This week is Library and Information Week 2015 and this year's theme for the week is "imagine".

Ms Waugh said libraries were a place to imagine new ideas, not just quiet, passive spaces where you went to simply borrow a book.

"We are still that for many people, but the modern library can also be an active place where people come together to meet, to learn, to exchange ideas or to create," she said.

Ms Waugh said Bendigo library had tried to create many different spaces, with different ambiances, to support the many different activities people wanted out of a library.

"In Bendigo we have tried to create those individual spaces, so for example downstairs is much more of a busy place with children’s area, performance area and cafe," she said.

"Upstairs is more like a traditional library with local history and study areas.

"Bendigo library redevelopment is about within this community supporting the international trend in libraries not just to be quiet, passive places where you borrow a book... but a place people can use as a central resource, they can come and knit and create, they can discuss, they can argue, they can philosophise.

She said the library had a number of events planned to coincide with Library and Information Week, including bridge classes, toddler time and a 'Dining with Jane' performance from 5.30pm to 6.30pm tonight.

"Lisa Rogers is coming in and doing one of her fantastic Jane Austin events. She’ll give an in-costume presentation of some of the table manners and etiquette that might have gone around the social time that Jane Austin’s books were written," she said.

Bendigo resident Ken Schaefer, who was dropping off items for return on Monday, said he used the library about once a fortnight, sometimes more often if he reserved a book or wanted something specifically.

"It’s a valuable asset to Bendigo and it's well set up," he said.

"The internet saves me a lot of referencing but I come purely for pleasure."