THE new Altona Meadows library and learning centre, the centrepiece for education and community learning in Hobsons Bay was officially opened on Friday.
Minister for Local Government Candy Broad officially opened the centre two and a half years after Hobsons Bay City Council gave the project the go ahead.
A glass and steel modernist creation, the new building is a much-needed facelift for the library service, which had been operating from a cramped shop space for the past 10 years.
The new premises doubles the amount of floor space available for the library, which designed to an environmentally friendly, energy efficient plan.
The centre, which will employ six full-time staff, is a great boost for Altona Meadows, one of the youngest areas of Hobsons Bay.
Hobsons Bay director of community services Peter Hunt said he expected the local community to make the most of the extra facilities on offer.
“This will be the major council run facility on this side of the municipality. We’re trying to cater to the wider needs of the community.”
The doors of the centre will be thrown open to community groups, offering a new space for seminars and functions in a part of Hobsons Bay that many agreed had been lacking a quality public facility.
With accessibility to information technology built into the design of the new building, the centre may also have some appeal to local businesses and trainers.
The centre is the first in Victoria to use a radio frequency identification (RFID) system at the loans desk, an interface that allows the user to check out their own books, using in a variety of languages.
Mayor of Hobsons Bay Carl Marsich said the library and learning centre project was one of the biggest developments the council had undertaken in recent years.
He said the centre would offer the local community services that had not previously been available in Hobsons Bay.
“We’re really looking at using this not just as a library but as a learning facility as well,” Cr Marsich said.
“The whole city will potentially take advantage of some of the features here. It’s going to be the centrepiece for this area,” he said.
