Bernie Hawke has walked away from leading Dunedin’s public library services, but he is not walking away from books.
He is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a voracious reader.
"I tend to be an impatient reader," Mr Hawke says.
"If a book doesn’t grab me in the first 100 pages, I’ll put it aside."
Eclectic is how he describes his taste, ranging from history to politics to poetry and contemporary science writing.
Fiction? That, too.
He tends to have three or four books by the bedside. One might be by Salmon Rushdie. Asked for a favourite author, Margaret Atwood is first to spring to mind.
Retirement, then, will certainly feature reading. Mr Hawke declined to give his age, but confirmed he is eligible for superannuation. He expects to do more walking, as well as spend more time with family and friends. He will take a break. There may yet be some activities that leverage off his library experience.
"I’m definitely not going to hibernate," he says.
After 21 years as manager or director of library services in Dunedin, Mr Hawke wrapped up his work last week, although January 6 is officially his last day.
"I inherited a library in very good shape and it still is an exceedingly popular and well used cultural facility in Dunedin," he says.
Dunedin City Council corporate and quality general manager Robert West says Mr Hawke has made a significant and valued contribution.
"He has overseen library redevelopments, been at the leading edge of technological advances, and worked towards Dunedin’s success in obtaining our Unesco City of Literature designation.
"Libraries play an important role in education, literacy, civic participation and building communities, and we thank Bernie for his work ensuring that Dunedin residents have access to world-class library facilities."
Mr Hawke is retiring at the same time as a review is being carried out into how staffing pressures might be eased and library operations shaken up.
A meeting was held in September after it was conceded by the council that staff absences because of Covid-19 and other illnesses had "sometimes affected our ability to deliver services" and had put pressure on staff.
"The role of libraries has expanded beyond just books, and the review will ensure Dunedin’s libraries continue to evolve, as they have since 1908," a council spokesman said at the time.
Both Mr Hawke and Mr West declined to comment on the review while it was in progress.
Mr Hawke says the digital revolution has had a profound impact on libraries and in enabling people’s access to information.
"Rather than being the death knell, it has strengthened the public library’s role."
Dunedin joined the Aotearoa People’s Network Kaharoa in 2010 and offers free public access to the internet at library sites.
For some people, the library is the means for interacting with Government online, Mr Hawke says.
They have access to computer equipment, data and advice from staff.
Dunedin’s designation as a City of Literature was achieved in 2014, after it was able to demonstrate characteristics such as quantity, quality and diversity of publishing, prevalence of educational programmes and fostering of the arts.
Mr Hawke was part of the team that worked on the proposal and he also recognised if Dunedin was to be profiled as a literary city, vibrant public library services would be at its heart.
Dunedin’s population is about 130,000.
Dunedin Public Libraries has more than 100,000 members and Mr Hawke says about half are considered active, which means they’ve used their card to borrow in the past two years.
The service has a collection that totals 600,000 items and a daily courier service runs between sites, which include Port Chalmers and Mosgiel.
Dunedin has heritage collections of international significance, Mr Hawke says.
He does not mind so much what people are reading. What is of primary importance is that they can read, and do.
"There are still many people who are not functionally literate in society," he says.
He suggests if readers are engaged, this leads to an expanding wellspring of creativity.
"Harry Potter was one of the best things for youth writing since Enid Blyton," he says.
It was great to see young people "captured by the magic of writing".
Mr Hawke was born in northern New South Wales, Australia.
"Books, literature and writing were interwoven with my life, right from the get-go," he says.
His career started with buying books in Sydney and took him to Victoria and Queensland.
He was the Queensland state library director of special collections and managed a computers installation project there, before his move to Dunedin in 2002. This created some "climate shock".
Recent changes for the Dunedin service have included dropping fines for overdue books and Mr Hawke says this has been well received by the community. People who lose library assets are still billed for them and "most people borrow and return on time".
Radio-frequency identification, or tracking tags, came in about 2015 and helped with tasks such as cataloguing and sorting items. This has lately been upgraded.
The library service is trying to grow its electronic content.
City archives could soon be on the move to the Dunedin city library’s upper basement.
The review could bring further changes and a South Dunedin library and community complex could open in 2027.
Mr Hawke says he has valued relationships with colleagues and he may miss being directly involved, but the time is right to explore other things — and still to curl up with a good book.
