More news for this week

Discover something new at your local library

From City Scene, published on 25 November, 2007

Hot summer, cool books - Auckland City Council's libraries' holiday reading programme for 5 to 12 year olds is back again this summer.

Bigger is better- Andrew Glover tries out a special large-font keyboard and trackball mouse.

Your community libraries are a valuable, accessible resource with a lot to offer, including reading programmes, art works and exhibitions. Make the most of these council-funded facilities and head down to your local library.

Hot summer, cool books

Auckland City Council's libraries' holiday reading programme for 5 to 12 year olds is back again this summer due to popular demand. The programme, now in its seventh year, encourages young people to keep reading and visiting the library during the summer holidays. To take part, simply pick up a Hot Summer, Cool Books passport from your local library from 3 December and get reading. Participants report into the library four times during the holiday period to talk about their reading and have their passport stamped. This allows them to go into regular prize draws and a big draw in the final week when eight iPod Shuffles are up for grabs.

Family history resources

If you're researching your family tree, the council's Central City Library research centre has most comprehensive collection of family history resources in New Zealand. These include passenger lists; electoral rolls; coroners' reports; photographs; birth, death and marriage indexes; copies of the NZ Herald from 1863 and other New Zealand papers; and an electronic resource that gives access to more than four billion records.

The resources are free for Auckland residents to use, with staff on hand to help. The library also holds a comprehensive stock of historic photographs, many of which are available for sale from Special Collections. Students, professional historians, journalists and authors are some of the more than 100 people who use the research centre daily.

Family history librarian Karen Kalopulu says many people who start researching their family tree become interested in broader social history. Karen says that often research has a personal twist. "One recent customer had met their partner through a personals ad in the Herald. They came in on their 10th anniversary for a copy of the original advertisement."

Pinball sculpture coming soon

Three hanging sculptures make up The Pinball Lanterns, on display in real café, at the Central City Library, from mid-December. The sculptures consist of an engineered spiral rail that guides a pinball triggering lights and other effects. The lanterns' timing mechanism is synchronised with the Auckland Art Gallery clock tower on Wellesley Street, with the clock's chimes every quarter hour activating the lanterns' lights and electromechanical flippers.

Artist Eddie Clemens, who last month won the 2008 Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Award, says the installation is a harmonious synergy of a pinball machine and a Chinese capsule lantern. Auckland City Council and The Chartwell Trust provided initial funding towards creating the artwork.

Bigger is better

Andrew Glover tries out a special large-font keyboard and trackball mouse. The new equipment is available at all 17 of Auckland City Council's libraries and is ideal for people who have difficulty using standard keyboards. Library staff are also on hand to help users identify software features that make computers easier to use for people with physical or sight impairments. Visit Auckland City Council's libraries' website or phone 307 7780 for more information.