Library hybrid delivers popular services

LIBRARIES across the Geelong region are looking forward to welcoming back more members in person from tomorrow as restrictions ease and capacities increase.

However, after more than 18 months of doors opening and closing, and pivoting to online activities and COVIDSafe services, popular changes such as contactless delivery to vulnerable residents will
be retained.

Chair of the GRLC Board Cr Ron Nelson said as density quotas increased, “we look forward to welcoming back customers in far bigger numbers, meaning no queues and increased capacity for people to stay in the library to study, work on their business, browse, play with their kids, or simply relax and read a magazine”.

“We thank our customers for their patience – and we can’t wait to see everyone back in the library!”

Cr Nelson said the GRLC had maintained a valuable connection with its diverse and unique communities across a vast geographic area through services such as Click & Deliver, online events and extensive digital resources, throughout the pandemic.

Over the 2020-21 financial year, Geelong Regional Library Corporation members collected more than 12,000 Click & Collect bundles and received more than 4,300 Click & Deliver bundles.

GRLC delivered collection items to 190 Home Library Service clients, including loaning iPads with data to vulnerable community members during lockdowns, and hosted 577 online and in-person events, when restrictions allowed, with more than 8,200 people attending.

“We will continue to offer some services developed during restrictions, including Click & Collect, where you can place an order for collection items and collect from your local library contact-free; ideal for busy people on the go regardless of restrictions,” Cr Nelson said.

“We continue to offer Click & Deliver to vulnerable members of the community, delivering library items to their doorstep contact-free.”

GRLC chief executive officer Vanessa Schernickau said the popularity of the online event program and the benefits it brought in terms of accessibility and inclusivity meant that online author and literary events would continue as a permanent component of the GRLC programming mix.

“Our plan is that around 25 per cent of our adult program continues to be delivered online,” Ms Schernickau said.

“This will include smaller hybrid events run by libraries, where it is important to offer engagement both online and in-person, such as the monthly Writers Aloud program run by Drysdale Library.”

Ms Schernickau said the library now has a catalogue of more than 70 author and literary events available to view on its YouTube channel and was looking forward to hosting bigger, in-person events.

“We have a number of diverse events coming up: on Thursday 11 November you can hear Luke Keogh discuss his award-winning book, The Wardian Case in-person at Belmont Library or online you can watch Fiona McIntosh discuss her new novel The Spy’s Wife.

“On Friday 19 November, we’re hosting a forum ‘The Impacts of the Pandemic on Working Women’ introduced by Christine Couzens MP, with a panel of speakers from the region.

“In partnership with Geelong Gallery, we’re hosting a screening of Looby, a film about controversial artist and Archibald Prize Winner Keith Looby, followed by a Q&A with the film’s producers Merilyn Alt and Sean Murphy, on Saturday 27 November.”

She said numerous venue hire spaces within the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and around the network of libraries could also be booked now.