Christchurch law library explores space options

Like everyone else in Christchurch, Law Society Library staff were looking forward to the Christmas holiday break more than usual after all the stresses and challenges of 2011.

Some were just a few hours into holiday mode on 23 December when a fresh cluster of earthquakes shook the city violently, yet again.  An initial 5.8 earthquake centred 20km north-east of Lyttelton at a very shallow depth of 8km was followed by a series of strong aftershocks, including a magnitude  6.0 which struck  at 3:18pm.  Fortunately, all New Zealand Law Society staff and their families stayed safe.

The shakes that day caused about 20% of the collection in the Law Society Library in the Court building in Durham Street to fall off shelves, leaving many more poised on the edge and making it the fifth time the Library has had to be cleaned up after an earthquake since September 2010.  While some of the collection had already been boxed up rather than re-shelved, more of the collection will be now be boxed up after this latest frustrating set-back.

Library staff have been working from a temporary location shared with branch staff at 8 Homersham Place since April 2011.

“We had hoped to be able to return to the Law Library in the Durham Street Courts building early in 2012, but it looks as though it will be at least the second half of 2012 before we can return,” says Julia de Friez, Law Society librarian at Canterbury.

While engineers’ reports have recently declared the tower building in the Durham Street courts complex safe to re-enter, the Law Library which adjoins the tower requires ground stabilisation and structural strengthening before re-entry work can begin.

“We have had tightly controlled access to retrieve items from the Library collection since the February earthquake, however our access may become more restricted while necessary remedial work is carried out.  With this in mind, more of the working collection will need to be moved out to our temporary premises in Burnside. As our temporary premises are already bursting at the seams, we’re currently exploring options for acquiring more space for the Library at the Homersham Place site,” Ms de Friez says.