Last week she retired after 35 years as librarian.
Originally from Yorkshire, Mrs Coulman and her husband Ken arrived in New Zealand in 1964 after work dried up in England and hopes for a brighter future lay on the other side of the planet.
‘‘We left England in winter and came through the tropics,’’ she said.
After six weeks at sea on the Southern Cross, the couple ended up in Wellington.
They quickly made their way to Invercargill, where they stayed for year despite Mr Coulman being bonded into a two-year contract.
‘‘The boss was Australian. He could understand why we wanted to leave. We just found the weather to not be good. Very wet winters.’’
After a few years working at different jobs around the country, Mr Coulman got work at the Highbank power station in Methven.
It was here his wife was ‘‘forced’’ to become a librarian.
‘‘I’m not a qualified librarian. I was more or less forced into it.’’
In those days, new library books arrived from Christchurch on the bus.
She enjoyed the role, so later when her husband got a job in the Otematata area she continued in that line of work.
The Otematata Library has been in three locations during her time.
It had its own purpose-built section at the now-shut Otematata School.
As the class sizes dwindled, the library was moved into a bigger room where children had more space to play with toys and read.
Once the school shut the library was moved to the former New Zealand Electricity Department building, she said.
What she enjoyed most during her time was the company of the people of Otematata and the town’s holidaymakers.
One of her stand-out memories was an annual reading competition run for children.
Mrs Coulman’s first library experience came when she wasjust a few weeks old.
Unfortunately, as she had arrived by pram and prams were not allowed in libraries in those days, she was left out in the snow.
Her next library experience was collecting books for her grandmother, Annie Newmarch, of Yorkshire, who would only read westerns.
Any time a librarian tried to add a different type of book, the young courier would be sent back by her grandmother with the offending books, under strict
instruction to say westerns were the way forward.
Mrs Coulman said libraries were important given the connections they created in communities and how they provided education and entertainment for
many.
