Auckland Libraries blog

Librarian Karen and literary biographer Joanne Drayton Karen chats with acclaimed literary biographer Joanne Drayton, whose works include the NY Times bestseller The Search for Anne Perry , about the Christchurch schoolgirl killer who forged a new life as a writer of popular historical crime novels. Her new book about TV chefs Hudson and Halls is due out this year. Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast . Auckland Libraries' radio show Books and Beyond explores the world of books with guest authors, recommended reads, gems from the Central City Library basement and… beyond. Catch us on Planet FM104.6, Sundays at 9.35 pm. Listen to recent shows via the Auckland Libraries podcast.

Auckland Libraries are excited to present our new databases for 2018!  There's something for everyone! Our new databases include Drama Online, BWB Texts Collection, World Almanac for Kids, World Geography and Culture Online, and Road to IELTS. Road to IELTS – General and Academic There has always been a high demand for IELTS study guides from students learning English as a second language. Great news! We offer free access to the world-class Road to IELTS online preparation courses for both the General and Academic modules. These interactive, self-study preparation courses can be accessed online anywhere anytime – allowing you to work at your own pace and in your own time. Check out Road to IELTS General , Road to IELTS Academic  or search the library website. Drama Online Drama Online is an award-winning digital library of over 1,700 playtexts, 350 audio plays and 150 hours of video from leading theatre publishers and companies offering a complete multimedia exp

This week on Books and Beyond, librarian Karen talks with poet Serie Barford about her work and the influence of her mixed Samoan and European descent. Serie reads from her latest book Entangled Islands  and the new anthology of political poetry Manifesto Aotearoa . Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast. Auckland Libraries' radio show Books and Beyond explores the world of books with guest authors, recommended reads, gems from the Central City Library basement and… beyond. Catch us on Planet FM104.6, Sundays at 9.35 pm. Listen to recent shows via the Auckland Libraries podcast .

As of Monday 9 April 2018, it will be much easier to request your favourite magazines! Our catalogue display will now let you view copies of a particular issue of a magazine in expandable lists, making it easier to browse for the magazine issue you're looking for. Additionally, when you click request you will find it much easier and faster to select your desired issue. Our staff are working through all our magazine titles as quickly as possible - if your usual read hasn't become easier to request, don't worry - it soon will be! If you need help with requesting magazines, or would like to go through the process with a staff member, chat to your local librarian, or contact us online or over the phone at 09 377 0209.

Join Karen and Louisa on Books and Beyond this week, to explore works from some of New Zealand's finest Pasifika writers.  Listen to this week's episode on  PlanetFM's website  and read on for all the books mentioned in the show. A celebration of Pacific literature: Slavers in Paradise by Henry Evan Maude The Adventures of Vela by Albert Wendt Tupaia: The remarkable story of Captain Cook's Polynesian navigator by Joan Druett The sea! The sea! by Peter Jay Mātini by Rachel Reeves   Auckland Libraries' new radio show Books and Beyond explores the world of books with guest authors, recommended reads, gems from the Central City Library basement and... beyond.  Catch us on Planet FM104.6, Sundays at 9.35pm. Recent shows can be listened to via the Auckland Libraries podcast .

On this week's Books and Beyond, Louisa is joined by Keven Mealamu to discuss children's books, illustrations and the All Blacks.  Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast  and read on for all the books mentioned in the show. Keven Mealamu - from All Black to illustrator: Paul and the Magic Pencil by John Parker Home Sweet Home by Josephine Sim And Keven's own recommendation: Iceman: the Michael Jones story by Robin McConnell Auckland Libraries' new radio show Books and Beyond explores the world of books with guest authors, recommended reads, gems from the Central City Library basement and... beyond.  Catch us on Planet FM104.6, Sundays at 9.35pm. Listen to recent shows via the Auckland Libraries podcast .

This week on Books and Beyond, Anton Blank discusses his new book Global Roaming , a collection of short stories that focus on the journey of identity.  Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast. Auckland Libraries' radio show Books and Beyond explores the world of books with guest authors, recommended reads, gems from the Central City Library basement and... beyond.  Catch us on Planet FM 104.6, Sundays at 9.35pm. Listen to recent shows via the Auckland Libraries podcast .

We're excited to have our first standalone reference collection of Auckland fiction at Research Central , Level 2, Central City Library. Fiction lovers can browse the Kōrero paki nō Aotearoa/Local Fiction Collection seven days a week, and visitors to the city can find a pathway into our culture through our stories. Whilst focusing on Auckland fiction, the collection also includes work from wider New Zealand with an emphasis on Māori, Pacific and Asian NZ writers. Local gems include short story writer O.E. Middleton's 1972 collection The Loners – with each story beautifully illustrated by celebrated artist Ralph Hotere. We also have a complete set of the New Women’s Fiction anthologies first published in Auckland in the 1980s. These were important counters to the lack of publishing opportunities for women writers in literary journals and major anthologies at that time. Aorewa McLeod, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku and Vivienne Plumb are some of the many voices found in these vo

Checkouts from Auckland Libraries’ main digital reading platform, Overdrive , reached 4 million this month, making us some of the biggest digital library borrowers in the world. Auckland Libraries is now eighth in the world for Overdrive checkouts and one of only two libraries outside of the United States to hit 4 million checkouts. We join Toronto Public Library, New York Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library, King County Library System, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Boston Public Library and National Library Board Singapore in the 4 million club. Since November 2013, over 78,800 people have checked out at least one eBook from Auckland Libraries' Overdrive collection and this figure continues to grow, hitting an average of 27,543 eBooks borrowed per week this November. Catherine Frew, Auckland Libraries Head of Content and Access, is delighted to see Aucklanders' eBook borrowing grow and attributes this to Auckland Libraries’ innovative approach to their digit

​With approximately 20,000 visitors per day to our website, it's important that we deliver a digital experience that meets the growing needs of library customers.  We've put insights from customers at the heart of our website. Using your feedback, we've created a simplified and intuitive web experience that makes it easy to access the library catalogue, eBooks and magazines, major databases and heritage resources, as well as find out what’s happening at your community library. We encourage you to take a look around our new website and tell us what you think using the feedback options at the bottom of each page. Visit our new website now and find out more about our vision for the site .

Dr Majid Daneshgar from the University of Otago is the winner of this year's Auckland Library Heritage Trust scholarship 2016/17.  Dr Majid Daneshgar This is a scholarship awarded annually by the Trust to fund research into collections held in the Sir George Grey Special Collections at Auckland Libraries. Dr Daneshgar is preparing a catalogue of Middle Eastern manuscripts in Auckland Libraries. These include Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish works collected by Sir George Grey and Henry Shaw. Dr Daneshgar reads in Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Ottoman Turk, and Malay (Jawi), and is in the process of completing a census of Middle Eastern and Islamic manuscripts in New Zealand. Libraries and archives that Dr Daneshgar has worked through in search of materials include the Turnbull Library, the Sir George Grey Special Collections at Auckland Central City Library, the Heritage Collection in Dunedin Public Library, and Special Collections at Otago University. A 19th centur

The Library Connect team is the virtual team providing customer service to those who access library services without coming into a physical library.  The need for the service was highlighted when 70% of customer research participants stated their preference for managing enquiries remotely. The Library Connect team are Alison (pictured above), Meenu, Abi, Epi, and Jo. Their collective 100 years of library experience enable them to answer a huge range of enquiries every day.  They bring a wealth of library knowledge and experience from across the region. Each week they answer around 1000 calls and 400 emails. Their recent enquiries include: finding book titles using only descriptions of the cover and the plot of a book; introducing customers to the vast range of magazines available free from RBDigital eMagazines; talking customers through registering for Lynda.com to provide them with the opportunity to study from home; helping customers become confident users of their

We’ve listened to your feedback and we’re making improvements to Central City Library. Between early June and September Central Library is undergoing a refurbishment. This includes include installing new carpet, painting the walls and also changing the lighting for new environmentally friendly and brighter LED lighting. While this work is taking place we’re also taking the opportunity to make some further changes to the library to improve visitors experience when visiting. Level 2 works - 8 June to 3 July approx. Level 2 is now open and Sir George Grey Special Collections and the Central Research Centre are open. During the refurbishment, the newspaper room on Level 2 is closed. This will move to Level 1. Some papers may not be available during this time. Level 1 works - 4 July to 4 August This floor is entirely closed during these works to deliver new and improved study, computer and reading areas. The Citizens Advice Bureau will be offering a service from elsewher

I couldn't help noticing how many people taking part in the Great Summer Read seem to get through their To Be Read lists at such a fast clip compared to me. I'm talking about you, person whose book which had been on her list "forever" was The girl on the train , not even two years old! Why I've had Vanity Fair on my list for 15 years! And wasn't it nice to see that someone logged Vanity Fair for this challenge? I wonder how long their "forever" had been! How long had my choice, The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett, an English author who celebrates his 150th this year, been on my TBR list? I'm not actually sure, but when I encountered it last year in the basement of the Central City Library, a quaint little volume marked on the inside back cover with a pre-smiley-face-era smiley face (no circle! a nose!) by an early, contented reader whom posterity can only know as "L", I didn't waste the opportunity. Reader, I took it o

Of all the challenges, this is the one that most has me wondering what the top choice will end up being. Roald Dahl is the most popular choice for now, with The Twits , The Witches , The BFG and Matilda , in that order. (If the thought just occurred to you that Hey, I could watch The BFG for Challenge number 8, "Watch a movie based on a book", may I say that yes, you could, but it does have a bit of a wait list as all new releases do. But do you know of the two other Roald Dahl adaptations which are firmly up there among the movies no child -- and few adults -- should miss: the hilarious Matilda , directed by and starring Danny DeVito, and the whimsical stop-motion James and the Giant Peach , with the wonderful Pete Postlethwaite and, please quote me, "See Miriam Margolyes and Joanna Lumley as Aunts Spiker and Sponge and die".) Enid Blyton is in next place, a generation older but having such a long career and being so prolific that it hardly matters, and let

In the pre-broadcast entertainment era, reading out loud was an amusement as habitual as going for a coach ride - for the social strata who had leisure time and literacy skills of course. In even older times, pre-medieval, there are records of people commenting with surprise on seeing someone read silently, it was so unusual. Kafka used to read his stories aloud and laugh until the tears ran. Try reading a short story to someone your own age, or older, including much older. A friend, your auntie, your cat (yes, someone gloriously reported having done this)! Think ghost stories around the fire and try something chilling. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is a time-honoured read-aloud, with its deceptively normal opening, gradual building of apprehension, culminating in a terrible reveal. Plus, plenty to talk about afterwards, as everyone wants to know what it means. Shirley Jackson claimed she herself didn't know. Or get yourself a collection of the haunting horror stories o

(photo: @sfpubliclibrary Instagram 15 September) Time for the book dedications of the year! Not written this year, or not necessarily, but the best I've come across this year. It's a tradition dating back to my very first post for Books in the City, in which -- with the whole world of books available to me as subject matter -- I chose to celebrate the art of the well-written book dedication. That tells you something about my affection for those little solitaires twinkling and winking at us from the centres of white pages. I'm talking about the best dedications, of course, the ones that speak from the heart with the tongue of a writer, that neither surfeit us with lists (how did that start, those endless pages of acknowledgments in novels, for God's sake!) nor starve us of landmarks, the ones that, despite us knowing they are for a certain someone, we discover are magically also for us. Here are this year's finds: 1. Yuyo Morales in Thunder Boy Jr.

As World Poetry Day rolled around this week I was taken aback to read on the website of its founder, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO for short, that one of its aims is to ensure that "the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art". What? Someone thinks poetry is like hair jewellery? Who are these people talking to? "Encourage a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals" on the other hand, is an aim I am happy to get behind.  Although "poetry recital" does sound -- if not quite outdated, perhaps overly quaint, evoking the poetry pursuits of school-days (of which, please note, my memories are all good) - I am a huge believer in poetry being shared not just through books but by being spoken, performed, read aloud, and slammed. The descendants of Homer who make up the Poets Circle in Athens also believe in the power of spoken poetry. They invited poets around the world to joi