Digital issues on the rise as Whanganui libraries return to pre-Covid levels

Usage of Whanganui libraries is up following the end of Covid-19 restrictions.

Digital issues now make up 20 per cent of everything borrowed from Whanganui libraries.

In the year to August, 108,640 digital issues were recorded. There were 558,223 issues overall, up 12 per cent and a return to pre-Covid-19 levels.

Whanganui libraries recorded 296,730 visitors, with the majority of those to the Davis Library.

Visitation for the 12 months to the end of July 2023 was up 37 per cent - which Whanganui District Council’s manager of libraries and community, Pete Gray, said was partly due to the end of Covid-19 restrictions.

At a meeting of the council’s operations and performance committee, Whanganui Deputy Mayor Helen Craig asked how the libraries would cope with economic pressures.

“We just have to deal with it,’ Gray said. “If prices go up, we’ll be buying less. If the New Zealand dollar falls significantly, we’ll be able to buy less of stuff that is published overseas. That’s just a fact of life, as it is for everyone else.”

Council chief executive David Langford said the overall library budget could be looked at as part of the Long Term Plan next year.

Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said libraries would be important as community hubs and a place for social interaction in the future, and asked if Whanganui’s were prepared for that.

“Libraries have always been that to a great or lesser extent,” Gray said. “They’ve always been safe places for people to go and visit. That’s certainly how we envisage the core of what a library is.

“It’s part of what we do now. We’re on board with what you are thinking.”

Gray said the lack of parking was one area generating constant feedback from the public, but this would be looked at as part of the landscape redesign of Pukenamu Queen’s Park.

Feedback about the staff was overwhelmingly positive.

“You know the library staff, particularly those who work on the front line, are an absolute credit to the library and to council,” Gray said.

“That is something I’m very proud of.”

BSM Architects have been appointed to undertake design drawings and enable accurate costings of the Davis Library extension, which includes work on the library roof held over from 2021.