A guided tour of Turanga was offered to Friends of the Library today. Although I’ve already paid several visits I knew there was more to explore and was pleased to take advantage of this occasion. I hadn’t previously realised that each floor is colour coded, with walls and furniture to match, and a featured bird. The birds are in the order of height in which they would be found in the forest. Level Four, Creativity, is blue and features the kereru (I didn’t think to take a photo there).
No food or drink is permitted on Level Two because it holds some of our most valuable and culturally significant collections and we want to protect them for current and future generations. On every other level you can consume if you wish.
One aspect I hadn’t noticed before is the mirrored dressup area for children on Level One.
We were shown the sorting room on the ground floor. All the books go automatically through a machine which sorts them according to their bar codes. A librarian then puts each lot into a trolley for delivery to the appropriate level or branch library.
I noted on the upper levels there were often two or three copies of the same book, and a whole shelf of Mills and Boon. One shelf in the sorting room held books which were ‘borrower’s own’, i.e. they’d been returned to the library but didn’t belong there.
Our tour group was guided by Emma. I learned much more about the library, and enjoyed some peeks behind the scenes. Afterwards we had afternoon tea in the Spark Meeting Room.
‘This library holds much more than books
there’s new things everywhere one looks.’
It sounds wonderful. I smiled at the borrower’s own collection. I have done lots of silly things with books over the years but sending one of my own to the library hasn’t happened yet.
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Our guide didn’t say what happens to those books (and there were a lot of them). If there’s a name inside do they try to contact them? Or just wait in case the owner asks? Do they end up in the library book sale?
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Yes, so many questions!
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Thank you for the info re Turanga. The heads up helped when I took my mum in there today. We were able to enjoy the birds and c
color coded levels. Had a lovely treat at the Foundation Cafe.
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It’s such a great addition to the central city. I find more to appreciate every time I visit.
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