February 2024

New to your school library? If you're just getting started providing library services for your school, register to join our 2024 learning community. You'll receive support from National Library experts, attend regular local and national meetings, build your skills and connect with other library people.

Come together this Te Rā o Waitangi by visiting He Tohu at the National Library to see the nine original sheets of 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty of Waitangi. Join a bilingual tour and reflect on what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means to you.

At this first meeting, you’ll meet your local National Library facilitators. They'll set the scene for your learning and share resources and ideas to help you get started in your new role. Make sure you've already registered for our 2024 learning and support community so we can send you a meeting invitation.

Oral history advisor Lynette Shum and historian Nigel Murphy will take attendees on a walking tour exploring the rich history of the Chinese in Wellington.

Bookings are essential.

Join us for poetry and conversation with Poet Laureate Chris Tse, fellow Chinese New Zealand poets, and food and restaurant historian André Taber. Enjoy poetry performances and get a chance to sample some Chinese snacks.

Join us online or in person.

Author Jared Davidson opens the 2024 Friends of the Turnbull Public Programme with a talk charting the history of New Zealand’s prison plantations — exotic forests grown by prisoners. In time these forests became extremely valuable and when they were sold off in the 1990s their privatisation was dubbed ‘he sale of the century’

Join us online or in person for this event.

The Labour History Project biennial Rona Bailey lecture will be given by Dr Cybèle Locke and focus on the life of Rona Bailey. Rona Bailey has been described as ‘one of the most important figures on the radical left in twentieth-century NZ.’ In this talk, Cybèle will tell stories about Rona’s lifelong grass roots activism.

Join this short Zoom webinar to learn (or get a refresher on) how to use National Library's free lending service for schools. We'll share how to borrow from our extensive collections of fiction and non-fiction books to inspire and inform your students’ inquiry and develop their love of reading.

Book a spot on our two-day workshop that gives an introduction to oral history methodology. Led by Lynette Shum, Oral History Advisor at the Alexander Turnbull Library and Helen Frizzell, a Dunedin-based freelance oral historian. The workshop is ideal for people considering using oral history in their work, community or personal projects.

Join this short Zoom webinar to learn (or get a refresher on) how to use National Library's free lending service for schools. We'll share how to borrow from our extensive collections of fiction and non-fiction books to inspire and inform your students’ inquiry and develop their love of reading.

Richard Foy, former Chief Archivist of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, will tell the fascinating story of Te Tiriti o Waitangi’s archival journey from its 1840 signing — through fire, neglect, and wartime travel — to its current home in the He Tohu exhibition at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa.