• Family history research
  
• Māori research, including whakapapa research
  
• Local history queries, including
  
• Buildings and landmarks
• People and organisations
  
• Areas and suburbs
• Historic events
• Accessing newspapers and Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) using microfilm and microfiche resources
• Accessing oral history records and recordings, loaning oral history equipment and oral history training. Contact Research Central about our oral history services.
• Ordering inter-library loans for resources not available from Auckland Council Libraries.
• Assisting students, particularly with finding primary resources
• One-on-one help - contact Research Central to book a session with our specialist research librarians. Go to Research enquiry form
  
• Guided tours of the Research Central collections. Contact Research Central to enquire about tours.
  

• Print and digital resources covering Australasia, Pacific Islands, Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa
• New Zealand and Māori Births, Deaths, and Marriages (BDM) indexes on microfiche (1840-1990) and on an internal database (1991-1997), with guides explaining how to get more information out of records
• New Zealand settler records, such as Fencible records, muster rolls, New Zealand Company records, New Zealand Shipping Company records, rolls of early settlers, Pioneer Women’s Roll of Honour, and undertaker records
• New Zealand-wide electoral rolls for both election and non-election years since 1982
• Family history books, family biographies, parish records, magazines, and guides, including for researching family history in different parts of the world
• The New Zealand Herald, Auckland Star, Auckland Weekly News, and other newspapers and magazines of national significance
• The Central Leader, Gulf News, East and Bays Courier, and other local newspapers
• Phone and business directories for most of New Zealand
• New Zealand Gazette
• Access to Ancestry Library Edition, Find My Past, MyHeritage, and The Genealogist websites and other family history online databases, including international historic newspapers
• Māori Land Court Minute Books in print and on microfilm
  

• Te reo Māori resources
• Tikanga and kaupapa guides and reports
• Karakia (prayers), waiata (songs) and mōteatea (sung laments)
• Wānanga, lore and legends
• Waka and tribal histories
• Whakapapa and family history
• Rongoā Māori (Māori medicine)
• Toi Māori (Māori arts)
• Native flora and fauna and its significance in te ao Māori
• Māori Land Court minute books
• Waitangi Tribunal and Raupatu reports
• Māori military resources, including the New Zealand Wars and World Wars
• Māori and Pacific serials, such as Journal of the Polynesian Society, Mana, and Māori Language Commission annual report
  
  

Other collection highlights:

Digital collections

Electoral rolls

Research Central holds a complete New Zealand electoral rolls current and historical from 1949, 1954-1978, 1981-1996, 1998-2008, 2010-2017, 2019-2020, 2022-2023. Ask the desk for assistance.