Comments for 150 years

Comment on Jo’s Great Exhibition at Our City – See It Now by Jo

Jo — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:10:32 +0000

I notice that the (very 60s, I thought) pink book press has been repaced by a more… ah… traditionally-coloured one. Do we have interior decoration gremlins?

Comment on Jo’s Great Exhibition at Our City – See It Now by Donna

Donna — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:55:57 +0000

I agree, well worth a visit and very cleverly curated.

It’s a great mix of memorabilia, photos and themes.

Some of my favourite things are the library related Letters to the Editor, lots of sarcasm employed in some of those.

Comment on Nice words from poet Tim by Marion

Marion — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:49:42 +0000

You can read this interview with Tim at http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com/2009/08/interview-with-tim-upperton.html

Comment on Memories of the Old Library by Bindy Barclay

Bindy Barclay — Sat, 30 May 2009 06:36:08 +0000

Does it need to be fantasy? There are still libraries akin to this all over the world ( has anyone kept that link from Adam Cath of a year or so ago?). But they do tend to be State libraries (eg: New South Wales) I would never advocate the old “shhh” stereo type nor negate the importance of a public digital network but : have we gone too far?

For years I facilitated parents and children browsing, discovering and reading at the (old) Fendalton library. Not the wooden and leather world of the CP reading room but still a place where parents could share a picture book before heading for home with as stack or emergent readers could explore and take a risk on something from the shelves. ( Bill Nagelkerke had populated these with absolute gems! )

Ironically and tragically, by the time I had my own children the perceived necessity to bridge the digital divide at the library had arrived. Book selection was a matter of grabbing and running before the children got stuck on the keyboard. I begged for a quiet library – akin to the sweet-free aisle at the supermarket – but I lost the battle to Reader Rabbit et al. Luckily I had a large stash of cancelled books from those ‘old’ days to call on but I still mourn that the library was never a place to while a way a morning with my preschoolers. It remains a place where quiet browsing, without the background ambience of digital worlds, is a rare thing.

ps: There wasn’t any carpet….

Comment on Pete the Shirley Library Cat by Paul

Paul — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:53:19 +0000

Read more about Dewey on the library blog - http://cclblog.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/pet-sounds/

Comment on Pete the Shirley Library Cat by Caroline Anderson

Caroline Anderson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:52:02 +0000

My favourite story about a library cat is not from New Zealand but from the USA, so I am not sure if it qualifies for this blog. It is a very touching story. The name of the cat was Dewey Readmore Books and he touched the lives of many people and continues to do so after his death. There is some information about him on the following Webpage Christchurch City Libraries holds the book written about Dewey Dewey has his own Website .... and his own Facebook page.

Comment on Dinosaurs were “big” by Jane Agnew

Jane Agnew — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:14:08 +0000

Oh dear – yes, I have successfully squashed memories of several holiday programmes, though I’m sure it was Barbara Reed who facepainted me for a storytelling session – the paint was so thick it came off in lumps!

I do remember a very successful “bedtime stories” session at Fendalton where we advertised milo and a biscuit, only expecting a few children. There were so many children we ended up watering down the milo and raiding our own lunchboxes for biscuits! This may have been 1989, with Judith Catton as Children’s Librarian.

And I’m glad there are no photos of the teddy-bear costume…

Comment on Contribute to our stories by David Welch

David Welch — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:06:13 +0000

I rearched and wrote a book on the 1932 Tramway Strike in Christchurch, on and off across nine years from 1978 onwards. This took me often into the New Zealand room in the old Cambridge Terrace Library. This was a marvellous old room, a two storey atrium with a balcony around the first floor level. It was lit (or mainly lit, I can’t remember) by skylights which had horizontal blinds that could be pulled across by pulleys from below. All the tables, chairs, shelves were woodwork, of the most solid kind, embossed with leather or vinyl inlays. In the late afternoon the the sun would slant down through the half blocked off skylights, sometimes creating golden beams with fine motes of dust floating in them. The whole place, with its quiet and hushed conversations had the air of some old gentlemens club – right down to the occasional researcher (and occasionally myself) who had nodded off, their head fallen across the dried old pages of newspapers from years gone by. They would be gently woken by staff.

Comment on Memories of the Old Library by Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:57:44 +0000

What a lovely memory of the stillness of a reading room with world newspapers scattered everywhere. Perhaps we could attempt to replicate this experience by building a ‘quiet library room’ with wood panels, leather armchairs, thick carpet, a shelf of cumbersome encyclopedic tomes and a live-in cat for people to quietly relive the fantasy, which going by our photos, was a reality at one time in our recent history!

Comment on Who worked here by Simon Atkinson

Simon Atkinson — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:50:17 +0000

Great to see Paul Sutherland still with us. He has not changed very much since then except some grey hairs.