Old Whatsisname Memorial Library

Image: Kirsten Drysdale

Named after one of Kapiti’s civic dignitaries, The Old Whatsisname Memorial Library is a free book-swap facility where locals can take, swap or drop off books, magazines, CDs and DVDs.

Good children’s picture books are always in high demand and contributions are particularly welcome.

The library is located outside 52 Tilley Road, Paekākāriki, and replaces a small cupboard that has carried out this function for several years. The new facility boasts seating, and solar powered lighting for evening reading. A ‘magnificent’ clock is prominent on the facade.

Please note: the library is open all hours except on Tuesdays from 3am to 5am when it is closed for staff training.

Selected quotes from founder, Sam Buchanan’s opening speech:

The Old Whatsisname Memorial Library is a fitting project for the times, as we approach the 2,500th anniversary of the opening of the post-modern age.

Jacques Derrida famously stated “Nothing exists outside the text”. Meaning that everything exists within a context. Yet, as any teenager will tell you, one can much more simply state: “there’s nothing outside”.

This library is an attempt to fill that gap. Considered in its cultural, physical and political dimensions, the facility provides a destination for the bored (and especially for those with bored children), an opportunity to opt out of capitalist consumption patterns, and a means by which further production is deemed unnecessary.

The library is one means of providing micro-support in opposition to the culture of micro-aggressions that is currently dominant.

Hopefully, Paekākāriki will see more and more facilities of this type. Most crucially, we need a community fridge where excess vegetables can be left. Toy swaps, hardware depots and everything else can follow.

Ultimately, it is hoped that The Old Whatsisname Memorial Library will spark the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism.