Tag: Central Library closure

Central Library fiction available to reserve

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“We are excited to announce our Wellington City Libraries customers can begin reserving fiction books online from the Central Library collection through our new Collection and Distribution Centre (CDC),” says Laurinda Thomas, Libraries and Community Spaces Manager.

“Once items are reserved through the catalogue they will be delivered to the library branch the customer has chosen. This should take between one to three working days. Our teams will continue to help people find items and place reserves for them where they need it.”

“People can reserve titles from the fiction collection for adult readers at catalogue.wcl.govt.nz. We will add the young adults and children’s fiction over the coming weeks, followed by the non-fiction titles. After that, we’ll work through the reference collections and how we can make these accessible. We’ll keep customers updated as more parts of the collection become available.”

“It’s been mammoth job to find a space with the right climatic conditions and strength to house the more than 350,000 items which remained at the Central Library after taking out the 60,000 items that are available at our three interim CBD libraries. While we opened two of the interim branches last year – Arapaki Manners Library and He Matapihi Library – our plans to open the third library and the CDC in May were delayed by the Covid-19 lockdown. So we are excited the collection is now accessible, and we are opening Te Awe Library at 9:30am, Tuesday 14 July. We’d very much like to thank our customers for their patience and support over the past fifteen months.”

How library customers can reserve items:

In the New Catalogue (catalogue.wcl.govt.nz), look for items held at the “Off-site Storage” location, and select Place Reserve as you do for other items:

The Collection and Distribution Centre in Johnsonville and the library teams based there, manage the distribution of the thousands of new and current library items which are borrowed from, or returned to our 14 library branches every day. The Centre is closed to the public.

Central Library’s collection is on the move

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The Central Library collection is getting ready for its new home in the Johnsonville Collection and Distribution Centre.  A mix of approximately 400,000 books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, newspapers and other reference materials will be carefully packed in order, moved and re-shelved over the coming eight weeks.

“We are pleased to be in the final stages of making the much-loved collection available once again, and we thank our customers for their ongoing support,” says Laurinda Thomas, Wellington City Libraries and Community Spaces Manager.

“The Centre in Johnsonville provides both the climatic conditions, space and transport routes needed to manage the collection safely over the long term, until decisions can be made about the future central library services.”

“Although we move thousands of items around our 14 branches every day, this will jump substantially when people are able to order from the CDC. So we are finalising the ordering process and timings so people know what to expect. Towards late April we will advise customers how to order items, and the timings for when they can pick them up from the branch of their choice.”

Over 12,500 items are available in two of the three planned CBD libraries, which opened in May and October last year. Arapaki Library in Manners Street provides a mix of fiction, non-fiction and popular children’s titles. He Mataphi Library within the National Library has over 5,000 items with an Aotearoa and Māori focus.

The third and largest of the three CBD libraries, Te Awe will open in May. Te Awe will provide spaces where people can read, study or collaborate. There is also a dedicated space for a children’s collection, parents’ room and the popular Baby Rock ‘n’ Rhyme sessions.

People will be able to access around 31,000 items which have been tailored to represent the diverse range of subjects which Central Library customers have requested or reserved.

Council staff will be providing advice to the Council on Wednesday 25 March on options for future central library services and the external engineering assessments on the Central Library building. We will share the papers on the Wellington City Council website on 19 March.

Wellington City Libraries’ rare book collection is now housed at the Wellington City Archives at 28 Barker Street.

More information:
Timeline for Wellington Central Library Replacement Services