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This Week In History, Library Style! Oct 13: Movies

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Libraries are places where we connect people to information that may be useful or interesting to them. Looking at some history, and connecting it to the materials we may have in our libraries, can be a good way to convince patrons to use and enjoy all the things we provide!

This week we are looking at October 13. Of course a lot of things have happened on this date – news and the big stories are the unusual things that are going on around us. One interesting thing that has happened today in 1896: the first public screening of a movie happened in New Zealand!

“The history of cinema in New Zealand is almost as long as the medium itself. The first public screening of a motion picture took place in 1896. A documentary made in 1900 is the oldest surviving New Zealand film, while the first feature film made in New Zealand premiered in 1914. A small-scale industry developed between the 1920s and the 1960s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that locally made films began to attract significant audiences.”

Bring this historical fact to your library! You can do this with a variety of program and display ideas. We will help you to get started with a few ideas: set up a display of books about movies, let patrons design their own Oscar trophy, draw a movie poster for your favorite movie or for a book that could be a movie, write an essay about the best movie you ever saw, find a map of New Zealand and measure distances to different places, make a fan video talking about your favorite movie.

Here are a few books you might add to your collection or share with your patrons – or just enjoy yourself!