Does Wellington need a new library? The answer is a definitive yes

Monday, 20 July 2020

Wellington’s central library is due for a $200 million upgrade.

Libraries now offer thousands of books digitally, and any borrower with an Internet connection need never step foot in physical library. So why is Wellington planning to spend $200 million of ratepayers’ money restoring a building for storing physical books. LAURA WILTSHIRE reports.

In 2019, Wellington’s central library closed suddenly, when engineers raised concerns about how the building would withstand a major earthquake.

Over a year later the city has three pop-up libraries, and the same number of ideas for strengthening the original building, built in 1991.

The most expensive, and preferred option of council staff, would cost close to $200 million and leave the city without a central library until 2025.

Wellington City Council recommended a $200 million high-level strengthening of the library in July. (Video first published October 2020).

But with three smaller library up and running at a cost of $5.6m, does Wellington need to spend hundreds of millions of re-opening the central library?

* Wellington's book collection growing at the same rate despite closure of Central Library

* No clear plan to re-house 350,000 items in Wellington's Central Library as pop-up opens

Ema Katreva enjoying one of the new pop-up libraries. Her mother, Katerina Katreva, said she enjoyed the modern space.

* Public libraries are crucial, as Christchurch knows and Wellington must embrace

According to the executive director of Public Libraries New Zealand, Hilary Beaton, the answer is yes.

“Library visitation has grown hugely,” she said.

“Because libraries now hold events, public debate, speakers, they tie in with writers’ festivals, they have huge school visits.”

In 2018/2019 there were 33 million visits across New Zealand’s 322 public libraries, with 1.5 million active members. In its final year before closing, the Wellington Central Library had around 1.24 million visitors.

Digital usage was up as well, but Beaton did not see a world where brick and mortar libraries became obsolete as a result.

Davey Horgan and his 10-year-old son Robin Horgan, enjoyed the pop-ups, but say they are not a replacement for the real deal.

“The library, I think, is a facility for people coming together, it’s a very big part of what a library does.

“You can tell a culture of a country by the buildings that it builds, if it builds banks, that says something about it, if it builds shopping malls, it says something about it.

“If it’s a huge library, that is there for the people, that says something.'

Ten-year-old Robin Horgan, comes from a “library family.” Speaking to Stuff while visiting one of the pop-ups, his father Davey Horgan said they visited the library at least once a week.

He felt they could not replace the original library longer term.

His advice for the council: “This time make sure it’s earthquake safe.”

Concept drawings for an earthquake-strengthened Wellington Central Library, with improved connections to the Civic Square precinct.

As for Robin, he said he missed the central library, and he hoped when it re-opened, the cafe would re-open too.

Katerina Katreva and her daughter Ema, 5, visit the library every couple of months.

She said she liked the modern feel of the pop-up library, compared to the original central library.

Retiree Harry Duckworth said now the newest pop-up, Te Awe, was open he would be visiting once a week but, like the Horgan family, he hoped to see the central library opened again.

“I hope we never lose the idea of having a library.”

The newest of three 'pop up' libraries in Wellington is now open.

Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons, who holds the libraries' portfolio, said they were a core part of social infrastructure and the pop-ups were not a replacement for the Civic Square site.

“The long-term home of the central library is Te Ngākau Civic Square.”

Wellington is not the only city forced to think about the future of library services in recent years. In 2018 Christchurch opened Tūranga, a replacement for the library it lost in the 2011 earthquake.

Christchurch City councillor Jake McLellan said the $92.7 million investment was worth it.

“It [Tūranga] is quickly becoming a beloved public institution, it’s massive, it’s modern, and it's a beautiful building as well, at the heart of our CBD, that otherwise suffers from a lack of things in it. It’s a bit of an anchor point.”

He said Wellington was in the lucky position of having a “built heritage” and the city should work with the spaces it already had.

Information Studies Programme Director at Victoria University, Jennifer Campbell-Meier, said public libraries were one of a few public spaces available to all, and supported social connections, leisure activities, problem solving and education.

She did not believe the pop-ups could be a long-term solution on their own, as they could not provide all the connections, services, programmes and space a central library could.

“I do think that pop ups can work in tandem with a central library.”

The first of the pop-ups, Arapaki Manners Library, saw 285,900 people through its doors in the first year of operation, but Wellington City Council spokesperson Victoria Barton-Chapple, said that may be skewed with people visiting the council’s service centre.