Local bookworms were praised for assisting one of New Zealand’s sole surviving volunteer-run library enter its 80th chapter.
Māpua Community Library, which has nine committee members, 35 volunteers, and about 2000 registered members, celebrated 80 years since its prologue earlier this month with a garden party at its hub on the corner of Toru St and Aranui Rd.
Treasurer Susan Butler says the library, which shelves about 1500 books, turned its first page in 1943, when local woman, Mary Robb, established a regular loan of 50 tales from a mobile library service that was sanctioned by the National Library.
She says the “ticking heart of the community” had never looked back, even in tricky chapters.
“In 1980, a larger space was needed to support the increasingly popular exchange of books, the local hall society was enlarging its own facility and when approached, agreed to make a room available for the library, the library ladies were in heaven,” she says.
“In 1987, the mobile service ceased, community libraries around the country were deemed too small and encouraged to close, but the vision hadn’t come this far to be thwarted without a fight.
“The subscribers felt the rural area of Māpua needed its own library, so they went to the top, a letter written to the Right and Honourable David Lange putting the facts before him must have impressed, because a visit from the National Library was convened.”
Susan says with Richmond Library’s assistance, Māpua Community Library could continue a book lending service and the quiet gathering of books necessitated several shifts to larger locations.
In 2002 its current purpose-built facility was opened by acclaimed national storyteller, Margaret Mahy.
Since then, the library has hosted thousands of school-aged students, book fairs and other literature festivals and relies on donations and grants to keep it living in a fairy tale.
