Palmerston North City Library

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The Palmerston North City Library is the main public library provided by the Palmerston North City Council for the residents of Palmerston North, New Zealand.

1 Purpose
2 Facilities
3 History
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Purpose

The Palmerston North City Library is branded as "The Living Room of the City" ^[1] and exists "To inspire people to explore the pathways of the world - Te Ara Whanui o Te Ao" ^[2] It serves the city through a variety of collections that include books, magazines, CDs, DVDs and electronic resources. It provides recreational and educational opportunities from an award-winning building located on The Square in the centre of the City, as well as four other branch libraries around the City.

[edit] Facilities

The Palmerston North City Library is located in The Square in the restored and extended C M Ross building. The design for the building was created by New Zealand architect Ian Athfield and was opened in 1996. ^[3] The library operates from other service points including branches located in the suburbs of Roslyn, Awapuni and Ashhurst as well as a mobile library bus. A new branch library in the suburb of Highbury is to open by the end of 2007.

[edit] History

A library service in Palmerston North dates back to June 1876 with the provision of a reading room available to subscription members only. The fledging service suffered various setbacks including a fire in 1885 which destroyed the entire collection. In 1894 the remainder of the library collections were transferred to the local Fire Brigade which had a members library open to public subscription. In 1900 the Council restarted a public library service with the opening of a public reading room. In 1938 the Council made the library service free to all city residents. The library has occupied a number of buildings over the years and the current central library is the 6th location. ^[3]^[4]