Campaign highlights the everchanging nature of local libraries
Published on 31 July 2024
Mackay Regional Council Libraries are using Library and Information Week (July 29 to August 4) to highlight the exciting transformations taking place at our local branches.
The “MyLibrary #Everchanging” campaign has included a series of videos featuring interviews with locals who are accessing new services, programs and collection items.
Mayor Greg Williamson said the videos were tremendous and highlighted that our libraries have evolved into community hubs that are centres of knowledge, technology and social interaction.
“I’d encourage everyone to head over to the Mackay Regional Council Libraries’ Facebook page and check out the series,” Mayor Williamson said.
“You can bet that you will discover something that you didn’t know was on offer – things like robots that can draw pictures, a sound booth and podcasting setup, sewing machines, a variety of musical instruments, gaming consoles and programs on everything from job readiness to henna artwork.”
Mayor Williamson said traditional library services were still highly valued by the community with more than 100,000 titles on offer.
However, he added that digital collections – which were accessed last financial year more than 113,000 times – and the Library of Things were gaining popularity.
“Last financial year, we had more than 5000 loans on our Library of Things – which contains everything from cricket sets and board games to musical instruments and robots,” he said.
“There’s even seeds for your garden which you can borrow, plant, harvest and hopefully return.”
“Our team is also providing an amazing service in upskilling the digital needs of the community – they assisted more than 4500 individuals with digital literacy support during 269 programs last financial year.
“Council is extremely proud of our regional library services and the ‘MyLibrary #Everchanging’ campaign and we can’t wait to see what innovations the next 12 months bring.”
Library and Information Week is the week where Australian’s celebrate the work that library and information workers do all around the country.
Every year, libraries and information services throughout Australia showcase their resources and services to their communities, through programs and events.
This week is an opportunity to learn more about what they do and the important roles they play in our local community, work and personal lives.
This week was first celebrated in 1968 as Australian Library Week, organised by the Australian Library Promotion Council.
This year’s theme is “Roots of Democracy” and explores what it is that libraries do that make a tangible difference to living in an open, democratic society?
It acknowledges that libraries have their roots in providing free and equitable access to information, roots that extend and connect people and communities with the services they need.
Fact box
Mackay Regional Council Libraries in 2023-2024:
- Attended 212 outreach events reaching 10,028 individuals.
- Made 131 delivery service runs distributing over 10,000 items to home library customers.
- Assisted more than 4500 individuals during 269 programs with digital literacy needs.
- Had 1038 loans on the seed library collection.
- Facilitated 2176 events that reached 61,000 people.