Palmerston North City Library extends Sunday opening hours

Nga Paki o Rehua - summer reading at the Esplanade in Palmerston North.

Kia ora koutou - hello from Palmerston North City Library.

As the band Roxette once said: “don’t bore us, get to the chorus”. So let’s get right into the biggest news.

From December 1, Central Library is open for longer on Sundays. The new hours are 10am–4pm. More time to pop in on the weekend! Grab a fresh pile of books, use a public computer, or simply hang out in a cosy spot.

You can find the standard hours for all locations on the library website www.citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz.

In other library hours news, the December and January open hours have been confirmed, and you can find them on the website, too.

You can return books at any time, either at a library location, or at one of the seven book bins dotted around the city.

Returns bins are cleared Monday-Friday and public holidays. Posters, vinyl LPs, or anything big or fragile are best returned directly to staff when the library is open, so they don’t get damaged. (The posters, not the staff. Although it’s against the rules to damage staff too.)

Summer reading is in full swing, with a programme for ages 4-10, and iRead for ages 11-13. The aim is to keep kids reading over summer, and it caters to readers of all abilities.

Librarians will assist participating tamariki with their reading and encourage them to talk about what they have read when they come in for a book chat.

Tamariki will earn rewards as they progress, and if they complete four book chats they get to attend our finale event with their whānau. Ka rawe! Check out the Library website for more details.

Libraries are all about sharing, but sometimes the returns slot gets fed with a book that doesn’t belong to us.

Even though there’s a maximum of three degrees of separation between any two librarians in Aotearoa, the libraries themselves belong to different local government entities, schools, or tertiary institutions.

Please check your books before popping them in the slot, but also know that we’ll do our best to reunite wayward titles with their respective owners. If you’re missing a certain book, it might be worth asking at the library!

Make it a creative holiday season this year. Central Library has a display of some wonderful holiday-themed craft books. There are also tons of cool projects on CreativeBug, which is free with your library membership.

Creativebug is the destination for high-quality online art and craft video classes. Enjoy unlimited access to more than 1000 instructional videos on drawing, painting, sewing, knitting, crochet, quilting, baking and more.

DVDs are still being produced, but ones in special interest areas are getting much harder to come by. Recently a customer asked about a specific type of yoga on DVD.

Though a DVD couldn’t be acquired, one of the librarians searched the library’s digital resources and found something on Kanopy. This is a library app that gives you access to movies, documentaries, and – surprise! – some yoga videos too.

If you’re ever looking for a certain subject or a documentary on DVD and coming up blank, remember to give Kanopy, Beamafilm or Hoopla a try. They’re all free with your library card.

Finally, the City Library would like to thank the Manawatū Guardian for hosting this column again this year.

The Guardian is a true community paper that reaches people who care about local things, so the library really appreciates being allowed to have some space here.

Ngā mihi o te wā – best wishes for the season.