News Archive
RSS feed and news blog | | Learning English or Māori? | Library express | More news
Libraries went Ape!
Wellington City Libraries first ever movie screening was a hit when we hosted a free event on 17 December, based around the classic King Kong movie. The ground floor in the Central Library was decked out in the theme of 1930s cinema, complete with; plasma screen, jungle, popcorn, candyfloss, champagne, orange juice and ticket booth. Many people dressed in 30s costumes and we even had 'Peter Jackson' turn up. Guests screamed like Fay Wray or roared like King Kong and were delighted with their prizes of a gift basket, classic King Kong dvd, movie tickets and posters for the old and new movies. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the movie and entertainment and we've had many people call us with lovely comments on how much they enjoyed themselves. Our guests were also very pleased to be taking away a complimentary goodie bag on the night.
In addition to library and council staff, sponsors also made a huge contribution to this event by providing: plasma screen (Vidcom NZ Ltd), champagne, OJ, goodie bags, gift baskets (Woolworths Karori), champagne (Allied Domecq) and the jungle (Berhampore Nursery).
All in all the event was a roaring success!
RSS feed - our blog
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an easy way to get updates of new content from your favourite websites, and a blog (weblog) is a list of updates. From now on, whenever we add things to our website, we are updating our RSS feed and blog. If you subscribe to our feed, you can learn about library events and new books without visiting our website daily.
You can visit our blog or sign up to the RSS feed for free at sites like Bloglines. You can also subscribe to all your other favourite websites' feeds. Often sites will have an orange or blue image saying 'RSS' or 'XML', to let you know they have an RSS feed. You can also download programmes to have feeds sent to your email or web-browser.
There is a good explanation of RSS on the BBC website.
The full address of our RSS feed is http://wellington-city-libraries.blogspot.com/atom.xml.
Learning English or Māori?
All cassettes, CDs, CD-ROMs and Videos which teach English or Māori are now free to borrow and have a 4 week loan period. This includes all of the Adult Learning collection.
Can't get to the library? Use Library Express!
Library Express is a new service being offered by Wellington City Libraries to anyone in the region who is unable to personally visit a library. This is a great service for anybody who is ill, injured, or immobilised. It could also be useful for someone with a new baby who can't find the time to visit the library.
For a small charge, our Library Express team can locate, issue and arrange delivery and return of any items required. These can be personally selected from our online catalogue, or we can tailor a selection to suit your personal preferences. From one-off to regular deliveries, this service aims to cater for the personal needs of each user.
Now you can borrow books, CDs, movies and much more without even setting foot in a library!
For more information on Library Express phone Linda on 801-4065.
New features on our Library Catalogue!
They say "don't judge a book by its cover" but our customers can now do this - plus read first chapters of fiction, reviews, summaries, non-fiction excerpts, author notes and more - on the online catalogue.
Book covers are provided by our US library system owners so the illustrations display mainly in areas such as craft, computers, philosophy, mysteries, music, performing arts. (Check out these searches for quilting and computing). New covers and other content is being added every week, meaning that as we purchase more books for our collections, more information become available.
Our new enhanced catalogue now makes it easier to find information about books you might be interested in. We see the covers and additional information in both our online catalogue and MyLibrary Recent Picks as providing another key ingredient in borrowers' informed choice, along with leafing through the books themselves, and other information available through other media such as radio, print and television.
Changes to using your library card details online
We are in the process of making it easier for you to access library services such as checking your library card, reserving items and using the mygateway.info databases. Previously you needed to enter your library card number, your last name and/or a PIN number.
From September you will no longer need to enter a PIN number - simply enter your card number and your last name to access these services.
This will make accessing library services faster and easier for borrowers - it is in line with international library practice and replicates in-library usage where customers can reserve items and check their card details by presenting their library card. Because of these changes it is important to keep your library card in a secure place and preferably not lend it to anyone else. If you lose your card, please contact us as soon as possible.
Overdue charges will increase
The Council's Annual Plan decisions for 2005/2006 have resulted in an increase to the daily charge for overdue books and magazines. The daily rate will increase to:
- $0.50 per day for books and magazines issued on an adult or out of towner's card
- $0.25 per day for books and magazines issued on a child or young adult's card.
This change will take effect from 1 August 2005. We are making this small increase in fees to encourage people to return items to the library sooner so that they are available to other borrowers. (Current overdue charges)
Changes For Super Cardholders
From 1 September, Super cardholders will no longer receive a Passport to Leisure discount - only Community Services cardholders will be eligible. Passport to Leisure is a Wellington City Council discount scheme providing opportunities for members of the community where price has been identified as a barrier to participating in recreational activities. The Community Services card has been chosen as the new way of measuring this price barrier.
Statistics New Zealand and public libraries partnership
On 21st February 2005 the launch of the partnership between public libraries and Statistics New Zealand was celebrated at Wellington City Libraries. The partnership ensures that member public libraries will continue to receive up-to-date official statistics for their communities. For Wellington City Libraries this means that we will cotinue to receive one free copy of every publication printed by the department. These copies will be found in the Reference Collection on the Second Floor of the Central Library.
Sound & Vision Centre changes
The Sound & Vision area at our Central Library is now like a 'mini-library' with its own issues desk and entry/exit gates. This means that there is no more waiting to get your DVDs filled at the issues desk, and now CDs which were previously 'Kept at Desk' are on the shelves for you to browse through!Adult CDs and DVDs can only be issued in this area - if you have other library items, you can issue them at the same time. Vision Centre changes
Council Plan changes
From 1 August 2003, please take extra care to return all items you borrow before the library closes on the day they are due - as overdue charges now start on the next day. The cost of interloaning an item from another NZ library is now $14 (up from $10) to reflect the increase in fee we pay to loaning libraries (more).
Bumper year for Wellington City Libraries
Wellington residents are reading, listening and watching more than ever - that's the word from City Libraries Manager Jane Hill who says that over 4.3 million items were issued or read in the library over the 2002/03 period.
"We've had an amazing year! We've had more books borrowed, more people signing up for membership and more people visiting our website than any other year!" said Ms Hill. "At the Central Library alone we had an average of about 4000 people walk through the door each day."
More than 30,000 people signed up for membership in the year, up from 22,000 from 2001/02. The libraries' busiest day was the Tuesday following Easter with over 27,000 issued items returned across the city.
Much of the increase was put down to the libraries' focus on diversification. The extension to Tawa's Mervyn Kemp Library has also significantly resulted in increased business, and strong collections - everything from babies' board books to foreign languages - has had Wellingtonians coming back for more.
Whekenui, the libraries' new computer system, also promoted usage by giving library patrons easy online access to the entire catalogue.
"We had 18,989,673 visits to our website - up from around two million from the previous year. Our libraries' website has had definite spin-offs with people coming to visit the libraries to take out books," says Ms Hill.
Popular items include J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, (which had 189 reservation applications before it was released), American political activist Michael Moore's top-selling Stupid White Men, and Yann Martell's Life of Pi.
The most popular non-fiction book - The Road Code for Car Drivers 2003 - had gone out 295 times.
Free access to online newspapers at WCL!
A range of NZ and international newspapers has been added to the free internet sites available in our libraries! International newspapers in French, German and Somali have also been included, with Chinese, Japanese and Arabic soon to follow (more).
