It’s just around the corner…

No, not Christmas – AFFIRM.

A what? AFFIRM!

What the flimflam you ask…

AFFIRM is a family festival ACTIS (Aranui Community Trust Incorporated Society) delivers to provide health choices, education, training opportunities and careers information in a fun-filled family day with laughter, entertainment and activities for Aranui and the surrounding communities of Christchurch to get together and enjoy.

2017 is its 16th year.

Do you care? It would be cool if you did. I do, mainly because I’ve been volunteering on the committee for this event since I was 19, but now, because of my chosen career path, I have another avenue for which to encourage community to get involved with the library and vice versa.

Christchurch City Libraries first had a presence at AFFIRM in 2009 and then the following year with the Mobile Library in attendance and a whole tent dedicated to the promotion of libraries in general but highlighting the upcoming build of Aranui Library.

Library tent at AFFIRM, 4 December 2010. Flickr File Reference: CCL-2010-Affirm10-DSC03470.

From then, Aranui Library has tried to maintain that presence through special activities on the day of (run at the library), over the mic announcements, free book giveaways, a Storytime session and this year, a colouring competition.

If you didn’t know, now you know. Spread the word, get involved.

16AFFIRM
Wainoni Park, Hampshire St.
9.30am – 4pm, Saturday 2 December 2017

Find out more

• Pop into Aranui Library and ask a friendly staff member
• Visit the AFFIRM Facebook page

Ebony, 
Library Assistant, Aranui Library

Dancing at the library: School holiday fun at Aranui Library

Aranui Library’s holiday activities started off with a couple of spontaneous bursts of creativity making Christmas cards using old book covers, and scrap paper.

Next on the agenda was Josh‟s big plan to hold stencil art workshops to coincide with the Rise Art Exhibition happening throughout the city. We held these every week which helped build enthusiasm and momentum for our trip to the museum at the end of the holidays.

Ebony created a quiz, the answers to which could be found all around the library. 1) It would be something to do while waiting in the computer queue and 2) it would require the participants to walk around and explore the library. Ebony challenged the kids to an Xbox Dance Central game and if she won, they’d do the quiz.

This segues quite neatly into the next phase of our holiday activity programme which was our Dance Central competition on the Xbox Kinect. The idea behind this was that we would give a prize to the person with the highest score at the end of the holidays. This particular activity required very little input from staff apart from when they felt we needed a challenge as well. Nicole and Ebony donated their dancing prowess to the cause.

Throughout all this we kept 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles going; two Wasgijs and two normal ones.

All our activities attracted roughly equal numbers of both boys and girls and gave us plenty of opportunities to spend quality time and bond with our youth customers.

Yay Aranui it was fun for all of us!!

Aranui vibes

Aranui Library has a great community vibe. On Wednesday I arrived there to find the doors open to the late afternoon sunshine and the sound of reggae floating out to the street. The library was full to capacity with students, Mums and babies, locals wandering in off the street and a smattering of people from the other side of town who’d come to join in.

An eight piece band called Imprint was performing in one corner. It was hard to believe they were Aranui High School students, I’d have picked them as professionals if one of them had not been in uniform. Someone whispered to me that they’d been jamming there all afternoon and that everyone was having a great time. The kids were doing a bit of dancing, the audience was moving to the music, clapping and calling out appreciation when something particularly impressed them. Imprint play a mix of soul, reggae, r+b, and the occasional re-worked hymn, all with Pasifika flavour, some in Pacific tongues.

The students were followed by Merchants of Flow, an impressive professional reggae band who had generously agreed to perform for library patrons at minimal cost. They play upbeat high energy classic New Zealand roots. Beautiful harmonies and love pour off the stage. Google them to see what I mean. They’re playing at The Bedford this evening (Fri 24 May).

By this time it was five o’clock, the sun was going down and people were starting to slip away to give their children their tea. I left with music ringing in my head, dancing a bit on the way back to the car. Nice.

Kia ora to Aranui Library

The new Aranui Library was officially opened by Mayor Bob Parker on Saturday 8 September 2012 at 11am with about 100 Aranui residents there to celebrate.

The mayor invited local children to help him cut the ribbon including ‘our newest politician’ – a young girl who cornered the Mayor as he arrived, and asked to cut the ribbon with him.

Several speakers spoke of the Aranui community and the benefits of a new library including James Robinson for Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri Runanga, and Sandy Kaa, Kuamatua of ACTIS.

A waiata and blessing of the building took place and then the doors opened to the public. People loved the chance to take a look at their newest asset, and to browse the sparkling collection of new material.

The library has 500 square metres of floor space, ten free computers and a collection of 14,000 books as well as magazines, CDs and DVDs. Six new digital cameras and six iPods are available.

Baby times and Story times will be available for babies, kids and their whanau.

The library provides spaces for meetings and is set to become a centrepiece of the Aranui community.

Come along and visit – Aranui Library is located on 109 Aldershot Street, next to Wainoni Park.

• Find out more about Aranui Library
• See more photos of the opening
• View our Aranui Library photos
• Read Te Karaka’s blog post on the opening A community blossoms
• Read Aranui Library opened on stuff.co.nz

Old stuff at Central Library Tuam

There’s nothing like opening a new library. There’s a lot of excitement round here at the moment as opening day for the brand-new Aranui Library draws near (this Saturday! 11am! woo!).

And we’re not jealous here at Tuam Street, not at all.  They have a beautiful, brand-new, architecturally designed, art- and light- filled facility, with water features, rolling parkland, and oh-so-shiny brand new books, movies, magazines …

It’s not a competition, we tell ourselves.  After all, we love our post-industrial, dystopian-chic-themed electrical warehouse makeover.  We love that the bus exchange is right next door.  We love that we are in the heart of the city, where big things are happening every day.  We love the Re:Start mall, and the Escarto coffee cart, and Ballantynes.

We love having so much of the old Central library’s stock here, and working in tandem with Central Library Peterborough library we provide access to family history, newspapers, magazines, motor manuals, the law collection and all the expertise that Central used to offer.  We love that our shelves are full, not just with the latest shiniest bestsellers, but also with Wodehouse and Woolf and Austen and Ballard, with Salinger and Verne and Kerouac.

We also love the Aotearoa New Zealand Collection. We tried really hard to fit it all in here, but even with the best of intentions we are only able to offer a ‘representative sample’.  The rest of it is safely stored off-site, but it’s only a hold request away.  What’s here, at Central Library Tuam, is distracting enough.

Stepping into the ANZC area is a bit like opening a packet of pineapple lumps.  You think to yourself, I’ll just have one.  Maybe two.  And then before you know it, you’ve eaten an entire packet spent a whole hour browsing the shelves, and people are wondering where on earth you’ve got to.

I went down the rabbit hole this morning, and in just a short 15 minute browse came up with these gems:

• A 1963 edition of Just Cooking, Thanks (being a dissertation on New Zealand seafood), by Noel Holmes. Mmm, tentacles.
• A 1942 book called Medical Advice from a Backblock Hospital (a bit afraid to read this one in case it involved biting on a bullet while someone sawed off a leg)
• A delicious wee gem called Bits and Pieces by Gran, ZB Personality.  I LOVE this book!  A quick flick through offered everything from sage words – “Indulging in fits of bad temper shortens life”;  to recipes – mix equal parts minced ham, beetroot and gherkin to make a savoury spread for biscuits; to must-have outdoorsy advice – find here a “good mixture for waterproofing a tent” that you can mix up in the kitchen.
• Rosemary Rees’ 1933 travel diary, called New Zealand Holiday, in which she notes the large numbers of “young, fine, splendid men pouring into the country.”

Also on the shelves, reference copies of Consumer magazine and the Listener, lots and lots of books by New Zealand novelists and poets, and the gripping, relentlessly paced Ocean Outfall Handbook (A Manual for the Planning, Investigation, Design and Monitoring of Ocean Outfalls to Comply with Water Quality Management Objectives).

There IS a fine print clause with ANZC material – none of it can be borrowed, and you can’t bring your tea and sandwiches in with you, but you can (and should) come and browse, sit for a while, and discover all the hidden treasure that awaits.

We may not be the newest shiniest library on the block, but just remember this:  sometimes, old stuff is good stuff.

Aranui Library – here I come!

Today I had the pleasure of a sneaky preview of the new Aranui Library, and it really is a beautiful thing to behold!  The design lets the sun in (when we have some that is), there are lovely big windows to look out on the park, gorgeous lampshades, lovely coloured chairs, a great children’s area and community spaces that I’m sure will be really well used.

However all of this loveliness aside I couldn’t help but be impressed with the sight of the stock that is gradually filling the shelves. For a couple of years now the team of buyers for the library have been diligently purchasing new stock, and seeing it  there today in its untouched glory almost brought tears to my eyes!

I have a special place in my heart for the art and craft section and I can’t wait to get down there and grab myself a few brand spanking new books. The Pacific collection, which was especially asked for by the community is also rather special and has a great spot in a sunny corner of the library.

At the moment the whole site is a hive of activity and the Community planting day will have the place looking even better. Explore our pages on Aranui Library for more information about this exciting new addition to the library network.