View information about our opening hours over the holiday season.
Holiday Opening Hours
Published on December 12, 2025
It’s summertime and the library is buzzing! Thanks to our amazing community that took on the Read for Trees challenge last year we were able to plant 42 native trees in Kowhai Park. Now, we're all aflutter with excitement to bring you a brand-new summer reading programme. Introducing... Read for Bees (we can’t resist a rhyme)! Read for Bees is another reading challenge for the whole community, but this time there’s no page limit! Why bees? Well, aside from the rhyme and our love of delicious, nutritious honey, did you know that one out of every three mouthfuls of our food depend on pollinators such as bees? In partnership with Green by Nature, the school community that reads the most pages (per student), will receive a beautiful new (or refurbished), pollinator garden to provide nectar, pollen and shelter for bees, butterflies and birds. A pollinator-friendly garden at the winning school will benefit the WHOLE neighbourhood! Plus, there are some wonderful spot prizes and incentives to help you and your readers spread a little bit of backyard magic along the way. Join in by registering on the Beanstack app or picking up a reading log from Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-pō, Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom or Shannon Library. Nominate a local school and read as many pages as you can. With Read for Bees we're excited to encourage reading for pleasure alongside a bit of friendly competition between school communities, while fostering environmental kaitiakitanga across generations and helping our communities find joy in supporting biodiversity in our own back yards. What a buzz! Bee sure to tell your friends, whanau and neighbours! To help you and your readers get started, we're kicking off with Summer Reading drop-in sessions over the next week. The library has so much to offer that sometimes it’s hard to know where to start! With thousands of titles to choose from in our jam-packed physical collection and even more available in our eLibrary there is certainly something for everyone. Drop in to the library for one-on-one support to get ready for an imaginative and magical summer of adventure in your backyard with our friendly library staff. And speaking of making the most of what your library has to offer, we’re thrilled to introduce our brand-new Library App. This handy tool puts the library right in your pocket, giving you the freedom to manage your own account, issue and renew books, reserve items, and even recommend new titles for our shelves. It’s a simple, convenient way to stay connected with everything you love about your library, whether you’re diving into the Read for Bees challenge or exploring your next great read. And to celebrate its launch, if you pop into the library and show one of our friendly team members the app on your device, you’ll go in the draw to win a Kobo eReader. Download the app today and discover just how easy it is to keep your reading journey buzzing along.