New Zealand Libraries

You can't have two librarians on a trip - or even one - and not visit libraries as they appear on the journey. (Plus, we had an avid library booksale shopper with us.) Ellen and I were most taken with the Carnegie library building in Hokitika. It's a museum now, but when it was built it was "the grandest of the 18 Carnegie libraries to be built in New Zealand." Who knew that there was even one Carnegie library there? Here we are on the front steps.

 

Here's the entrance to their new library, opened in 2009.

 

Library signage is an obsession with many librarians. Here's a sign that raises more questions than it answers, at least to non-kiwis.

 

Presumably the offenders know all too well what hot chips are.

This signage in the Blenheim library promoted early literacy beautifully, although as Ellen pointed out, the collections and furnishings did not support these ideas particularly well.

 

I was taken with these signs in the J fiction collection that pointed out popular authors. I can already hear you asking how they ensured that the right books continued to be shelved in this spot, and I don't know how they pulled it off.

 

Collections look very similar to ours. These pictures are from the children's area in Hokitika, shown off to us by the friendly children's librarian.

 

 

Here, on the other hand, is a sign I spotted in a half-deserted community building in Okarito. Look closely (click on the photo) to find its hopeful message.