Public libraries are so much more than a place to borrow books.
I've always loved libraries. Growing up, visiting the local public library was something of a ritual, nurtured by my parents, who both migrated to Australia from Italy as children.
My dad would take me to the Dandenong Library in the outer south-east suburbs of Melbourne, a modest 1970s-built brown-brick branch, every few weeks and let me browse the shelves without interruption. With my arms full, I would always borrow as many books as the library allowed.
In the weeks between those visits, my mum would walk me to the mobile library, parked down the road from our house, every other Tuesday. Those visits nurtured my love of reading and stories and fuelled my desire to become a writer.
I'm not alone in my love of libraries. Between 2023 and 2024, Australians visited public libraries 88 million times and borrowed 119 million items and 55 million digital resources.
But public libraries are so much more than places to borrow books and access resources and services. They are hubs of knowledge, community, and sanctuary.
In recent years, libraries have expanded their offerings to include Libraries of Things, which lend everyday household, garden, and tech items. We are spoilt for choice in our city. In addition to the community-run Share Shop in Hamilton, Newcastle Libraries has the Library of Useful Things, alongside the one offered by Lake Macquarie Libraries.
Toys and games are also offered through local toy libraries. Newcastle Toy Library, which operates from New Lambton Library on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, is a joyous place. It's always abuzz with families chatting with the volunteers who staff it and choosing which toys to take home next. Maitland Libraries also offer a Toy Library at their East Maitland branch.
Other libraries have introduced digital hubs, like Lake Mac's Windale Hub, to make technologies - like laser cutters, 3D printers, and VR headsets - and services like podcast recording studios more accessible to all.
Furthermore, events, such as repair cafes and bike maintenance workshops - often delivered in partnership with local community groups or councils - are also becoming more common, helping people save money, learn new skills, and extend the life of goods.
Library programs, many of them free or low-cost, serve and support a diverse range of Australians - young, old, and in between - and help people feel part of and engaged with their communities.
Seven million people attended 409,000 library programs delivered nationwide between 2023 and 2024. As a parent who had her first child during COVID, I found the weekly Rock and Rhyme sessions at Newcastle City Library a welcome and much-needed opportunity to socialise, meet other families, and feel connected during a time of isolation. We still visit the library weekly now.
From Rainbow Storytime led by LGBTQIA+ storytellers and bilingual and First Nations Storytime sessions to low-sensory Quiet Hours and multicultural support and social programs for new migrants, libraries across the country are continually finding new ways to make people feel welcome.
For students, 24-hour libraries provide a safe, communal space to study at any hour.
For those physically unable to access their local branch, home delivery services bring joy and entertainment to their door through library items.
For people with dementia and their carers, libraries offer a regular, supportive place to connect and share stories, such as the Newcastle Libraries' Memory Room Project.
Safe, free, and inclusive, public libraries are among our most undervalued community assets. They are precious third spaces - where people study, work, read, learn, and gather - that actively support the people they serve.
A 2026 report by the State Library of NSW, which surveyed 6000 NSW residents, found that 44 per cent of respondents said their local library is a safe and accepting place; 55 per cent agreed that public libraries improved their wellbeing, and 64 per cent viewed them as a place to belong.
I began studying to become a library technician last year. Driven in part by my love of libraries and by volunteering as a Primary Ethics teacher at my daughter's public primary school in Newcastle, where I (and many others) facilitate weekly classes that nurture ethical reasoning and respectful discussion.
With the rise of AI and the growth in misinformation, teaching children to think critically and providing them with libraries - democratic and open to all - seems more important than ever.
It's a conviction reflected in the work of library staff, who are guided by the 11 core values of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), the industry's peak body. The first being the 'promotion of the free flow of information and ideas through open access to recorded knowledge, information, and creative works'.
Something libraries have been doing, quietly, beautifully, all along.
