Wairere House Exit (WHE)
Wairere House, an offsite storage facility for the National Library of New Zealand in Whanganui is at the end of its economic life and requires significant investment to maintain it to a level suitable for the storage of the Alexander Turnbull Library collections.
To continue to safeguard the collections, they are being relocated to suitable repository spaces within the Wellington facilities and the proposed Regional Shared Repository (RSR) in Taitoko (Levin). This includes the relocation of newspaper collections, aerial prints and microfilm.
Also within the Wairere House Exit project is the rehoming of the Overseas Published Collections (OPC). These books are currently housed at Wairere House Whanganui and in Rugby House Wellington.
The National Library has reached an agreement with Internet Archive to donate books that are removed from the OPC for digitisation, which will ensure free future online access for New Zealanders.
Indicative timeline
Alexander Turnbull Library newspapers relocated to Wellington – complete
Relocation of aerial prints and microfilm - 2025 (post RSR completion)
Exit of Wairere House completed – end of 2025
Project team
Lorraine Laulau, Senior Project Manager
Srimal De Costa, Project Coordinator
Andrew Pester, Business Analyst