Palmerston North City Library is full of excitable librarians this September

Palmerston North City Library is running a range of activities to celebrate Te Wiki o te reo Māori.

Kia ora lovely people and welcome to Palmerston North City Library’s More Than Words column.

Hopefully, the weather will warm up soon. Right now it’s so cold librarians are huddled among the hot romance novels to stay toasty.

Mirabile dictu, Awapuni Library has re-opened! It’s the biggest thing to happen since Roslyn Library re-opened. The staff at Awapuni are so excited they’re practically dragging people in off the street to show them the nicely repainted interior and all the re-stocked shelves. If you’re in the area, pop in to say hi – they would love to see you!

September is an exciting month at the library, and not just because librarians are naturally excitable creatures. We’ve got a whole lotta languages going on, for starters. There’s Te Wiki o te reo Māori running from September 11-17, leading into Mahuru Māori, the reo challenge that runs for the whole of Mahuru (the lunar month from September 15 to October 14). You can expect some cool activities tying in with those.

Then there’s Chinese Language Week, from September 17- 23, the Latin America and Spain Film Festival, and even a Language Expo hosted by City Library.

Head to citylibrary.pncc.govt.nz and look up What’s On to find out all the cool stuff that’s happening in September.

We also still provide books! We haven’t forgotten that library is an acronym for “Love interesting books? Reserve and read, y’all”. You can ask us to buy a book if there’s one you think should be on the shelves. Look up Ask Us To Buy It on our website. We love getting suggestions.

LibLab is the library’s term time (vaguely) science-based fun session for 5 to 10-year-olds. With new themes and ideas each week, the sessions involve concepts and crafts, imagination and playfulness. There are even jokes. They might not be great jokes, but they’re the jokes we’ve got. Thursdays during term time 3.45pm – 4.45pm in the Children’s Zone.

Coming up in September, we have three raucous sessions filled with fun and mystery. First off, on September 7, we’ll be following the footsteps of giant Stone Age beasts like the smilodon, the megatherium and the glyptodon. These huge creatures roamed the world with our ancestors. on September 14 we’ll follow in more footsteps with Epic Kiwi Adventures.

Ever wonder how the DVD player works? On September 21 we have a stack of obsolete electronic equipment and we’ll be carefully pulling it apart to see what’s hidden away inside. Probably no rats or cockroaches, just all that clever circuitry that made it go.

LibLab is free and no registration is required.

Here’s some news that might have slipped under your radar or perhaps over your periscope: Central Library is open until 6pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. This gives you a little extra time to zip in and grab a scrumptious book before you head home to cook an entertaining dinner. Or vice versa.

Have you heard of the nankeen night heron? It’s not the latest album by Don McGlashan. No, it’s one of this country’s rarest breeding birds. There are only about 50 of them, and for the first time in 28 years, nests have been found.

Photographer Paul Gibson will be talking about these feathered marvels on Tuesday, September 12 as part of the Forest & Bird presentation series. The notes say the 7.30pm talk will be “highly illustrated” – you know what that means - there’ll be lots of amazing photos of cool birds!

Right-oh you lot, look forward to seeing you next time you pop in for an armload of books. Until then, happy reading.