A brief history of the Library

Grey District Library had its beginnings in the Greymouth Literary Association formed on 15 August 1868, the same year that Greymouth became a borough. Edward Masters, the first Mayor, was a founding member. Membership was by ballot for a fee of £2.25. The Association met for some years in various hotels, including the Albion (now Kingsgate) and the Gilmer (now Neptune's Backpackers).

In March 1871 the Association changed from a private club into a public association, The Greymouth Literary Society and Public Library, and moved to a building in Mackay Street. It was located there until the building was destroyed by fire in the 1880’s. All the stock and furniture was lost. The Society re-established itself in a corrugated iron shanty situated over the railway line between Revingtons and the present McDonalds building. It remained in "the tin shack" for 20 years until the Town Hall was built in 1906.

With the assistance of a grant of £2,250 from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation the library was established in a wing of the Town Hall building and was known as the Carnegie Library. (Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-born American steel millionaire, endowed many libraries and other charitable and cultural institutions throughout the world.)

In January 1942 the library was made free to ratepayers and became the Greymouth Public Library, eligible for assistance from the National Library of New Zealand.

In July 1947, the library was once again destroyed by fire when the Town Hall burnt down. Most of the stock was saved. The library was re-established in temporary premises; this time in the Trinity Hall, belonging to the Anglican Church, situated on the corner of Albert and Guinness Streets. The library stayed there for 10 years until the present library building was opened on 17 April 1957.

In 1988 disaster struck again. Greymouth suffered two major floods. The library was inundated with water to a depth of 800mm. About a third of the bookstock, some 6,000 volumes, was destroyed.

Local authority re-structuring brought further changes. In 1989 the library became the Grey District Library, serving the whole Grey District. The Runanga Community Library became a branch and members could use both facilities.

On 1 October 1993, the manual card system was replaced by a computer programme, Catalist. In July 1997 this was upgraded to C2 and in 2006 to .eLM. In this period the library also started to share some resources with the Buller and Westland Libraries maximising the range offered to customers, and to interloan books from other libraries throughout New Zealand.

The library underwent major redevelopment in 2003. Floor space was increased and the whole interior redesigned to include a public toilet, quiet reference area and a sunny reading room.

In March, 2007 the library went online. Customers and other users are now able to access the online library via the Internet from a computer anywhere and at anytime. They can view the catalogue, reserve and renew items, access a number of databases the library subscribes to, access recommended websites, view new books lists and find out what is happening at the library.