My grandfather's brother never came back from World War One. He's buried in Armentières, France. My grandmother's brother lost his leg, so the family farm in Southland had to be sold - he couldn't take up his inheritance. My great aunt's fiancé returned a shell-shocked alcoholic - PTSD, they'd call it these days. They parted…
Is this the real life?
Confession time. My reading tastes tend towards non-fiction. Not exclusively, but you’re far more likely to see me curled up with a good gardening book or a lush costume history than a weighty fantasy tome. This can make things slightly awkward when it comes to reader advisory (“You work in library - you must have…
What’s in a name? A whole story, actually! – Māori library names
What’s in a name? A whole story, actually! Every library in the Christchurch City Libraries network is named in both English and Māori, and with two new libraries (or rather, libraries returning in sparkly new form) popping up recently, we’d like to share a bit about their Māori names. Our libraries' Māori names tell some great…
From tiny seeds… The origins of The Great Library Seed Swap
So what's the deal with all this seed swapping that's propagating across our libraries? Well, it's been growing quietly for a while, and I was there when it all began... It all started just after the February 2011 earthquake, as so many other interesting projects did. When my usual library (the Central Library) was closed…
Old friends, old friends, sat on a bench like bookends…
While 2016 was taking its final victims, one smaller obituary caught my eye amidst the many articles on the passing of Carrie Fisher and George Michael. The obituary was for Richard Adams, author of Watership Down. At 96, we certainly could not say that Adams' rich life was cut short, but to lose him at the…
Gardening in the best possible taste
Nothing makes my day like a "hold available" notification from CCL for a crisp new garden book, and this week I got my hands on a real gem. Grow for Flavour by James Wong (of Grow Your Own Drugs fame - not nearly as dodgy as it sounds) is a fresh ray of light in…
The Lyttelton Report: the old, the new, and the canine
It's all go portside at the moment, as we at Lyttelton Library watch the repairs proceeding apace from our temporary perch up the hill in the Recreation Centre's Trinity Hall on Winchester Street. The in-progress library now has a dashing white coat of paint (goodbye pink!), lovely new double-glazed windows, and a smart new resident outside... This gorgeous bronze…
A magnificent disaster, or a really good read?
I'm a sucker for Victorian fashion, the sillier the better - and it's hard to beat the Victorian crinoline for ingenuity, ridiculousness, and sheer presence. So I was pretty excited to get my hands on a shiny new copy of Crinoline: fashion's most magnificent disaster. Crinoline Co-authored by Denis Pellerin and Dr Brian May (yes, that Brian…
Pasifika newspapers now online
National Library of New Zealand have added even more great historical newspapers to their Papers Past resource, and just in time for Samoan Language Week they've made some historical Pasifika newspapers available.
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