I’d also like to make a shout out to all the Managers, Long-Term-Plan wranglers, political schmoozers and excel magicians whose efforts have culminated in many of our districts reaching concrete milestones this year:

• Tohi Tāngaengae – the Rededication Dawn Ceremony of Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui on 13 Sept

• Committed funding for Cannons Creek, Porirua, library replacement

• Moving out of a tired building so that the transformation of the Masterton library can start!

• Handing a dark and dank building over to contractors armed with sledgehammers and diggers to completely strip and transform the old Waikanae library and recreate it into Te Ara Whetū Library Hub.

• The successful transition from a combined service model to two independent services: South Wairarapa Library Services and Carterton Library.

Other highlights across the district include renewing and upgrading technology, (because the public deserve efficient and slick tech) and adoption of new collection management systems in some areas to enable aligning with the SMART library consortium (because the public deserve access to a massive shared collection).

Continued successes in customising fun Summer Reading programmes and simply bringing more people through the doors to use our services is core business across our district. Paraparaumu library was chuffed to host a Rainbow Youth Ball within their library afterhours this year – keen to support the public to use their space the way they want to. All of this, affirming that people don’t need to be told twice to #Loveyourlibrary.