MELTON Council has called on the state government to improve funding of library services to help it meet the demands of the shire’s massive population growth.
Councillors met with members of the ministerial advisory council on public libraries at Caroline Springs library last week to discuss future directions for services.
It’s part of ‘Tomorrow’s Library’, a two-year, bipartisan review of the current and future roles of public libraries.
Council’s learning communities manager, Michael Scholtes, said the council discussed the need for additional infrastructure in high-growth areas across Melton.
“We are working on replacing the old Melton library with a new facility which will likely be ready in April next year, but as soon as we finish that project there will be a need for services to meet the needs of people in areas like Toolern,” Mr Scholtes said.
“There is also a need to keep up our library collections and increase our LOTE [languages other than English] collections for new migrants coming into the shire.
”This will cost a lot of money so we’ve called for statewide collections to be tagged together so our library users can access more items.”
Mr Scholtes said the government should take on more of the operating costs of public libraries from high-growth municipalities.
Advisory council chairman David Morris said effective planning was high on the local agenda.
“As one of Melbourne’s fastest-growing areas, a key challenge for the Melton region is keeping pace with growth and getting infrastructure in place,” he said.
Caroline Springs mother Narelle Fraser said she was pleased with facilities on offer locally but wanted to see more resources like DVDs.
“I take my two children to Caroline Springs library and they love it because it has good books on offer and lots of activities for kids,” she said.
North-west residents can contribute to the report, which is scheduled for release at the end of this year. Details: 1300493792
