Invercargill City Libraries

• Invercargill hosted a lower south programming hui. It was great that libraries were able to send their staff along to this.
• September marked Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week, and Chinese language week.
• They hosted some amazing activities at the library as part of NZ Chinese Language Week. We enjoyed bilingual Storytime, did a craft with Chinese Zodiac signs and even tried calligraphy.

Dunedin Public Libraries

• South Dunedin Library is tracking well with over 500 new members since opening.
• Official opening went very well – great attendance and media coverage. Over 200 new members signed within 3 days.
• Banned books – good display, social media campaign and media coverage.
• Exhibition at Dunedin Public Art Gallery includes some rare manuscripts from the Reed collection. Current exhibition in the Reed gallery celebrates AH Reeds 150th birthday.

Clutha District Libraries

• New LMS “Polaris” by Clarivate: Their move to the new LMS went remarkably smoothly thanks to a well-planned implementation headed by their dedicated Systems Librarian and some excellent support from the team in the U.S.A and Malaysia. The week offline across all 5 library locations was fairly painless and reports from staff all across the motu are that they “love” the new system. Customers are also telling us they are happy with the new look and functionality. The public version of the software is highly visual and engaging.
• New (Temporary) Milton Community Library: November is moving month for the Milton Community Library, out of the old premises and into a temporary home across the road in the old Coronation Hall, still on SH1. They look forward to re-opening in the Coronation Hall on 1^st December. Then they will be watching progress on the demolition of our old building and eventual ground-breaking on the new pool and library complex. 

Gore District Libraries 

• Due to being low on staff, the Community Connections team have been getting creative with programming that entertains our community without straining capacity. The biggest hit was friendship bracelet making during the school holidays, as well as a poetry competition that was open to all ages and supported by a local business with prizes.
• The team also updated our StoryWalk with ‘Joey the Doubting Dog’, a book written by a local author who did a reading for us in July. 
• For Halloween we did a Trick or Treat game for children at both libraries with the treat being sweets and the trick a baby potato. Children were surprisingly thrilled with the potatoes and got really into the game, so this is something we’ll look to repeat again.

Central Otago District Council

• Halloween Party brought in 86 children and parents and brought back Nicky …….one of our previous Library Managers for spooky story time.
• This year’s Teddy Bear Sleepover was once again very popular. They have had a change in communication staff and the option to have images posted over the evening wasn’t available to us. They hope to mitigate this by having our own Facebook page soon.

Queenstown Lakes District Libraries

• Queenstown Lakes launched their Memory Care Collection in September. It includes fidget tools, sensory aids, robot companion animals, board games, memory games and puzzles, and music players. They are working towards dementia friendly accreditation. 

• ‘The Collections Team is currently acquiring items for the ‘Library of Things’ Collection. Items include sewing machines, musical instruments, STEM robots – (all sorts of robots), podcasting kits. The collection is planned to be launched by the end of this year.
• Librarians from Queenstown Library co-presented a LIANZA session this week on the 1000 Books before school School programme. Running at QLL since 2023, the initiative consistently engages between 500 to 600 preschoolers.
  
  

Waitaki District Libraries 

• Their main focus at Waitaki District Libraries in the last quarter has been re-layout of the Oamaru Library. The library closed for one week between November 3 and November 7 to allow for the reconfiguration of the non-fiction collection. Having previously been in a ‘living room’ style layout, it has now returned to Dewey order. The new layout has also allowed for other minor improvements in layout including in the children’s section.

• The team was fortunate that 4 staff were able to attend LIANZA in Wellington. Who came back inspired.