A WARY councillor has cautioned libraries should not get too noisy, now that they have dropped eagle-eyed staff ready to shush free spirited visitors at the slightest hint of a cough.
Cr David Fagg expressed reservations about some clauses in a long term library plan the City of Greater Bendigo approved on Monday night.
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That included a push to lump more health and social services together with libraries.
"Perhaps I am becoming slightly curmudgeonly as I age into my 40s," Cr Fagg said.
"In the urge to make libraries a place for everything - for health services, economic activity, education of all kinds, craft groups, performances - let's not forget that libraries are primarily places of learning.
"Apart from cathedrals, they are one of the last places of retreat and quiet we have left in the urban landscape."
Greater Bendigo libraries have been evolving into hosts for a slew of other services and businesses.
Hargreaves Street's library hosts space for a volunteer resources group and cafe, for example.
Research from the Goldfields Libraries Corporation - which is entrusted with the management of five Greater Bendigo libraries - has found some people want quiet and social spaces to be better defined.
Cr Fagg did not try to block any part of the incoming strategy as the vote unfolded.
"Libraries are one of the last free institutions in our community, so its very important to have a strategic approach to them," he said.
Cr Rod Fyffe said modern libraries were certainly very different from those of 30 years ago.
"It does show you that when you have a safe space, a creative space, where people can interact quietly or noisily, it doesn't matter," he said.
"They offer those opportunities for people and, certainty, they are among the most democratic buildings around."
More change is likely to come to Greater Bendigo's libraries under the new plan.
Goldfields Libraries is trying to to service a rapidly growing population and will need extra floor space across the municipality if it is to service an extra 70,000 people by 2050.
It wants to launch feasibility studies into new libraries in growth areas like Huntly and Epsom and to reach out to Bendigo's most disenfranchised areas, which often have low levels of library membership.
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Goldfields Libraries also wants to explore more co-mingling ideas like health services, early years options and even a business incubator.
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Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
