Debbie Roxburgh has been based in Whanganui since 1984. Photo / Bevan Conley
Technology has changed over the last half-century but Debbie Roxburgh’s passion for reading remains as strong as ever.
She just has ticked over 50 years of service with the National Library, working in Whanganui as a capability facilitator with its Services to Schools team since 1984.
Before that, she worked in Christchurch as an exchange librarian, a reference librarian and then a school library adviser.
“Ever since I was quite a small person I’ve known I wanted to be a librarian,” she said.
“I fell into this sort of role. I like it, I think I’m reasonably good at it, and I’m lucky to have done it for my entire working life.”
The team’s tasks include professional development for library staff and teachers, supplying schools with items from the library’s school collection and assisting them build up their own libraries.
The National Library issues well over 300,000 items to schools each year.
“A lot of work is also around refurbishing - making the space they’ve got work for a 21st century education system,” Roxburgh said.
“What we had back in the 1980s is no longer fit for purpose.
“Teachers teach differently and we have different expectations around reading and learning.”
Schools in her area – Taranaki, Manawatū, and Whanganui including Waiouru, National Park and Taumarunui - have rolls ranging from four to 1800-plus.
That meant the work was diverse and always interesting, she said.
“One of the things that attracts me to the job is, essentially, the work is the same but the environment I’m working in and the people I’m working with are different from place to place.
“There is no one size fits all for a school library. It’s about the philosophy around education, reading and literacy in your community and how we make a library that best supports that.
“That’s the fun part.”
Roxburgh said before digital technology, a lot of her time was spent filing catalogue cards into wooden cabinets - “hugely labour-intensive”.
“Now, I spend a lot more time supporting schools to create really good library services that meet students’ needs and do a lot more teaching around digital literacies and accessing digital content we provide.
“There is no great laugh in teaching people how to type a catalogue card. I’m really quite pleased it’s a part of my role that’s disappeared.”
Certain books have stood the test of time for the entirety of her tenure.
“What was fashionable and popular for me as a child is certainly not what the average child these days is reading,” Roxburgh said.
“There are the classics though, like The Wind in the Willows, The Diary of Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl) - things that have been around for ages and ages.”
Graphic novels are a relatively new format.
She said the closest thing in her day would have been comics, which were not regarded as “proper reading”, but reading a graphic novel was just as skilful, if not more so, than reading text.
“The choice for young people now is immense but our challenge is still the same - to hook them in as readers.
“If you don’t read you don’t learn and a whole lot of doors don’t open up for you. You can Google all you like but you need to read what you find.”
Her office is in Wairere House next to the Whanganui River and at one time she was the only person working in the building.
Most of it houses part of the National Library’s collection, with Treadwell and Gordon now taking up the top floor.
Roxburgh said removing outdated material from the school collection, particularly non-fiction material, was essential.
Books “suggesting that man will one day land on the moon” would need to go.
“In our lending centres, we are constantly checking our material and removing things that are no longer accurate or fit for purpose,” she said.
“We would call it weeding. It’s the same as your garden, If you don’t take the weeds out you can no longer see the fabulous stuff in your garden.
“I do the same things with schools - get them to look at their own collections and say ‘Is that still the message you want to give the students in your classes?’
Roxburgh, also the president of the New Zealand branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dancing Society, said she wasn’t ready to call it a day the National Library just yet.
“I just want kids to read. That is the absolute for me. So many worlds open up for you if you’re a reader.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.