Author: Jocelyn Woodward-Candy

One of our wonderful digital resources you can access for FREE using your library card is PressReader. This is such a great resource to all you to keep up with the latest news from all around the world, and you can even look up publications from previous years too. There is also a huge range of magazines you can access.

Visit this link to see a really good video about the great features of PressReader: PressReader for Public Libraries – YouTube

Just a little reminder of the wonderful digital resources we have with our eBook and eAudiobook libraries.

BorrowBox and Libby are our two online libraries that are free to use with your Palmerston North Library card. You can find more information on them here.

The benefits of using eBooks include: you can change the size of the font, there is a dyslexia friendly format, and they don’t take up much space in your suitcase when you go on holiday!

Some of the benefits of eAudio books include selecting books by the narrator and the option to change the speed. Plus they are really good to make you walk a wee bit further if you listen to them on your daily walks… why wouldn’t you want to walk a bit further if you want to find out what happens?!

We have just completed the Summer Reading Programme for 2021/2022.

The Summer Reading Programme is an annual reading programme for children aged 4-10 years, with young teenagers in the 11-13 year age bracket taking part in the iRead programme. Plus there is even a Te Reo Māori and multilingual option.

This year we moved the programmes online due to COVID-19. The format remained the same with kids reading books and getting incentives, only the delivery was different. For the Summer Reading programme there was still the required 4 ‘book chats’ which kids can log online, but there were also extra challenges to take part in, like Read somewhere unique or unusual and Make, hide or hind a Summer Reading space rock.

Although there may have been some initial challenges with the programme such as learning how to log in and log reading, the overall feedback was positive. And we still enjoyed interacting with the kids as they came in to get their books.

It was great to see that although we had a different format some things remained the same. Like the Diary of a Wimpy kid and Harry Potter books, and the popular authors like David Walliams, Enid Blyton and Rick Riordan continue to be a popular choices.

And now preparations are underway for our next reading programme – see you there!

Palmerston North is a very global city with our communities coming from all over the world. To celebrate this diversity we have an amazing range of books in many different languages here at the City Library.

These include Chinese, Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, and more! See the list below for a full list of the languages. There are books for adults and children, in fiction and nonfiction, and even graphic novels. The collection also includes books to help adults learn English.

Come and see the Intercultural Services Officer if you wish to have anything added to our collection. 

Every year millions of people around the world celebrate the Lunar New Year. This year, the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities shared some ideas of how they celebrate so you can join in with this. Check out their posters to get some ideas.

The City Library now has the option for you to ‘Click and Collect’ items to borrow.

How Click & Collect works at Central Library:

• Reserve your books using the app, Library Catalogue or by phoning. Be sure to select “Central Click and Collect” as your pickup location.
• You will be notified by email, text or phone call when your items are ready.
• Once you’ve received notification that your items are ready to collect, bring your library card to the window to the right of the Central Library’s main entrance during opening hours (up the ramp from Te Marae o Hine / The Square, or up the stairs from George Street).
• Please wear a mask when approaching the window.
• Library staff will retrieve your items and check them out for you.

How Click & Collect works at Community Libraries:

• Reserve your books using the app, library Catalogue or by phoning. Select your location for pick-up.
• You will be notified by email, text or phone call when your items are ready.
• Once you’ve received notification that your items are ready to collect, bring your library card to the Library. Click & Collect pick-up locations will be outside the Library, and will happen in a contactless manner, but specifics will vary by location.
• Please wear a mask when picking up Click & Collect items.
• Library staff will retrieve your items, check them out for you and bring them out to you.

Good things to know:

• Placing a hold/reserve is free, whether it’s contactless or not.
• Vaccine Passes are not required for Click & Collect
• If you didn’t choose “Click and Collect”, your reserve will be available building as per usual. If you change your mind after placing reserve, see this How To Place a Hold Guide to change pickup location or give us a call and we can sort it for you.
• The normal pickup time applies – you have 10 days from time of notification.
• Normal issue periods apply and you can renew if no one else has a hold.
• If you’re picking up items for a family member or a friend, just bring their card with you.

To get you started, here’s a refresher on How to place a hold on our website or our app (available for iOS and Android):

If you want to edit your hold using the website, here are the instructions:

Thanks to one of our wonderful patrons at the Awapuni Library for the following review on A Tapping at my Door by David Jackson (Book 1)

Nathan Cody is a troubled man. He’s also a detective sergeant in the serious crime unit of the Liverpool police force. When a woman is killed there are few clues as to why and who the perpetrator might be. It’s only when a second death occurs that Cody realises it’s not the people of Liverpool who are being targeted, but the police themselves.

Deeply traumatised by a previous case he must fight his own inner demons as he struggles to find the murderer. A gritty fast paced thriller, A Tapping at my Door, is the exciting first installment in the Nathan Cody series.

Find a copy here: https://bit.ly/3r8GXas

A lot of us agree that books are better than the movies, but I don’t know about you, I still like to check out the movie to see if it lives up to expectation.

If you want to get a jump start on reading some books that are coming out as movies (or TV series) this year then check out this very helpful website: Books to Movies & TV in 2022: Adaptations Coming Soon.

I think a lot of people will be excited to see some of the titles listed here, particularly The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah which seems to be a favourite of those interested in historical fiction.

You can browse the titles on the catalogue on our website Palmerston North City Library and reserve them too. Don’t forget some are also eBooks which can be found on Libby or BorrowBox.

Did you know you can check our your borrowing history from the last 2 years? All you need to do is login to the website with your library card and then select the Checkout History option in the Checkouts tab.

@libraryhacks are a new series of technology and library related tips to help make your life easier – look out for them.