FrontseatHow bad was Frontseat this week? For foreign readers, or anyone who doesn't watch TV1 on a Sunday night, Frontseat is "A topical and provocative weekly arts series that puts Kiwi arts and culture firmly on the agenda."

So what did they discuss on the show this week? Vic uni throwing out old books, and the fact that some film directors have to make ads for a living. What unbelievable non-stories they were.

Victoria University library haven't done a decent book cull in a decade, so have started down the path of identifying which books are going to go by marking ones that haven't been taken out for 10 years or so with a red sticker. These books are to be reviewed by staff and students for usefulness, and, if no-one wants them to remain in the library, they're going into storage. Now, when the story broke at the start of May (May! And Frontseat are covering it now!), there was a bit of a kerfuffle, for, as Deputy vice-chancellor David Mackay (himself former dean of humanities and social sciences) said: "...there are certainly some people who are just opposed in principal to the deletion of any book. They see them as being sacred."

As a professional librarian, I can see where those people are coming from. Care of books, and keeping useful books in good condition is a top priority. But not all books. Culling is a reality in all libraries, and the Vic Uni Library has to do it. And come on people - these aren't the only copies of these books in the world! There's always the interloans department!

Anyway, for this non-story they reeled in Vice-Chancellor Mackay and Library God Jim Traue (who was introduced by Ollie Driver as, ugh, a 'library fan' - equivalent to calling Colin Meads a 'rugby fan'), who amiably agreed that the cull needed to take place, but that perhaps (Jim argued this point) the process could be (and should have been) better organised. Mackay admitted that this was probably true, and that the deadline for reviewing the books to be culled had been moved to Christmas. Everyone was happy, except perhaps Ollie, who had totally failed in his mission to incite an on-air academic brawl.

And what I can't understand is that while they interviewed some post-grad history students (why?), the vice-chancellor and Jim, no-one from the library itself was interviewed. I suppose that was the University's policy (with the VC stepping in to handle things), but it would have been nice for someone from the coalface to come in and point out just how bad storage problems are at the library (and, having organised a shelf-shifting exercise myself in the time I was working there, I know how bad it is).

And why didn't Ollie ask, for example, that while Victoria University houses NZ's only Library School, and is thus the centre of professional librarianship for the nation, why the University Library that many of the library students study and end up working in hasn't undertaken as basic a routine collection maintenance job as this in over a decade?

Hmph. And then, in a typical 'isn't-NZ-a-small-place' way, they interviewed a couple of my mates (Robert Sarkies and Peter Burger) and a non-mate-but-well-known-to-me (Greg Page) about their directing careers, and specifically their 'day jobs' making ads. Surely everyone knows this goes on? It's obviously a useful way to hone your skills using other people's money and resources. Some people might consider it 'selling out', but I much prefer the term, 'selling in'. Anyway, I cut my losses after that segment and went to bed, missing what may have been an interesting item on the new Douglas Lilburn compilation (but which I'd already heard extensive interviews about on National Radio).

Talking about it with some friend's yesterday, we came to the conclusion that when TVNZ does an arts show, it tries to be 'popular'. It aims the shows at a level that 'the masses' can understand, and which are (ugh) 'accessible'. They should just go hard-core. As a mate pointed out, Sports Cafe means nothing to him, but that doesn't bother him, as he doesn't like sport, and he just doesn't watch it. Equally, Sports Cafe makes no bones about its target audience - it's not trying to suck in people who don't know a scrum from a maul - they assume you know your stuff before you start watching. Arts telly should be the same - it should target the group it wants to enjoy the show, and make shows for them, instead of this current system of making shows for what is very small group of people who might potentially enjoy an arts show, as long as it's not too hard to understand. Make it hard! We like that! Or is it that just me and my elitist bunch of cafe-dwelling central city mates?
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