By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
IT takes little time to realise why Dandenong library will be moving its shelves to a bigger home.
The library’s public PCs are booked out all day, the study rooms are constantly full and the rest of the library is abuzz with some of its 66,000 members.
By 2014 the library will move to a $7.5 million, 2293-square-metre Thomas Street site as part of a $62 million plaza/civic centre rejuvenation project.
It will be more than double the 1100 square metre existing library in Stuart Street and one of the largest in Victoria. There will be more than 30 PCs, plus mobile tablet platforms and Wi-Fi.
Community services director Mark Doubleday said the technology was particularly popular because home internet take-up was low in Greater Dandenong.
He said there was strong demand for the library’s expanding stock of foreign language books which were expensive and difficult for most residents to buy. The library would increase its literacy programs as well as providing study rooms and meeting places for students.
“Literacy planning is critical in this municipality,” Mr Doubleday said. “If new residents want to get a job or skills they have to learn English.
“A lot of multicultural families will only let their daughters learn literacy at the library because it is seen as a safe place.”
Such is the demand for library services that it has outstripped most other Victorian libraries as well as its site. Each book, film or other piece of media is borrowed an average of nine times. The state average is six.
Last Wednesday the state government announced a $750,000 Living Libraries grant for the library. The library will be part of a grand ‘Federation Square of the south-east’ project called Dandenong Connect that includes a civic centre, cafe, meeting rooms and outdoor plaza with public video screen.
The announcement brought total state funding to $1.2 million, including a $500,000 Community Benefit Fund grant announced last week.
Chief executive John Bennie said the council was over the moon with the project’s outside funding which would ease the burden on the people of Greater Dandenong.
Last month the project attracted a $6 million Regional Development Fund federal grant as an anticipated drawcard for residents in the wider south-east region.
If the funding hadn’t come through the council would have had to make adjustments and amendments to the project, Mr Bennie said.
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