Western Bay of Plenty libraries are adding to the ‘golden days' with the launch of their ‘Golden' memberships.

Available to library members over 65-years-old, the membership tosses out holding and overdue fees, making library use even more affordable.

Te Puke Library and Service Centre team leader Christine Busby. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

Essentially, if you are over 65, you won't pay fees or overdue fees on any free items in the libraries in the Western Bay.

Te Puke Library and Service Centre team leader Christine Busby says library staff wanted to give back to their oldest, and often most loyal customers and this seemed the perfect way to do so.

She says this age bracket provides some of the best customers in terms of regular visits to the library – treating it as a fun outing and enjoying the interaction that goes hand-in-hand with the traditional library model.

'This is less about the fees element,” says Christine, 'but more about taking that pressure off them having to come in if it's not easy on a particular day an item is due.

'We also know the district's aging population is growing, so we want to encourage people to keep using the libraries, as they're an incredible resource to the community.”

Across the Western Bay district there are 14,841 library members, of which 3700 are 65-years-old or above. There are four Library and Service Centres in the Western Bay – Katikati, Waihi Beach, Te Puke and Omokoroa.

Together, the libraries stock more than 88,000 items for borrowing, including books, DVDs, and audio books. Library membership is free for all residents and ratepayers in the district and Tauranga City.

In the 2014/2015 financial year, around 270,000 books were issued.

In the same period, about 316,000 people walked through library doors, and about 5600 children took part in class visits, story times and holiday programmes, says Christine.

There is also a big push for electronic library use and e-books. Council's new Kotui library system caters to that demand – making it more interesting and easier to access our libraries online from home.

At the other end of the scale, council also has a large focus on children, catering to them with many different programmes, challenges and activities.

'For example, right now we're doing our Great Library Challenge, which more than 300 children have signed up to,” says Christine.