Interview with Joy Margaret Bilkey

Joy Margaret Bilkey gives details of her family background and how the families were settlers in Waipu. Talks about her paternal great grandfather's cabinet and furniture making career, which included making furniture for English royalty and about her father's work as a builder and her mother's as a music teacher. Describes her education and details the development of her reading habits and tastes and where she got books from. Talks about working for her future parents-in-law.

Describes training as a primary school teacher at Auckland Teachers' Training College, teaching at Maungaturoto District High School Primary Department and then relief teaching both before and after her marriage to Arthur Edward Keith Bilkey in 1951. Details the development of their orchard from citrus to kiwifruit and gives some historical background to the development of the Kerikeri area, Kerikeri Primary School and the beginnings of the orchard industry in the area. Describes how the community changed with the influx of orchard people. Mentions the development of clubs and services and how cut off Kerikeri had been in the early days. Notes that there are very few Maori in Kerikeri.

Details her involvement with the Kerikeri Public Library as a committee member from 1962-1980 and the early development of the library before the Public Library was established. Describes how the books were looked after by individuals, then by the Plunket Society and then in the school building, membership charge, source of books from Country Library Service and private donation, lending and overdue policy. Details the members of the committee, its work to establish the library, the volunteers and the paid staff, fundraising, getting the building built, changing use of the library and her own involvement while she had young children and was relieving teacher. Mentions Margaret O'Connor as the first library assistant and other people instrumental in establishing the library. Mentions Dennis (?) Malone, Isabella Godbert and Mrs Bonny Cron.

Talks about the increasing popularity of non-fiction books, the importance of the Country Library Service, the visits of the book van, its drivers and their routines. Talks about Jim Sutherland and the death of the book van service.

Describes the special collections at the library, the request and reserve system operating, the changing nature of the Kerikeri population and change in library membership. Discusses the use of voluntary staff noting that there has only been one paid librarian in the last few years and that Kerikeri Library is the largest in New Zealand to be staffed by voluntary workers. Describes the role of the Library in the community.

Venue - Kerikeri

Interviewer(s) - Judith Fyfe

Venue - Mrs Bilkey's home at Kerikeri

Accompanying material - Printed abstract contains a photocopy of a newspaper article on the Kerikeri Public Library.

Arrangement: Tape numbers - OHC-002065, OHC-002066

Tape numbers - OHA CLS 2744, 2745, 2746, 2747

Quantity: 2 C60 cassette(s). 1 printed abstract(s). 2 Hours Duration.

Finding Aids: Abstract Available - abstracting complete AB 314.

Printed abstract contains portrait photograph of Joy Bilkey dated 1986, photograph of Joy Bilkey inside the bookvan in the mid 1970s, a photograph of the Kerikeri Public Library, a photograph of Bilkeys' grandchildren reading in the book van ca 1984 and two photocopies of photographs of Kerikeri

Search dates: 1925 - 1989

Alternative form available: An online copy of the abstract is also available to read in the Library's Reading Room