Library

Wellington Public Library

A town with a public library is a wonderful thing. The whole world can be opened up to anyone through books and now free internet access.  Membership is a way of belonging to the community yet can also be a means of escape from it.  At the moment I use my membership to withdraw children's books in Afrikaans as that's about my reading level.  It's also helpful to be able to get out dvds in Afrikaans: it's not wasting time watching films, it's language learning and cultural acclimatisation.

All libraries need rules.  At university I had to promise not to kindle fire within the library before I was allowed a card. Getting a membership card from Wellington library wasn't quite as dramatic (though I did need to ask a resident friend to guarantee me) but there are a few things you're specifically forbidden to take inside.  Not all of them would appear on an equivalent poster outside a library in the UK.