News Blog @ Wellington City Libraries

Christmas is getting closer and closer and you may still be wondering what present to get for family or friends. If you want to purchase affordable and useful gifts, look no further than your local libraries!

We have nifty pressies you can get for book worms and library users: our Concession Cards ! These are available for Bestsellers books, Reserves, and Magazines (excluding Bestsellers magazines). You can purchase them at our libraries for less than $30 each.

Also, our annual Summer Book Sale  is taking place until the 21st of December at Central, so pop in and see what bargains you can get. These will make nice Christmas presents for your loved ones (or yourself), and provide some good summer reading!

Every year thousands of avid readers and music lovers gather at Wellington Central Library for the Christmas book sale. And judging by its past popularity, this sale should be no different. Past buyers have used the sale to find the best book deals, to complete their personal collections or just to rummage and find a gem. And the sale helps the library by making room for its ever increasing collection.

The sale includes books, CDs, magazines and journals on every topic imaginable. Stock is replenished at regular intervals during the sale ensuring there are always fresh bargains to be found. And they really are bargains – prices start from 50 cents for magazines, with most other items between $1 and $6 and some marked prices.

If you love a bargain and love music or literature, you won’t want to miss it.

The Book Sale starts tomorrow: Tuesday 8 December, 9.30am at Wellington Central Library, 65 Victoria Street.

The British born writer Robert Holdstock has died suddenly, aged 61 from an E-Coli infection.

He began writing full time in 1976, after using his Master of Science in Medical Zoology working as a researcher for the Medical Research Council in London. He began his writing career with many published short stories and novellas. His first science fiction novel Eye Among the Blind was published in 1976. His break through fantasy novel, Mythago Wood, which was published in 1984, began as a novella published in 1981. This title became his most popular book, drawing on English folklore and Celtic myth.

The sequel Avilion was published in 2009. He also wrote the Merlin Codex series of three novels, six other novels and a collection of short stories.

Wow – what an amazing and fun year we’ve had celebrating the International Year of Astronomy!  It has been great meeting and getting to know some of you throughout the year and thank you to everyone who has participated in the wide variety of events provided by the Wellington Astronomical Society – including talks, telescope observing, the Cosmodome, and activities for younger astronomers such as launching rockets and making comets.

Although our events at the library are now over for the year, there are still plenty of opportunities to continue enjoying all things astronomical.  The Wellington Astronomical Society welcomes visitors and new members to their monthly talks, telescope observing and other events and you can visit their website for more info.  And the much anticipated re-opening of Carter Observatory is scheduled for February 2010 – to receive regular updates and the latest news click on the Big Bang link on their website.   And of course, we hope you will continue to enjoy reading and using our books, magazines and science databases at Wellington City Libraries for information on astronomy too.

We hope you’ve enjoyed making new discoveries in the International Year of Astronomy – happy stargazing everyone!

We had heaps of fun at Wellington Zinefest last Saturday. It was really great to see and meet so many people into zines!  Thanks for those who came and visited us in our cosy reading area too (see how cute we made it look?).

We brought loads of zines (like 50 something) for the collection so expect to see them up in a special zinefest display in the next week and of course reviews on this page.