About the Library

Contact Details

Christchurch City Libraries
work PO Box 73045,
Christchurch 8154,
New Zealand.
workp: +64-3-941-7923

Heritage Week October 17th-27th 2008
Retro[spective]: Christchurch Life, Architecture, and Design 1940s -1970s

Heritage Week is an annual event, core funded by the Christchurch City Council, with support from local sponsors including principal sponsor from 2007, Beca.

Christchurch City Libraries' Heritage Resources provide you with information about Christchurch's history, its people and places and also help in finding out about your own heritage and family history.

posterEvents

Photo Competition

Christchurch City Libraries invites the people of Christchurch to enter a Photo Competition designed to uncover Christchurch photos of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s.

Spirited Cemetery Tours

Librarian Richard Greenaway time travels forward from the nineteenth century to bring his "Spirited Cemetery Tours" into the Swinging Sixties and beyond! Richard will conduct tours of the Bromley, Ruru Lawn and Memorial Park cemeteries, bringing to life the stories of local notables who were active in the community during the 1940s - 1970s, and who are now interred in these 'modern' cemeteries. A feature of the Ruru Lawn Cemetery tour will be a visit to the mass grave of those who perished in the tragic 1947 Ballantyne's fire.

  • Saturday 18 October Noon - 1pm - Bromley Cemetery - Linwood Avenue, opposite the crematorium
  • Sunday 19 October Noon - 1pm - Ruru Lawn Cemetery - Raymond Road entrance
  • Saturday 25 October Noon - 1pm - Memorial Park Cemetery - corner of Cypress Street and Ruru Road Noon - 1pm

Tuesday 21 October: Writing Your Autobiography

Do you need motivation and encouragement to write your personal story? Let library staff guide you as part of a small group in a series of four sessions on Tuesdays 21, 28 October & 4 and 11 November.

  • 10:00am - 12:00pm, 21 October 2008 - 11 November 2008
  • New Brighton Library, Christchurch, NZ
  • Event cost is FREE, bookings required, limited to 10 people.
  • Please bring along pen and paper.

Tuesday 21 October: An Ancestry Experience

Learn how to use Ancestry.com database to track your family ancestors.

  • 21 October 2008, 10:00am - 12:00pm
  • Central Library, 2nd floor training room
  • Event cost is FREE, bookings required, phone 9417923

Tuesday 21 October: Create a family history story book

A 2 part programme. Use your old photos and documents to begin the production of the story of your family.

  • 21 October 2008 & 28 October 2008, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at South Learning Centre,
  • Event cost $5.00 per person, bookings required

Wednesday 22 October: Oral History: Hearing It First Hand - Real Stories of the 1940s - 1970s

The advent of the tape recorder and more recently the digital recorder has enabled the ready capture of personal experience, reminiscence, and memories first hand. A useful method for recording individual or collective story is an oral history interview. This talk using sound excerpts from interviews covering life in the 1940s - 1970s in Canterbury will provide a brief overview of the "how" and "why" of an oral history interview. The two presenters have considerable experience with conducting oral history interviews; life story and project work.

  • 22 October 2008, 10:00am - 22 October 2008, 11:15am at Central Library 2nd floor (pink couch area), Christchurch, NZ
  • Event cost is FREE, bookings not required