Your questions answered

As many as you can carry!
While your card allows up to 20 at any one time, we've been known to over-ride that rule for our beloved book-lovers.
If you're a teacher or ECE you can change your library membership to a 'bulk' user, allowing you more items and longer borrowing time of 3 months instead of one.

Our loan period for:

• Books - 4 weeks.
• Magazines and DVDs - 1 week.
• Our Tere Atu Tere Mai Collection (Library of Things) have shorter loans for equipment.

There is a maximum of two renewals per item.
Renew by logging in to your account, email or phone us too. Please note, if an item has been placed on hold by another borrower it cannot be renewed.

Place a hold by logging into your account (top right hand on our catalogue - Kōtui website), then hit the 'Place Hold' button for the items you're wanting. When the item is ready for you we'll text/call you the next day to pick up. This is a free service. Holds are placed on reserve for you for a maximum of 7 days.

Kōtui are making changes to their library management system which means we will be unable to access some library services.

Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi – Ōpōtiki District Library is a member of the Kōtui, which is an Aotearoa wide consortium of public libraries, managed by the National Library of New Zealand. As a consortium, Kōtui provides a modern shared library management and resource discovery service to over 102 library locations (for 40 district councils).

Kōtui is making changes to the system we use for our library services including membership data. Currently your library membership details are held in data centres located in Christchurch and Auckland. From 16 May 2024, this data will be moved to data centres in Melbourne and Adelaide.

While Kōtui update their management system, all library users and library staff will be unable to access the system.

What does this mean for you as a library member?

While the systems changes are being made, from 8pm on Wednesday 15 May through to Thursday 16 May, access to your library account and the library’s electronic resources will be unavailable.

From 16 May onwards, the look and feel of some services may differ slightly, however there will be no significant change and all services will resume as usual.

For more information on Kōtui head to the National Library website.

Apply online by completing an application form. Then come on into the library to receive your library membership card, unless you prefer to remain on a Digital Only Membership and access our online resources only.

Please note - library Terms and Conditions and our Privacy Statement are considered accepted when an individual, organisation or a Guarantor signs up for their library card associated with their membership application.

Renewal: If you've not used our library services for a while... We 'renew' memberships once a year to check your contact details are up-to-date. Current membership is needed to access online library services so give us a call or better still, drop in and we'll get you back on track!

Joining: is easy AND free!

If you already belong to either Whakatāne, Kawerau, Western Bay of Plenty, Rotorua or Taupō libraries - you can use your card to access our library services. But if you want to keep our relationship secret we don't mind you starting a separate membership with us!

We encourage members to borrow up to 20 items at a time from our Library. And our online borrowing limits varies with each provider. We offer 'bulk' memberships for parent groups, teachers and others that need to borrow more.

The standard loan period is 4 weeks. Magazines and DVDs are for 1 week and equipment have various shorter loan periods.

Items may be renewed in person, over the phone, by text reply or through the online catalogue, provided that no-one else is waiting to borrow them.

Conditions of membership

• In registering as a Library member you agree to:
• Produce your library card when using library services
• Return all items by the due date or renew them
• Pay for damaged or lost items
• Advise the Library of any change of contact details
• Let the Library staff know if you lose your card
• Acknowledge the same responsibility for any child you have registered.

Privacy Statement

We take our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 (Privacy Act), and the information privacy principles in the Privacy Act, seriously. The privacy statement has been prepared in accordance with our obligations and your rights under the Privacy Act.

1. Personal information is collected to enable you to borrow and return material from the library. This information may also be used for internal management purposes or, in some circumstances, for other reasons permitted by the Privacy Act.

2. The personal information collected is:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Address
• Contact details (email and/or phone number)
• Information on your use of our library services

3. The personal information collected is held safely and securely by an external third-party provider, Kōtui.

4. Library staff may use your personal information to contact you regarding library matters like late returns, booked items, etc.

5. You have the right to access and correct your personal information. If you wish to have access to, or correct, your information you can come in and see us, call us on 07 315 6170 or email library@odc.govt.nz.

6. If you do not wish to provide information, we must decline your membership application but you're still welcome to use our facilities at Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi.

Ōpōtiki Council's full Privacy Policy (Statement) can be found here.

The information you provided when you join the library is stored in your library customer record, including your name, your date of birth, your contact email address and/or phone number, and your home address. This information is held securely and safely by an external third party - Kōtui.

Unfortunately no. If you do not wish to provide your personal information, which is held in our library management system through Kōtui our third party provider, the Library must decline or cancel your membership application. But you can still come and hang out at Te Tāhuhu o Te Rangi and read the physical collections in our beautiful whare (library) and use our meeting rooms and connect to Wifi and use the computers and the MakerSpace technology... and kōrerorero (chat) with us!

• You can borrow books, magazines, DVDs, puzzles, as well as equipment within our Tere Atu Tere MaiLibrary of Things collection, for various borrowing lengths of time for free.
• Access items from our eLibrary, such as eMovies, eBooks, Audios, eMagazines via ePlatform, BorrowBox and Beamafilm for free.
• Access Research eResources such as Bridget Williams Books Collection and NZ Geographic for free.

Everything else we have accessible to anyone be it a local or a visitor-from-afar as long as it stays in the library: you can even play Tio our piano, Hikitia our guitar and a ukulele or 2. You can use our sewing machines too.

Computers and Wi-Fi are free to use.

There is a lazer cutter, 3D printer, vinyl cutter, photocopier and scanner all with fees associated to them (unless you're using the free self-serve scanner!)

Meeting rooms are free for study and non-profit groups/individuals. Koha gratefully accepted from anyone that uses our awesome rooms. For-profit organisations are required to pay a hirage fee: $30 per hour, $60 half day, $100 full day usage with free tea and coffee provided.