Jan's Connection with Public Libraries

My commitment to libraries comes from many years of being involved with a community struggling to ensure the delivery of that most important public facility for our home town. When I moved to Byron Bay, I spent a lot of time in the library. I wanted to know the history of the area and find out what was going on in my new community. At that stage, the library adjoined the council chambers in the middle of Byron Bay, but the council decided to sell the building and all the money went into building a new chamber in Mullumbimby. A temporary library location was provided – a very small building of only 130m2. That temporary location remained for 16 years. But I was one of many people committed to a new library for the Bay. In 1999, I was elected to council and joined the library committee. By then the council was broke and there were some who believed that, in an age of new technology, books – and therefore libraries – were not needed. As this attitude was gaining momentum I attended a conference at the University of Queensland’s Ipswich Library, with the council’s Director of Community Services. It was fantastic; it provided a new insight into the role of libraries and the Director became an advocate for planning the new library. We just needed a site, and this is where the Bundjalung Arakwal people of Byron Bay came into it. My community had been supporting the Native Title claimants for many years in negotiations with the State. It was the Arakwal Elder, Aunty Lorna, who was aware of the importance of libraries, and she asked how we could provide a site through their claim. So it began, and now the Byron Bay community has a prominent location in the town for the new library. I was honoured to open it in February 2013, a few months after I finished my term of council.

Above: Jan Barham and the Greens Mayor of Byron Shire, Simon Richardson, at the opening of Byron Bay Library.

“People used to go to libraries for the quiet environment and for studying, but their function and structure have now changed. The old-fashioned idea of a library as a place for quiet reflection and study has turned into one of community vibrancy with access to technology, discussion, interaction, exhibitions and sometimes performance.” – Jan Barham