Last Saturday, I had the good fortune to receive a guided tour of the Palmerston North City Library on the north island of Aotearoa/New Zealand. The library is divided into six zones: The Basement (Youth), Fiction and Literature, Children’s, Non-Fiction, Sound and Vision, and New Zealand and Pacific Islands. There are small sections called Living Rooms within each zone. Living Rooms are organized around content areas of interest such as thrillers, picture books, or graphic novels and the corresponding resources of different formats (e.g. books, DVDS, CDs) are arranged by Dewey Decimal class.

In addition, there is Sound and Vision Zone on the ground-level floor. This zone not only has recordings in various formats but also includes a sound stage for live events and a recording studio. Resources in this area, as in others, are located on shelves with wheels, which can be moved to reconfigure the space to adjust for small and large group events. Zones are tailored for specific audiences. Youth visiting The Basement can watch Sky TV, read, play games on XBOX 360 or Playstation. The nonfiction zone includes print resources in many of the world’s languages.

For more information about Palmerston North City Library got to http://www.citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz.

The attached images give you a view of some of the physical features of the main library, which was used as a department store for over 60 years. One of the contemporary features of the building is the Welcome Wall at the library’s
entrance with greetings writing in over 100 languages.

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