Heritage et AL

  Image: Cover illustration by Mike Hinge from Analog science fiction, science fact, April 1976. Explore the imaginative worlds of science fiction in this vibrant exhibition featuring books, magazines, comics and posters from Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections. Science fiction allows readers and writers to imagine other worlds, whether they’re mind-bending, hopeful or downright terrifying.  Learn about the big ideas and publishing history of this expansive genre and immerse yourself in its incredible settings and eye-popping artwork. Trace themes and tropes from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and discover the close connections between science fact and speculative fiction. Enjoy seeing early editions of your favourite works and be inspired to find your next read. The exhibition is open Monday - Saturday from February 19th - August 2nd, 2025, at Central City Library.  In this blog, you can listen to in-depth discussions with the curators w...

Recently at Auckland Central Library Research Centre, we’ve been celebrating contemporary wāhine Māori writers of innovative fiction - creative fiction which shapeshifts in form and genre with the power and flow of atua wāhine. We want our Indigenous collections to be embraced in a space dedicated to and curated by the author. We began with Talia Marshall’s pukapuka Whaea Blue. This time we’re showcasing the magical and healing hit of auto composite fiction, Kōhine, by Colleen Maria Lenihan. Similar to Whaea Blue, Kōhine defies genre, time and space and takes you on an enlightened yet haunting journey into the spiritual realm and back, through narrative twists and turns of memoir, poetry, and interconnected short fiction.  The following kaupapa is an interview with Colleen on Kōhine :  Rin Smeaton: Kia ora to you Colleen. Our mutual hoa Talia suggested that I talk to you! First of all, I wanted you to know that my co-worker Ash read Kōhine when it first got published and cou...

SILK Talia Marshall When you were born I was a spider There was a giant red ear on the ceiling Follow me follow Little fly I was sorry I had you in my web For three days I looked and looked at you and thought what is this? rapture has never been on my wish list but there you were, your firsts made the same lion talk of your father raised beside your head It was the dark O of your mouth that drew my eyes into you like vapour no, you were not the one I would eat later but the tender beads of water glistening on the web I knew I was holding onto you by a thread But the thread was strong and made of silk I hold you to me by a thread Talia Marshall released her long-awaited memoir-adjacent book, an essayistic compounding of word, memory, place, and persons. Each section of prose more emotionally whiplashing than the next, the devoutness of people who followed her work earlier on only became more steadfast.  As such, the building of a librarian-founded, trippingly hallucinogenre, constel...

  That’s so last century: What we wore 1950s-1990s provides a snapshot of what some New Zealanders were wearing during the latter half of the twentieth century. Learn about how the garment industry impacted on different parts of Aotearoa society including the popularity of home sewing, where we shopped for clothes, the emergence of New Zealand based fashion designers, and the prevalence of local clothing manufacturers. This exhibition is on at Level 2 of Auckland's Central City Library from Wednesday 20 March - 13 July 2024.  In this podcast you’ll hear stories of all things fashion – from home dressmaking to professional tailoring, pattern shops and fabrics, being a follower of fashion and what sustainable fashion means in this century. Voices have been drawn from Auckland Libraries Oral History and Sound , Heritage Collections .  The lived experience – 50s & 60s fashion  In this track, jazz singer and follower of fashion, Wendy Moore provides her lived experien...

Ngako: The Collections Talk is a documentary film and podcast series showcasing taonga in Auckland Libraries’ heritage and research collections.  Explore the whole series in our current exhibition , on until 2 March 2024 at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero, the Central City Library. This audio playlist contains all the episodes from Ngako: The Collections Podcast, where we explore items and stories from Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections. Wanderlust - the war years In this episode we find meaning and history in the Auckland Tramping Club’s newsletter Wanderlust.  Archivist Sharon Smith shares insights gleaned from reading the Wanderlust magazine in the period of publication during the Second World War.  We are also joined by current Auckland Tramping Club members, Ian, Anna and Dennis, on the Club’s programme of tramps and their preparation for the upcoming Club centenary celebrations. Listen to the track here . Ava, kava, kawa In this episode we explore the world of ava...

Image: Angela Morton Room artist files. Writer Peter Shaw has called artist files an essential part of our sense of history. "What were the things that reviewers were looking for at a particular time? What was the context in which the works were produced? These are endlessly fascinating questions, and unless you have artist files carefully collected and organized  by someone you lose all of that."* Over 700 files for individual Aotearoa artists are held in Takapuna’s Angela Morton Room Te Pātaka Toi Art Library. These can include exhibition catalogues, small printed artworks, posters, CV’s, reviews and interviews. The bulk of the material was collected from 1980 to 2010 and provides important documentation about well-established and lesser-known artists.  Shaw used our artist file for Pauline Thompson when curating the major retrospective of her work, Combined Cosmologies , held at the Pah Homestead. He said: "If the files weren’t there my picture of her work, her word...