Dargaville Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers—Research report

This research report, produced for National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa (National Library), focused on a Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers project carried out in Dargaville in 2023-24. 

Pūtoi Rito is a National Library initiative that works with communities to design, develop, and deliver support for reading engagement among children and young people. The Dargaville project focused on young people during their primary and intermediate school years, as well as whānau as part of school communities and other community settings.

The project focused on five key areas: 

• raise community awareness of the project and the value of reading for pleasure and wellbeing 
• raise the capability of school staff around reading for pleasure and wellbeing and building reading communities 
• provide books for homes and encourage borrowing from libraries, library membership, and engagement with library programmes and services  
• strengthen the network of library services (school, public, and national) that support young people in Dargaville 
• develop research to gather insights that can be shared with other communities. 

These goals were seen as particularly important given the geographic isolation of Dargaville and its lack of a bookstore. 

You can read more about Pūtoi Rito here.