Library 

Kawerau Library

Street Address: Jellicoe Court, Kawerau 

Postal Address: P.O. Box 103, Kawerau, 3169

Phone: (07) 306 9041

E-mail: library@kaweraudc.govt.nz

Opening Hours

Monday-Friday 10am-5pm

Saturday         10am-1pm

News And Events

Dive Into Books Summer Fun

Dive into books this summer with the Reading Challenge. At the beginning of December come into the Library with a library card and pick up your challenge handbook and starter pack. Your mission is to complete 20 challenges over the summer holidays with rewards being given for every five challenges completed. Rewards range from beautiful bookmarks to choosing your own book to keep. You also get rewarded for reading plus you can join in on the fun activity sessions at the Library and enter fun competitions. There are two age group challenges (5-9 and 10 plus) and numbers are limited for both groups so get in quick! More info to come and remember enrolments start 1 December 2009.

Wireless Internet Is Now Live

The Kawerau District Library has switched on its new wireless internet service. This means people can access the internet around the Library for free through their own wireless equipment such as wifi enabled laptops, cable phones and pdas, rather than wait in a queue to use the Library’s existing machines. This service is provided through National Library’s Aotearoa Peoples Network (APN) project and this is the internet service that users connect to. The wireless internet runs while the library is open (weekday 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-1pm) and is filtered and behind a firewall in the same manner as the APN public PCs (blocks on offensive content, viruses, non-standard connections like Runescape, chat and IM). People can use the service inside the building or out on the seating around the Library in Ranfurly Court. District Librarian, Susan Harris, said “this is a fantastic asset that APN has added to our community and I can see a real benefit for visitors and locals who have their own equipment and need to use the internet, but don’t have the time to wait for the Library PCs to become free".

Kawerau was the first community in New Zealand to benefit from the Aotearoa People’s Network, which provides free access to broadband internet services through public libraries, and the wireless internet is an added feature to this service. “Our aim is to have every public library in New Zealand connected to the internet so that New Zealanders from all communities, both large and small, can benefit from creating, accessing and experiencing digital content" says John Truesdale, Programme Leader, National Library of New Zealand. “With the Aotearoa People's Network in place, libraries will become even more of a hub for the next digital wave, catering to patrons that are tech-savvy as well as giving those who are not yet familiar with the online world an opportunity to participate."

“It’s great for a small community like Kawerau to be first with such an exciting initiative. Not only will it give Kawerau people free online access to content, it will also provide tools for individuals to create and store their own content," says Susan Harris, Library Manager of the Kawerau District Library. The Network is a collaboration between National Library of New Zealand, public libraries and business, with initial funding received from the Government’s Community Partnership Fund. The funding, covers equipment, networking, training and access to web based tools and services. It is also supported by Telecom New Zealand, which has provided sponsorship funding as well as staffing resources in setting up the network.

The Aotearoa People’s Network is a key project that comes under the wider government Digital Content Strategy aimed at unlocking New Zealand’s stock of content to build opportunities for participating, creating and accessing digital content for all New Zealanders.

 For more information, look on the Projects page.

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