Massey's library collections , Ngā kohinga a te whare pukapuka

Find out about our library collections, including our special collections of rare books and unique items, or recommend a purchase.

The Massey library has collections you can use or borrow items from at each of our campus libraries. We also hold unique special collections of rare books and other items for viewing at the Manawatū library in Palmerston North.

Everyone can access our print collections, but only Massey staff and students can access most of our digital collections. Our digital repository Tāmiro is available to the public, as well as a small number of databases.

We acknowledge the right of Māori to their cultural heritage. Te Putanga ki te Ao Mātauranga (Massey University Library) is committed to following best practice in collecting, preserving, digitising, and allowing access to material in a culturally sensitive and inclusive way.

Open collections

Our open collections include the general collections at each of our campus libraries, Ngā Kupu Ora collections, and a range of others.

Auckland campus library

General collection

The Auckland library’s general collection supports the courses taught at the Auckland campus. It has a particular focus on:

  • business
  • social sciences
  • health sciences
  • sciences.

The collection has books, print journals, newspapers, reference items, and audiovisual material.

If your course has a compulsory textbook, we strongly advise you to buy your own copy. The Library keeps a limited number of textbooks and these are in high demand.

Ngā Kupu Ora collection

The Ngā Kupu Ora collection is on Level Three. It has items with significant Māori content, including:

  • books
  • journals
  • newspapers
  • audiovisual material
  • images.

You can borrow most items but some are for in-library use only.

The Ngā Kupu Ora collection contains:

  • resources in the Māori language
  • bilingual material in Māori, English and some other languages
  • resources with a particular Māori cultural perspective
  • biographies of Māori people
  • Māori tribal histories
  • pre-European New Zealand history
  • resources relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.

You can also access electronic resources through the Māori subject guide.

Items have a mango-pare label on the spine.

Junior collection

The junior collection is on Level Two. It has:

  • children’s fiction
  • children’s non-fiction
  • picture books
  • other junior material that supports the Institute of Education.

Māori Land Court Minute Books

The Manawatū Māori Land Court collection is on Level Two. It focuses on the Māori Land Court districts in the lower North Island and on the East Coast.

The Māori Land Court Minute Books Index is available online for current students and staff, and via the MUGuests wifi network for library visitors. It covers the period from 1865-1910.

The Minute Books can only be used in the library. We may be able to arrange loans to other campus libraries for in-library use on a case-by-case basis.

Find out more about the Auckland campus library

Manawatū campus library in Palmerston North

General collection

The Manawatū library has a large general collection with wide coverage of the subjects taught at the Manawatū campus. It has the main Massey collections for:

  • humanities
  • social sciences
  • business
  • some sciences, including veterinary science, agriculture and horticulture.

The collection has books, newspapers, reference items, audiovisual material and significant back runs of print journals.

If your course has a compulsory textbook, we strongly advise you to buy your own copy. The Library keeps a limited number of textbooks and these are in high demand.

Ngā Kupu Ora collection

The Ngā Kupu Ora collection is on Level Two. It has items with significant Māori content, including:

  • books
  • journals
  • newspapers
  • audiovisual material
  • pictorial items.

You can borrow most items but some are for in-library use only.

The Ngā Kupu Ora collection contains:

  • resources in the Māori language
  • bilingual material in Māori, English and some other languages
  • resources with a particular Māori cultural perspective
  • biographies of Māori people
  • Māori tribal histories
  • pre-European New Zealand history
  • resources relating to the Treaty of Waitangi.

You can also access electronic resources through the Māori subject guide.

Items have a mango-pare label on the spine.

Junior collection

The junior collection is on Level Two. It has:

  • children’s fiction
  • children’s non-fiction
  • picture books
  • other junior material that supports the Institute of Education.

Māori Land Court Minute Books

The Manawatū Māori Land Court collection is on Level Two. It focuses on the Māori Land Court districts in the lower North Island and on the East Coast.

The Māori Land Court Minute Books Index is available online for current students and staff, and via the MUGuests wifi network for library visitors. It covers the period from 1865-1910.

The Minute Books can only be used in the library. We may be able to arrange loans to other campus libraries for in-library use on a case-by-case basis.

Find out more about the Manawatū campus library

Wellington campus library

General collection

The general collection at the Wellington campus library has books, print journals, newspapers, zines, reference items and audiovisual material. It supports the courses taught at the Wellington campus and has particular strengths in:

  • art and design
  • music, especially jazz
  • nursing
  • communications.

Find out more about the Wellington campus library

Special collections

The special collections are held at the Manawatū campus library. Some materials are also freely available online on Tāmiro.

If you want to view an item:

  • Search Discover, find the item, then use the Request Access link. A Library staff member will follow up with you or,
  • Use our Virtual Reading Room service or,
  • Ask at your campus library service point.

If you can get to a campus library, we may be able to make arrangements for you to come in and view the item itself.

Items may only be used in the library. Some copying restrictions may apply.

Bagnall collection

The Bagnall collection contains items from the personal collection of Austin Graham Bagnall, who was a leading bibliographic scholar and former Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

The Massey library bought his collection in 1986 and continues to add items to it.

View selected items on Tāmiro

J. W. Blackwood collection

J. W. Blackwood was a Massey University librarian from 1983 to 1991. His collection was gifted to the library by his family in 2010. It contains around 60 books on the history and development of the printed book, with further items added as they come to hand.

The collection is closed-access.

Lauris Edmond collection

The Lauris Edmond collection contains the personal library of New Zealand poet and author Lauris Edmond. Most of the content is 20th century New Zealand and Commonwealth literature.

Lauris Edmond won the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, and was awarded the OBE. The collection gives a valuable insight into the working library of a writer.

Opfermann collection

The Opfermann Collection focuses on German society and culture between 1914 and 1950.

The topics the collection covers include:

  • art
  • architecture
  • chess
  • cinema
  • politics
  • foreign relations
  • warfare
  • the 1936 Olympics.

View selected items on Tāmiro

Peren collection

Sir Geoffrey Peren was the Principal of Massey Agricultural College for 30 years from its formation in 1927.

The collection contains his working library. It focuses on agriculture and animal breeding, with a few natural sciences items.

Rare books collection

The rare books collection includes rare or unique books and manuscripts that don’t fit in the Bagnall collection.

It includes important material covering:

  • agriculture
  • horticulture
  • animal and veterinary sciences.

It also contains a number of books from the personal collection of Shakespearean scholar and author G. B. Harrison.

View selected items on Tāmiro

Veterinary science rare book collection

This collection contains items from the Veterinary Science Faculty’s collection of old veterinary books, as well as donations from retired veterinary staff and the wider New Zealand veterinary community. Many of the items are old, fragile or valuable.

W. M. Webster porcelain collection

W. M. Webster was a lecturer in veterinary science at Massey from 1935 to 1959. He left his collection of porcelain to the university. Most of the items are from the 18th century.

Viewing is by appointment only, weekdays 9am to 4pm.

Ask a librarian

We're here to help you find the resources you need for your study. Ask a librarian by email, over the phone, or at a service point in any campus library.

Auckland campus library

Free phone inside New Zealand
Phone outside New Zealand
Location

Postal address
Library
Private Bag 102904
North Shore Mail Centre
Auckland 0745

Physical address
Library
Gate 1, East Precinct
Albany Expressway (SH17)
Albany
Auckland 0632

Manawatū campus library, Palmerston North

Free phone inside New Zealand
Phone outside New Zealand
Location

Postal address
Private Bag 11054
Palmerston North 4442

Physical address
Tennent Drive
Palmerston North 4410

Wellington campus library

Free phone inside New Zealand
Phone outside New Zealand
Location

Postal address
Massey University Library
Private Bag 756
Wellington 6140


Physical address

Massey University Library
Block 5
63 Wallace Street
Wellington 6021

Remote and distance contacts

Free phone inside New Zealand
Phone outside New Zealand

Related content

Tāmiro

Showcasing selected taonga from the collections of Massey University Library.

New titles at the library

We apologise that the new titles lists are currently unavailable. We are working on a solution, and hope to have access restored as soon as possible.