by Eva Churchman
Yesterday, Geoffrey and I went to see this for the first time since reopening after having been closed since 19 March 2019 because the council was worried about earthquake risk. After 7 years it has been significantly altered inside from what it used to be, so much that you almost think you’re in a different building.
The first reaction we had was ‘where the Stuff are the books’? The Paraparaumu library has more than the Wellington central library now, as least from our tour of inspection.
It seems that old fashioned paper is out of favour; instead the Wellington city council crows about things like:
- Te Whaitua Mārū: A dedicated low-sensory space designed for neurodivergent visitors or anyone needing a quiet break.
- Nōku te Ao Capital E: A dedicated children’s play, learning, and discovery hub featuring a taniwha slide and permanent creative installations.
- Permanent Youth Space: A large, uninterrupted zone designed specifically for rangatahi (youth) to hang out and collaborate.
- Central Ground Café: A cashless, fully electric café on the ground floor [first photo above: we tried a capuccino, which was nice but $6 for a small cup]
As you would expect nowadays, displays of Wokeism are all over the place, starting with the name — it’s now officially known as Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui which seems to mean ‘the window to the big cloud.’ The second photo shows a big room dedicated to leaves (native only of course) with an assembled folder called Rau = leaf, frond and whārangi = page, sheet, leaf (of a book).
Well, if that’s what appeals to the population, although we wonder how much people were asked. It’s a real shame, however, that old fashioned books have been relegated to secondary consideration.
Waikanae Watch long term readers will remember that in 2019 KCDC decided to cut Kapiti libraries’ book budget in half. In response Roger Childs together with the late Christopher Ruthe and the late Alan Tristram teamed up to form a pressure group called Restore our Book Budget or ROBB which succeeded in doing just that.
We hope the new Waikanae library will have lots of books!
Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui Translates as The window to the World
Wellington library holds 370,000 items in total. This includes about 250,000 books on public display, with an additional 120,000 items stored in the collection center accessible on request. Old fashioned books are gradually being replaced by digital editions and audiobooks as the demand for the former diminishes.
I use ChatCPT AI, too. Did you notice the NZ Herald article from January 2026 stating that 80,000 books had been culled from the central library collection? Have you actually visited the central library since it reopened and noticed how little of the floor space is allocated to books? What evidence do you have that demand for digital editions and audio books is increasing? And what evidence do you have that fewer physical books were being issued? Rather than rely on google, I will do a LGOIMA to WCC. –Eva
It would seem it is dumbing down of yet another institution-going the same way as Te Papa , which has the intellectual level suited for a nine year old age level . The displays have very small amounts of intellectual content but focus is on the experiential -touchy -feely stuff.
This is inevitable with our decline in reading standards . University students have difficulty reading texts ,and can often only read articles and excerpts from books . While we used to be tops in reading now we are the worst in the English speaking world. Almost 3 out of 5 school students are not at the correct level for their age.
When I visit the Kapiti library there are seldom more than two or three children there out of school hours . Bookshops have bookcases of graphic novels .
A survey at American Universities found undergraduates couldn’t read Dicken’s novels yet in the 1950s 13 -15 year olds from low socio-economic homes read these easily.
Thank you for warning me about Wellington Library . I will stay well clear.