Designed in the 1970s and built in the 1980s, the National Library building is aging. It is no longer fit for its purpose and is running out of storage space. It urgently needs redeveloping to address critical issues that will in future affect the safety of the heritage collections, and to ensure their long-term preservation.
Problems caused by the aging infrastructure of the building have increased the risk of a major failure that would cause irreplaceable loss to the heritage collections.
The redevelopment will fix the leaks on the Library’s roof and the ground floor plaza level, replace obsolete systems that no longer work properly, fix plant and machinery and optimise research spaces. It will provide room to store the collections for the next twenty years.
By mid-2012, when the building redevelopment is complete, the collections will be stored in appropriate, safe environments with enough room for storage until 2030, onsite access to the collections will be easier and research facilities enhanced, and much more of the nation’s heritage will be available online. The heritage collections will be protected and safe for future generations of New Zealanders.
The transformation of the National Library began in 2007, with the development of the Library’s Strategic Directions to 2017, a comprehensive modernisation programme. A key component of the strategy is the upgrading of infrastructure, including our buildings in Wellington and Auckland.
The paper approved by Cabinet outlining the Wellington building redevelopment, what it will address and how the redevelopment option was chosen, is available here.
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Questions and answers about the National Library's building redevelopment
