No librarians? No problem! Almost 400 people use unstaffed library

At about 10am on February 6, something unexpected happened at Christchurch’s Tu¯ ranga library: the doors unlocked automatically.

It was Waitangi Day and the library was meant to be closed.

Over the next two hours nearly 400 people entered and used the entirely unstaffed library. They browsed, chose their books, and happily checked them out.

The mistake was only realised when a friend of a library staff member saw a social media post showing people inside.

The library was entirely unstaffed for about two hours, yet 147 books were still checked out as the self-issue machines were running.

One person left a note in the library saying they were taking some CDs without issuing them, as their account was playing up and they could not find a librarian. ‘‘I’ve decided to take the CDs to teach you a lesson in how not to operate a functioning library,’’ the person wrote in their note.

Christchurch City Council, which owns and operates Tu¯ ranga, said about 380 people entered the library when it was unstaffed, but nothing was stolen.

It is believed the doors automatically unlocked at about 10am. A security guard was later sent to clear out the library and a council staff confirmed the building was ‘‘secured’’ by about 12.15pm.

By this stage, the returns room was full of books and the first floor of the library was quite messy.

Details of the incident have come to light through council emails released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

The council’s head of facilities, property and planning, Bruce Rendall, said programming of the library doors was not updated to reflect the public holiday.

The council employs contractor Vision Systems to remotely manage the automatic door locking system at Tu¯ ranga. One council email stated the company took responsibility for the Waitangi Day incident.

Vision Systems apologised for the ‘‘major inconvenience’’ in an email to the council, two days after the incident. The email explained that programming for the public holiday did not work.

Vision Systems business director Tristan Bailey declined to comment, saying he had spoken to the council which asked for all comment to come from its staff.

Rendall said Vision Systems had since made alterations to its internal processes to verify programming changes.