By Michael Sinclair
A CAMPAIGN to extend the operating hours of Brimbank’s four libraries has been launched to meet the needs of the municipality’s students and bookworms.
And a feasibility study will be undertaken to bring Keilor library’s opening times more in line with community needs.
At Brimbank Council’s ordinary meeting last week, Horseshoe Bend ward councillor Kathryn Eriksson called for a study into the operating times at all libraries.
“Resources like a library where you can access books, the internet and magazines – it’s an essential part of building up your community and educating them and having that available for them,” Cr Eriksson said.
“First of all the hours are very irregular and I’ve often gone down thinking I’ll go to the library and found when I got there that it was closed that day.”
Brimbank Council has libraries in Deer Park (operating 39 hours a week), St Albans (47 hours) and Sunshine (57 hours), but the Keilor library is open for just 24 hours a week.
“I think that we have a very diverse community – we have older people that are able to access it during the day but then we have a school community that can’t get there until later,” Cr Eriksson said.
“You are dealing with irregular hours and there is only one day when it is open for any period longer than an hour and a half after school finishes.
“We don’t know how many people in Keilor go to the other libraries because of the difficulties in accessing Keilor library.”
Construction of a $5 million library and interactive learning centre in Sydenham is scheduled for completion later this year.
Its facilities will include 45 computer terminals with broadband access and specialist software, as well as a community meeting room, training and study spaces and more than $1 million worth of books and publications.
But Cr Eriksson said it would be inappropriate for council to expect residents of Keilor, Deer Park and St Albans to travel to Sydenham for basic library services if their local library was closed when they wanted to go there.
“You have to say that a community like Brimbank really deserves more, we’re obviously going to have more in the future when Sydenham interactive learning centre opens, but I certainly think that a community that centres on Keilor library should not be disadvantaged by that,” she said.
“I think that the general opinion is that when the Sydenham interactive learning centre comes online that people from Keilor are going to go up there – honestly, with the traffic conditions as they are at the moment I don’t really see that as feasible.
As part of a review of services, Brimbank Council last year reduced the operating times of the Sunshine library.
All councillors last week voted to increase the hours and have called for a study to determine if it is feasible.
