Local Focus: Moving 120,000 books to 'visually exciting' space

Tauranga City Library's temporary move from Willow St to a "more colourful and visually exciting" site on Devonport Rd is now complete.

The new site – He Puna Manawa – officially opened today with a dawn ceremony led by tangata whenua and commissioner Anne Tolley.

He Puna Manawa will be operational for about three years, while the new civic precinct is constructed on the old Willow St site.

Once complete, the library will move back to Willow St.

Moving 120,000 books, computers and other resources took a month to complete and was no simple task, Tauranga City libraries manager Joanna Thomas said.

"This is our central hub for all libraries in Tauranga City, so all of our research, resource books and our archive is here."

Thomas said most services offered by the Willow St library will be available at He Puna Manawa, including after-hours activities such as children's programmes, holiday programmes, movie screenings and craft nights.

The new, temporary library will offer a wide range of services both online and in-person.

"A library is very much as online as it is in the building," Thomas said.

"One of the things we offer is a lot of help with technology, so people can go home and use their devices, get on to the library ebooks, streaming and learning platforms.

"If they don't have their own technology then we have that here.

"They can use laptops, computers, and wifi here in the library."

Assistant library leader Mishka Greenberger is looking forward to welcoming residents into the new space.

"We really want to bridge the gap between those that have access to technology and those that might not be familiar with it," she said.

"The new library is going to be a much more engaging space, we're going to be throughout the entire library so there'll always be someone to help people as they come through.

Unlike Willow St, He Puna Manawa will not have a carpark next door, but Thomas said the new location had plenty of car parks nearby and was well-served by buses.

She said Te Puna Manawa would be a lot more visual than the old library.

"The new temporary library, and this will be something that will carry on in the planning of the new library, has some really exciting artworks that talk about Tauranga history created by local Māori artists.

"It will be a much more colourful and visually exciting place than the library that was built here in 1989."