2 histories and Cyclopedias), it is the Maori and Polynesian language materials that consistently make it into the list of most-used resources from one month to the next. We think that this shows that, unlike English-language resources, there is a relative lack of good Maori and Polynesian language resources freely available on the web, and therefore people looking for these tend to end up at our site.

Other interesting trends that show up include general use of Internet technology:

• Newer browsers are being adopted relatively quickly. Safari (+14%), Chrome (+26%) and Firefox (+10%) are all significantly up on their figures from last month
• There is continued evidence of a move away from dial-up and towards broadband, espcially faster broadband, with cable (12%) and T1 (10%) significantly up on last month

So, using Google Analytics to compare out traffic from one month to the next provides interesting indicators into how we should be focusing our energy in times ahead. For example, the increased use of broadband shows that, over time, we can maybe become a little more relaxed about putting up webpages that contain lots of images (e.g. page images of the book from which the web page was generated). Also, it seems as if we should continue to put effort into digitising Maori and Polynesian language materials, as the demand is obviously there.

Also, although relying on search engines such as Google to drive traffic to the NZETC site has and is working well, maybe we need to think about about making it easier for external sites to link to our texts, as this figure of direct referrals (16%) is realtively low compared to search engine traffic (around 80%).

Online texts for current courses at Victoria

The following are the online texts prescribed for courses currently offered at Victoria University of Wellington:

• BIOL219 New Zealand Flora and Fauna: Forest vines to snow tussocks : the story of New Zealand plants by Dawson, John, 1928- (catalogue)


• EDUC153 The Discovery of Early Childhood: Old-time Maori by Makereti, 1872-1930. (catalogue)


• EDUC306 Education for Diversity and Social Justice: Old-time Maori by Makereti, 1872-1930. (catalogue)


• ENGL234 New Zealand Literature: Maoriland : New Zealand literature 1872-1914 by Stafford, Jane and Williams, Mark (catalogue)


• GEND302 Feminist Writing: Everything is possible to will by Ellis, Ellen E. (catalogue)


• GEND302 Feminist Writing: Old-time Maori by Makereti, 1872-1930. (catalogue)


• GEND409 Feminist Writing: Everything is possible to will by Ellis, Ellen E. (catalogue)


• GEND409 Feminist Writing: Old-time Maori by Makereti, 1872-1930. (catalogue)


• HIST219 Pacific History: Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks : 1768-1771 (vol 1) by Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743-1820. (catalogue)


• HIST219 Pacific History: Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks : 1768-1771 (vol 2) by Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743-1820. (catalogue)


• HIST317 New Zealand History: Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks : 1768-1771 (vol 1) by Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743-1820. (catalogue)


• HIST317 New Zealand History: Endeavour journal of Joseph Banks : 1768-1771 (vol 2) by Banks, Joseph, Sir, 1743-1820. (catalogue)


• HIST334 The Great Sacrifice: Maoris in the Great War : a history of the New Zealand Native Contingent and Pioneer Battalion : Gallipoli 1915, France and Flanders 1916-1918 by Cowan, James, 1870-1943. (catalogue)


• MAOR210 Te Putaiao Maori: Science of the Maori: Astronomical knowledge of the Maori : genuine and empirical ; including data concerning their systems of astrogeny, astrolatry and natural astrology by Best, Elsdon, 1856-1931. (catalogue)


• MAOR410 Kaupapa Turua: Matauranga Maori: Coming of the Maori by Buck, Peter Henry, 1877?-1951. (catalogue)


• SOSC313 Social Inequality: State authority, indigenous autonomy : Crown-Maori relations in New Zealand/Aotearoa 1900-1950 by Hill, Richard S. (catalogue)


• SPOL306 Social Inequality: State authority, indigenous autonomy : Crown-Maori relations in New Zealand/Aotearoa 1900-1950 by Hill, Richard S. (catalogue)

How to transfer ePubs to your device

We've recently made most of the texts in our collection downloadable as ePub eBooks, available to be read on a range of devices such as the Sony Reader, and Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

The next question naturally is how to get these ePub texts from the NZETC site onto your device. This of course differs depending on your device and your choice of software, but here's some pointers:

• Typically you'll need to download the ePub file to your computer as a first step. On the main page of a text, you'll find an ePub icon for a given NZETC text in the sidebar under the "Other Formats" heading. For example, Jean Batten's autobiography has an ePub icon in the sidebar; if you click on this ePub icon, your browser should prompt you to save the file.
  
• For those with Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices, LexCycle's Stanza is currently a popular freely-available reader. They have instructions on their site about transferring books from your computer to your device.
• Dedicated eBook readers such as the Sony Reader typically come with their own software for transferring books between your computer and your device, however there are other options that you might find useful.
• Calibre is an open source solution for maintaining and reading a library of eBooks on your computer, and transferring them to your device.
• Adobe Digital Editions is another freely-available (though not open source) solution which allows you to manage your library of eBooks on your computer and transfer them to your device.
  
• Should you want to read an ePub text online, it is always possible to use an online-based reader such as BookWorm.

Plates from Buller's Birds

Plates from Buller's Birds

A History of the Birds of New Zealand

To celebrate New Zealand Book Month, today's book is Walter Buller's A History of the Birds of New Zealand, and as this text is online at the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, we thought we'd show people some of the fantastic colour plates that are present in the work.

Below is a selection of some of the 48 plates that feature in this work, though they are all wonderful in their level of detail.

The plates are the work of John Gerrard Keulemans, an illustrator of many important ornithological texts.

Laughing Petrel	Wandering Albatross	Spotted Shag	Pied Shag
Rifleman and Rock Wren	Blue Heron and White Heron	South Island Weka	Kingfisher
Swamp Rail	Takahe	Kokako	Kakariki
Huia	Saddleback	Black Fantail	Fern Bird
Silver-eye	Tui	Stich Bird	Long-tailed Cuckoo

Books for Conservation Week

It's fitting to remember, this conservation week, that conservation has a long history in New Zealand, and individuals and groups in New Zealand have been promoting conservation for decades. "The Cultivation of New Zealand Plants" by Leonard Cockayne (1855–1934) is a great example. Published in 1923, this little gem lists New Zealand plants suitable for home, garden and park. When it was originally published, Cockayne was Honorary Botanist to the State Forest Service (the Department of Conservation not having been founded yet).

We've recently republished "The Cultivation of New Zealand Plants" as well as "The Vegetation of New Zealand" by Cockayne and the "Manual of the New Zealand Flora" (1906) by Thomas Frederick Cheeseman, one of the most authoritative texts on New Zealand botany.

1000+ New Zealand classics released as ePub eBooks

Many of the texts in the NZETC Collection are now freely available as downloadable eBooks. To download the eBook version of a text look for the "ePub" logo in the right-hand sidebar.

These eBooks, made available using the major emerging ePub standard, represent many of the texts already accessable for online browsing on the NZETC website, and are suited to viewing on modern eBook devices such as the iPhone, Sony Reader, and IRex ILiad.

Major titles include:

* The Life of Captain James Cook, by J. C. Beaglehole
* The Garden Party and Other Stories, by Katherine Mansfield
* Coal Flat, by Bill Pearson
* The Godwits Fly, by Robin Hyde
* We Will Not Cease, by Archibald Baxter
* Infantry Brigadier, by Howard Karl Kippenberger
* Tutira, by William Guthrie Smith
* My Life, by Jean Batten

The ePub standard is an open standard supported by many major publishers and hardware vendors, with many of the major online bookstores making titles available for purchase in this format. Waterstones bookstore, one of the largest chains in the United Kingdon, offer more than 12,000 titles exclusively in the ePub format, while Sony has stated it's intention to sell only books in the ePub format by the end of this year. Moves such as this are seen as countering the early advantage gained by Amazon in the market for modern eBook readers with its Kindle, which relies on a proprietary non-ePub format.

The convenience of modern eBook readers means that users are able to carry large numbers of eBooks with them on pocket-sized devices, often supporting features which make the reading of electronic books more pleasurable than in the past. These features include long battery life (7,000+ page-turns), non-reflective screen for easy reading under all lighting, and wireless access for downloading eBooks.

Although New Zealand does not yet share the same choice of eBook device hardware as available overseas, devices sold locally such as the iPhone and iPod Touch make the reading of electronic books a simple and portable experience.

New texts from the NZETC (September 2009)

The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre is pleased to announce a number of new additions to the texts in our online collection:

• New Zealand Studies: A Guide to Bibliographic Resources (1985), by Jim Traue
• Issue 36 (Winter 2008) of the Sport Literary Magazine
• New Zealand's First Refugees (2004), by the the Polish Children's Reunion Committee
  
• Pioneering Reminiscences of Old Wairoa (1936), by T. Lambert
• The Material Culture of the Cook Islands (Aitutaki) (1927), by Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck)
• Samoan Material Culture (1930), by Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck)
• The Coming of the Maori (1949), by Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck)
• Maori and Polynesian: Their Origin, History and Culture (1907), by J. Macmillan Brown
• With the Lost Legion in New Zealand (1911), by G. Hamilton-Browne
• Arts and Crafts of the Cook Islands (1944), by Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck)
• The Genealogy of the Kings of Rarotonga and Mangaia as illustrating the colonisation of that island and the Hervey Group (1889), by William Wyatt Gill
• The Conquest of Mount Cook and Other Climbs (1915), by Freda du Faur
• The Trials of Eric Mareo (2002), by Charles Ferrall and Rebecca Ellis
• Forest Vines to Snow Tussocks: The Story of New Zealand Plants (1988), by John Dawson
• The Laws of England, Compiled and translated into the Māori language (1858), by Francis Dart Fenton
• Geology of the Provinces of Canterbury and Westland, New Zealand (1879), by Julius Von Haast
• A Great Coloniser : The Rev. Dr. Thomas Burns, Pioneer Minister of Otago and Nephew of the Poet (1929), by Ernest Northcroft Merrington
• Reflections: Sketches on the Wanganui River, by Wilhelm Dittmer

A number of these texts deserve further explanation.

Jim Traue's New Zealand Studies: A Guide to Bibliographic Resources is a great initial resource for researchers wondering where to begin their search amongst the holdings of the various New Zealand collecting institutions.

New Zealand's First Refugees, by the the Polish Children's Reunion Committee, features the stories of the 734 Polish children, many orphans, who were offered sanctuary in New Zealand by the New Zealand Government in 1944.

The various texts by Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck) offer valuable resources for those researching Polynesian ethnograpy and culture.

The Conquest of Mount Cook and Other Climbs, by Freda du Faur, is the account of the first woman to climb Mount Cook.

Where possible digital editions have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.

We also apologise to recent visitors to the site for the slow response time of our server, however we are pleased to report that the response time is now faster than ever!