Libraries are a huge passion of mine - more so since beginning a role with Napier City Council overseeing the city-owned Visitor Experiences (which includes our two libraries).
With between 1000 and 1200 people visiting the Napier and the Taradale Libraries on a daily basis, it is vital we understand how the facilities work now and how they will need to operate in the future.
Our Napier Libraries have about 35,000 members. Nearly 60,000 items are borrowed every month and there are 190,000 cherished items and 20,000 electronic resources held in the overall collection. It is a busy entity and one that is incredibly important to our community.
It is the community's living room - a place where the culture is to engage, challenge and stimulate. It's where everyone can access knowledge. And it's a place where people meet.
However it's important to acknowledge that both nationally and internationally, libraries are changing. Books are still the core of any library and always will be - and the demise of the printed book will not happen any time soon! But libraries are no longer silent, dusty book barns.
Napier City Council is only just beginning to dip its toe in the water of potential change for our main library. There are opportunities to explore - although none of these opportunities can, or will, occur in the short term.
We are in the very earliest of stages - the ideas stage! This is very much the fun part - where the council and the community are able to begin dreaming about what their ideal library looks like.
There's no hurry and the council will very much take its time, beginning the initial engagement process next month to gather thoughts and ideas. However any actual change, should it gain approval from the council and the community, could be years away in practice.
With all this in mind I recently embarked on a tour of some of New Zealand's leading libraries to learn about the services they offer, their layouts and atmosphere, the impact they have in the community, and the incorporation of the social and digital world.
Levin's library - Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-po - for example, is a fantastic and exciting place where sport and recreation, visitor information, community services and commercial activity meet. And they all function together incredibly well.
As you walk through the library entrance doors you are greeted with a friendly hubbub and the aroma of beautiful baking drifting through the space from the cafe. Paintings - the work of local artists - are displayed in the exhibition space. Yet the careful design and layout of the building has both allowed for a community feel to flourish, AND it has created quiet areas for study and research, and to be used by the more traditional library user. The pleasant silence that allows for focus is respected.
When considering the long-term requirements around the provision of library services, the Horowhenua District Council spoke to the community about its needs, and those needs were addressed in the design options. The result is not just a building. Rather, it is a nucleus for their community and a family destination that has, without doubt, improved and reinvigorated the centre of Levin.
Here, the library has plainly been a success. Visitor numbers have increased, the number of items on loan has grown, and the community is engaged with what its members very much see as "their" place, "their" space. . Returning to a traditional books-only model is not an option for this town.
Devonport, on Auckland's North Shore, is another example of a well-executed library development. Located in a lovely park in the heart of Devonport, the library has morphed into a facility that is used for more than just borrowing books. Meeting spaces have been created and segmented with beautiful furnishings, programmes for all ages spill out into the park, there are function spaces and modern technology is integrated at every turn.
The residents of Devonport set out to create an environment that was reflective of their community - and have done so incredibly well.
Napier now has an opportunity to look at the needs and requirements of THIS community. This sort of opportunity only comes along once every 50 years - once in a generation.
It's our chance to challenge the status quo - or not. We can begin to ask ourselves questions - how does our currently facility look and how does it flow?
What does our community need? Do we want to create places for play? Places for artists to work and exhibit? Learning spaces, function spaces, technology hubs, cafe spaces? What will reading nooks in Napier look like? What will make us a better city and an attractive environment in which to live and work?
Impacting on this opportunity is the responsibility of a lifetime and the entire community will soon be invited to participate in this exercise.
I imagine that any future library will be welcoming, inclusive and accessible. These are vital elements. Books, archives and specialist collections are also incredibly important, especially in our heritage city.
Napier Library will bring people from all cultures and backgrounds together.
