A New Zealand first: Auckland Libraries launches Chinese language Facebook page

Lunar New Year is known as an auspicious time for beginning new endeavours, and it was 19 February 2015, the dawning of the Year of the Ram, that Auckland Libraries chose to launch an exciting new initiative: a Chinese language Facebook page.

Manager Inclusive Service Design Abigael Vogt says with 39 per cent of Aucklanders now born outside of New Zealand, and with a significant Chinese population growing in the city, there is a clear need to connect with Chinese speakers in the social space.

"According to the 2013 census of the 54,000 Aucklanders who don’t speak English, 24,993 of them identify as Chinese. Facebook allows us to work in a language other than English and to be in conversation, reaching Chinese-speaking Aucklanders and beyond," Abigael says.

"Those who engage with us via the Facebook page may not traditionally be able to communicate easily with all staff or share their library experiences with ease. This is one way Chinese-speaking Aucklanders can do this, communicating in their own language and accessing the wide range of Chinese-language services, staff and materials that Auckland Libraries has to offer," she added.

The Facebook page is almost totally written in Mandarin, with three staff, all native Mandarin speakers, managing the page and writing content in simplified Chinese. It has a regionwide approach, sharing events and activities from across Auckland Libraries, as well as highlighting new items in Chinese that have been added to collections, as well as reading recommendations.

From codex to Kobo: the Auckland Libraries eBook opportunity

The boom in eBooks and eReading has presented unprecedented challenges for Auckland Libraries. 

How do you read? In the bath or on the bus? Fiction or non-fiction? For work or for leisure?

In recent years, these traditional choices have been joined by those of a more technological nature such as: traditional book or eReader? Kindle or Kobo? Many readers have been converted to eReading by the cost and convenience of eBooks, even as they mourn the tangible qualities of a physical book.

Readers all over the world are embracing eReading technology as part of their everyday lives. 

The growth in eBooks and eReading of all types is one of the biggest technological step-changes of the last ten years. With the development of eReader technology, most famously the Amazon Kindle in 2007, eBooks have rapidly become easier to find, borrow and read.

This technological and cultural shift has had implications for public library systems all over the world, with many rushing to provide equitable access to digital versions of popular books. In 2007, Auckland City Libraries offered a new eBook lending service to customers via a platform called OverDrive, and free eBorrowing was made available to Aucklanders for the first time.

However, providing free eBook and eAudiobook lending services under the strictures of a public library system has proved an unprecedented challenge. Copyright issues, technological limitations, constantly evolving eReading technology and a rapid growth in demand have caused many a headache for those at Auckland Libraries for whom eReading is a key priority.

Unitec students commemorate fallen soldiers through an interactive history experience

A collaborative multimedia exhibit revealing tales of home-grown war stories has inspired a new reciprocal relationship between Unitec and Auckland Libraries. 

The More than a War: Remembering 1914 – 1918 exhibition was produced during a series of workshops run by Auckland Libraries to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War. It included a story of love and loss recreated from love letters from the war years, accounts of women working on the home front and the war efforts put in by Kiwi kids.

Students were encouraged to use a variety of media to tell their stories, including audio-visual production, a digital touchscreen, video looping and blogging.

The exhibition was produced as a labour of love by Unitec Communication programme Leader Dr Sara Donaghy and Libraries Oral Historian Sue Berman.

The project was set as an assignment for the programme’s first- and second-year students, and encouraged them to make their own connections with what was happening in New Zealand during the war - miles away from the battlefields.

Sara says they wanted the series of projects to focus on stories from the home front, teasing out forgotten pieces of history and cultivating cultural responses from her students.

“We wanted to not just create awareness of World War One content, but to also bring a youthful dimension in reimagining and reinterpreting the war in a way that speaks closer to the students and their peers,” says Sara.

Craft and companionship forge closer community connections

As their fingers knit and purl beautiful woollen creations, something else is woven among the men and women who attend Auckland Libraries’ knitting groups – friendship.

As Monica Foster from Orewa Library explains: “We get together to knit, but it’s all about the yarn.”

Knitting clubs warmly welcome all attendees regardless of ability, age, gender or language. 

Monica’s group formed at the end of 2013 as a one-off Christmas decoration project. It quickly blossomed into a regular group that meets every Thursday morning for a cup of tea, a bikkie or two, and several hours of companionship and craft.

For the Orewa knitters, it’s also about charity: they use donated wool to create blankets, jerseys and slippers for Operation Cover Up, an initiative from Mission Without Borders, which sends these items to orphanages and the needy in Eastern Europe.

Although it started off with crafty origins, Monica says it is really all about the people.

“Our group has evolved and is now mostly attended by older women who may be widowed, unwell, lonely or depressed. Our weekly get-togethers are therapeutic - a reason to meet others, share and care, and keep minds (and hands) active,” she says.

More than just buildings: public art in Auckland Libraries

Two brand-new library buildings at Waiheke Island and Ranui are home to the usual things you'd expect to find in a modern library - books, magazines and DVDs for all ages, public-access computers and free wifi. 

But they are also home to unique and beautiful art works created especially for their people.  

Locals gather at dawn around the pou at Waiheke Library.
The pou are named Tikapa (front), Putiki O Kahu (centre) and Piritahi (back).

Opened in July 2014, the new Waiheke Library building features three works of permanent art that evoke the island’s distinct stories and character.

Auckland Libraries' Pou Whakahaere, Service Innovation Māori, Anahera Sadler says two of the artworks were developed in partnership with Ngati Paoa, mana whenua, or traditional owners, of Waiheke Island.

The unique motif that wraps around Waiheke Library is
based on Taratara-ā-Kae, a crescent wave and whale motif.

One of these artworks is called Waiheke Pou Whakara. Created under the direction of head carver Chris Bailey (Ngāti Paoa, Ngāti Hako,Te Aupouri, Ngāti Porou), the three pou whenua and a navigation stone command the knoll on the uppermost northern edge of the Artworks precinct in which the library sits at Oneroa.

Also created in conjunction with Ngāti Paoa is the dynamic graphic print that wraps the library building's exterior and interior glass surfaces. Titled Ngaruhora by Lorna Dixon-Rikihana (Ngāti Paoa), it is based on Taratara-ā-Kae, a crescent wave and whale motif.

The third artwork is part of the library itself. The phrase "Lots of rain, lots of sun, lots of wind, lots of day, lots of night" is embedded into the walls of the new library building and took artist Kazu Nakagawa six months to create. The piece is titled Forty Nine Letters and pays tribute to Waiheke's changeable weather, which Nakagawa, as a long-time resident of the island himself, is very familiar with.

Meanwhile, etched into the building’s concrete floor with overlapping calligraphic script are the words 'whenua', 'land', 'hau' and 'wind' to form a lyrical pattern of repeating text. 

Partnering for success: Auckland War Memorial Museum + Auckland Libraries

One of the biggest philosophical dilemmas facing libraries today is: how do we make our heritage collections accessible to the public while also protecting them for future generations? 

Kids are given the chance to directly interact with taonga from
Auckland War Memorial Museum at their local library. 

This problem is also faced by museums, art galleries and myriad other public institutions, and historically the answer has been to err on the side of keeping our taonga under lock and key, rather than placing them in the hands of the people.

However, this could all be changing with the implementation of the collaboration between Auckland Libraries and Auckland War Memorial Museum (AWMM).

As part of Pacific Language Weeks 2013, Auckland Libraries piloted a programme in partnership with the AWMM that saw staff from the museum bringing historic artefacts to libraries to deliver interactive storytimes and workshops on Māori and Pacific arts.

“Focus area 4: Priority- Work in partnership with Pacific people to develop programmes that are culturally relevant” - Te Kauroa.   

After evaluation of the 2013 programme, it was decided to extend the workshops and make them available to all 55 library branches throughout the year. Every library in Auckland was given the opportunity to participate and a toolkit of resources was made available to librarians who were interested in partnering with museum staff to deliver a workshop.

Movie night at Parnell Library spotlights exciting local talent

Parnell manager Laura awards first prize for the
library's movie trailer competition.

Parnell Community Library manager Laura Caygill writes about the successful school holiday movie-making programme her staff ran and the smash-hit movie night they hosted as a result.

It’s 6pm on a Friday night in July. Normally the team at Parnell Library are tidying the shelves and making sure everything’s ready for tomorrow’s patrons. But tonight they’re setting up armchairs, checking equipment and preparing the library for a night of movies, pizza and celebrating the creativity of local kids.

Parnell Library’s Mini Prasad came up with the idea when thinking of ways to promote the LIANZA Children’s Book Awards. Her idea was this: kids could use iPads to make trailers for their favourite finalists in the awards and we, the library, could screen them before playing a movie.

With Hell Pizza generously sponsoring the awards, it seemed a no-brainer.