Auckland Libraries blog

John's Place, Rialto Arcade, Newmarket, 1971. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1269-19710522-04. Back in 2017, UNESCO recognised the long, rich musical history of Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland by designating it as a City of Music . The future of our local music scene is just as bright. Skip forward to May 2024, and it's time to celebrate the rich sounds of Aotearoa with New Zealand Music Month at Auckland Libraries! This year's theme, Amplifying Aotearoa | Paorotia Aotearoa , puts the spotlight on everyone who makes our music scene sing - from rising stars to dedicated fans. Dust off your instruments and explore our extensive collection of sheet music, featuring iconic Kiwi artists and timeless classics. Dive deeper with music documentaries and biographies available through our library resources.  Throughout May, we're hosting a series of special events. Experience heritage concerts showcasing local legends and aspiring newcomers, plus exciting opportunities to disc...

Symonds Street Cemetery. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 1-W0245 We’re delighted to offer our popular Heritage Talks series online via Zoom and are pleased to have people tune in from around Aotearoa and worldwide! We’ve just released many of our previous talks on our YouTube channel – tune in to enjoy lectures on topics as diverse as early Chinese restaurants in Auckland, world-leading New Zealand artists and schisms in the 19th-century feminist movement. Explore our picks of the Heritage Talks playlist on YouTube and find out about upcoming Heritage Talks . Heritage Talks picks Two artists and their architects with Megan Walker Both were born in Europe and moved to New Zealand for love. Both enjoyed careers lasting for decades and joined the ranks of Aotearoa’s best-known artists. And both were uncompromising and fiercely creative women who succeeded in male-dominated industries, cementing their places in history by the force of their own talent. Megan Walker presents the s...

This list of Auckland Libraries family history resources will help you progress your research during lockdown. Our expert family history librarian Seonaid has provided great tips for getting the best results for your records from home. Auckland Libraries family history research guides Our family history research guide can help you get started if you are a beginner, or assist you with questions like: What resources are available to help with finding records of births, deaths, and marriages?  What research resources are available for New Zealand specific research? When ordering an electronic printout of a birth, death and marriage, what information can I expect to receive for a birth that happened after 1875? Our guides also cover further New Zealand resources , immigration records , international resources and more. Historic births, deaths and marriages The Department of Internal Affairs'   Historic Births, Deaths and Marriages are usually one of the first port...

Jarrod Wakefield and Timothy Barnett, Auckland Libraries Digitised Content & Strategy team. In recognition of World Digital Preservation Day , we spoke with Digitised Content & Strategy Manager, Timothy Barnett, about the important digital preservation projects our expert staff work on. The team's goal is to make Auckland Libraries’ heritage collections available online to a worldwide audience. Tim tells us that no one else in the world has some of the items Auckland Libraries curates. "These are pieces of New Zealand's story that don't exist elsewhere." Auckland Libraries launched Kura Heritage Collections Online in early 2019, a website where you can discover, explore and engage with the wealth of heritage content digitised by our Auckland Libraries preservation experts. On each  Kura record, visitors are invited to leave comments and feedback to help fill in any gaps or add to the history of the items in our care. Since the launch...

He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. Central City Library's current exhibition, ‘ Kīnaki: Ngā reta Māori ’, is a collection of ngā reta Māori (Māori letters) handpicked from the Sir George Grey Special Collections by Robert Eruera, Poukōkiri Taonga Tuku Iho Māori | Senior Curator Māori. For the purposes of the exhibition, Kīnaki refers to the small things that we relish and take pleasure from. These letters were chosen in the hope that our interest will be piqued by the morsels on offer. Stretching over 50 years, these letters span an era of time during New Zealand's colonial infancy and illustrate the close relationships between rangatira (chiefs or leaders) and Governor Grey. Almost all the letters are addressed either to Governor Grey or his wife Lady Eliza Lucy Grey, and many of them are surprisingly uncluttered by the kind of formalities that you might expect from letters written to the Governor of New Zealand.  Unknown photograph...

To celebrate Auckland's anniversary, Auckland Libraries has wrapped the city's heritage in an easy-to-explore package with Kura Heritage Collections Online . Unwrap our heritage with the click of a mouse or swipe of a phone to discover more than 600,000 historic documents and records. Kura features a wealth of photographs and portraits, plans and personal letters - and that's just the start. Before Kura launched, history enthusiasts had to access heritage items by trawling through dozens of databases. Now the content is easy for anyone to browse, download and share instantly - and still completely free. Auckland Centennial Regatta. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections T2344 Councillor Penny Hulse, Chairperson of the Environment and Community Committee, is excited about the launch and passionate about what Kura will offer to Aucklanders. “It’s about giving the city the ability to access their heritage as easily and conveniently as possible,” she...