By Eleanor Wilson and Shelby Brooks
Casey Council has back-flipped on its decision to dissolve its community library service provider, Casey Cardinia Libraries (CCL).
On 4 October the council announced it would remain with CCL into the future, despite announcements in October last year that the service would be dissolved at the end of 2022 in favour of a new service provider.
Throughout 2022, both Casey Council and Cardinia Shire participated in a joint expression of interest process to assess what public library service providers were available in the market.
After an extensive assessment and community consultation, Casey Council said it identified that CCL was best placed to continue being the community’s library service provider.
City of Casey chair of administrators Noelene Duff PSM said council was pleased to be remaining with CCL, which would continue to run a number of libraries throughout the municipality, including Bunjil Place, Cranbourne, Doveton, Endeavour Hills and Hampton Park Libraries.
“Council is committed to providing a high-quality library service for our community and from our market testing process, CCL is best placed to provide this service,” she said.
“While the transition will mean some changes behind the scenes, we would like to reassure the community that there is no intention to reduce our library services, but rather improve and enhance our much-loved and valued library services into the future.
“We will ensure Casey’s library services continue to meet the needs of the community.”
Contrastingly, Cardinia Shire has opted for a different path, selecting Myli – My Community Library to take over from CCL as its new library service provider.
In a special meeting held Monday 3 October, it was voted unanimously that Cardinia Shire would undergo the transition to Myli, which is the current library model for Bass Coast, South Gippsland and Baw Baw Shire Councils, from December this year.
Deputy Mayor Tammy Radford said the CCL model didn’t fit the shire’s needs anymore.
“Within Cardinia Shire there has been a huge growth, a change in our diversity and changing needs to our community so the model doesn’t fit anymore,” Ms Radford said.
The decision for the councils to pursue separate providers was also influenced by new legislation in the Local Government Act 2020, which requires the current regional library model to be changed in the coming decade.
CCL said current staff who work in Cardinia Shire Council libraries would be offered positions with Myli.
Existing CCL members would be able to use their current library cards to borrow books at both CCL and Myli branches.
