The 24/7 Librarian

The 2023 Awards for Excellence were proudly sponsored by JLT and JMAPP.

The Awards for Excellence is our sector’s annual celebration of the individuals and teams behind the projects that reveal just how innovative local governments can be.

Nominations for the 2024 Awards are now open, with the recipients to be announced and celebrated at next year’s Annual Conference.

As you prepare the shortlist for your council’s own submission, we take a look at the legacy of one of this year’s 11 category winners.

Open Libraries – a Yarra City Council initiative

When the judges were combing through the nominations in this year’s Service Delivery Initiative category, they were looking for the very best practice in delivering for Victorian communities, whether they be the broader resident group right through to specific targets within communities.

This year’s winner bridged these groups with a shake-up of a universal council service that went on to expand its user base. And the initiative has only grown since.

A radical change

Yarra City Council introduced a radical concept to the way public libraries operate in early 2022: they allowed the community to access library buildings outside of the usual opening hours, completely unstaffed.

Inspired by Europe’s public and academic libraries that offer 24/7 library access, the Open Libraries initiative had been allowing members to use two of five community libraries outside of scheduled open times when they nominated for the award.

After-hours access included internet access, borrowing and returning books, using public computers to scan, print, and copy, and the use of study spaces.

The project required an investment in security software, security cameras, and automation for lights and air conditioning, making the unstaffed locations as safe as possible for the community to access. Members were required to attend a simple induction program to upgrade their library membership, thenceforth gaining access to the libraries out of hours.

This effectively increased library opening hours by 84 hours per week without increasing staffing overheads. Rather, staff time was allocated to setting up policies and procedures, risk assessment, guidelines for membership, and the inductions which have since become a business-as-usual process. After setup costs, the only reported ongoing expenditure has been on security monitoring, cleaning of branches on public holidays, and utility bills.

An ongoing impact

At the time of their nomination, the Yarra team reported over 1,700 visits outside of usual business hours at one location and over nearly 2,000 at another, from students using the facilities to study in the times that suit them to parents using the spaces with their children before school times and on weekends.

They have since expanded the program to an additional library branch, collectively seeing over 500,000 visits to their now-more-accessible libraries over the course of a year. The goal over the coming years is to expand the all-day service to all locations.

Your turn

LGPro needs your help to promote and celebrate the outstanding work being undertaken across our sector. Nominations for the 2024 Awards are now open until Monday 23 October 2023.