Services Check our library catalogue for information on all items available within our district.
Arrowtown Library is part of the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes shared library service. Services, membership, borrowing and issuing policies are consistent across the CODC/QLDC Library District.
This means users can access and borrow material from any of the other 13 libraries in the district. If an item is not in the district we will try to “interloan” it from another library in New Zealand. Just ask a librarian for assistance.
Our library has 1 PC computer which may be used for word processing and accessing the internet. A booking system operates for this computer service. Please ask a librarian for assistance.
Children’s Services We have a full range of children's services available and our holiday programmes are advertised in advance.
Preschool storytimes are held on Tuesday afternoons at 2 pm during term time. For more information please contact the library. ..
History 
Details of the Library’s early history are sketchy and generally taken from old people’s accounts of memories of earlier times.
The earliest written record of the library dates back to 1873 when an advertisement in the Lake County Press announced that the annual subscription for the Library’s services was being reduced to 10 shillings a year.
In 1874, the library was operated from a building on the site of the present Athaeneum Hall. This building burned down in 1928, and when the Athaeneum Hall was built in its place in 1932, no provision for a library was made in the building, despite its name.
By 1939, a collection of books was available to be borrowed from a room in the Arrowtown Borough Council’s chambers across Buckingham Street from the current Library building. Throughout the 1940s and 50s the Council staff supervised the lending of books one afternoon a week until the early 1960s when permanent provision of a room in the Council chambers was made, a committee was formed, and the service was extended to one hour, three times a week.
In 1974 at a public meeting, the decision was made to build a new library to mark the occasion of the Arrowtown Borough Council’s centenary. The project was postponed, however, in favour of the greater priority of meeting the Borough’s sewerage and water needs.
In 1977, the project was brought down from the shelf when money was to become available through the provisions of a bequest by the late Miss Doris Payne, a longstanding resident of Arrowtown. At this time the Council agreed to receive assistance from the National Library Service, and considerable work on the book stock was carried out – weeding, covering, mending, cataloguing and setting up what was then a standard issue system with book cards and due dates. In the meantime the room in the Council chambers was no longer available due to the increased business of the Council and in 1979 the library was restationed into a 300 square foot space in the back of the Athaeneum Hall.
By 1982, sufficient funds had been raised to engage a young Queenstown architect, Michael Wyatt, to create a functional building in keeping with the unique historical character of the town. Guidance was sought from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and the National Library waived many of its standard stipulations for library siting and design in consideration of the desired historical character. The result was the striking 1500 square metre building situated in its tranquil setting that we have today. The building was officially opened in 1984.
The Arrowtown Borough Council ceased to exist in 1989 and the library then came under the auspices of the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
Throughout the Library’s history, the Arrowtown locals have given freely and tirelessly of their labour, time and expertise to build and maintain the high standard of library service we have today.
Community Arrowtown Library acts as a service centre for the Queenstown Lakes District Council and collects rates on its behalf.
Background 
