Wellington City Libraries

Coordinates: 41°17′1.54″S 174°46′33.67″E / 41.2837611°S 174.7760194°E / -41.2837611; 174.7760194
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by IdiotSavant (talk | contribs) at 04:58, 11 January 2022 (coord). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Wellington City Libraries
Map
LocationWellington, New Zealand
Established1893
Branches14
Collection
Size720,000 items
Other information
Websitehttp://www.wcl.govt.nz

Wellington City Libraries is the public library service for Wellington, New Zealand.

Wellington Central Library

From 1840 onwards various organisations attempted to establish a public library in Wellington.[1] The first Council-operated public library opened in 1893 on the corner of Mercer and Wakefield Streets in a building designed by William Crichton, a prominent architect of the time.[2]: 85 [3] The library closed in 1940 and the building was demolished in 1943.[1][4] The site was later occupied by the City Council municipal buildings that are still in use today.

In 1940 a new library opened on a block between Mercer and Harris street.[1] This building was converted into the City Gallery Wellington in 1993. In 1991 the new central branch library opened on Victoria and Mercer Streets along the edge of Civic Square.[2]: 244  Ian Athfield of Athfield Architects designed the new building, which Fletcher Development and Construction built.[5]

The library building, closed in 2019, has three main floors. The ground floor contained fiction, the Sound and Vision Centre, the Young Adult and Children's collections and the main circulation desks. The first floor housed the sciences, humanities, arts, music and literature collections. The travel, history and New Zealand reference collections were located on the second floor. A cafe and meeting rooms were situated on a mezzanine floor accessed from the main entrance but separated from the main library. A basement level held a public carpark. The high-level portico bridge linking the library building to the WCC service centre building was demolished in 2013 as an earthquake risk.[6][7]

Awards

The central library building has won two New Zealand architectural awards: the Environmental Award in the Carter Holt Harvey Awards in 1992 and the National Award for Architecture 1993 sponsored by the New Zealand Institute of Architects.[8]

In 2006 the New Zealand Music Board honoured the Library with an excellence award for its "Sing along with Stu" story-time programme.

Te Awe Library in Brandon Street won the 2021 Wellington Architecture Award from the New Zealand Institute of Architects.[9]

Library Closure

Wellington City Council decided to close the Central Library at short notice on 19 March 2019, after receiving advice from engineers that the building has structural vulnerabilities which mean it may not perform well in the event of a significant earthquake.[10] In September 2020, acknowledging fears that the building might be demolished, Heritage New Zealand proposed that it should be listed as a category 1 historic place.[11][8] This would not stop demolition, but would help inform Wellington City Council's decision-making. A month later the Council announced that it would spend $179 million to repair and upgrade the library rather than demolish it,[12] but in May 2021 the Council announced that it was considering other options.[13] In September 2021 Wellington City Council announced that it was disposing of the fittings in the Central Library, either putting fixtures into storage for four years or recycling furniture that cannot be used elsewhere by the Council. The building will be strengthened and modernised and the layout redesigned. Additional space will be added to the top two floors and base isolators installed under the building.[14]

Three pop-up replacement libraries have opened in central Wellington: Arapaki Manners Library (opened in May 2019 in Manners Street),[15] He Matapihi Molesworth Library (opened in October 2019 inside the National Library in Molesworth Street),[16] and Te Awe Library in Brandon Street (opened in July 2020). However none of these has the reading rooms or the opening hours of the Central Library. Wellington Central Library's collection of 400,000 items has been relocated to a new collection and distribution centre named Te Pātaka, in Johnsonville.[17]

Branches

Absolutely Positively Wellington Campaign badge promoting Wellington Public Libraries

Wellington City Libraries has 14 branches open to the public. Three of these are in central Wellington, and the rest are located in suburban areas:[18]

  • Arapaki Manners Library
  • Brooklyn Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Brooklyn)
  • Cummings Park (Ngaio) Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Korimako, Ngaio)
  • He Matapihi Molesworth Library
  • Island Bay Library
  • Johnsonville Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Waitohi)
  • Karori Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Te Māhanga)
  • Khandallah Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Tari-Kākā)
  • Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Te Takapū)
  • Miramar Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Motu-Kairangi)
  • Newtown Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Omaroro)
  • Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Te Awa-a-Taia)
  • Te Awe Library
  • Wadestown Library (Te Whare Pukapuka o Ōtari)

There is also a housebound service, whereby volunteers will deliver books to those who are unable to get to a library.[19] From 1947 to 2006 the library operated a mobile service taking books to communities that had no branch library or limited public transport, but this service was cancelled in 2006 due to low use and high costs.[20]

  • Current Wellington city library buildings
  • Arapaki Manners Library and Service Centre (2019)
    Arapaki Manners Library and Service Centre (2019)
  • Brooklyn Library (2014)
    Brooklyn Library (2014)
  • He Matapihi Molesworth Library (2019)
    He Matapihi Molesworth Library (2019)
  • Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library (2018)
    Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library (2018)
  • Wadestown Library (2012)
    Wadestown Library (2012)
  • Photo of Karori Library taken from across the road.
    Karori Library (2020)
  • Previous Wellington city library buildings
  • The original Public Library designed in 1891 and opened in 1893 (1930)
    The original Public Library designed in 1891 and opened in 1893 (1930)
  • The Newtown Public Library (ca 1904-1914)
    The Newtown Public Library (ca 1904-1914)
  • The Wellington Central Library built in 1937 (1940)
    The Wellington Central Library built in 1937 (1940)
  • Wellington Central Library building (2007)
    Wellington Central Library building (2007)

References

  1. ^ a b c "Closing tonight: Old City Library: Opening of New Building". Evening Post. 8 February 1940. Retrieved 2 October 2021 – via Paperspast.
  2. ^ a b Yska, Redmer (2006). Wellington: Biography of a City. Wellington, New Zealand: Reed. ISBN 978-0-7900-1107-3.
  3. ^ "William Crichton". Wellington City Council. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "Weakness of Oamaru Stone". Auckland Star. 8 March 1943. Retrieved 2 October 2021 – via Paperspast.
  5. ^ Honey, Tommy (23 June 2020). "30 years on: Wellington Central Library". Architecture Now. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "Civic Square building bridge may come down". Stuff/Fairfax. 8 January 2013.
  7. ^ "Central city office blocks close for assessment". Stuff/Fairfax. 23 July 2013.
  8. ^ a b Wiltshire, Laura (10 September 2020). "Wellington's 30-year-old Central Library may be given heritage status". Stuff. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Te Awe Library". New Zealand Institute of Architects. Retrieved 3 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "Central Library closure". Wellington City Council. 19 March 2019.
  11. ^ Lock, Harry (10 September 2020). "Wellington Central Library recommended for top heritage status". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ Williams, Katarina; Mitchell, Rob (28 October 2020). "'Great news day' for Wellington - council agrees to spend $179m to fix, upgrade library". Stuff. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ George, Damian (25 May 2021). "Wellington City Council reconsidering central library upgrade plans". Stuff. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. ^ "Future of the Central Library Consultation". Wellington City Council. 19 September 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ "No clear plan to re-house 350,000 items in Wellington's Central Library as pop-up opens". Stuff. 28 May 2019.
  16. ^ "New co-operative space to open at National Library – Library News". Wellington City Council Libraries blog. 27 May 2019. Archived from the original on 11 October 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  17. ^ "Central City Library Services FAQs". Wellington City Libraries. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ "Our Branches". www.wcl.govt.nz. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Housebound". Wellington City Libraries. Retrieved 2 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Thomson, Rebecca (28 September 2015). "Brakes put on mobile library - 150 Years of News". Stuff. Retrieved 3 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Libraries in Wellington.

41°17′1.54″S 174°46′33.67″E / 41.2837611°S 174.7760194°E / -41.2837611; 174.7760194

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wellington_City_Libraries&oldid=1064976616"