Books, beaches and buses: Auckland Libraries' scorching summer holiday programme

Heading to the beach over the Christmas holidays is as Kiwi as Wattie's Tomato Sauce, hokey pokey ice-cream and jandals. And with many beach-goers looking to relax there with a book or magazine, it was a natural fit for Auckland Libraries to hit the beach last summer!

With a fleet of four mobile libraries usually parked up during this period, Kumeu Community Library Manager Matthew Kerr, who had been working on a project to look at peoples' experience of using mobile libraries, saw an exciting opportunity to connect with and delight customers in an unexpected way.

"Summer is the one time of the year when mobile libraries are off the road. They normally get a service and thorough revamp over the Christmas and New Year period. This year we were able to get this work done fast and early, which enabled the buses to be available for something else. I really wanted to be able to show up to a spot where lots of people went over summer and surprise them by providing a full service pop-up library."

From this idea, the #ALBeachBus was born, and the response from local media and the public exceeded Matthew and his team's wildest expectations.

Busting school holiday boredom with fun that's educational too (don't tell the kids!)

It's the cry all caregivers dread from children during the school holidays:

"I'm booooored!"

But Auckland Libraries helps banish the boredom with an assortment of events and activities every school holidays at all branches across the city. And they aren't just reading - these children are managing mischief too.

Movies made by kids during Wellsford War Memorial Library's school holiday programme. 


Libraries Adviser Youth Service Development Wendy Dreadon says school holiday programmes aren't just about giving kids something to occupy them, but creating rich experiences for all library users, no matter their age.

"We want to surprise and delight our customers with our school holiday programmes. We want parents, guardians, caregivers, to come in and share their child’s experience, and see that libraries continue to offer valuable services for them. We also want customers that come in at the same time they are not participating, to stop and take a second look at what else their library offers, in case they didn't know."

In 2014 Auckland Libraries introduced "meaningful play" as the driver for children's activities. Wendy describes meaningful play as "imaginative, exploratory and expressive. It provides multiple pathways for literacy and learning."

Guest post: Ian from Public Libraries News interviews us about Devonport Library

Ian Anstice is a passionate librarian from the North West of England. When he's not at his day job, he's busy running esteemed library website Public Libraries News.

Recently Ian interviewed Auckland Libraries regarding the newly opened Te Pātaka Kōrero o Te Hau Kapua - Devonport Library. He's kindly allowed us to reproduce his Q&A here.












Hi Auckland Libraries!

I come across some marvellous stuff while doing Public Libraries News. Devonport's new library caught my eye, not least because of the specially installed cat flap. Sadly, I'm not able to get to the other side of the world to see the lovely new building myself - would you kindly answer my queries?

Ian Anstice: Where was the funding obtained from the new library and what happened to the old one?

Auckland Libraries: The Devonport Library project was a $7.8 million Auckland Council-funded project. Auckland Council is a largely ratepayer-funded local government organisation. Some elements of the project were funded by supporting organisations, such as Te Rongo Kirkwood’s glass artwork in the foyer and the lights that hang in the Matariki (Pleiades) formation in the library which were funded by the North Shore Libraries Foundation.

The old library was demolished.

IA: Is it normal to have such add extra aesthetics - artworks, lovely ceiling, etc - to a library in Auckland?

AL: Auckland Council is a champion for quality urban design in the Auckland region, it sees good urban design as critical for enabling Auckland to become the world’s most liveable city.

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.