Auckland Libraries blog

Great news! From 11 October, RBdigital users will be able to automatically check out new issues of eMagazines as soon as they are available!  This means you will always have the latest issues of your favourite magazines waiting for you in your RBdigital account! When checking out a magazine, you will be able to select if you would like to be notified via email of the availability of future issues and have those automatically checked out and available for reading in the RBdigital app and website. If you have already opted to be notified when future issues of your favourite magazine are available, in future you will be emailed and your magazine will automatically be checked out to you. Find out more about accessing eMagazines on our website or click here to read more about RBdigital’s eMagazine selection .

Whose life stories are the most requested at Auckland Libraries right now? Steven Adams and Princess Margaret!  This week on Books and Beyond, Louisa and Karen talk about one of our most popular genres: the biography. Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast. Books mentioned in the show Steven Adams: my life, my fight by Steven Adams and Madeleine Chapman  Body parts: essays on life-writing  by Hermione Lee Orwell's nose: a pathological biography by John Sutherland  Christopher Walken A to Z: the man, the movies, the legend by Robert Schnakenberg  Cleopatra: a life by Stacy Schiff Vincent and Theo: the Van Gogh brothers by Deborah Heiligman Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster  Take six girls: the lives of the Mitford sisters by Laura Thompson  The Sun King: Louis XIV at Versailles by Nancy Mitford Ma'am darling: 99 glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown Graham Henry: final word by Bob Howitt  Auckland Libraries' rad

This week on Books and Beyond, Karen and Louisa look at books celebrating the human-animal bond. Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast  and read on for the books mentioned in the show. Novelty cat books Out next year! The costume-loving cat of writer Paul Koudounaris has secured herself a book deal, as reported in Viva magazine Texts from Mittens: a cat who has an unlimited data plan... and isn't afraid to use it by Angie Bailey Animal mysteries, a subgenre of Cozy Crime: Hounding the pavement  by Judi McCoy Mission impawsible  by Krista Davis Murder most howl  by Krista Davis Not a creature was purring  by Krista Davis Three books about beloved dogs: Finding Gobi: the true story of a little dog and an incredible journey by Dion Leonard with Craig Borlase   Flush, a biography by Virginia Woolf   Afterglow: a dog memoir by Eileen Myles   Treasure from the basement: My family and other animals by Gerald Durrell  

For some time, we've been working on how to expand our regional mobile library and access services to be able to reach more Aucklanders, more often. We're pleased to announce that our expansion plans have now been approved by Auckland Council's Environment and Community Committee and we will be rolling out the following changes in the coming months. Increasing our current team of staff members and creating new roles. These include a reo speaking Māori Mobile librarian, rural library coordinator and librarian to support volunteers, and a homebound access coordinator to provide access to customers unable to leave home Operating three large buses and two, more agile, vans Operating seven days a week and expanding outside of traditional hours (previously mobile libraries only operated on weekdays during normal business hours) - read on for details of the updated stops and new schedules (effective from 15 October) Visiting more local and regional events throughout Tāma

Banned Books Week is now in its 36th year, still championing and defending the freedom to read. The spotlight's on banned, sequestered and burned books through history (including two from Aotearoa), as Karen and Louisa celebrate the freedom to read, and conclude that books always outlast their bans! Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast  and read on for the books mentioned in the show. Karen and Louisa presented the American Library Association's list of the top ten most challenged books in 2017 . Nine banned books which feature on the Auckland Libraries poster for Banned Books Week: Candide by Voltaire The divine comedy by Dante Ulysses by James Joyce Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen Gargantua and Pantagruel , 1553 by Francois Rabelais Life and fate by Vasily Grossman Lolita , 1955 by Vladimir Nabokov All quiet on the Western front , 1928 by Erich Maria Remarque Other books discussed: Into the river  by Ted Dawe The beginner

To celebrate Suffrage Day on 19 September, Renée Orr from Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections talks about a selection of historical material illustrating wāhine taking action in Aotearoa, from the suffrage petitions of the 1890s to the feminist magazine Broadsheet from the 1980s. Listen to this Books and Beyond episode on the  Auckland Libraries podcast  and read on for links to the items and people discussed in the show. Suffrage 125 and the petition Suffrage 125 and celebrations Suffrage petition  on New Zealand History Suffrage petition, sheet 394   Amey Daldy's letter to Sir George Grey Amey Daldy. Letter to Sir George Grey, 20 September 1893. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, GLNZ D1.1. Amey Daldy's biography on Te Ara Amey Daldy's letter to Sir George Grey Ellen Melville's election poster Electors of Grey Lynn. 1919. From: Ellen Melville. Election scrapbooks. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, NZMS 1569.   El

Karen talks with Jeremy 'Mr J' Bishop from Arkham City Comics about his parallel journeys as a librarian and comics fanboy, and how the comics genre succeeded in ensconcing itself as an indisputably brilliant reading choice. Listen to this episode on the Auckland Libraries podcast  and read on for the books mentioned in the show. Jeremy's favourite comics from childhood: Asterix and Obelix Buster Garfield The Adventures of Tintin Whizzer and Chips Marvel and DC comics: Batman Superman Wonder Woman X-Men Fantastic Four The Phantom Judge Dredd Spiderman Seminal graphic novels (comics packaged as complete stories): The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman (1988) Preacher by Garth Ennis (1996) Watchmen by Alan Moore (1986-87) Maus by Art Spiegelman (1987) Palestine  by Joe Sacco (1993) Karen's favourite graphic novels: Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt (1975 in Italy, 2012 in Engl