When the Moe Library moved to the new setting in George Street, this made a huge difference to our enjoyment of the library, because the new space was so spacious and beautiful, and the atmosphere there was far more fun. My child and I, and sometimes just me by myself, started coming to the library far more often, once or twice or even three times a week. My son started a ‘Fun Club’ for kids to join in and play. Another parent still runs the club and as my son got older he started using the library for playing the Xbox, as well as choosing books. Whenever we have visitors we take them to the library.
As part of my role of scribing oral histories, I started meeting with people in the library rooms to listen to their stories. As a writer, I started going to the occasional writers workshops held in the library. And as part of my role as an editor and poet I held a poetry editing workshop, and then co-founded the Poetry Editing Group Gippsland (PEGG) which meet in the library’s rooms every two to three months, using the interactive whiteboards as part of the process we use to workshop and edit one another’s poetry.
Outside COVID-19, when the library is open, the staff are in the main very, very helpful and pleasant, and this makes the library a great place for the community to come and visit to loan books or DVDs, use the computers, or meet up with one another and have a coffee together. In running my workshops I’ve found the staff really friendly, and excellent in the way they help out. Truly, if it wasn’t for the staff being so nice, and treating all the community members equally (even the young people and kids who come in and are sometimes a little noisy), the library would not be the lovely place it is.
