page_title: Birkenhead Public Library
section_title: The "Civic Reserve library"
hierarchical_section_title: Birkenhead Public Library / History / The "Civic Reserve library"
caption_attribution_description: Birkenhead Public Library 2005, front entrance. Library is ground floor. Removed two figures from foreground.
context_page_description: Birkenhead Public Library is a New Zealand library, part of the Auckland Libraries system located on Auckland's North Shore. Founded in 1949 it predominantly serves the areas of Birkenhead, Beach Haven, Birkdale, Kauri Park, Chelsea, and Birkenhead East, a population of about 26,000, including six primary schools, two intermediate schools, and two colleges.
  Typical of medium-sized public libraries in New Zealand, it is able to provide an extensive range of modern library resources and services through its integration into a wider urban network, and through its association with the National Library, while retaining its own distinct, local connections such as the Archives Collection of the Chelsea Sugar Refinery.
  The library was the first public library to be founded in North Shore City, the first to offer dial-up access to the New Zealand Bibliographic Network, and a leading proponent of full weekend services.
  For four years the library was located in temporary quarters in the Birkenhead Leisure Centre, while a dispute over the location and design of its proposed new building was resolved.
context_section_description: After the Auckland Harbour Bridge was opened in 1959 the Birkenhead area became much more accessible. By the mid-1960s issues each year had increased dramatically by nearly a hundred thousand items.
  Nora Bourke, the chairman of the Library Committee, felt the existing building was limited and, with mayor Cyril Crocombe, began making plans for a much larger building. This was to be built on the Civic Reserve, on which a World War One memorial has stood since 1927.
  On 20 April 1968, the new building was officially opened by the Governor General Arthur Porritt. For the next 37 years, until 2005, this was the location of the Birkenhead Public Library, and in 1979 the reserve was renamed Nell Fisher Reserve after the first librarian, Eleanor "Nell" Fisher.
caption: Front entrance of the former library before it was demolished in 2005. The library was on the ground floor, with a mezzanine balcony along one side.
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