The Heritage Floor Te Taumata o ngā Taonga Tuku Iho was created in 1997 to bring together the library’s heritage collections and to make them readily accessible to the public.
The collections, which range from recently published books and documents to Māori language and medieval manuscripts, are recognised as being of national and international significance.
“Auckland City Library is unique in New Zealand in possessing the earliest and most important printed material of both European and Maori cultures. The early Maori material is rivalled only by that in the National Library in Wellington…; the early European material - the incunabula, the Caxtons, the Chaucers and its crowning glory, the four Shakespeare folios - is unrivalled anywhere in this country.” Rowan Gibbs
Since the founding gift to the citizens of Auckland by Sir George Grey in 1887, the collections have grown by purchase and generous donations by benefactors to become one of the three major documentary heritage collections in New Zealand.
Preservation and development of collections
In 1991 the Auckland Library Heritage Trust was formed to assist the library with the preservation care and development of the collections. So far almost one million dollars has been raised by the trust for this work.
Our heritage manuscripts, photographs, maps, ephemera and books are the raw material of stories told and yet to be told which define us as a great city, with a fascinating past, present and future. The library’s aim is to preserve these resources and make them available for the pleasure and information of present and future generations.