Wellington Central Library Te Matapihi’s $217m renovation cuts 80,000 books from collection
The library, Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui, has been closed since it was deemed an earthquake risk in March 2019. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Wellington’s library will officially reopen this year after a $217 million renovation job, but with a significantly reduced collection.
Wellington City Council confirmed 80,000 books have been given away, sold or destroyed from the Te Matapihi Central Library collection, marking a nearly 18% drop in the number available since the library closed almost seven years ago.
An author whose own books are being removed said the change represented a wider attack on the humanities and New Zealand’s history, and is part of a move to turn libraries into places of entertainment rather than the vital cultural institutions they once were.
The library has been closed since it was deemed an earthquake risk in March 2019. City councillors agreed to strengthen the building with base isolators.
The project’s cost has climbed from an initial $187 million estimate to a total of $217.6 million, including furniture and fittings.
The council earlier confirmed the new library will probably have a different balance of spaces to accommodate the increase in people in the central city.
That raised alarm bells with some councillors, who said a library was a place for books, not for entertainment or as a community hub.
Wellingtonians would be unfortunately mistaken to think their new library would be “a readers’ nirvana”, councillor Nicola Young said, “instead, it will largely be an entertainment centre, a very expensive one.”
The new library will include a youth space, Capital E children’s area, a maker space, equipped with 3D printers and other art resources, and multiple gallery spaces.
A council spokesman confirmed the indicative collection size is about 370,000 books, made up of about 250,000 on public display and another 120,000 available by request.
That is 80,000 fewer books than when the library was last open, when it held 450,000 books, made up of 410,000 on display and 40,000 available by request.
When asked what would happen to the 80,000 books to be removed from the public collection, the spokesman said many would go to public book sales.
“It’s our last resort to send books to be disposed of – this would be because they are in very poor condition, have obsolete factual information, or they are unwanted by either public sale or community offers,“ he said.
New Zealand author Glyn Harper, who writes military history and children’s books, said reducing the collection made him “very uncomfortable”.
“We’re losing a really important part of our history when these books are reduced or destroyed.”
Some of Harper’s own books, stamped as being from the Wellington City Libraries collection, have been spotted in a local second-hand bookshop, something that he said was “really sad” but unfortunately, not a surprise.
“Libraries are really the collective memory of the community, and if you’re going to start throwing out books because what they’re saying [is] too old ... I think that’s, in some ways, a dangerous path to go down,” he said.
“Making books available to people is the central function of a library rather than running internet courses and other things.
“They are very important cultural institutions and above all they are places of learning, and I think in many ways these new developments are more entertainment than learning.”
Harper said it was part of what he saw as an attack on the humanities, noting “people don’t see value in books anymore, which I think is a huge mistake.”
The reduction could also have a material impact on authors’ incomes, he said, pointing to the Public Lending Right, a programme that compensates authors whose books are available in public libraries.
“It could substantially reduce their income and make it even harder to be a writer in New Zealand.”
The council spokesman said its key priorities for retention were materials from Wellingtonians, New Zealand and the South Pacific, “with a special awareness of Mātauranga Māori and Māori authors. We have paid careful attention to long-standing authors and content that remains important today and for the future”.
“We have also been guided by ongoing customer usage trends, including what library users have requested to borrow physically from our current storage site since the Central Library closed.”
A full stocktake of the collection has been undertaken while it has been in storage.
“This is based on criteria including wear and tear, accurate information and ongoing customer usage,” the spokesman said.
The official reopening celebration of Te Matapihi Central Library is scheduled for March 14.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.