Concerns over merger of library and gallery

Napier Library is on the move, but a lobby group is warning that its new gallery home barely has enough space for its own exhibitions, let alone 25,000 books.

From late January, the library will be temporarily run out of Napier’s Museum Theatre Gallery (MTG) in Hastings St after a report earlier this year found the library was at 15 per cent of the new building code at its weakest point, while the adjoining Napier City Council civic buildings were at 10 per cent.

The gallery will be used while the council finds a new location for the library. Options are being considered in Civic Square, the Vautier St car park, the Ocean Boulevard/ car parking building, or back at its original site once it had been strengthened.

Friends of Napier Library chairwoman Johanna Rodgers said despite the council taking every step to make sure the shift goes smoothly, she still had concerns about where everything would fit in the gallery, as there was ‘‘not much room’’.

‘‘We do have some concerns that Taradale [Library] and the MTG could be overstretched with this move and will be talking with library management and councillors if we see there are problems.’’

MTG director Laura Vodanovich was confident the library would be housed comfortably at the site, as two gallery spaces were being closed, in addition to all of the archives being moved to an off-site location.

‘‘It will be interesting to see what happens, but I think we can handle the foot traffic through here. If anything, it’s a win because people will be able do two things at once.’’

Library manager Darran Gillies said the gallery would hold about 25,000 books, and between 5000 and 10,000 items would be moved to Taradale Library.

However, most stock would be moved to a retrievable storage site, which the council preferred to be in the CBD.

The library’s entire collection would be accessible via a retrievable storage system in which borrowers could request books then collect them from the gallery within two business days.

The library would be reduced from its 1800 square metres of floor space to 550sqm at the gallery.

In the meantime, Napier Library staff were working on a council report to advocate for reserves charges to be waived.