The 48-year-old's ties to the regional city go back generations, with his parents and grandparents also calling Bendigo home.

Despite a few years away for university in Ballarat and work in Queensland, he said he always knew he would come back to the central Victorian city.

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"Bendigo was just such a lovely mix," Mr Hands said. "You could still have the space of a country town, but as I was growing up you could see it transform into that regional city it is now.

"I think it still offers both those worlds still, which is lovely."

Some of Mr Hands earliest memories of Bendigo were at the library.

"I can remember we would often go in on a Saturday morning and get books," he said. "I can still remember getting my first proper book with chapters, a proper novel, and I brought it home and read it all in one day.

"I haven't looked back since, really."

But despite that passion for books, libraries were not the place Mr Hands first started his working life.

He completed an applied science degree at university and worked in the sports and recreation services space for many years.

Mr Hands then branched out into his own consultancy business, before moving into the community sector.

"That's where I really started to understand the contemporary library service," he said.

Mr Hands was reserving some books on the Goldfields Library website five years ago when he stumbled across a job opportunity at the corporation.

"There was a library job, which I didn't end up getting," he said.

"But after the interview, they said they would love for me to do a couple of days working on their new library plan because the new library had just been reopened.

"So I came on board about three days a fortnight, helping them with some of the planning work. And it kind of just snowballed from there.

Read more: Goldfields Library Corporation prepares to reopen libraries to patrons as coronavirus restrictions ease

"I loved working with the people, they're a great team, and it was a matter of good timing and good luck."

Mr Hands moved into the chief executive role about three years ago, with a focus on making libraries more accessible for communities.

He said establishing a new library service model for small rural towns had been one of the highlights of his time at the Goldfields Library Corporation.

"It was about moving from a mobile library - which is still a really good service - but moving it to a library agency model where we build partnerships with some of the great community houses and community hubs in those smaller townships," he said.

"It provides a much more embedded and community-focused service.

"It's also been great just being involved with libraries at a time when they have really changed so dramatically into warm and welcoming community spaces.

"People are staying in the libraries for long periods of time because they are meeting people, socialising, and they're comfortable places to be."

When he's not working at the library, Mr Hands said he enjoyed playing guitar and doing weight training.

"A lot of lunch hours are spent at the gym and five minutes left for eating some food," he said. "I find that it's a great release from being inside your own head. You can just get in and lift some metal."

Family is also important to Mr Hands. He said he had a "Brady Bunch" situation, with a blended family of seven children ranging from the ages of nine to 28.

"It's been an amazing experience in raising all of those kids," Mr Hands said. "A lot are now off working and having their own lives.

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"I have also recently become a grandparent, which is pretty amazing. I'm way too young for that. But it feels good because I feel like I still have great energy levels to play with very small children.

"It's been delightful because it is the position where you get to have all of the good things and then hand the child back for the sleepless nights."

Like many people, Mr Hands said 2020 had been a difficult year for both himself and the Goldfields Library Corporation.

"The biggest challenge was when we had to close the doors for COVID," he said.

"It was probably the first time possibly in the history of the Bendigo Library that it wasn't closing for a renovation or something - it was simply closing the doors.

"That was a huge decision. There was a lot of emotion from a lot of staff around having to do that. They were very sad.

"The unknown elements and the fact the whole situation kept shifting around, and trying to give certainty both to community and a great team of staff, was a real challenge.

"But the team really responded well. The whole workforce really shifted and they did things really quite quickly and they remained focused on what we could do for our community."

But despite the challenges, Mr Hands said he couldn't see himself working anywhere else.

"I honestly can't think of a better place I would rather be than running the library service," he said.

"Sometimes I have to pinch myself that I get paid to do it because libraries really have been part of the story of my life in so many different ways.

"Now leading the organisation and working with this amazing team of librarians who are incredibly committed, it's just fantastic. I've loved every minute of it."

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