The national library is where New Zealand keeps much of its own written and printed record. It sits at 70 Molesworth Street in Thorndon, Wellington, a short walk from Parliament, and it is the country's main public collection of books, newspapers, maps, manuscripts and photographs.
A visit suits people who want to look at original material rather than a copy. Researchers, family historians, students, writers and anyone tracing a house, a family or a local story use the collections to find names, dates and first-hand accounts. Much of the material relates to New Zealand, including records of Māori and Pākehā history, and the library holds a large body of papers from individuals and organisations. The Alexander Turnbull Library, which is part of the National Library, is the part of the collection most often used for manuscripts, pictures and rare printed works.
Staff help people find what they are after, which matters with a collection this size. Many items are available to view in the reading rooms, and a good deal of the collection can also be searched online before a visit, so you can arrive knowing which items to ask for.
The trade of a library is the careful work behind the shelves: cataloguing, preserving fragile paper and film, and making sure a record can still be found and read decades from now. Here that work is the whole point of the building. It also means that a single old letter, map or newspaper page can be the thing that answers a question nothing else can.
Wellington's public buildings sit close together around Molesworth Street, so a visit pairs well with a walk through Thorndon and the nearby Parliament precinct.
Our pick for anyone in Wellington who wants to see the original sources behind New Zealand's history.