CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 108, September 2026
On 1 July 2026, Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa Archives New Zealand (Archives NZ) and Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand (National Library) celebrated their first anniversary of coming together under the co-leadership of Te Poumanaaki Chief Archivist and Te Pouhuaki National Librarian.
While our institutions have worked together for many years and knew the benefits of collaboration, our vision in coming together and sharing common resources was to evolve how we deliver services to customers in the future, while continuing to deliver the unique aspects and accountabilities of each institution.
Our two institutions now share a purpose built, future focused, heritage campus called Te Kahu in the parliamentary precinct of our capital city, Wellington with offices also located in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Our new campus is enabling us to turn our vision of a shared, more collaborative future for Aotearoa New Zealand’s documentary and recorded heritage institutions into a reality. It is specially designed to care for, protect, and share the stories that shape our nation. It embodies a new era in the stewardship of our collections, strengthening access, preservation, and collaboration for generations to come.
It is now easier for the public to access information across both of our institutions, with services being delivered in a more efficient and effective way. Customers in Wellington can now access both Library and Archives collections from one location in our shared reading room. We are also proud of our joint permanent exhibition, He Tohu, which stands at the heart of our new campus and enriches our outreach programming for schools, showcasing three iconic constitutional documents that helped shape Aotearoa New Zealand.
While Archives NZ and the National Library remain as separate national institutions, we are optimising our resources to ensure we can meet the future needs of New Zealanders across the country and world, and to deliver our core services in the most effective way. Collaborating closely provides an opportunity for us to address our challenges by sharing functions where we can.
We hope that closer collaboration will not only improve services and access to the taonga we care for on behalf of all New Zealanders but also provide opportunities for staff to share knowledge, skills and learn from each other across the two institutions.
While structural change has been delivered and we are already seeing benefits from our new ways or working, further work is required to fully embed change and realise the benefits and efficiencies of shared functions and resources for the two institutions.
Copyright (C) 2026 Archives New Zealand and National Library of New Zealand
