News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

This month in history Gershwin and Eva Peron died, NZ adopted decimal currency and the Rainbow Warrior was bombed. Our July history page feature is on the formation of the U.S.S.R.

Our new books for teens includes a book by NZ teens – Cupid on a Friday Night : The Fifth in the Re-draft Series. Clever sods. There are also books about nuts, morons and extreme headbangers, “Storms thet change whatever the touch, rearranging streets, turning children into statues of glass, remaking the world over and over”, and another installment of the Princess diaries.

(Remember – you can write a review and we might publish it on our website)

We’re featuring old gems of Pacific history on our Pasefika page. Many of the books are by missionaries and early travellers to the region, and their accounts can be fascinating.

New to our non-fiction collection this month – books on liars, misleaders and hoodwinkers; philosophy; the necessity of men; Russian fairy tales; a British Muslim’s Guantanamo experiences; gadgets; skilled NZ migrants; why culture can’t be jammed, and more.

Come along and make freaky fridge magnets, experience puppet pizzazz, become a superhero, and create things that fly – our holiday programmes are are great fun.

We have new sports books on kick-boxing, Muay Thai, bowling, dressage, rowing and more.

Telecom 35th Wellington Film Festival brochures are out and the website is up. If you’re feeling peckish for quality DVDs (only $3/week), you can search our collection by genre, including foreign language, classic novels, nostalgia and documentaries. Work your way through the Criterion collection or Director’s suite series. From last year’s film festival we have adored documentary The wild parrots of Telegraph Hill, David LaChapelle’s urban doco Rize, Wong Kar Wai’s 2046, The edukators and more.

Some of the best reference books are available online at Oxford Reference Online and Oxford English Dictionary Online. New to Oxford Reference Online – The Oxford Dictionary of Plays, Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, The Oxford Companion to the Garden, The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and The Oxford Dictionary of Animal Behaviour.

There are also new editions of Dictionary of Ecology, A Dictionary of Psychology, A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes, The Pocket Latin Dictionary, and the Oxford Companion to English Literature.

Oh, and they now offer over 775 maps. Phew.

Our index of WCL material on NZ artists (painters, photographers, sculptors, installation artists…) is available to search online. The aim of the database is to be a useful resource for the general interested reader and students at secondary and tertiary levels.

(Plus, new art and graphic arts books are displayed each month on our Art page)

If you’re stuck with a project and need some assistance, we can provide up to two hours of research for free. All Wellington City Libraries members are eligible for this service. Just talk to us (801 4059) or email us and we’ll provide help or research results within 3 days. If you need further help or if you have a tighter deadline, our ProSearch team provide professional research for a charge.