A special Love Your Library month for Waitaki District Libraries

Published on 03 September 2025

Love Your Library month coincides with the 50th birthday of the Oamaru Library building

There’s a world of imagination, facts and inspiration to be found at the Waitaki District Libraries, and September is Love Your Library month.

Waitaki District Libraries will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Oamaru Library and Service Centre on September 18th. Opening in 1975, the building replaced the previous library at the Atheneaum, which is now the Waitaki Museum and Archives.

The library currently has around 10,439 card-holders, but is always looking for more. For the first three weeks of September, there’ll be a draw of all new sign-ups. In the final week, all existing members will go into a draw. Each winner will get a $50 Prezzy card.

Chloe Searle, Arts, Culture and Libraries Manager, says: “I encourage everyone in our community to take some time in September to make use of our fantastic library services. If you aren’t a member, sign up and enjoy all that our libraries offer”

In 50 years, the library has issued around 10,000,000 items. Last year alone 188,000 items were issued. Our collection has 62,000 physical items, and a lot more digital ones.

And while it’s a birthday for the Oamaru Library, we’re not forgetting the branches we have in Palmerston, Hampden, Kurow, Otematata and Omarama – serving local communities with the help of some fabulous volunteers and our customer liaison team in Waihemo.

Waitaki District Libraries offer; books (fiction, non-fiction, kids, large print, etc.), audiobooks, DVDs, magazines, comics, graphic novels, board games & puzzles, access to e-books if you have an e-reader, VR cubes and headset, memory care bags, and much, much more!

It also offers the Waitaki District Libraries App, which allows you to borrow items by scanning the barcode, reserve books or renew books online – you can find that here: https://www.waitaki.govt.nz/Libraries/Collections/Borrow-library-items-on-your-phone-or-tablet

ENDS

media@waitaki.govt.nz