Sid Kids Promo
Have you just joined a child member? Head to your favourite library to get a special edition Sid the Sloth Library Card and Bag!
Back in July 2019 we put out the call to find our Faces of the Library and were overwhelmed with the responses we received.
We read some amazing stories about how much the library has meant to our community over the years and we’re proud to introduce you to our “Faces”.
Matthew & Pablo – Bunjil Place
Matthew loves the library because it has brought real world experiences into his home. He recently went on a cruise and saw a Humpback Whale – a trip that was hugely inspired by his love of Julia Donaldson’s The Snail and The Whale, which he has read at least 300 times!
Pablo has been a library member for many years and initially used its resources to help him integrate into his local community. As a migrant of mixed cultural heritage, the library offered him a welcoming environment to learn and socialise in.
Hiba and Matilda – Cardinia Mobile Library
Hiba frequently takes her children to our Mobile library to encourage their reading and and exploring skills. She says that the library has played a significant part in her children’s development and confidence.
Matilda and her mum, Catherine are often seen visiting the mobile library on “Library Truck Day” as Matilda calls it.. how cute is that?! Matilda’s confidence and independence has grown since visiting the library and she selects her own books and DVDs. She loves our baby time and tinies time sessions and interacting with our mobile library staff.
Jodie and Poppy – Cranbourne
Jodie loves the community involvement her library offers and especially likes to support the library in our Christmas donation drive and Sharing the Dignity campaigns. It’s not uncommon for Jodie to have a shelf’s worth of holds waiting for her each week and she regularly attends Tinies Time and our other regular programs with her daugher.
Poppy is one of our regulars at our Cranbourne branch and when she first moved to the area, she would frequently attend our pre-school programs. Around this time, Poppy was awaiting her third cardiac surgery and couldn’t run around like other kids so reading quickly became her way of escaping into various worlds through books. She also adores attending LEGO club and the library really has become one of her favourite places to go!
Michael and Aiyla – Doveton
Michael has spent a large part of his life visiting his library over the years. Whether it was during his teenage years exploring the diverse range of books on offer, or working his way through our media collection and listening to new and enriching music as a young man, his library has been a place of escapism, knowledge and adventure!
Aiyla has been visiting the library for as long as she can remember! From story time to puppet shows, school holiday activities and STEAM club, the library has given her a range of opportunities to learn and develop, it’s even been the place she learnt to knit! She attends the library regularly during the week and loves to read and participate in poetry, writing and comic book workshops, to the extent that they have inspired her to want to become an author in the future.
Amanda and Ralph – Emerald
Amanda visits our Emerald library and has been a member since it opened. She loves the sense of community a library incorporates and often catches up with friends at her local branch. Amanda makes use of various resources such as the wide range of books and DVDs as well as the free wifi due to her internet service not being constant, she also attends a lot of the workshops on offer at the library, she’s always looking to learn and keep in touch with her community.
Ralph moved to Australia in 2018 and quickly became a CCL member where he loves borrowing books and and CD’s for himself and his siblings. He even won a Harry Potter mug at our Harry Potter Trivia night! Ralph says he would encourage every child to make use of their library and learn as much as they can, its been a source of comfort for him as well as a safe place for him to develop and make friends.
Pearl and Zoe Su – Endeavour Hills
Pearl usually visits her library once a week and takes out up to 3 books at a time. She loves the staff and how helpful they are if the book she is after isn’t available and needs to be ordered in. “I really couldn’t get a good night’s sleep without a good read each night, thank you for providing such a wonderful selection!”
Being the wise old age of 2, Zoe visits our Endeavour Hills library with her mother every Wednesday and Friday to attend story time. Zoe loves to interact with the other children and listens intently as she learns about the various characters and stories during the session.
Helmalie and Sakura – Hampton Park
Helmalie has been a member at CCL for over a decade. Through her patronage at the library she has been able to constantly find books that she loves in both English and her native language, Sinhala. Her personal highlight of being a library member was when she was invited to participate in an Author’s Corner program last year to talk about a book of short stories that she wrote. She never envisaged being part of a library program that she loved so much!
Sakura has been borrowing books from her local library ever since she can remember and visits regularly during the school holidays. Books are a way for her to escape the normalities of life and be transported into worlds where anything is possible! Her library allows her to read books to her heart’s content, all for free. She really loves reading and says she could spend days, if not weeks in her local library!
Elissa and Hallie – Pakenham
Elissa is new to the Pakenham area and loves her library. She visits weekly for Rhyme Time with her baby daughter, Audrey and uses almost all of the other services available to her. She also runs a book club using books from CCL and loves reading to her daughter. Moving to a new area and having an abundance of resources available to her at her library have made the transition that much easier.
The library has become Hallie’s second home! Since she was around 2 years of age, she has been attending the library once a month, borrowing up to 20 books at a time. She has attended Tinies Time, completed the Victorian Reading Challenge every year and used the library as her inspiration for Book Week. No matter how many advances are made in technology, Hallie says she will always enjoy the comfort of sinking into the chairs at her local library and reading her way through a plethora of books!
Robin – People’s Choice
Meet Robin, she has been a member since 1992 and has frequently used the library to access specialised books from all over Victoria using our interlibrary loan service.
She loves visiting her local library and seeing the amazing variety of people using its resources – from students studying, migrants learning English, parents introducing their children to the joys of reading through to seniors catching up with the daily newspaper or finding information about the local area.
The musical performances and art shows put on at the library and featuring local artists greatly add to Robin’s enjoyment and she says it really has become a focal centre for the whole community where everyone is welcome.
Lynnie-Christine – People’s Choice
Lynnie has always loved libraries for their inclusive and accessible nature, a haven for knowledge where your curiosity and passion for learning, irrespective of age, race, gender and mobility can be deeply truly satisfied. As a migrant of Asian-Australasian heritage she is proud to be a Face of the library and represent that inclusive and diverse nature.
On a more personal note, her love of the library has led to significant milestones in her career. She was able to utilise the library to complete two undergraduate university degrees and she is constantly learning new things via the abundance of books and materials on offer at CCL.
She now visits weekly with her six year old son who shares her love of knowledge and considers their time together at the library as real bonding time and a special aspect of their relationship.
Catherine and Isaac – People’s Choice
Catherine has been attending the library with 4 year old Isaac since he was a baby. Every Thursday night, after she picks him up from daycare, they go to the library, where they usually eat dinner together in the car outside before hanging out in the library – its become a tradition over time!
They do a variety of things such as play board games, read books and make use of the kids computers, they also love taking part in the many child-friendly events their local library runs.
Isaac has become firm friends with one of our librarians, Tim, who always greets Isaac with a smile and is eager to have a conversation with him. Isaac talks about Tim fondly as a result and has become a reason why Isaac loves visiting the library so much!
Charlotte – People’s Choice
Charlotte has always, by her own admission, been obsessed with books. Ever since she learnt to read, her parents have been unable to get her head out of them!
Her library has helped her immerse herself into a world where she can pursue her love of adventure, mystery and drama more than any normal life could possibly do!
