Listen up! Music and the library

Complementing the new Heritage exhibition Encore!, the atrium display Listen up! at Central Library Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero, on between 6 May –30 July 2026, celebrates the history of Auckland Libraries’ music collection and its connections with the city’s music communities.

Three display cases show how Auckland Libraries has championed engagement with music through its lending and Heritage Collections, as well as through events and public programming. Our seven vertical cabinets display images of music playing devices and formats, showing their evolution over time. Many of these formats have been, and continue to be, available to borrow or hear at the library. Below are some of the images that did not make it into the display.

Sheet music - Audrey playing the piano

Ron Clark. Audrey playing the piano. 1960s. Photo ref: 1207-0452

This photograph, taken in the 1960s by amateur photographer Ron Clark, is one of many that you can find on Kura Heritage Collections Online showing people playing the piano or performing music. The piano was the biggest luxury import in Aotearoa between 1860 and 1916, being the centre of home entertainment. Sheet music was thus collected as avidly as records and CDs were in later decades. (See this blog post that accompanied the Heritage exhibition House and home: domestic life in New Zealand, 7 July – 30 October 2016).

The initial collection of sheet music at Auckland Libraries was established in 1928 as the Lewis Eady Music Room after a donation by Alfred Eady in memory of his father, Lewis Roberts Eady (1858-1937). Over the years donations from numerous organisations and generous individuals have built up the collection to be the most extensive and comprehensive in any public library in Aotearoa.

Records - En route to Waikowhai, 1926

Ron Clark. Audrey playing the piano. 1960s. Photo ref: 1207-0452

This is a photograph from the Donald Jenkins Collection Album 328 which contains 355 black and white prints including many from on board the mullet boat Nyria, which Jenkins co-owned with three friends. Here, they look to be enjoying an outing on calm waters with a gramophone playing from the cabin roof.

It was not until April 1957 that a rental collection of a long-playing records was established at the Central Library. Only ‘serious music’ i.e. classical, popular ballet and opera was available but nevertheless proved to be very popular with over 7000 records issued in the collection’s first five months.

From the Auckland Library Scrapbook – New Zealand Herald 11/12/1957:

“Waiting list to borrow classical records”

Although people take surprisingly good care of the records now available it has been found that the ballet records seem to be the more quickly damaged largely, it is thought, by vibration when listeners practise their steps to them.

It wasn’t until 1983, upon the opening of the expanded Central Library on the site of the former Embassy Theatre, that jazz and rock records were added to the lending collection.

Cassette tape - Young man with a Walkman, Sandringham, 1989

Stuart Page. Young man with a Walkman, Sandringham. 1989 Photo ref: 273-PAG043-08

This photo of a young man (the graffiti artist known as MANIAC) listening to a Walkman and standing next to his tag in Sandringham is one of over 6000 black and white images that are part of 'The 1990 Project’. These are all available to search and view on Kura Heritage Collections Online. The photograph Netball players, Khyber Pass Road, Newmarket, used as the Listen up! introductory poster, is also from the ‘The 1990 Project’, featuring a girl listening to a Walkman as well.

‘The 1990 Project’ aimed to record the look and feel of Auckland and its people through both oral history and documentary photography as part of the nationwide Sesquicentennial celebrations. Five photographers each focussed on different parts of the city, capturing the uniqueness and diversity within each area. Many locations will be familiar or recognisable with changing fashions or the model of cars indicating the passing of time.

Jane Wild, who was one of the library staff involved in leading the project, noted in 2021 when the collection became available on Kura that “The photographs are worth a thousand words.”

Compact Discs - CDs from the Made in Auckland collection

The Made in Auckland collection.

The Literature, Arts and Music Department on the first floor of the Central Library saw the establishment of the first Compact Disc collection in public libraries in Aotearoa in the mid 1980s. Starting with 100 items, this as well as the LP record collection became very popular as they grew substantially to cover a broad variety of musical genres.

The Central City Library initiated a collection promoting local musicians called Made in Auckland in 2004. The collection was made up of over 100 CDs by unsigned local artists and were available for loan free of charge from the Central City Library. In 2007, the library produced a Made in Auckland compilation, 100% LOCAL, which was given to guests at the New Zealand Music Awards that year. Artists featured included Ben Kara, Decortica, Katy Soljak and The Managers. The collection wound up in 2011 when more music started being released digitally and has since been transferred to Heritage Collections.

iPod - First generation iPod ad from Remix magazine

Advertisement from Re:mix magazine. Remix Media Ltd, March/April 2002.

This print advertisement of the first-generation iPod is from a 2002 issue of Re:mix, a fashion, culture and electronic dance music magazine founded by Auckland DJ and producer Tim Phin, that is still in print. Re:mix is just one of the many titles within Auckland Libraries extensive collection of international and local music magazines.

The difference between this ad and the iconic silhouette campaign (used in the display) is stark. Of note is the change from serifed to sans serif typeface, and the encapsulation of a feeling or vibe as opposed to a clear showing of the device. iPods quickly became a cultural phenomenon, ushering in the move towards music as a digitised commodity. Sales of the iPod were eclipsed by the iPhone in 2011, but as with many other formats and devices, portable media players may yet be revived as people try to push back against the hegemony of a few streaming giants monopolising the ways we listen.

Further reading

For more information about music formats try these titles borrowable through Auckland Libraries:

Aotearoa New Zealand

Wired for sound : the Stebbing history of New Zealand music, Gillanders, Grant | Auckland Libraries

For the record : a history of the recording industry in New Zealand, Staff, Bryan | Auckland Libraries

The long play the warped history of vinyl in Aotearoa, Ryan, Charlotte | Auckland Libraries

Blue smoke the lost dawn of New Zealand popular music, 1918-1964, Bourke, Chris | Auckland Libraries

General

A century of recorded music : listening to musical history, Day, Timothy | Auckland Libraries

Mirror sound : the people and processes behind self-recorded music, Tweedy, Spencer | Auckland Libraries

The art of sound : a visual history for audiophiles, Burrows, Terry | Auckland Libraries

Into the groove the story of sound from tin foil to vinyl, Scott, Jonathan (Freelance writer) | Auckland Libraries