Page turner coming to Bakery Hill

A NEW street library is to be installed at St Paul’s Anglican Church in Bakery Hill.

The mini-book haven is currently being built at the Ballarat Men’s Shed by Steven Petrov and other volunteers, and it will be installed later this month.

“I belong to St Paul’s Parish and they’re a community minded church and they decided to do a street library so we can add to the community spirit,” he said.

“I was a member of the Men’s Shed also, so I put my hand up for the manufacture.

“The two are very similar as the Men’s Shed is also very inclusive and community minded same as our church, and when I told them I was building a street library everyone got involved.”

The library will function as a resource for the community to swap and borrow books at no cost.

“A street library is where you put books in there that are basically free for anyone to come, grab and read,” said Mr Petrov.

“Some people will replace them, swap books and put their own books and other people might just want to take a book.

“It’s to bring the community together to read and share books rather than having things go to landfill because that’s a big community issue where things are thrown away and not reused.”

Mr Petrov said he also hopes this project encourages residents to keep picking up physical books.

“It’s important because it’s one of those things where if people don’t nurture it, it will die out,” he said.

“A lot of arts and crafts just disappear, and no one has the privilege of knowing what it was like.

“Now it’s an e-book and all these other things so it’s important we keep books alive, and they stay in the community.”