Welcome
to the blog pages of the Park-Gates Island Library!
For
those of you who are unfamiliar with Park-Gates Island Library, or indeed with
the Island itself, here is a brief history.
Park-Gates
Island
Park-Gates
Island is located approximately half way between the west coast of South
America and the east coast of The South Island of New Zealand, in the
southern South Pacific. It covers an area of 285 square kilometers, with
the highest elevation point reaching over 2000 meters. Park-Gates Island is
named for Captain Wilhelmina Park-Gates (1798-1898), the Captain of The
Amazonia, an all-female sealing ship that was the first recorded visitor to
the island, in 1826.
The
island had never been inhabited by humans prior to the mid nineteenth century,
although preliminary archeological investigations have shown evidence of human
visitation at various intervals in the past millennium.
With
the explosion of a sealing trade from the 1830s onward Park-Gates Island has
had intermittent human habitation but does not have a permanent local
population. It is currently home to a several teams of biological researchers
and a small maintenance staff - totaling 38 people as of August 2013.
In
addition to this small population the island is visited by commercial cruise
ships on route to, and departing from Antarctica, bringing an influx of
visitors about 6 times a year.
Park-Gates
Island Library
As a
small library servicing both the local population of researchers and
maintenance staff, and more recently the staff and guests of the cruise
ships who dock here, we have a necessarily diverse collections policy.
Our
funding comes from a treaty agreement between Chile, the United States, South
Africa and New Zealand, with several large subscriptions being paid by private
shipping lines to allow their customers to use our services.
Although
there has been an intermittent human population on Park-Gates since the 19th
century, our library only began operating in the 1970’s, after an influx
of research grants allowed for longer term studies to take place here,
thereby creating a need for a library service for the temporary residents
of Park-Gates.
The
popularity of cruise ships in the region has led to a lending arrangement with
two of the major shipping lines that dock here. The cruise staff ensures our
items are returned (eventually!) and the cruise ship customers seem to get a
real thrill at being able to borrow books from our tiny library. We have even
found a somewhat lucrative sideline in issuing novelty membership cards for the
cruise ship customers.
As a
result of the growing demand for our lending services from cruises, we have
created a much larger "Reference Only" collection to ensure we have
all the titles our island's inhabitants require. We also have a fairly good Internet connection, and a satellite phone for emergencies.
The
library itself is located in a purpose-built hut on the South side of the
island, in the relatively sheltered Seals Bay. You can see from the
photo how the bay got its name! Our entire collection contains over 25,000
unique items, some of which are held in the Stacks, located in a customised
shipping container directly behind the main library, not visible in the photo
below because of the angle. Many of the items we hold have been donated over
the years by passing boats, and we receive deliveries of new items twice a
year.
 |
| Park-Gates Island Library, Seals Bay. Photo: Graham Parker |
