Libraries across the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes districts will undertake a major upgrade of the library system next month.

The Central Otago District and Queenstown Lakes District councils’ joint library service is joining Kotui, a shared library management and resource discovery service.

Initially borrowers won’t notice any difference in how they take out books, but Kotui will enable the libraries to introduce more services and more flexible access for customers.  Customers will, for example, be able to access both physical and digital resources with a single search on the online catalogue.

All public libraries including the online services in both Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes districts will be closed for two days next month on Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 November for the Kotui implementation.

During the brief closure library books and other items can still be returned through the afterhours returns slots at each library. Staff will be reminding users of the closure in the days leading up to 18 November to help them plan their visits and avoid inconvenience.