Love Your Library Week
24 - 30 August 2026
Join us this week to celebrate the many ways libraries help our communities connect, create, read and learn.
Library Love Haiku Competition
Celebrate your library in just 17 syllables!
We're inviting library lovers of all ages to enter our Haiku Competition. Capture what makes the library special to you whether it's the joy of reading, lifelong learning, community connection, or your favourite library moment. Let your creativity shine and tell us what the library means to you in a traditional three-line haiku and be in to win a $50 book voucher.
Can’t make it into the library to pick up a postcard? Email us at library@dcc.govt.nz include Haiku as the subject.
Entries close on Sunday 30 August.
Send Us Some Love!
It's Love Your Library Week, and we'd love to hear what makes the library special to you!
Next time you're in the library, pick up a "Send Us Some Love" postcard and tell us what you love about our libraries, whether it's the books, programmes, staff, spaces, or the sense of community. Every postcard entered goes into the draw to win a $50 book voucher.
We'll also share your messages on our website so everyone can celebrate the many ways libraries make a difference.
Can’t make it into the library to pick up a postcard? Email us at library@dcc.govt.nz include Library love as the subject.
Share the love, enter the draw, and help us celebrate Love Your Library Week!
Visions for Dunedin: Our Heritage, Our Future
The Rise and Fall of Seacliff
Speaker: Jonathan Howard (HNZPT Senior Project Advisor)
Seacliff Asylum, once the largest building in Aotearoa New Zealand, is no more. The Rise and the Fall of Seacliff sheds light on the functional evolution of the main building and how its design, siting, materials, and construction led inevitably to its almost complete destruction.
Koha welcome
Wednesday 26 August | 5.30pm
Fourth Floor | City Library
An Evening with Donald S Murray
Donald S Murray is an award-winning novelist, poet, dramatist and non-fiction writer from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland. His debut novel, As the Women Lay Dreaming, won the Paul Torday Memorial Award in 2020. His most recent novel, The Loch of the Bees, reimagines the lives of Hebridean islanders across history, sweeping from the eighth century to the present day. A native Gaelic speaker, Donald’s first full-length Gaelic play, Sequamur, was performed throughout Scotland in 2015. Metagama, Donald’s collaborative ‘ceilidh play’ about Scottish emigration, toured Scotland in 2023. Donald is the holder of the 2026 Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies Writing Fellowship at the University of Otago. He will be in conversation with Otago’s Professor of Scottish Studies, Liam McIlvanney, exploring his novels, creative process, and the stories behind his work.
FREE
Thursday 27 August | 5.30pm
Fourth Floor | City Library
Collage Poetry at Blueskin Bay Library
Alongside our Haiku Competition and Send Us Some Love postcards, we’re celebrating World Poetry Day with Collage Poetry from 24–28 August, during library opening hours.
All materials are provided, so pop in, get creative and make your own poetry!
24-28 August | All Day
Blueskin Bay Library
Fast Hands, Sharp Minds: Speed Puzzling Live!
Watch NZ's fastest hands in action!
Adult Puzzling — Dunedin's national champion speed puzzling team (1st place, NZ Nationals teams category) — brings the competition puzzle back for a live demonstration, racing to beat their own record time.
Catch bonus pairs and solo speed runs from this podium-topping crew, chat with them about getting into puzzling, then explore our Puzzle Swap—bring a complete puzzle to swap for another of a similar piece count—or browse the Free Puzzle table, where everyone is welcome to take a puzzle home, including puzzles with missing pieces clearly marked on the box.
Fast fingers, sharp eyes, and a whole lot of jigsaw chaos — don't miss it!
Saturday 29 August | 12pm
Ground floor | City Library
Wrap me warm with stories!
Join Kaitrin and her puppet friends for a fun hour of story creativity. Connect to your inner storyteller, let's tell tales together.
Sunday, 30 August | 2-3pm
Storypit | City Library