Waipā residents avid readers
Almost half a million items were borrowed from Waipā District Libraries by residents in 2019 - the most popular being fiction, cookbooks, biographies and craft books.
From 1 January to 31 December, a whopping 487,971 items (not including eBooks and eAudiobooks) were issued from both Cambridge and Te Awamutu libraries, up almost 2,500 on the previous year.
Around 43 per cent of those were adult’s books while 54 per cent were children’s books and the other 3 per cent non-book items such as DVD’s, jigsaws and talking books.
The most borrowed book of the year was Past Tense by renowned author Lee Child followed by Connections in Death by J.D. Robb, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown by Jeff Kinney, The Seven Sisters: Maia’s Story by Lucinda Riley and The 104-Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths.
The book with the most holds was Michelle Obama’s autobiography, Becoming, followed by another Lee Child classic, Blue Moon.
Waipā District Council community services manager Sally Sheedy said library usage had been steadily increasing over the past several years.
“Our libraries are a significant asset to our communities. Not only did we have a large number of books borrowed, we also had 1,906 new library users sign up. This is very encouraging and shows that our libraries continue to be a popular resource for residents.”
Sheedy said library programmes such as Toddle Time, Wriggle and Rhyme and Makerspace had also been popular in 2019.
“We have also had great success with several events we ran at both libraries such as our community club fitness evenings and Move It November.”