Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Back in the Country

Yesterday, I prattled on about life in rural New Zealand and the inherent values of that (see below posts) as perceived during my recent stay in small-town Woodbury in South Canterbury. Now I'm back to sing the praises of the adorably quaint Woodbury Library, a small dot of a building that hangs out below a stone wall on a quiet crossroads in the centre of the village.
When it's open, a little red flag goes up on the outdoor noticeboard and the door is left open, the building unattended, so locals can come and go as they please, browsing the history room (shown above), or selecting a book from the library shelves (below images).
It's all about that rural honesty thing again. The locals (there are 200 households in Woodbury) who care, know the library open hours, they go along, select their books, write them on their personal page of the 'Books Out' list and off they go again. The whole place delighted me. It reminded me of an old school room and I'm still amazed that someone has gone to so much trouble to create the town's history (with words and photographs, above) on one of the walls of the history room. Turns out there's a roster for tidying shelves, sorting and filing the boxes of donated books and making sure everything is shipshape - in the indomitable, organised, country way. Love it, love it, LOVE IT!

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