Te Ara Whānui o te Ao

Kia ora! Welcome to the June newsletter from Palmerston North City Library!

Library Maintenance

Recently the Awapuni Library and the Roslyn Library had to temporarily close their doors due to maintenance issues. While people are hard at work on these issues, a range of services have been put together to ensure that you are still being delivered a tasty smorgasbord of library activities and collections.

That rolling storehouse of literary delights, the Mobile Library, is visiting various areas regularly. And fun stuff like Jumping Jellybeans and Community Morning Teas will look for temporary homes during this time.

Stay up to date with developments by checking the Awapuni FAQ page and the Roslyn FAQ page regularly, and if you have any further questions, please get in touch.

Thank you all for your patience. You can rest assured that Library staff are at least as eager to get back in the buildings as you are!

Reading Unleashed!

Reading to dogs can offer children a non-judgmental, calm, and supportive environment in which to practice their reading and reading aloud skills.

Palmerston North City Library and Canine Friends Pet Therapy are very happy to introduce ‘Reading Unleashed’ – a free programme where children can practice their reading in a fun way by reading to one of Canine Friends’ beautiful dogs at the library.

Sessions are available for primary school aged children and currently run at the Central Library on Wednesdays 3.30pm – 4.30pm during term time. Bookings are essential.

First Voice

59 students from Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School attended the First Voice writing workshop recently. Students were writing in their heritage language, with 26 different languages represented. Mentors from the community assisted them, and when the writing is published it will be made available in the City Library collection in physical format, and on Manawatū Heritage online.

This wonderful initiative has been happening annually for 24 years now. Ka mau te wehi!

30 Years at Palmerston North City Library

One of our Library staff members recently celebrated their 30-year work anniversary, but since they probably won't want their name in this newsletter, we'll simply put this photo of the Mobile Library here for no particular reason.

Reading For Pleasure Festival

This year's Reading for Pleasure Festival is an initiative run by the Manawatū Literacy Association (MLA) with the intent to raise awareness about the importance of reading for pleasure at all stages of life.

There'll be activities and talks from people such as: local author and tireless writer-champion Rachel Doré; author of The Promise of Puanga, Kirsty Bennett; a conversation with Te Awhi Rito Reading Amabassador and Te Pātikitiki Librarian Alan Dingley; and more!

Opening Line Quiz

How prodigious is your knowledge of science fiction books opening lines? Find out with this quiz, care of BookRiot. Many of those opening lines are iconic, but some of the quiz questions are quite difficult!

Ockham Book Award Winners 2023

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards!

Contratulations also to the longlisted authors, and indeed to any authors who managed to publish a book in the past year. Well done, and keep it up!

Random cool/interesting stuff from around the net.

The Spinoff is home to extremely well-researched and written articles, but if this recent list of bad corporate jargon is the best they can do, they need to attend more meetings! Or maybe just watch an episode of the soul-crushing/hilarious Australian series Utopia. (New season coming soon!)

Which brings to mind a quote from George Orwell, as recounted in "Blurb Your Enthusiasm" by Louise Willder: 'The great enemy of clear language is insincerity'.

What's the most ridiculous jargon you've heard? Let us know and we'll publish the worst in the next newsletter.

A more diverse range of finalists in this year's SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off) has some people up in arms. The SPFBO is such an amazing initiative by Mark Lawrence, using his own success to lift up other authors. It's been so successful that a Self-Published Science Fiction Competition was started as a spin-off, where Hugh Howey similarly uses his standing to promote other authors.

Herb's

You may have seen Herb's Mobile Record Store around town sometimes. It has just been included on this list of the 5 Best Mobile Record Stores Around the World!

Twin Towns

Do you know how many twin towns Palmerston North has? Can you guess which town Bulls is paired with? (It's an absolute classic!)

Is there something you’d like to see in these newsletters? A question about the library? A suggestion? Let us know and we’ll see if we can help. You can email us at pncl@pncc.govt.nz, or use the phone number below.

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Palmerston North City Library
Palmerston North, Manawatu 4410
Phone: (06)3514100