Rivkah's Rambles

I'm at the Wellington Airport waiting for the first of my 4 flights back to Omaha. My heart and eyes and mind are still reeling from everything I've seen. I won't even know where to begin. I have so many ideas, and I'm now convinced that everyone should travel by library! It's a great way to see a country.

Wellington was as beautiful as I knew it would be and the libraries exude typical New Zealand health. Central is stunning and even though yesterday was an unusually quiet Friday, it was bustling at 5 p.m., with people of every age doing all kinds of work. I was checking out the children's area when I heard a woman ask the librarian for "naughty" books. I was really curious about what she might really want and did my nosy American thing, thinking she might be wanting The Joy of Sex. Turns out she wanted Noddie/Noddy books (I didn't check the spelling) for her toddler! Obviously I need to spend more time here before I'm fluent in New Zealand English!

My trip has been so magical and amazing that I hesitate to mention any one place because every single library I’ve visited is unique and very special. That said, I keep reflecting upon what I saw in Christchurch, no doubt because it’s so similar in size to Omaha. Population is just about our only similarity since their budget, translated from New Zealand dollars, is about twice as much as ours, so the differences I saw in hours, staffing, collections and programs are astounding. There is a vibrancy that only having enough funding can help produce. Their buildings are beautiful, the newer ones include green features such as a moat that handles rain runoff that is used for the toilets, windows that open automatically to bring in fresh air, louvered shades that provide cooling and open and close to enhance the light. After hearing Blaine Brownell, author of Transmaterial speak at Pop!Tech last year, I’ve been on a quest to build a library that IS the library, where materials featured in the book are presented and explained in a way that they become in essence a living reference book that isn’t so much read as explored and experienced. Christchurch is almost there, and indeed, I visited the Greytown Library today and it features recycled glass from Israel. Obviously, New Zealand libraries can become a Transmaterial library for the rest of us!

It's clear that New Zealand libraries, with a history similar to our, including gifts from Andrew Carnegie, have built on that foundation and planning for a vibrant future. I'm jealous.

I'm writing this from a public machine at the Queenstown airport. It's been very interesting for me to be in a country where people definitely do NOT take Internet access for granted. Most of the libraries I've visited offer it, some charge, some restrict access and don't allow email, some provide it for free. It's definitely a case of the playing field not being as level as I think everyone would like.

New Zealand is a small country, under 5 million people, and high speed internet is not ubiquitous here yet. The libraries I've seen are doing an amazing job, but I think there are governmental restrictions that prevent them from making their vision real.

Given that lately I've been questioning wide open access (well, we do filter at OPL but it's still wide open) and the behavior problems associated with it, I wonder if there's a lesson for U.S. libraries to be learned from our Kiwi cousins? I'd love to talk about this. What I've seen so far are fewer behavior problems (the kind we have that are associated with internet access) and generally libraries that are very pleasant places.

It's making me think.