RANGITĪKEI DISTRICT LIBRARIES
Rangitīkei District Libraries are located in the southwest of the North Island. If you have travelled through the North Island via State Highway 1 or 3, you will probably have travelled through the towns of Hunterville, Taihape, Bulls or maybe Marton. Or, you may have attended our unique events, such as the Turakina Highland Games, Gumboot Day in Taihape, the celebrations at Rātana Pā, the Shepherds’ Shemozzle in Hunterville, or rafted down the beautiful Rangitīkei River. We are fortunate to be situated in such a picturesque area with easy access to the mountains and sea.
Taihape Town Hall
Our library service dates to the 19th century. The Taihape Library, which also acts as an information centre and council service centre, was initially started by the Mechanics’ Institute. In 1908, it was taken over by the Taihape Borough Council and moved into a special wing of the Taihape Town Hall. Regular travellers through Taihape may have noticed this building is temporarily closed due to earthquake risk. After public consultation, it has been decided that the building will be strengthened and renovated on the original site.
Carnegie Library opening in Marton 1916
The Marton Library began back in 1883. In 1914, the Marton Borough Council was successful in applying to the Carnegie Foundation for a grant to build a new library, which opened in 1916. The library is still operating out of this building and is one of only two Carnegie libraries in New Zealand to be doing so. The library acts as an information centre and provided an AA Express Driver Licence service for several years, operated by the library staff, until it was contracted back to the AA. The Rangitīkei Toy Library was recently welcomed into the space after the building it occupied was identified as earthquake prone. This has proved a successful partnership, with the Toy Library now far more accessible and bringing in new visitors.
Marton Library original interior
The Bulls Library began its service in 1885 as a public reading room. In 1917, a new building was erected after a fire destroyed the old one. This building commemorated residents who served in the First World War. In September 2022, our Bulls Library became the Bulls Learning Hub when it moved into our new facility – Te Matapihi (Bulls Community Centre). This centre combines our library, information centre, town hall and meeting rooms, and space for Plunket to deliver services. It is a beautiful light-filled facility with many spaces for the community and travellers to enjoy.
Rangitīkei Libraries was the second public library service in New Zealand to go completely fine free in 2008. We are very proud of this, and it is heartening to see many other libraries in the country achieving the same for their communities.
In the past couple of years, with the challenges we faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, we, like many other libraries, had to adapt our services. We saw growth in the use of our online resources, increased our website content and had online story time, and staff supported our communities by stepping into welfare roles.
During this time, the funding from the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme was very welcome. We put our funding into a digital co-ordinator and community engagement role, which made a huge difference in our ability to support our community. Our digital co-ordinator ran programmes and digital drop-ins all over the district. It was a time when we all realised how many people can’t access technology – there is much work to do in this space.
Emerging from the pandemic, with groups now returning to our spaces, we are seeing a real desire from users to attend events and socialise. Our spaces are transforming from transactional spaces to community spaces with Lego, colouring and knitting groups.
Our holiday programmes have changed from craft activities, story time and the occasional performer to virtual reality gaming, table tennis, sewing classes and so much more.
We are looking at partnering with others to increase our reach across the district. In 2022, our neighbours at the Whanganui District Library offered us a six-month trial of their library van, servicing a couple of our smaller townships that are close to our border. The trial was very successful and was well used by residents, so we have now agreed to continue this service to the communities that didn’t previously have easy access to a library facility.
Our team is exploring new ways to share stories about our heritage and culture via our website and social media and hopes to run oral history workshops in 2024. We are looking forward to what the future brings for our libraries and seeing how our services adapt further to meet the needs of our communities.
If you would like to learn more about our libraries and district, please feel free to follow us via our Facebook page Rangitikei District Libraries & Information Centres | Facebook
Rangitīkei Libraries was the second public library service in New Zealand to go completely fine free in 2008. We are very proud of this, and it is heartening to see many other libraries in the country achieving the same for their communities.
In the past couple of years, with the challenges we faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, we, like many other libraries, had to adapt our services. We saw growth in the use of our online resources, increased our website content and had online story time, and staff supported our communities by stepping into welfare roles.
During this time, the funding from the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme was very welcome. We put our funding into a digital co-ordinator and community engagement role, which made a huge difference in our ability to support our community. Our digital co-ordinator ran programmes and digital drop-ins all over the district. It was a time when we all realised how many people can’t access technology – there is much work to do in this space.
Emerging from the pandemic, with groups now returning to our spaces, we are seeing a real desire from users to attend events and socialise. Our spaces are transforming from transactional spaces to community spaces with Lego, colouring and knitting groups.
Our holiday programmes have changed from craft activities, story time and the occasional performer to virtual reality gaming, table tennis, sewing classes and so much more.
We are looking at partnering with others to increase our reach across the district. In 2022, our neighbours at the Whanganui District Library offered us a six-month trial of their library van, servicing a couple of our smaller townships that are close to our border. The trial was very successful and was well used by residents, so we have now agreed to continue this service to the communities that didn’t previously have easy access to a library facility.
Our team is exploring new ways to share stories about our heritage and culture via our website and social media and hopes to run oral history workshops in 2024. We are looking forward to what the future brings for our libraries and seeing how our services adapt further to meet the needs of our communities.
If you would like to learn more about our libraries and district, please feel free to follow us via our Facebook page Rangitikei District Libraries & Information Centres | Facebook
Te Matapihi Bulls Community Centre